The Student Health Center is hosting its semiannual Health and Wellness Fair today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Lawrence Hall lobby.

According to Heather Capo, a nurse and the coordinator of the Student Health Center, a myriad of university and Pittsburgh health-related organizations will be in attendance, and students will be able to interact and obtain information from each one.

“We have some in-house things ranging from our mental health counselor, our athletic trainers, student conduct, dealing with drug and alcohol prevention and awareness and also some outside organizations as well,” Capo said. “We have everything from a meditation center coming, the physician’s office that we send our students to and a downtown chiropractor coming in.”

Some organization’s tables will be purely informational and give away small freebies, while others are interactive and include prizes and raffles. Other highlights include a table on healthy food choices and free chair massages.

Taffie Bucci, the university counselor, has been a part of the fair several times before and will be passing out information on counseling services at the fair as well. Bucci praised the event.

“I think the whole event is a beautiful opportunity for students to see what resources there are,” Bucci said. “And I love that it’s a health and wellness fair, because that’s what we need to be supporting. Health and wellness.”

This is the second wellness fair that will include a mobile unit that provides free STI testing for students. The unit is run by the Pregnancy Resource Center and will be parked outside of Lawrence Hall during the event.

This fair will also feature several new organizations, including the Shambhala Meditation Center and the PNC YMCA.

“Every semester, I try to freshen it up a bit,” Capo said. “If there are some organizations that I feel the information isn’t as relevant for the students at that point, we’ll kind of switch things up and I’ll be looking for new organizations to bring in.”

Capo hopes that the fair will provide students with useful information about their physical and mental health.

“I think with a little bit of information related to preventative care and safer practices, that they can avoid some of those health and mental health pitfalls,” Capo said.

Senior dance major Alison Geroche helped to organize the wellness fair.

“I think it’s a stress reliever for students just to have this big, joyful event happening,” Geroche said.