August marks the one year anniversary of the BroncoFit initiative on the Boise State campus. BroncoFit is a campus-wide initiative to encourage students, faculty and staff to engage in all aspects of health and well-being. The initiative plants the seeds for life-long health. The goal is to make Boise State University the healthiest learning environment in the country.
BroncoFit was announced at the State of the University Address on August 19, 2015. Within a month, the first advisory council formed to discuss and strategize the initiative.
The council consists of:
- Danielle Bennion (‘92 and ‘93), CEO and founder of Preventative Health Screening;
- Tim Dunnagan, Dean, College of Health Sciences, Boise State;
- Jim Everett, retired CEO of Treasure Valley Family YMCA, head coach of men’s and women’s swim teams at The College of Idaho, and director of Idaho Business for Education;
- Marty Gabica, retired chief medical officer for Healthwise, past president of Idaho Physicians Network, and co-founder of Primary Health Medical Group;
- Michelle Ihmels, Director for Wellness Services, Health Services, Boise State;
- Gene LaMott (‘83), retired CEO of Gold’s Gym International, former CEO of Total Woman Gym and Day Spa, and founder of Fit To Go, LLC;
- Jon Larkin, Development Director, College of Health Sciences, Boise State;
- Ken Petersen, Dean, College of Business and Economics, Boise State;
- Ron Pfeiffer, Executive in Residence and former Associate Dean, College of Health Sciences, Boise State;
- Leslie Webb, Vice President for Student Affairs, Boise State.
The council believes strongly in BroncoFit and believes it can do great things for the campus and the community-at-large. The council’s purpose is to guide BroncoFit planning. They have already helped shape several parts of the initiative from marketing to collecting baseline biometric data on students and employees from mobile prevention-wellness screenings offered on campus.
The council also helped shape the first annual BroncoFit week, which took place on April 18-23, 2016. Each day, Monday through Saturday, focused on a different aspect or aspects of wellness: social, financial, emotional, professional, environmental, physical and spiritual. The week was very successful as more than 200 people attended the kickoff event and more than 20 events were held during the week. Health Services staff and the council hope to offer more events next year and expand the offerings for employee involvement.
Other achievements from the first year of BroncoFit include a Kinesiology activity (KIN-ACT) course called “Introduction to Healthy College Living.” The classes doubled in size between fall 2015 and spring 2016 and was well received by students. This course will take a break during fall 2016 to make room for a new Foundations 100 course titled “America’s Health and Healthcare – Changing the Prognosis” which is designed to incorporate all the aspects of BroncoFit including biometric and basic fitness assessments along with health coaching for students who need it. The Introduction to Healthy College Living course will relaunch with a new format – emphasizing more activity and less lecture in spring 2017. Both classes were created by Ihmels and Pfeiffer. Tina Freeman, academic advisor for the Department of Kinesiology, was the lead instructor for the KIN-ACT course.
Fall 2016 will also see the launching of a new BroncoFit Living-Learning Community. Tim Kempf, clinical assistant professor in the School of Allied Health Sciences’ Department of Kinesiology, will be the first faculty coordinator for this new residential community.
This year, the advisory council will continue discussions to expand on last year’s activities as well as begin planning for a BroncoFit “endorsement” so that more groups on and off campus can be a part of the initiative.