Healthy Leadership
Pitt students teach children about healthy living
By Kimberly Jones

Imagine being a little kid and having someone set out eight glasses of water in front of you. Imagine them telling you that in order to remain healthy you should drink eight glasses of water a day. Most little kids would run and hide, faced with the notion of having to put aside the soda and Kool-Aid. But for kids attending Pittsburgh public schools, Kimberly Jones, social chair of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, shows them how nutrition can be fun.

The University of Pittsburgh's NSCS chapter wanted to become more involved in community service activities. Jones, a Health and Rehabilitation Science major, became aware of the growing problem of childhood obesity. "Society receives mixed messages about proper health," Jones says. She decided to get some of her members to help her prepare a 45-minute presentation on proper nutrition, hydration, and exercise.

After completing the presentation, they got permission from the public school board to talk to fifth-grade gym classes. "The presentations are a lot of fun for us, and the classes are neat because by the end of the presentations, the kids have really learned something," Jones says.

Pittsburgh public schools recently began to implement a nutrition program in the elementary classes called "Fun to Be Fit," and the society's presentations go hand in hand with this program. Each class starts with an interactive review of the Food Guide Pyramid, and then discusses the macronutrients: hydration, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Next, presenters lay out eight glasses of water, but instead of overwhelming the kids, its shows them how important that water is. Students are told that they don't really have to drink that much water, because many of the food and drink they consume throughout the day, fills their water requirements.

"This is important because if the students were to drink that much water their stomachs would be too full to eat their meals and they wouldn't be getting adequate amounts of nutrients," Jones says.

After PITT students discuss the benefits of nutrition, they talk about exercise. Students are given ideas on different sports and ways to exercise, as well as given a contact list of places to go hang out with other kids and play sports or play games, such as the Boys and Girls Club. After the presentation is over, the students have a relay race, by racing through the information given to them in the presentation.

Social activities are Jones main task as the social chair, so when she's not thinking of new ways to spread knowledge to the kids, she's organizing horseback riding trips, salsa dancing outings, ice skating and skiing trips, and going to Sportsworks, an interactive sports science center.

The organization also has worked with the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation to organize a disability awareness tournament. They had a boccia tournament, in which teams were formed with UCP participants and students. The winning teams were awarded goodies.  "Everybody really got into the tournament and those people walking through stopped to see what was going on as well," Jones says. The Student Government Board asked the organization and PITT to make the tournament an annual event.         

Contact Jones at katjst34@pitt.edu.

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