Criteria for The Art of Wellness-Teacher Scholarship

To begin, prospective recipients must understand who we are.

Welcome to The Art of Wellness.  Our goal is to provide you with a completely different kind of experience from what traditional medical practices provide.  You are not a number here.  Your physician won’t spend more time doing paperwork than seeing you.  We want to make you a life-long patient and to help you reach your wellness goals. Our focus is not disease management, rather prevention and lifestyle management.  We want  you to live a healthier, longer and better quality of life, whether you are generally well or have illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease.

We offer you longer visits with the physician and a team-approach to develop and support you in your wellness program.  Dr. Fry is a board-certified family physician.  She will spend more time with you than in the traditional practice setting,  in order to find out what kinds of needs and goals you have.  Dr. Fry most enjoys teaching patients and welcomes the learning opportunities that will come from patients in this new kind of practice setting.   Dr. Fry will coordinate care with all The Art of Wellness team.   Easy access and frequent communication with Dr. Fry will facilitate the care provided by The Art of Wellness team members.  This will give the patient an advantage over trying to coordinate the care in multiple settings – the gym,  the doctor and the nutritionist office.

We have personal trainers who will evaluate your fitness level, design an individual fitness program and support you in your exercise efforts.  They will perform reassessments of your progress and help you make changes as necessary.  We also have fitness classes available if you prefer exercise in a group setting.

Our nutritionist will meet with you and evaluate your current nutritional status.  She will then work with you to develop realistic goals and menus, whether you are choosing to eat healthier or manage your weight. See our website for regular menus and nutrition tips.

The Art of Wellness is also an educational center and will offer a variety of programs, including weight management seminars, smoking cessation programs, and health- and wellness related topics by other wellness providers.  Community outreach will also be a part of the goal of The Art of Wellness. Our team will participate in community events and health fairs.

Do you still need your primary care physician?  Yes.  Although Dr. Fry has worked as a primary care physician in the past, her current practice and services are different than what a primary care physician provides.   She will work in coordination with your primary care physician, or other physicians, as needed.  Our services are meant to complement those services.  You will still need your primary care physician for most medication refills, referrals, sick care, pain management, after-hours, and hospital  care.  The Art of Wellness does not take phone calls after hours or on weekends.

We at the Art of Wellness are excited to offer this new approach to health care.  We are anxious to help you in your journey to achieve a healthier life.  We will be honored if you share your experience here with us with your family and friends.  Please feel free to ask any team members for more information on The Art of Wellness.

Now that you have an understanding of who we are, here is what we would like to do for you. We feel that teachers are among the most valuable people in our community. Our children are in your hands every day. We would like to reward you with the gift of health, longevity and total wellness. To do that we have set up a scholarship that will be awarded to one lucky teacher.

The criteria for the teacher will be as follows:

  1. Must be currently teaching in the Gilbert Public School system.
  2. Currently certified to and be teaching at the elementary level.
  3. This teacher cannot be in an administrative role such as Principal.
  4. The teacher must either be nominated by a peer or self-nominated.
  5. To qualify, the self-nominated teacher must submit a 500+ word essay explaining why he/she deserves this scholarship of total wellness.
  6. To nominate a peer, the same essay must be written by the nominator.
  7. The nominated person will then have to write a second essay of his/her own to continue in the vetting process.
  8. The essays will be evaluated by our scholarship board and 5 finalists will be chosen after spring break 2008.
  9. Any person nominated and in the final five will have to sign a document committing to a lifestyle change and be willing to actively participate in the services for one full year. This will qualify them for the final contest.
  10. The board will invite all 5 finalists to The Art of Wellness for a one-on-one interview with the board.
  11. A winner will be chosen and announced at a special event (Date TBD).
  12. Additionally, this winner will be interviewed and have publically published progress reports to the community