Student Ambassadors Lead the Way in Campus Wellness Advocacy
Before the doors to the Palomar Health Student Wellness Center opened in April, Kimmel Yeager arrived several months earlier for her newly created position as the facility’s executive director. From counseling services to fitness gear, Yeager was tasked with knowing the ins and outs of all the wellness offerings at USD. The problem? There was a lot to learn.
“One of the reasons I took the job here at the university is because of how great USD already is in terms of wellness services,” said Yeager. “And then I got here … and it was hard to figure out what was where, even for me as a new employee.”
That’s when she got the idea to launch the Student Wellness Ambassador Program, a student-run leadership team that would help disseminate information about the USD wellness resources to the campus community.
Alongside Serena Gandara, director of campus recreation, Matt McIver, assistant director of wellness center operations and Anne Cass, director for the Center for Health and Wellness Promotion, the team found their first cohort of wellness ambassadors who met their vision for the program: well-connected students who were interested in the health and wellness field, and who already understood some of the wellness services being offered on campus.
“They’re not expected to be experts in counseling or disability services, or dining services, or anything like that, but they will be able to get all the general information to be able to help students navigate to the correct information,” Yeager said.
Nursing student Kaleena Jezycki saw the call for the Student Wellness Ambassador program and jumped at the opportunity. As the only graduate student in the program, Jezycki was looking for new ways to get more involved on campus — and to utilize her nursing background.
“I think this is just a great opportunity to learn for myself how to provide better care,” Jezycki said. “I also think this is a great opportunity for the nursing school, in general, to get more involved on campus because there are so many things that our students are eager to do.”
Julia Sciallo, a senior psychology major, said her longtime passion for wellness and her desire to help others find health-related resources on campus, led her to apply. She noticed that many of her peers didn’t know where to go for certain wellness resources — and she was hoping to find a solution for that.
“I kind of viewed the role as being the face of wellness on campus and being someone my peers can come to talk with, and hopefully, feel comfortable around when it comes to their well-being,” said Sciallo. “I feel like being a part of this student program allows me to show up for my community in a meaningful way.”
Luke Finney, a senior industrial and systems engineering student, has a passion for holistic wellness and was already working on the university fitness operations team, before joining the ambassador program.
“Everything we’re doing is for the students,” said Finney. “We can direct students to the different (wellness) opportunities we have to offer. I think it’s super cool and a big honor to be a part of it.” he added.
Just before the spring semester was over, the student wellness ambassadors met to write their team’s constitution, discussing what they wanted their student-forward program to look like.
They decided to create committees to cover all parts of wellness on campus and to also connect ambassadors with areas about which they were already passionate, like nutrition or physical fitness. The group is also hoping to connect with as many student organizations as possible to spread the word about the health and wellness opportunities available to students and the larger Torero community.
“We’ve talked about partnering with sports teams and with different clubs on campus, like the Alcalá Club. We want to make sure we are celebrating cultural events like mental health months,” Jezycki said. “We want to host at least two events each month focused on different aspects of wellness. We want to speak to classes. We want to do everything we can to make wellness normalized on campus,” she added.
One of Sciallo’s main priorities for the program is to help fellow students understand the importance of developing an everyday wellness toolkit. These tools are vital today — especially given new reports, like one from the American Council on Education, which found that 65% of college students shared they needed help in the past year for emotional or mental health issues.
“These wellness resources are not something you tap into when life gets difficult and it’s finals season and you’re feeling really stressed said Sciallo. “They’re something you can tap into even when things are going well and life is good. I think it’s important that students know that they’re not weak for tapping into these resources, but rather, pretty brave.”
Finney says he thinks building a community that values and promotes wellness will be a big focus in the months and years to come.
“You want to build a community and I’m super honored to be part of this team that can be that reference point,” said Finney.
Sciallo and Finney shared that one common struggle they’ve noticed among their peers is dealing with the stress that comes while balancing schoolwork, a job, clubs and social time. That same report from the American Council on Education also discovered that 76% of college students reported they had experienced a moderate or high level of stress within the last month, when the survey was conducted.
It’s a pain point the wellness ambassadors will keep in mind while planning out their programming for the year.
“I think it’s really empowering because we know best what the struggle is like,” Jezycki said. “We can relate best to each other. We can be a point of reference, a point of contact, a trusted person whom our peers can come to and say, ‘Hey, I’m really struggling with my mental health. How can I find help?’”
Having students on the ground, connecting with their peers, learning what they need in wellness resources, and listening to their struggles allows the student wellness ambassadors to hit the ground running in the next year and provide wellness-centered programming — built by students, for students.
— Story by Elena Gomez
‘Wellness By Students, For Students’ was a feature story in the Fall 2025 issue of University of San Diego Magazine.
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