Source: Jamie Weiser, jweiser@k-state.edu
Photo available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-2535.
News release prepared by: Corene Brisendine, 785-532-2535, briz@k-state.edu

Thursday, July 8, 2010

PRE-OPTOMETRY STUDENT FROM ILLINOIS HAS ACTIVE VIEW ON K-STATE

MANHATTAN -- Jamie Weiser came to Kansas State University with an open mind.

"I was looking for a big but welcoming university," said Weiser, a junior in life sciences and pre-optometry from Champaign, Ill. "I felt that K-State had a lot of programs to offer me."

After getting over the shock of being far from friends and family, she settled in her majors and added minors in biology and leadership studies. She also got involved on campus.

Weiser is president of K-State Healthy Decisions, which promotes and refers students to resources on campus that help them have a successful experience while in college. Healthy Decisions is run by students for students.

"One of our activities is Wild Wellness Week, where each day of the week we focus on a different aspect of wellness," Weiser said. "We use a wellness wheel as a representation of all the aspects of health and wellness we touch on, which includes spiritual, physical and intellectual."

Weiser said her favorite day of the week was Well-Being Wednesday, where the group focused on spiritual health. They offered yoga in the K-State Student Union over the noon hour.

At the K-State Women's Center Weiser has worked on projects involving social justice, including K-State's annual Campaign for Nonviolence. She also helped coordinate the Empty Bowls Project, a philanthropy that raises money to help abolish hunger.

"It's a national program but you do it on a local level," Weiser said. "It was cool not to have to send the money away to some organization and hope it goes where it is needed. We actually get to deliver the checks."

Weiser also is a member of Sigma Kappa sorority, writes for the K-State Collegian and works at the International Student Center as a receptionist.