Yellowknife (Dec 05/03) - First year nursing students at Aurora College spent the last four months working hard towards creating interesting approaches to living a healthy lifestyle.

On Dec. 3, they displayed the information they gathered at a health fair held at the college. Instructor Jodi Brennan said she is proud of what they have accomplished.

"The students had to come up with a focus that would be pertinent to the college population," she said. "It's pretty incredible work."

The 29 students who have enroled in the course broke into groups. Each group decided on a topic that would be of interest to them, as well as to anyone else visiting their display.

Beverly Hickey, Dawn Turner, Suzanne Doyle and Shawna Tohm presented "Back to the basics," and all agreed that this would be of interest to the average college student.

"We wanted to promote something that each student tends to lack," said Tohm.

"It is a good reminder for ourselves as well," added Hickey.

The women said they researched their topic, which involved alternative ways to living healthy by eating well and exercising. The pamphlets they created provided recipes for healthy dishes and described some simple exercising that can be done anywhere.

Other interesting topics that the students undertook included STD prevention, alternative healing and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Andrea Booth, Roberta Campbell and Esther Powell were the masterminds behind the FASD project. They said this was a good topic to be aware of, especially for female college students.

Powell was making a statement, walking around the college with a baby doll on her back that had a beer can attached to its hand. She said this is a very important issue that people must be aware of.

"A pregnant women wakes up with a hangover that lasts the morning but a baby's hangover is for life," she said.

The project is part of the course and worth 30 per cent of their final grade. The students will also get to show their work off during Aurora College Week in February.