Spring 2021 Sustainability Fellows: Alexia Denton and Ellie Rill

Partner: Healing Arts Alliance

Project: Virtual Healing Arts

Students: Alexia Denton, first year graduate student in Public Health; Ellie Rill, third year undergraduate in Environment & Society and Economics

In Spring 2021, Alexia and Ellie created an online glossary of holistic healing terms and three informational brochures for the Healing Arts Alliance.

Alexia was excited to join the Sustainability Fellows program to learn about holistic approaches and prevention methods to promote health. Ellie was also eager to dive into the project and help empower individuals to implement sustainable, holistic practices into their everyday lives.

Alexia and Ellie worked with Caroline Collins, Paige Apgar, and other members of the Healing Arts Alliance team. The Healing Arts Alliance promotes awareness of holistic healing options for the well-being of individuals and community. While many people view well-being as just physical health, there are many dimensions of wellness that promote sustainable living and environmentally friendly lifestyle practices.

“When you think of traditional health care, there are a lot of resources involved to implement simple procedures,” said Alexia. “It’s not simple considering the resources, people, and cost that goes into just going to the doctor. Holistic medicine encourages us to operate in a way that’s serving the person who’s coming to see us without utilizing a lot of resources that may be damaging or time consuming.”

Alexia and Ellie's first brochure, providing general information about the Healing Arts Alliance

Working together over the course of the semester, Alexia and Ellie first digitized the glossary of healing arts terms, which was previously printed in a 100+ booklet. This allows the organization to save resources and provide a more up-to-date resource for its members. Alexia and Ellie also created three brochures. The first provided general information about the Healing Arts Alliance, the second provided contact information for premium members, and the third detailed trends in the holistic healing sector.

“We were able to attend different virtual town halls, and it was fun to actually be able to talk to these practitioners one-on-one and hear how motivated and passionate they are about these practices,” said Ellie. “It was heartwarming to hear after putting all these materials together.”

The Healing Arts team is excited about the Fellows’ work, and they plan to utilize the brochures at outreach events in the future.

“We were just delighted to work with Alexia and Ellie,” said Caroline. “There’s no way, as volunteers with a nonprofit organization, that we would have ever been able to produce these materials. We wanted to and we kept thinking about ideas, but the implementation part was always lacking until we heard about this program. I think it was a resounding success!”

To view the online glossary of healing arts terms, visit healingartsalliance.org/glossary-a.

To view a the HAA Hybrid brochure, visit healingartsalliance.org/images/About-CAMs-and-HAA-trifold.pdf.

To learn more about the Sustainability Fellows program, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/sustainability-fellows. 

Alexia and Ellie's first brochure, detailing information about holistic healing approaches