I had a dream….

To start the largest college fitness movement across the US.

But seriously, I did.

If you’re reading this article, let me start out by saying THANK YOU!  This website you’re on – with articles written by college students across the country – started out as a little blog I started my sophomore year in college (2013) at Northeastern University. I started my blog in the middle of a blizzard when I realized I had been sitting on my couch for literally ten hours straight and I told myself to “get up and do something.” So I did. I called the blog Fit University (with help from my big – shout out to Katie), with the goal to help college students realize that it’s not that hard to stay fit in college.

My senior year, I started a fitness club on campus. Sure, there was the running club, group fitness and the gym but there wasn’t anything on campus about living a healthy lifestyle and having a community surrounding that healthy lifestyle – you are who you surround yourself with, right? I wanted to start that community on campus. So I did. I called the club Fit NU.

My senior year was also the time I came up with the idea to have Fit University Ambassadors. If I was a healthy college student looking to motivate others, there had to be others out there with me right? I wanted to start the Fit University Ambassador program to have these students write articles on the blog and share how they lived a healthy lifestyle while in school. So I did. A fellow Northeasterner was the first ever Fit University Ambassador – shout out to Abby!

As I got closer to graduation, I realized that this Fit University thing was really starting to turn into something, and that if it could work at Northeastern, why couldn’t it work at other schools? The answer was: it could.

And it is.

Exactly one year ago, there was one Fit University chapter – Fit NU. There were 15 Fit University Ambassadors.

Today, there are 7 Fit University chapters launched and another 7 launching this upcoming semester. Today, there are a combined 90 Fit University Ambassadors & Chapter Leaders.

Here’s how that makes me feel:

It’s so easy to get caught up in what our day to day lives and forget how far we’ve come, isn’t it?

So as I look back at this past year, it’s pretty amazing to see how far Fit University has come in just 12 months. And it’s all thanks to our incredible ambassadors, chapter leaders, and rest of the Fit University community: YOU! Each article written & shared, each Instagram post tagged , each flexing picture taken (our signature move) has helped Fit University grow in ways I couldn’t have even dreamed of a year ago.

So I’ll say it again, THANK YOU!

When I started Fit NU, I had zero expectations of spreading to different schools. So when the second chapter was launched at Boston University, it was only natural that we called it Fit BU. As we started to expand, we gave chapters their name based on their school… Fit BC, Fit UConn, and so on. But in an effort to create a cohesive community of fit & healthy students across the country, all chapters will now be known as simply, Fit University. That way our chapter down at The University of Florida will feel connected to our chapter at Iowa State University (ohh yeaaah!). With this name change, we’re introducing a newly colored logo…one that displays the bright, bold and kick ass community we have.

This bright, bold and kick ass community is just getting started. You can expect Fit University at every college across the country.

So what’s changed in the past year? What’s this #transformationtuesday really all about?

– We’ve grown from 1 chapter to 14.

– We’ve grown from 15 ambassadors to 90.

– We’ve grown from a team of 1 to a team of 5: Amanda (chapter coordinator), Nina (ambassador coordinator), Holly (editor-in-chief) & Christina. These girls make Fit University run 1000x better than when I was handling things on my own.

– All chapters are now known as Fit University.

– Our logo has been updated by the talented Joe Brottman (also a fellow husky!)

But what hasn’t changed is the amazing, inspiring community of fit & healthy students that have come to be Fit University. I could not be more grateful to have them and YOU building this community across the country. 

Stay fit,
Sarah

PS: Watch this.