On October 10, Wright State University (WSU) Campus Recreation held a goat yoga event for students and staff in recognition of World Mental Health Day. While students worked through their yoga poses, the furry animals jumped on their backs and provided emotional support.
Eric Corbitt, the interim dean of students, said he originally came up with the idea while out to dinner one night and saw a local mall putting on its own goat yoga event.
“We’re always looking for new, creative ways to engage our campus community,” said Corbitt. “I thought to myself, ‘How ridiculous and how awesome is that?’ As we began to plan for World Mental Health Day, goat yoga seemed like a perfect event to attract students, faculty and staff to destress in a fun way.”
Billy Willis, the associate director for Campus Recreation, said his department has been wanting to host this event for a while. World Mental Health Day presented the perfect opportunity to invest in this idea.
Goat Yoga Details
Willis said the goats came from a local company called GoatCountry, LLC located about 20 minutes from the campus. “It was an easy event to host with minimal setup,” he said. “Students, faculty and staff had to register ahead of time as space was limited. The event was held outside on our quad area, but they can host inside events, too. We had staff there to assist with registration and taking photos, but the team at GoatCountry did the rest.”
At the start of the event, Willis said each goat was introduced with their own walk-out song, much to the amusement of students. The 12 goats, like dogs, had unique personalities, and participants learned about each of them.
Goat yoga acted as the closing attraction for WSU’s Raider Resilience Week, which featured informative discussions, training opportunities and activities designed to promote open conversations about mental health and provide tools for self-care. The week featured numerous free activities and classes offered by Campus Recreation to promote mental and physical health.
“It was a great event to get people outside, be active and do something a little silly,” said Willis. “The goats brought many smiles to faces of the participants and people walking by on their way to and from classes. I believe this event fully achieved our mission and goals of giving students a mental break from the stressors of campus life, and it connected people together.”
Mental Health Initiatives at WSU
Willi said WSU’s Mental Health Taskforce held multiple events throughout the day targeted at releasing stress and creating awareness. In addition to Goat Yoga, they had T-shirt giveaways, a free breakfast, multiple guest speakers and a mini-fair with activities highlighted by a dunk tank where one could dunk several administrative staff, faculty, student leaders and the school’s head basketball coach, Scott Nagy.
WSU also promoted the Healthy Minds Study during October. The survey will help the university better understand student and employee mental health and well-being, sources of support, and other mental and emotional health topics.
A new resource called Wright State Cares was recently launched as well. The online form acts as a resource to share a concern about a student or employee who is struggling. Community members can also self-report if they are not ready to talk to peers or colleagues.
For other schools looking to improve their mental health programming, Corbitt recommended collaborating with other departments and universities as much as possible.
“Sharing resources, sharing skillsets and sharing audiences usually leads to greater success — all while strengthening relationships with your colleagues,” said Corbitt.
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