Francis Marion University blends yoga, tutoring, and stress relief for students

More than 30 Francis Marion University students turned the Honors Center into a pre-finals support space on April 16, where yoga sat alongside tutoring, professors, snacks and even chair-side massage as part of a 4 to 7 p.m. Study Sesh.

The setup was practical from the start. The Office of Student Life and the Campus Activities Board organized the event to help students manage stress as spring exams neared, with evening finals scheduled for April 29 and 30. Instead of asking students to choose between studying and decompressing, FMU put both in the same room, turning the Honors Center into a place where academic help and stress relief worked in tandem.

That made the yoga segment more than a wellness add-on. Rosemary Flamini, a 2024 FMU alum, led the yoga portion and framed it around the value of taking breaks. Her session fit into an event built for students who needed a reset without leaving campus or giving up study time. Around the room, students could also stop by tutors and professors for academic support, grab snacks and refreshments, sit for a massage from a local masseuse, or break up the grind with coloring sheets.

Dominik Khilji, a Student Life specialist, pointed to the collaboration behind the event and the message it sent: students do not have to handle exam pressure alone. That idea lined up with the services FMU already advertises through Student Health Services and the Testing, Counseling, and Special Services Center, which lists stress management, anxiety and academic difficulties among the issues it addresses. The university also says many students work before, between and after classes, which makes short, low-barrier programming especially relevant when finals hit.

The event also fit FMU’s wider campus wellness structure. The university describes the Smith University Center as the heart of campus life and a hub for recreation and student activity, and it offers PE 220, Yoga for Beginners, with an emphasis on Hatha yoga, breathing and meditation in everyday life. In Florence, the message from this Study Sesh was clear: yoga worked best here not as a standalone performance of wellness, but as one useful tool inside a larger system built to help students stay steady when exams arrive.