I received a grant from Southwest Initiative Foundation to teach adult education classes, geared towards health, well-being, and nature engagement. These adult education classes focus on providing information and tools to empower people to be actively engaged in their own positive health outcomes through lifestyle choices. Each class will have an educational component, participant engagement, as well as reading and/or viewing assignments for further exploration.
Three classes are held at The Madison Mercantile in Madison, Minnesota, located at 601 1st St. It is an event space, there is ample parking, and it is fully accessible. The fourth class will be held at Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge.
The Rural Wellbeing Project
I started graduate school in 2018. I completed my Master’s Degree in Public Affairs (Leadership, Research, and Policy) from The Humphrey during Covid, but because we were in lockdown I decided to do a formal minor at the Bakken Center of Spirituality & Healing. Both schools are part of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Even though I have graduated, I continue to stay in school and take courses.
For over 13 years I worked at Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara California, in the Department of Mythological Studies. The Chair, Dr. Patrick Mahaffy, and I ran the department together. The Bakken Center reminds me a lot of Pacifica, but the foundation is medical research. We explore different modalities of healing, from art, to music, to horticulture and community gardens, meditation and mindfulness, and engagement with nature. We look at research that is not only national but international to understand health outcomes and barriers of engagement. We explore how these activities affect physical health, mental health, and the brain. We also consider social impact and what it means to build healthy communities. https://csh.umn.edu/
The question becomes what do I do with this education, and how do I bring it back to my region? This is me trying something new, offering something we don’t have here, moving out of my introverted comfort zone, and assimilating information to teach it!
Collaborative Partners Include:
