St. Joe’s placed 12th out of 27 Jesuit colleges and universities in the annual Go Move Challenge, which ended on Feb. 29.
The Go Move Challenge, sponsored by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), invites faculty and staff to track their movements each day for the month of February and record minutes in an online portal. Movement consists of any intentional exercise that causes a moderate increase in breathing or heart rate.
St. Joe’s ended the month with 109 participants and a total of 83,287 minutes logged. The winner was Santa Clara University with 496 participants and 592,288 minutes.
This year’s St. Joe’s winner was Naomi Cohen, educational resources and reference librarian. Cohen logged 4,500 minutes, just edging out Brian Lafferty, associate director of Alumni Programs who came in second with 4,470 minutes. Conor Lesch, assistant director of recreation for Campus Recreation, came in third with 3,790 minutes.
Christine Mecke, director of Student Disability Services, came in sixth place with 2,530 minutes. Mecke said she enjoyed keeping track of the minutes she worked out and recording them in the portal, as well as the competitive aspect of the challenge.
“Since I don’t typically record how much time I spend working out, this is actually fun, because it is very reinforcing to see the amount of time I’ve accumulated,” Mecke said. “And because others are also recording their time, it adds a bit of competition to the challenge, which also keeps you going.”
Matthew Kelly, visiting professor of finance, who came in fifth place with 2,697 minutes, also enjoyed the “peer pressure” that comes with the competition. Once Kelly realized he was holding one of the top five mover positions at St. Joe’s, he said he continued to work harder and make every effort to maintain his position on top.
“The last two weeks, I most certainly added more minutes each day,” Kelly said.
Megan Guarni, HR specialist for the Office of Human Resources, was one of this year’s university organizers of the challenge, which St. Joe’s has been participating in since 2017.
Guarni, who has only been at St. Joe’s for four months, said the program helped her meet new people. She worked with SJU Hawk-Fit, the university’s fitness program, to sponsor two free classes for staff and employees.
“I went to both of the classes and I met three new people that I hadn’t met yet,” said Guarni, who came in 73rd with 186 minutes. “It brought employees together that maybe we haven’t met before, and it was a nice way to meet new employees.
