Monmouth College psychology department held an alumnae webinar about the positive benefits optimism can have on your health. Professors Joan Wertz and Marsha Dopheidi, presented to 20 alumnae who engaged in a critical conversation afterwards. Both Wertz and Dopheidi have been interested in how optimism can affect your health for as long as they both can remember. “It was really fun getting together with alumni and seeing them in our session,” said Dopheidi. “It was great.” Before the webinar attendees were asked to take a test about how optimistic or pessimistic, they are. Wertz and Dopheidi also took the test with Wertz scoring much higher on the test, while Dopheidi scored in the middle range. Neither of them was surprised by the scores on the test. Different anecdotes were brought up about how to keep positive and optimistic during the pandemic and bad days. “I like to make things,” said Wertz. “I’m not a super crafty or creative person but I have a couple things that I do like make afghans and so I’ve been cranking those things out pretty quickly and for me it gives me something to do when I’m by myself at my house but what I also like about it is I give that stuff away then right. It isn’t for me I’m doing something nice for other people.” For the future of talking about optimism on campus Professor Wertz talked about reaching out to the wellness group the Reverend Ott is in charge of to get the conversation started on campus about optimism during the pandemic. The webinar was hosted by the Director of Alumni Engagement Jennifer Armstrong.
Lena Wickens - Contributing Writer