Campus Recreation has been a second home for me over the past few years. As a place where I have shared my love for writing, built lasting relationships, and created a foundation for my career after graduating, my experience with Campus Recreation has been rewarding and fulfilling. 

The InsideRec Blog has been a platform for my writing and has been a space to share my voice with the URI community. While some of these blogs were tips for future students, reflections of my study abroad experience, or personal notes to myself, each blog holds value to a motto I will continue to live by not only after graduation, but for the rest of my endeavors. 

Be Active, Be Well, and Belong, are words that have been carved into my daily life and have shaped me into the individual I am today (without sounding too cliche). From spending days in the office, participating in on-campus activities, promoting events, and blogging, I have learned all the different ways to enhance my well-being and how to balance my college experience with starting a career. 

Be Active. 

When I first started working for Campus Recreation, I was hired as a blog writer. As a rising sophomore, I was so excited to share my hobby of writing with the URI community. I have written many different types of blogs and have explored many topics as my experiences as a student changed each year. However, in each of my blogs, I always seemed to highlight my personal experience of being active, wherever I was in the world. 

As someone who loves to exercise and try new things, Campus Recreation offers the opportunity to participate in many different classes and activities to promote well-being. Throughout my years at URI, I have tried numerous workout classes, explored different clubs, and attended many fairs. Each of these experiences has led me to enjoy my time here due to the encouragement to feel my best and stay active as a college student. 

As a Campus Recreation Employee, I was often attending classes and always noting my favorite songs, new lifting moves, and even creating a schedule to make sure I could attend pop-up classes featuring songs by my favorite artists. I have always felt that fitness was an important part of my daily life and working with Campus Recreation made it possible to stay active and work as a college student while adjusting to a new lifestyle. 

Be Well. 

Like fitness, mental health is such an important focus in one’s life. While I was blogging for InsideRec, I was often choosing topics that I felt were inspiring and helpful to the URI community, while also ensuring the topics were ones I was passionate about. As I was promoted to a Program Assistant, our motto of Be Well shifted from a blog writing focus to a team focus. 

With more responsibilities to my team and myself, I became more aware of all the opportunities and resources available to students and staff on campus. Ensuring that each employee and participant feels comfortable in an exercise class or event, is key to building a successful program on campus. When I first started as a blog writer, I remember feeling nervous and anxious as I was still new to the college environment. But, with warm arms, the Campus Recreation team quickly became a family where I felt comfortable and safe. 

The office became a place to stop by even when I wasn’t working and it was a place where I felt the support of others around me who encouraged me to be well. On our InsideRec page, our blog writers have written many pieces about being well. From resources around campus, tips on how to destress, or even highlighting our new Labyrinth, my experience as a blog writer and Program Assistant has shown me the importance of implementing the theme of mental health and well-being into a program. 

Belong. 

Working for Campus Recreation has been an incredible journey and is one that I will forever be grateful for due to the connections, friendships, and professional experiences it brought me. One of the first things I learned when joining the Campus Recreation team was the significance of building relationships within the team. As a small group of marketing staff, it is easy to fall into friendships with one another. 

As employees, we would spend hours in the office together, planning events, or running around the quad during a fest. I will always remember and be grateful for the talent that has grown and developed within the marketing department. The sense of community and working for an organization that promotes students’ success through wellness allowed me to feel that I truly belonged not only with Campus Recreation, but at the University of Rhode Island. 

My experience of working with Campus Recreation brought me much more than the motto we share with students. There have been so many benefits of joining the team like gaining professional experience, event management, preparation for your desired career, opportunities to develop new skills, and most importantly, it is a place where you can explore who you are as a person and promote your own well-being. But, all that information can be found here on InsideRec as we have numerous behind-the-scenes blogs and tips from an intern!  

So, as I write my last blog, I encourage future students, new students, and rising alumni, to always Be Active, Be Well, and Belong, and to stay tuned for the next group of amazing blog writers we have on InsideRec.