The Caroline Huber Wellness Center, which opened a year ago, offers numerous free activities and services — such as yoga and free therapy — to Brookdale students.
On Wednesdays at 1 p.m. a wellness walk leaves from the center giving students a chance to step away from the academic buildings and explore the natural beauty of the campus.
When a journalism class arrived for the walk on Oct. 2, program coordinator Dayna Marchek began the event with a tour of the center, pointing out several amenities such as the Nutrition Hub and rooms for quiet meditation.
The therapy part of the program, open for free to all Brookdale students, has two main offices and is popular with students.
The center also provides a meditation room, free of charge, for all students. This room, used primarily for stress relief, is quiet and isolated from the other, more public parts of the building. It is also part of the primary activities they provide on various days, with meditation being featured on Mondays.
On Tuesdays, yoga is the primary featured activity, which is performed in the main room you see when walking into the Wellness Center. This room is quite large, and prominently displays many comfortable chairs, storage cubbies, a fireplace, plants and large yellow ring lights, which illuminate the whole space.
Just down the hall from the Wellness Center main room lies the Nutrition Hub. This small extension to the building is one of its biggest assets in helping students, whether they need a quick snack or a bag of groceries to take home. This hub is a small kitchen area featuring a few cabinets, a fridge and a freezer, as well as a scenic view of the college’s back path.
On Wednesday, the wellness walk took students on a nature trail that starts in parking lot 7 and runs through the forest on campus where many animals, such as chipmunks and deer live.
Marchek described the walk as “a way to relieve stress and relax the senses.” This is an apt description, especially on days when the walk is highlighted by blue skies and a view of the reservoir.
Students who participated in the walk seemed to come to the mutual conclusion that it was relaxing and rejuvenating. Patrick Danna, a 21-year-old Humanities major from Old Bridge, said the walk was “great exercise with beautiful scenery and a calm environment.”