Background Information

The reason behind me choosing to do Eating Disorders Awareness Week was because I felt that this was a

topic that is not discussed enough and as a result, the prevalence of ED’s are rising on college campuses. I

wanted to bring about awareness of ED’s so that people could recognize signs of ED’s in themselves or

their friends. The group that we targeted were college students because ED’s them the most.Our society

and our generation focus primarily on the outside appearance leading people to feel inadequate. Our

projects were conducted in the campus center ballroom, and our main focus was to promote and

encourage body positivity.

Learning Objectives
1. I hope to learn about how and why eating disorders affect people within the first two weeks of

research.

2. I want to learn the warning signs of the different eating disorders by the end of the project

3. I hope to gain more knowledge about who is affected by eating disorders by the third week of the

project.
Shayla Daniels

Jasmine Sweeting

Professor Brandenburg

CMWL 4102: Service Learning

February 4, 2018

“Let’s Get Real”: Eating-Disorder Awareness Week

Mission Statement:
Eating Disorder Awareness Week motivates and inspires individuals to express and embrace his or her

body image. It is about learning to love yourself, regardless of all eating disorders. We hope to educate and

bring awareness to all eating disorders on campus that may be affecting you or someone else you may

know.

Values:

Our values are to assess, design, implement, and evaluate an engaging event centered on self- reflection,

self-expression, self-love, self-determination, and self-motivation.

Goals:
4. We plan to help students with eating disorders become more comfortable with speaking out and

seeking help.
 5. We will share resource information on campus to our students to help them to cope with their

eating disorder or any eating disorder adversity that may be hindering them from living life or

enjoying the food.

6. We hope to see more individuals becoming more aware of eating disorders and improving the

over health and wellbeing of all students on campus, regardless of the health outcome. In this

case, specifically eating disorders.

Objectives:
1. We anticipate seeing at least 100 of UWG’s student population becoming more aware of eating

disorders and knowing the effects that it can have on an individual’s life to promote positive

relationships with food and the body.

2. By the end of this semester, we hope to see a 10% increase in UWG students seeking help

through various resources that we provide on campus.

3. We aim to provide coping strategies as well as preventative/intervention strategies to many

students on campus to see a 60% health and wellbeing improvement rate of our student’s health

population.

Checklist
Major Function Tasks Time needed to Deadline
complete tasks (in
weeks)
Correlate  Speak with Ms. Thompson 1 Jan. 22-Feb. 5
about helping to implement
a program for eating
disorders awareness week
Plan  Brainstorm ideas for eating 3 Feb. 5
disorders awareness week
Facilities  Pick a place to host session 2 Feb. 5
 Location for table
Communicate  Send email president of 1 Feb. 8
SOYA and wait for response

Research  Read academic journals on 2 Feb. 20

eating disorders,
interventions, and
prevention
Name  Brainstorm and pick best 1 Feb. 9
name for event/session
 Meet in person to pick
name of event/program
Speakers  Discuss options of who will 1 Feb. 10
speak at session

Publicity  Create an advertisement 1 Feb. 12

for session & tabling event

Activities  Gather supplies needed for 2 Feb. 23

the activities and
decorative poster
Supplies  Ensure that items are 2 Feb.25
ready for table (reveal &
swag)
 Action Plan
Tasks Deadline Persons responsible Resources
 Speak with Ms. Thompson Jan 22.-Feb. 5 Shayla Daniels, Jasmine Gina Brandenburg
about helping to implement Sweeting
a program for eating
disorders awareness week

 Brainstorm ideas for eating Feb. 5 Shayla Daniels, Jasmine Internet

disorders awareness week Sweeting
 Pick a place to host Feb. 5 Shayla, Jasmine Sweeting Mary Beth Thompson
session
 Location for table
 Send email president of Feb. 8 Jasmine Sweeting Mary Beth Thompson
SOYA and wait for
response

 Read academic journals or Feb. 20 Shayla Daniels, Jasmine UWG library database, internet
any credible source on Sweeting
eating disorders,
interventions, and
prevention
 Brainstorm and pick best Feb. 9 Shayla Daniels, Jasmine N/A
name for event/session Sweeting
 Meet in person to pick
name of event/program
 Discuss options of who will Feb. 10 Shayla, Jasmine Sweeting Peer educators
speak at session

 Create an advertisement for Feb. 12 Shayla Daniels, Jasmine Canva app or other apps
session & tabling event Sweeting
 Gather supplies needed Feb. 23 Shayla Daniels Mary Beth Thompson
for the activities and
decorative poster
 Ensure that items are ready Feb. 25 Jasmine Sweeting Mary Beth Thompson
for table (reveal & swag
Direct and Indirect Services
Direct services include:

 Yoga instruction – Andrea Laubstein instructed the Yoga for Inner Strength Event.

 Tabling event – We asked students “what would you think about if you were not thinking negative thoughts?”

Students wrote down their positive thoughts on a big notepad. Sixty students participated.

Indirect services include:

 Meeting with Andrea Laubstein – explained the reason why we wanted to implement yoga into our event,

talked about the duration of yoga instruction and planned layout of the event.

