Stepping Stones

Over the summer, my cousin Kelly, who attends grad school at Boston University, told me about an awesome campaign called "Take the Stairs".  The Boston Public Health Commission initiated this campaign to motivate people to choose the stairs over the elevator. As a part of the campaign, they painted murals on the stairwell walls to enhance its appearance and attract people to the stairs. I thought this idea was ingenious!

My senior research project was based off of this same principal. I investigated how positive and negative images influenced food choice decision making. There was a positive correlation between healthy food choices and positive images . This concept of manipulating environments to create a change is often used.  In

[caption id="attachment_111" align="alignleft" width="300"] Piano Staircase found in Odenplan, Stockholm.[/caption]

Odenplan, Stockholm a team of industrial designers transformed a bus station stair case into an interactive piano staircase (click to watch the Piano Staircase video!). As a result, 66% of people chose the stairs over the elevator. Why? Because it was FUN!

This is my goal. I want to make taking the stairs a fun thing to do! The KSU Central Parking Deck is the second largest parking deck in the state of Georgia, besides the parking deck at Hartsfield  Jackson International Airport.

[caption id="attachment_112" align="alignright" width="270"] Kennesaw State University Central Parking Deck.
6,362 parking spaces.[/caption]

For my KSU 1121: Be the Change class, I would like to make it my project to bring the Take the Stairs campaign to campus. My vision is to get the KSU Art majors to volunteer to paint murals on the stairwell walls. I think that Kennesaw State University is a great place to start a wellness campaign. This is a fun way to get students moving and in the process, solve the many maintenance issues the elevators incur!

So far  I have contacted the people necessary to help me get this going. Unfortunately, I have yet to receive any responses. As soon as I do, though, I will be well on my way--(or not, but I don't want any negative vibes!) As you can probably tell, I'm very passionate about this project and I want to keep you guys up to date on my progress, live time!

Climb on!