Nevada Community College Case Study: Wellness Challenges for Academic Advisors

Academic advisors carry heavy caseloads and a lot of responsibility for their students, and at a prominent community college in Nevada, a group of advisors noticed the toll it was taking on their own wellbeing. With support from the Stupski Foundation, they formed a wellness team to improve staff wellbeing and prevent burnout, and they chose YuMuuv to run their challenges.

At a Glance

• Organization: academic advising team at a community college in Nevada, across three campuses
• Funding: supported by the Stupski Foundation
• Invited: around 50 academic advisors
• Participation: about 38 joined, with around 15 becoming active daily users
• Formats: walking, hydration, a playful team squat challenge, and manual challenges for journaling, outdoor time and mindfulness

The Challenge

The advising team wanted to address wellness as a whole, not just physical health but mental and emotional wellbeing too. With high temperatures and demanding schedules, simple strategies like staying hydrated, taking movement breaks and practising mindfulness were the priorities.

Why YuMuuv

YuMuuv stood out for its inclusive, broad approach to wellness. Chante Derella, a key leader of the initiative, valued the range of activities, from automatic activity tracking to mental wellness habits like meditation and journaling and hydration challenges, which made it appealing to staff with different preferences and abilities.

How the Team Rolled It Out

After completing the institutional agreements, Chante introduced YuMuuv at a departmental wellness retreat and invited around 50 advisors from three campuses to join. She started with simple challenges: step counting, hydration and a team squat challenge that caught on thanks to its humor and simplicity.

Results

• Engagement: around 38 staff joined the app, and about 15 became active daily users.
• Playful formats won: the squat challenge, which started as a bit of fun within one campus team, was especially popular, as were walking challenges that used automatic phone tracking to make taking part easy.
• Beyond fitness: a challenge with manually logged activities like journaling, outdoor time and mindfulness saw strong participation, showing the appeal of wellness beyond traditional exercise.
• Community: the challenge chat helped advisors connect socially and encourage each other.
• Recognition without a big budget: with limited resources for prizes, peer recognition, friendly competition and internal shout-outs kept morale and participation up.

Ongoing Challenges

• Coming up with fresh, engaging monthly activities is a constant creative task for Chante and the wellness team.
• Keeping participation active and showing wellness outcomes to secure continued funding is an ongoing focus.

Looking Ahead

Chante and her team plan to gather detailed feedback through surveys to refine the program and to show clear outcomes to their grant providers. The insights will help the program keep pace with the advisors’ preferences and wellness goals.

What the Team Said About YuMuuv

The team gave enthusiastic feedback on YuMuuv’s intuitive interface, the flexibility to create varied wellness challenges, and social features such as the challenge chat and activity rankings. Their suggestions included periodic wellness tips and more fun facts to keep engagement fresh.

Key Takeaways for HR Teams

• Launch in person. Introducing the program at a team retreat gave it a strong start.
• Humor helps. A playful squat challenge did more for engagement than a serious one would have.
• Go beyond steps. Journaling, outdoor time and mindfulness reach people a step count does not. See our non-fitness wellness challenges.
• Recognition can be free. Peer shout-outs work when budgets are tight; our wellness challenge rewards guide has more low-cost ideas.
• Plan how you will show results. Grant-funded and budget-sensitive programs need simple, honest numbers. Here is why proof beats promises in wellness.

For more stories, see our case studies. Supporting a team at risk of burnout? Book a YuMuuv demo and we will help you design a balanced set of challenges.