 Meeting with May Beth Thompson – came up with ideas for the program, planned the timing of the event

and presented research.

 Meeting with partner Shayla – conducted research brainstormed ideas to share with Mary Beth Thompson

 Creating PowerPoint– method of presenting our program outcome to the service-learning class.

 Creating tri-fold– decorated and put information regarding eating disorders on the board for our tabling

event.
Journal Entries
January 22, 2018

Today we decided to Eating Disorders Awareness Week for our service-learning project, Shayla and I

contacted Ms. Mary Beth Thompson who is the health coordinator on campus to see when we can meet so

far I am feeling optimistic about the project thus far and cannot wait to see how it unfolds.

January 24, 2018

Today I met with Ms. Thompson in her office today and discussed possible ideas that we could come up

with in regard to the ED’s Awareness Week. However, there was a bit of miscommunication regarding the

meet up time. Shayla had mentioned that she tried to get in contact with me via text but I did not receive

her message. From me and Ms. Thompson’s understanding we were all supposed to meet on Wednesday

at 11:00 am. However, Shayla thought we were meeting on Friday.

January 31 – February 1, 2018

Shayla and I are feeling quite frustrated because every idea that we have seems to not be good. Ms.

Thompson feels that we should not incorporate food into our program because it can be a negative trigger

for some.
February 8, 2018

On this day we reserved the room for our yoga event in the campus center as discussed between Ms.

Thompson, Shayla, and I. I am feeling optimistic about our event and believe that we can do it. We

discussed contacting Andrea Laubstein which was my task to complete, who would instruct the yoga class.

We also went over the scheduling of the event and how long it would take place.

February 12-14, 2018

I contacted Andrea Laubstein and asked if she would be willing to participate in our program. She was

more than willing to be a part of our program we met with her on the 14 th and presented to her our research

that we had completed. Our research supported yoga as a coping mechanism for those who suffer from

ED’s. We briefly discussed the naming of the event. I am feeling great and a bit nervous for our upcoming

event.

March 1, 2018

Today is our Yoga for Inner Strength. I hope that we are successful in promoting body positivity for all. I am

a bit nervous but I know I can pull through. At the beginning of our event my partner and I were a bit scared

because only a few people had showed up. But Ms. Thompson suggested we wait 10 more minutes and at

the end we had a total for 21 participants which is good for a Thursday night.
Optional items
 Final Reflection Essay
I value reliability, trust, compassion, relationships, faith, and moral responsibility. I have learned

that I can be a leader and an effective communicator. I believe that I have more understanding of empathy.

My self-confidence and self-esteem have improved tremendously; I proved to myself that I enjoy serving

others for the betterment of our society in the long-run.

When I partnered up with Shayla, I did not incline that our service-learning project would have the

outcome that it did. I initially thought that our program would consist of informing people about the signs of

eating disorders and that we would possibly do a tabling event. From the beginning, we felt very limited.

We had a few trials and tribulations that we had to encounter, but in the end, I believe that we benefited

from this experience. When we first contacted Mary Beth Thompson who is the health education

coordinator on campus, Shayla and I felt as though we were on the way to a great start. In the first few

weeks of planning and coming up with ideas for possible events/programs that we could implement we hit a

few barriers. For example, it seemed like every idea that we had was constantly being contradicted and

shot down by Ms. Thompson. At one point we were considering dropping out of the project and trying to

find another that would be more ‘hands-on.’ However, after much consideration and thought we decided

that we will stick to the project since we committed to Ms. Thompson. On the day of our event, we were

nervous and scared because it seems like we would have a poor turnout but Ms. Thompson reassured us

by suggesting that we wait ten more minutes. Overall, we had a great turnout for a Thursday night. I believe

this circumstance taught us patience and responsibility. I do not think I would change anything about this

experience, we are meant to learn from our experiences, and that is what happened. I think being out in the

community helps to develop your character and improve both your self-esteem and confidence. Knowing

that you made a difference in a person’s life is a heart-warming experience. In the research that I did from
my service-learning project, I learned that communication is essential and that considering the location of

an event is important as well as the day of the week its taking place. I also learned that you must be as

thorough as possible when communicating and researching.

As I was researching eating disorders, I realized how appearance obsessed our society is and how

individuals feel pressured to look a certain way. Our society’s expectations of how someone should look is

having a detrimental impact on both young women and men. We can change this expectation society has

on us by promoting and encourage body positivity which means that we love to love the body we have and

recognize how our bodies work to keep us alive and functioning. This service-learning project has made me

more aware of the warning signs associated with eating disorders and how there are resources available to

help those with eating disorders cope. In the future, I want to work with women and children and my

knowledge of eating disorders can help me recognize the warning signs in this group. Ultimately, I want to

be out in the community helping to plan interventions to help counter health disparities and improve quality

of life.
Presentation

Click on image to view full PowerPoint

PROMOTING BODY
POSITIVITY

By: Shayla Daniels and Jasmine Sweeting