UW–Madison’s Cindy Kuhrasch was featured in an episode of the UW Now Livestream, produced by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, on Dec. 15.
Kuhrasch is the director of Physical Education Teacher Education program in the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology. She appeared with Beth Olson, an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, in an episode focused on “Winter Wellness During COVID-19.”
Kuhrasch and Olson each gave a brief presentation and then took questions from viewers. Mike Knetter, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, hosted the conversation and served as moderator.
Kuhrasch emphasized the importance of physical play, not only for fitness but also for social and cognitive health.
“Our program,” she said, “has really begun to understand the fact that movement can be used as the medium through which we can experience relational growth, social and emotional growth, and cognitive growth.”
Ultimately, Kurasch emphasized that that building and maintaining wellness is important not only during the pandemic, but also in the long-term.
“All of these things that we’re experiencing right now, or many of them, are not just related to COVID,” she said. “But they are trends that we have been experiencing all along, but COVID is really exacerbating some of those.”
Learn more and view a recording the livestream episode, here.