A new semester brings new events on campus and fresh faces to student organizations. Katie Menning is a new peer health educator, and she’s excited for what’s ahead. 

Although she’s new to the peer health educator program, she’s been around Madison College before. In 2015, Menning got two associate degrees. She’s now pursuing her first technical diploma in the medical assisting program.  

One of the degrees that Menning holds is in global health. When considering how students at Madison College approach life, she understands that different areas of the world have different access to resources.  

“When it comes to my global health degree, I can kind of bring in that aspect of what’s going on in European countries compared to what’s going on out on the West Coast,” said Menning. “It’s just bringing more awareness and to connect with students who are not from the Madison area who are international students to be like, hey, you’re from this region; this is what’s going on here, this is how it can affect you and what you can do to help prevent it for yourself.” 

Menning is excited about different opportunities to work with students.  

“I actually volunteered for three years abroad to 22 different countries teaching English, sexual reproductive health, animal rehabilitation and women empowerment. So when I saw that this role was up for hire, I was like, I can definitely bring in my aspects from that,” said Menning.  

One of the events was National Wear Red Day, which is Feb. 4. Peer health educators gave out heart awareness t-shirts leading up to the day. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease and stroke cause one in three deaths among women each year, more than all cancers combined.  

Another event coming up this month is a fitness challenge called Spring Forward: Get Moving. The challenge is to exercise for 150 minutes to earn a Healthy Cookbook. Visit https://bit.ly/FitnessChallenge22 to learn more.