On Monday, March 27th, the Office of Student Involvement, in partnership with several other

offices on campus, kicked off Global Health Week 2023 with a “Spotlight on

Leadership” event. The event, entitled “Leadership, Curiosity, and Community Care,”

featured Linda Hancock, FNP, PhD. It took place in the Villanova Room in the Connelly

Center at 7 p.m. The event provided free food, snacks, gratitude journals and calming strips,

and was an ACS and Thrive365 approved event, so students who attended stood to gain a lot from the event besides the insight, information and conversation provided by Hancock.

Along with the Office of Student Involvement, the event was sponsored by the Office of

Health Promotion, the Bandana Project and the Mental Health and Well-Being Committee.

The mission of the Office of Health Promotion is “to provide evidence-based health resources,

facilitate opportunities for students to build skills to make healthy lifestyle choices and to instill a

sense of personal responsibility for individual health and its impact on the health of the

community.”

The Bandana Project supports those struggling with mental health, and aims to end the stigma

surrounding those seeking help for their mental health struggles.

The mission of the Mental Health and Well-Being Committee, which falls under the

Office of Student Life, is “supporting and improving individual and community well-being from

an inclusive lens to serve the diverse needs of our community through mental health awareness,

promoting resources and services, and reducing stigma.” 

All of these organizations are concerned with student well-being, whether physical or mental,

which is why they sponsored this event with Hancock focusing on mental and physical

health.

Hancock, the guest speaker, is a family nurse practitioner with a PhD in education. She speaks

around the nation to college students about physical and mental health. Recently retired after 30

years at Virginia Commonwealth University, she currently resides in Chester, Virginia, and

travels from there to different colleges around the nation to speak at events like the event she hosted at Villanova.

“My dream is to provide enjoyable and meaningful education,” Hancock said via her personal

website. “My specialty is making health science user-friendly and fun.”

She described what she does as bringing something to the table that both she and her audiences

care about. She also donates a portion of profits from her speaking engagements to programs

supporting mental health and addiction recovery.

“In a nutshell, I work with your campus or group, I talk about stuff we both care about and part

of any fee generated is donated to a recovery program,” she said.

Hancock’s specialty is talking about health issues that affect young people by using humor. By

using humor, she is able to tackle typically difficult topics to talk about with younger audiences. 

“For decades, I’ve been honored to serve young people dealing with all the ‘S’s’ of health: Sex, Substances, Stress, Social Norms and Spirituality (that’s code for the meaning of life),” Hancock said in “The Dream” section of her website.

The goal of this event was to take a humorous approach to conversations about difficult topics

regarding bad habits. Especially on college campuses, bad habits are common and even

normalized amongst students. Whether it is drinking, smoking, sleeping poorly or not enough,

relationships with food and more, everyone is struggling with something on college campuses.

With work, extracurriculars, classes and social pressure, forming good habits and taking care of

mental health issues are things that fall by the wayside of importance for many students.

The flyer for the event encouraged students to come to the event to take care of their mental and physical health, and learn something about habits that can positively impact their lives.

“This session will use a humorous approach to exploring tough habit loops,” the flyer read. “We all struggle with something- anxiety, anger, overeating, vaping, shopping, screens, you name it. Learning how our brains work can free us to grow in care for ourselves and others. If we want to lead and live in wellbeing, the skills of awareness and curiosity are essential.”