2025 Go Move Challenge: Final Recap

Santa Clara brought the plaque back

Published Friday, March 7, 2025

What a month! Congratulations to everyone who completed the challenge and congratulations to Santa Clara University who earned the title as most active university. Santa Clara took the title from Creighton who was our reigning champ in 2024. They started the month off with a bang and never let up. Thank you to all who participated and although the challenge is over, we encourage you to keep moving.

Debby Merryman, SCU's wellness manager, shares how her team found their motivation this year to win the plaque back and bragging rights, "After the disappointment of not winning the Go Move Challenge in 2024, Santa Clara University's Faculty and Staff became re-energized to bring the plaque back to the Mission campus. This year, SCU had 60 teams with spirited competition amongst them. We had 410 participants who hiked, biked, walked, ran, swam, lifted weights, did strength training, yoga, pilates, and aerobics, all with the intention of bettering their health and wellness. SCU congratulates and recognizes the efforts of all the other colleges and universities who participated in the 2025 challenge. Together we are all making a difference in the health and wellness of our employees."

We accumulated almost 3,000,000 minutes this year! Final standings:

• Most Minutes: Santa Clara with 631,256 minutes
• Average of Most Minutes: Loyola University Chicago with 1790 minutes per person
• University Size Average Minutes Per Person:
  • Small (below 1000) - Saint Peter's University averaging 1163 minutes per person
  • Medium (1000-1999) - Santa Clara University averaging 1540 minutes per person
  • Large (2000+) - Loyola University Chicago averaging 2594 minutes per person

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February = Moving

For many AJCU institutions, the month of February has become synonymous with movement, and this year was no exception. Faculty and staff from 22 Jesuit institutions committed to tracking every minute of their intentional, physical activity for the past 28 days, and the collective numbers are impressive:

To see what numbers your institution accumulated, visit the Go Move Challenge website. Thank you to everyone for participating and finishing strong!

What Inspires You to Move?

Brenna Lacey, Membership Coordinator at Simon Rec, SLU, shares..

"I am inspired by my family, first and foremost. At work, my department is encouraged from the top on down to be leaders." Her favorites are group fitness classes, weekly weight training classes, and walking on the indoor track. Brenna truly is an inspiration and leads by example.

Final Movement Moments

Randy Souther, USF, earned his last minutes with a morning walk on the beach

Doug Deman, Creighton, comments on how the weather shaped up in Omaha for the final week of the challenge, making it much more pleasant to get moving

Jemima Attanasio and Julie Fissinger, Fordham, led a walk through Central Park, enjoying the company of new and long-tenured co-workers.

USF team, Exercising our Rights! take a walk through Golden Gate Park at lunch

Weekly Recaps

As we have been reporting each week, participants have been as excited as ever to share their feedback on how the Go Move Challenge has positively influenced their month of February and beyond. If you missed any stories from previous weeks, you can access them, along with pictures, at any time:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4

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Feedback

University challenge admins share feedback from the challenge

• Universities compete in the challenge for good, clean fun; health and wellness; camaraderie.
• Universities love that it motivates individuals to move more during a cold and dark month; it's fun to compete against the other Jesuit Institutions; some of the employees are very competitive so love that aspect.

If you have suggestions or feedback for future Go Move Challenges, please share to gousf@usfca.edu. See you in 2026 for the 14th annual Go Move Challenge!