Go Dons Get Fit Challenge Summary

October 1-31, 2017

During the first annual Go Dons Get Fit Challenge this October, almost 500 faculty, staff, and students recorded over 340,000 minutes of physical activity. Congratulations to the winning team, faculty and staff, who collectively moved for 242,655 minutes! They will receive the Cartwright Cup trophy from Bill Cartwright himself at the USF men's basketball game on Nov. 28.

In an effort to provide a fun wellness opportunity that included not just faculty and staff but also students, GoUSF collaborated with Student Health Promotion Services to create the first ever Go Dons Get Fit Challenge. Inspired by the popular Go Move Challenge, in which faculty and staff compete each February with other Jesuit institutions to determine which is most active, the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge also encouraged everyone to move. But this time, faculty and staff competed internally... with students! 

Throughout the month, GoUSF hosted many activities to encourage faculty, staff, and students to move, including a kick-off celebration at Koret, a walk to Golden Gate Park led by the School of Law, a leadership team walk led by Professor Juliet Spencer, yoga classes, belly dancing, and zumba. Participation in the challenge increased each week as word spread about the giveaways, t-shirts, friendly classroom competitions, and inspiring stories of personal wellness. 

Christina Wilson from USF's Sacramento branch campus said, "This challenge has been great! I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes a few months ago and sunk down for a while. The challenge has motivated me to get moving! My goal is to reach 2000 minutes before the end." The enthusiasm for the challenge exhibited by Alexandra Amati-Camperi, Professor of Music, was such an inspiration that she was nominated as the Cheers for Peers colleague this October. She said, "I have always liked exercising and I have always walked a lot, but especially so lately... I was told about this challenge at a faculty retreat last month and decided to join. I didn’t do it as much because it would get me to exercise more, but to encourage others to do so and get up from their desk chairs. I believe that once you get to the point where you are exercising regularly you can’t avoid it. On weekends if I don’t go walking by midday, I start getting really restless and cabin-feverish."

On Halloween, the final day of the challenge, faculty, staff, and students earned their last minutes of movement by playing a fun game of dodgeball in costume! We look forward to making the Go Dons Get Fit Challenge an annual tradition! Below are some noteworthy numbers from the challenge. Also, be sure to check out GoUSF's Facebook group and Instagram page with the hashtag #GoDonsGetFit for more pictures. 

Top 10 participants with the most minutes of movement:

Number of participants and cumulative minutes by division: