HeathlySTATE World Tour, a program designed to motivate students to be more active by awarding with incentives, kicked off this semester.

Stephanie Sobol, director of Health Promotion for the University, said she was excited about the HealthySTATE World Tour getting started.  

The tour, which kicked off Jan. 12, is an incentive program that allows

students to earn prizes for logging their activities and getting active.

The tour starts in Europe and students will “travel” to each continent by the time it is finished.

Students and faculty log their activities online and receive “miles”  for each minute they work out. The goal is to accumulate the number of “miles” needed to “travel” Europe over the course of the semester.

The tour is a online log book that allows students and faculty to log their

activities and receive incentives, Sobol said.  

She also said that after registering people will receive bi-weekly e-mails with recipes and tips to be healthier and more active.

Some of the prizes offered through the program are gift cards to Dick’s Sporting Goods, Board Bucks from University Dining, and massages.  

The Web site lists activities that will earn “miles”.  Some of the activities listed include yard work, Wii Fit, and sailing.

Sobol said Student Government is trying to have competitions arranged between student groups and Residence Halls to promote health.

Sobol said one goal is to set up the program to be more interactive so

students can challenge their friends to races.

Sobol said that since the kickoff of the HealthySTATE World Tour, about 185 students have already registered online.  

“The goal is to get our campus to move more and be healthy,” she said.

Olivia Davis, a freshman in engineering, said she was unaware of the

HealthySTATE program.

She said she would probably register, but she was not sure if she would remember to log her activities online throughout the semester.

“I would probably do it for sure the first few weeks,” Davis said.  

She said it would be easier to follow through with the program if it had more concrete guidelines.

The program requires students to login to the Web site and register information each time.

Joe Hackler, a freshman in engineering, agreed with Davis that the program would be hard to follow through with after the first few weeks.

“I would forget to log everything,” Hackler said.

He said the program is a good idea, but said it would be a hassle to remember to log workouts and activities.

The incentives will draw more people, Davis said.  

“Free stuff is always a good way to motivate people, especially college students,” Davis said.

To register for the tour, visit the Web site at www.ncsu.edu/housing/healthystate.