Members of Law Students in Balance participate in a variety of wellness activities, including a weekly yoga session outside the UCLA School of Law, thanks to funding from the university's Healthy Campus Initiative.

A project aimed at helping off-campus students create healthy and affordable meals, a conference to introduce students to integrative medicine, and a series of workshops and events to provide law students with tools and skills to improve their health and well-being are just three of the 13 projects initiated by registered student groups at UCLA that have recently received up to $2,000 from UCLA’s Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) student grant program.

Launched in 2012 to encourage healthy lifestyle choices among UCLA students, staff and faculty, HCI has funded 33 student projects through this program to date, with awards totaling roughly $60,000.

"These projects span the areas of nutrition, physical and mental fitness, and community and environmental health," said Michael Goldstein, associate vice provost for the Healthy Campus Initiative. "They give students an opportunity to try new ideas, develop leadership skills, work on projects that are meaningful to them and raise awareness of important health and wellness topics that deserve attention."

Without funding from HCI, Law Students in Balance, which started last quarter at UCLA as a way to teach law students strategies to manage stress and achieve work/life balance, would not be able to hold its weekly yoga and meditation classes or its weekly relaxation and concentration workshop, said Tatiana Pavlova-Coleman, a law student and founding president of the group.

"UCLA’s Healthy Campus Initiative is important because it promotes well-being, it creates conversation about the importance of well-being, and it supports projects by various organizations within the schools, which aim to help students deal with stress and provide possible solutions for living balance lives," said Pavlova-Coleman.

Other student projects and groups to receive HCI financial support this academic year include:

Other student groups were given conditional approval for HCI funding for these projects:

Applications for the next round of student grant program funding will be accepted in the fall. To be considered for funding, projects must be sustainable, improve the health and well-being of UCLA students, and address issues that are important to students.

Funding is for student group projects that are developed and carried out by registered student groups.