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KENNESAW, Ga. | Feb 28, 2025

Highlighting an important and impactful program on campus, the peer health education program within Health Promotion and Wellness at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥

In this episode of the Wellbeing@³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ podcast, we talk with Peer Health OWLS from the Health Promotion and Wellness department about the impact they have on campus and developing professional skills before they graduate. 

Episode Transcript

Natalia Gumbs 
Hello, Owls! Welcome to Kennesaw State Wellbeing at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Natalia Gumbs, a peer health educator at Health Promotion and Wellness. Today we're highlighting an important and impactful program on campus, the peer health education program within Health Promotion and Wellness at ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥. We're going to be going over what it involves. How can being a peer health educator make a difference? In your personal. Life and joining us today are my coworkers and students Jer’Rick White and Kristen Onuzulike, who are active peer health educators, and we’ll be sharing their experience and insights into the program. Jay and Kristen, thank you both for agreeing to join this podcast to provide students in the ³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ community with insights into how we can advocate for them openly and behind the scenes. 

Kristen Onuzulike 
Thank you for having us. 

Jer’Rick White 
Thank you for having me. 

Natalia Gumbs 
To start, can you all briefly describe the peer health education program? What it is. The topics you focus on and some of the key responsibilities and tasks involved in being a PHE. 

Kristen Onuzulike 
Well, as a Peer Health Educator, we usually just educate our peers on different topics that we focus on like stress management, healthy relationships, sexual health. 

Jer’Rick White 
Yeah. And then just in the midst of doing that, we also just plan those events, and we lead those events. We'll do interactive events to make sure that the students are engaging with us and we'll also do educational events where we're presenting PowerPoints and things of that nature. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Absolutely. Task wise, you can also see our content creation on social media. We're usually posting silly videos or you can get some Wellness tips as well. It's a really well-rounded position. What motivated you guys to apply for the peer health education program and how did you first learn about it? 

Jer’Rick White 
Well, for me, I have always been a Health Science major, so I definitely wanted to do an organization that was more geared toward healthcare. I actually was in one of my nutrition classes my freshman year and you actually came in as one of the peer health educators and you presented a PowerPoint in my class. And I just thought it was really cool that you were able to do that. You did it very well, so I wanted to be a part of something like that. In the midst of being involved in my other organizations, I heard about it.  

Natalia Gumbs 
And for you, Kristen? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
Well, I am a biology major, and I do want to work with people in my career. I feel like, as a peer health educator, you're working with your peers and interacting with them. I think that was a part of the reason. Also one of our co-workers introduced me to the peer health education.  

Natalia Gumbs 
I know for myself I wanted to get involved, and it was my freshman year on campus, and I saw that this was the perfect balance because I want to be an occupational therapist. This is the perfect balance between focusing on health but just being Involved in general, so I love that. I remember I was finished working out my freshman year, and I walked past and I saw the ‘Become a peer health educator’ sign. And that's what made me join as well. What would you all say are some of the most rewarding aspects of being a peer health educator? Can you share a memorable experience or moment that stood out to you? 

Jer’Rick White 
Well, definitely just being able to connect with the different students on campus, I feel like that's very meaningful. A lot of them really do have genuine questions about what we do and what we can provide, and just being able to give them those answers is really cool. A very memorable thing I think that I can say, I don't know if this is applicable to what we do, but I definitely like our team bonding moments. I really love when we do Secret Santa and stuff like around the Christmas time. I think it's just really engaging and it just kind of keeps us on our feet and reminds us of why we are doing it. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Definitely. What about you, Kristen? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
What he said with the Secret Santa and the team bonding. Also, I did like your event, the Love language week. Yeah, and that was fun during Valentine's Day. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Yeah. And I think what's most rewarding for me is how it's so personalized. Some of our topics, it might be intimidating to go up to a staff member and maybe ask a sexual health question. I love that students feel comfortable enough to kind of confide in us and ask us questions within our scope. I remember it was the health fair, and this was the moment that stood out to me. There was a boy who came up and he was kind of nervous to ask what he asked me, a question that was personal to him, that I could answer within our scope. And it was really nice to see that I could impact someone directly. So that was my most memorable experience as a PHE. For you guys, how does being a peer help educator help you develop leadership skills and what experiences have been like for your personal and academic growth? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
I would definitely say communication because we do go around well, we go around to different classes, and we talk to different students about different topics that we focus on. 

