Wellness Program

Student Affairs Overview

We’re with you along every step of your journey to becoming a physician-innovator. From white coat ceremony to match day, we support and advise you as you progress in medical school, monitor your welfare and professional development, and cultivate and personalize your Carle Illinois experience.

Meet the Student Affairs Team

Dimensions of Wellness

Sometimes the most difficult health problems to confront may be your own. That’s why we’re as committed to meeting your physical health needs as you are to meeting the needs of those you’ll treat one day. At Carle Illinois, you have access to comprehensive counseling and wellness services in addition to a world-class comprehensive wellness program. We’re building a culture of wellness, because well medical students ultimately yield well physician-innovators.

Wellness is an evolving process of maximizing an individual’s potential by becoming aware and making healthful choices toward a fulfilling life. Through change and personal growth, one’s overall well-being is enhanced which will affect how they think, feel and act.


Physical:
Physical wellness related to maintaining a healthy body and seeking care when needed. It involves respecting your body’s own uniqueness and diversity.

Environmental: Environmental wellness refers to an appreciation for the external environment and the role individual’s play in preserving and improving environmental conditions. It also recognizes your physical space and how that may influence your actions and behaviors.

Academic: Intellectual wellness refers to the ability to learn, the ability to grow from experiences, and one’s perception and reasoning capabilities.

Emotional: Emotional wellness relates to an increased awareness, expression and acceptance of a wide range of thought and feelings in yourself and others.

Social: Social wellness refers to the ability to have meaningful interpersonal relationships and to appreciate and respect individual differences. It also involves the ability to interact with others, to adapt to various social situations and daily behaviors.

Spiritual: Spiritual wellness allows you to develop a set of values that help you seek meaning and purpose. It is about creating a sense of inner peace.

Career: Vocational wellness is inclusive of interests, hobbies, employment, volunteer work and service. It can be nurtured by matching these areas with your core values.

Innovation: Innovative wellness is a personal transformation through curiosity, creativity, and exploration. It is revolutionizing medical education, research and clinical care.

Financial: The process of learning how to manage and balance financial responsibilities now and in the future.

Innovation Pods

Innovation Pods consist of eight Carle Illinois students, forming a cohort of support to last the duration of their medical education. Each pod is assigned a group of Pod Mentors, led by basic science faculty, clinical faculty, and engineering faculty. For additional support, the Innovation Pod also has access to faculty advisors from Carle Illinois and the broader University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carle network, student advisors, resident advisors, and retired faculty advisors for a well-rounded network of support offering various insights, perspectives and experiences.

Each Innovation Pod stays together throughout the four years of medical education at Carle Illinois, meeting regularly to cultivate a family-like supportive network to enhance the student experience.

Learn more about Innovation Pods

Thrive Program

Thrive is our weekly, student-led health and wellness programming, which equips you with the resources you need to truly thrive throughout your education and career. With Thrive, you’ll gain wellness tools to not just make it through medical school, but maximize your impact throughout your career as a physician-innovator.

The Thrive Program provides weekly 50-minute wellness sessions tailored to a medical school students’ needs. Alongside your peers and student directors, you’ll face the uphill climb of medical school with the ability to make an impact over the long run.

Content includes:

  • student success and residency preparedness
  • career development
  • test-taking skills and strategies
  • burnout prevention and resiliency training
  • stress management, compassion fatigue, setting boundaries, and self-care during a time of high stress