Thriving Thursdays provides wellness resources to students from 10 – 11:30 a.m. every week in the Terrarium in the library.

You make your way down the halls of the polytechnic, the stress of exams weighing on you with the endless bombardment of assignments consuming you. 

It can be difficult as a student to find that balance of academics and being able to take care of yourself. 

According to a 2023 report conducted by BMC Public Health scientific journal that looked at the high rates of mental health challenges faced by Canadian post-secondary students, seeing 95 per cent of post-secondary participants reported being overwhelmed and exhausted. 

In addition to that 83.7 per cent of participants reported having anxiety and with 86 per cent depression. 

That is quite an overwhelmed portion of the population of post-secondary students struggling with stress and mental health. 

That’s why it can be so important to have programs like Thriving Thursdays, a new drop-in resource from Wellness Services at Lethbridge Polytechnic started in 2025. 

This new program helps give students access to wellness related topics, support and resources, or you can just drop in for snack and refreshment.  

Wellness volunteer April Madarasz, a psychology and sociology major in the General Studies at Lethbridge Polytechnic, encourages students to drop-in to Thriving Thursday and access the resources available to them. 

“If you’re not sure what you want to do on campus but you want to do something towards your mental health you can also come in and drop-in on the Thriving Thursdays to see what information we have,” said Madarasz talking about some of the resources available through Thriving Thursday.  

Having a different theme every week allows them to tackle a broad range of issues facing post-secondary students. 

Topics ranging from accessing fitness resources on a budget, mental health topics, Black History Month, International Women’s Day, free nutrition resources and many other topics to help the student body. 

Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Health Promotion Coordinator Lori Harasem hopes that even if there isn’t a topic that is of interest to students at face value to still come down, grab a free coffee or tea, and maybe there will be something they wouldn’t have even thought about that they might be interested in. 

“We have solutions to a lot of different things,” Harasem said when talking about how Thriving Thursdays was established to help students overcome those barriers that may stop them from being active or accessing other resources. 

Thriving Thursdays being in the recently renovated Terrarium, which is just inside the Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Buchanan Library, allows for post-secondary students to access these resources in a safe and casual setting. 

Wellness Services wants to try to do what it can access resources for mental and physical health with as few barriers as possible, including needing to make an appointment to even hear about what is out there for you.