Jer’Rick White 
Yeah, I definitely feel like it develops your skills simply because you have to lead the events. So when you're taking ownership of the event, not only are you delegating different roles to the different peer health educators that are working that day. You're also having to be on standby to answer any questions, bring over equipment, and things like that. Sometimes you also have to talk to faculty, so it just definitely brings you outside of your comfort zone if you weren't used to doing that before. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Yeah, and tapping into what you said, I think that leadership aspect is so important because as PHEs sometimes we lead an event and then sometimes we're on standby, I feel like it makes you a better group member, and it helps you be more flexible so. I love that we can work as a group and then build ourselves professionally and. Personally, yeah you can. What would you say is your favorite peer health education event? 

Jer’Rick White 
For me it would definitely have to be my event, Love Languages, which I did during the healthy relationship week around the time of Valentine's. I just really loved how it had different stations. It was very interactive. If you weren't able to do one station, you could go do another one. And we had a pretty large student participation. I felt like that was really cool about that as well. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Yeah. And what about you, Kristen? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
I would say it's getting involved with Love Language, but it's what you did with the roses.  

Natalia Gumbs 
Loses me loves me not. 

Kristen Onuzulike 
That was really cute, and people were coming up and getting roses and answering questions.  

Natalia Gumbs 
Like they touched on. I am so biased to healthy relationships. I always think the events are so fun to plan and I've been blessed to be able to plan some of those healthy relationship events. I know one of my favorites was Red Flag, Green Flag, where we brought students different prompts, and they could decide if it is a red flag in a relationship or friendship? Or is that a green flag? It's cool to see where their mind is at and then be able to teach them from there if they're maybe in the little confused middle space. What advice would you all give students considering applying to the peer health education program, and what can they expect once they become a part of it? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
My advice is to definitely just apply and be a health educator because you’re going to meet new people. You're going to try new things, and you're going to have a new environment. And also, what's the second question? 

Natalia Gumbs 
What can they expect once they become a part of the peer health education program? 

Jer’Rick White 
They can expect a very team environment. You're always going to be working with other people. You will be leading some events on your own, but you're also going to be once again delegating those tasks to the other peer health educators in the office, just so that they have a job to do as well. And then my advice is just definitely being prepared for that. And just definitely being OK, with stepping outside of your comfort zone so that you are able to do those type of things? 

Natalia Gumbs 
My biggest piece of advice I would say is when you're doing that application be open with who you are because that is going to be our first impression of you. When we can see what you care about and what's important to you, it helps us see, ‘Oh, that's someone we really like to have in this program.’ And then what I would say, what you can expect is again, like they were saying, such a good team environment. From your peer health educators to your student assistants to your hired staff members, everyone just makes it such a family. It's very relaxed but focused. I would say that that is my biggest piece of advice. Thank you so much guys for sharing your experiences. You both have given us a lot of great insights. If a student is interested in getting involved with the peer health education program, or maybe just has questions, how can they contact or how can they connect with you or someone in the Health Promotion and Wellness office? 

Kristen Onuzulike 
We have an Instagram @³ÉÈËÖ±²¥Wellness on Instagram where you can check out all we post and events. We post our little funny videos that you talked about, and we also have an office in the recreational center where you can stop by and ask the front desk people questions.  

Jer’Rick White 
We are actually also currently hiring right now, and we have our application on Owl Life. If you ever are just on there looking at events and stuff. Definitely go down to the peer health educator application and try to apply and see what you can do. 

Natalia Gumbs 
Absolutely. And that concludes our conversation for today. I'd like to thank Jer’Rick White and Kristen Onuzulike, Peer Health Educators in the Health Promotion and Wellness department for joining me for such an insightful conversation about the peer health education program.  
For those listening, please do not hesitate to reach out to Wellbeing@³ÉÈËÖ±²¥ for any support needs and to give suggestions on topics you'd like to learn more about. If you're ever interested in learning more about how to build awareness, knowledge, and skills about mental health and suicide prevention. Please register for one of our free mental health trainings. For more information, please visit kennesaw.edu/wellbeing, or send an e-mail to wellctr@kennesaw.edu.