 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
A new nonprofit organization is actively helping students, both young and old, embrace their health and futures.
Titled "Embrace," the multi-facetted sports and exercise program focuses on eliminating racial ignorance while creating a healthy lifestyle. The program consists of workshops, exercise and diet programs and an in-school curriculum.
Founder Sean Sheppard believes targeting children while they are still young is the key to preventing unhealthy tendencies.
"Knowledge is power," Sheppard said. "We target middle school students so that we can reach out to them before they begin to participate in bad habits."
The program begins with a nutritional breakfast and a glass of water. During the program, the students are only allowed to drink water, emphasizing the importance of drinking eight glasses a day, instead of sugar-filled sodas and sports drinks. The workshops teach the importance of diversity, physical exercise and good eating habits.
"We teach the students how to pick out healthy choices in a fast-food restaurant so they can be prepared if that situation occurs," Embrace volunteer Michelle Crenshaw said. "They learn how to eat in moderation so that they can enjoy a treat on occasion."
Because of annual budget cuts in the educational system, physical education and extracurricular activities have been taken out of many elementary schools.
Dr. Larry Verity, professor of exercise and nutritional sciences, said he believes it's a conglomerate of this lack of physical education, poor role models and a societal dependence on technology that is causing children to face weight issues.
"It is a mosaic of the ills in society - the consequence of our failure to recognize and acknowledge," Verity said.
In order to help remedy this situation, the Embrace program accompanies the nutritional education with a 45-minute aerobic exercise.
"When the kids participate in the sports activities, they open themselves up to meeting and interacting with people outside their race," Sheppard said. "Together they help prevent chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes."
The diversity curriculum runs as an after-school, student-led wellness club. Staff members and volunteer college mentors help the students with diversity promotion strategies, activities and education materials that promote unity.
"The diversity piece is very emotional," Sheppard said. "The children feel safe enough to speak freely and open; most of them cannot do that at home."
The program also offers a healthy cooking class for the students and their parents once a month. The cooking class allows the parents to get involved so they can help their children grow and develop healthily.
"The parents are the ones buying the food and cooking, so it is equally important that they educate themselves," Sheppard said.
In order to keep all of these programs running free of charge to the children and their parents, Embrace accepts tax deductible corporate sponsorships and donations. Some of its current sponsors include ESPN Radio, the Native American Counsel and Sony Inc.
"This program is doing big things," Sheppard said. "President (Stephen) Weber knows about the program but hasn't made a decision about how involved he wants San Diego State to be.
"We are looking forward to enhancing our relationship with SDSU and making them a major sponsor."
In an active role to make SDSU more involved in the program, students will soon be able to earn credits within the context of the program. An internship program is also being developed with the Exercise and Nutritional Sciences department. Credits will be earned by teaching aerobic exercise and healthy diet habits.
Kinesiology junior Peter Graves said the program would be beneficial for students such as himself who want to get involved in an organization that can help them build their careers.
"This is a great opportunity for students in this field to reach out to the kids and get active," Verity said. "There is a huge need for health education, and students can help deliver it."
Embrace's next major event is May 21 at Ski Beach in Mission Bay. This event will consist of a 45-minute aerobic workout with NFL players, 60 underprivileged children and about 225 people from the general public. The program is recruiting volunteers and specialists.
Be the first to comment on this article!