The Wellness Initiative in Social Ecology (WISE) is a school-wide program that focuses on supporting the holistic wellness and mental health of undergraduate and graduate students in Social Ecology and instilling wellness as a priority of faculty and staff. We aim to improve and expand upon mental and behavioral health and wellness programming services for the UCI School of Social Ecology students while complementing ongoing campus efforts. By doing so, we hope to address gaps in or barriers to accessing current existing resources available to students, including avenues that may be indirectly related to mental health and well-being (e.g., finances, basic needs, etc.).
Undergraduate WISE programming is led by a student leadership group, the WISE Peer Advisory Collective (PAC) which is organized around four clusters and themes -- culture, education, social support, and self-care. WISE also hosts a bi-weekly WISE Wednesday series where faculty, staff, students, and other guests come and discuss topics related to wellness and mental health journeys. WISE Wednesday is open to all UCI students and promoted to Social Ecology students. Each cluster also organizes quarterly events to support wellness and build community.
Supporting WISE will support additional programming for students and further Social Ecology’s goal to promote a culture of wellness.