{"id":19314,"date":"2020-04-01T09:45:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T16:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19314"},"modified":"2020-04-01T09:59:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T16:59:14","slug":"finding-calm-during-storms-how-camosun-students-deal-with-stress-and-how-the-college-helps-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/04\/01\/finding-calm-during-storms-how-camosun-students-deal-with-stress-and-how-the-college-helps-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding calm during storms: How Camosun students deal with stress, and how the college helps them"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Note: This story was written before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit Victoria.]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being a post-secondary student\u2014or at least a somewhat successful one\u2014requires a great level of commitment. If it\u2019s not dealing with due dates it\u2019s bigger-picture academic goals, such as maintaining a favourable GPA so you can get bursaries or be able to get into other programs. Being stressed out isn\u2019t a mandatory requirement that all college students need to fulfil in order to say they\u2019ve had a thorough post-secondary experience. However, stress and mental-health issues such as anxiety are common among post-secondary students, especially at the end of an academic term, which is where we\u2019re at now.<\/p>\n

Academic responsibilities can trigger undesirable stress levels, but simply keeping it all together, both in and out of school, can be overwhelming. Some skills are certainly required to keep mentally healthy while balancing studies with other life duties. There\u2019s, for example, working while studying, engaging in volunteering activities, tackling house chores, and taking care of children, not to mention self-care and nurturing a social life, which are also really important and often end up neglected amidst so many other things to do.<\/p>\n

Acquiring skills such as time management looks good on a resume and is very useful in a lot of different jobs. Adaptation is also a very useful skill, and it\u2019s commonly learned by international students as they need to overcome language and cultural barriers, along with the high costs of living and studying abroad. Even if a student has moved from another province in the same country there are many aspects of settling in that can require time and dedication.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting how many students can look back to their first semesters at a post-secondary institution and realize how they have learned from experience. They develop different personal strategies, and everyone has preferences on which tactics work best to succeed in this chapter of their life. Nonetheless, many of them may only have been able to do so with a little help from friends, family, and student services at the college.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The wellbeing of students is a concern largely shared by post-secondary institutions and their student societies. At Camosun College, there are a wide variety of services available, ranging from writing centres to counselling, not to mention visits from therapy dogs on campus. However, while some students may very well know about the services that are offered by the college, others are not exactly aware and may not know how they could access them.<\/p>\n

Camosun vice president of student experience Heather Cummings recognizes that it\u2019s challenging to make sure that most of the students are aware of the kind of services that are available at the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re communicating with students but not everybody is listening and part of that is student readiness,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cYou really aren\u2019t paying attention to a service that you can\u2019t imagine using until you actually need to use it and at that point you\u2019d forgotten about it, you don\u2019t know, you didn\u2019t pay attention, and now you\u2019re seeking that information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A scene from a previous year\u2019s DeStress Fest, put on by the Camosun College Student Society (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cummings acknowledges that the middle and the end of the semester are particularly stressful times for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we plan our services models we try to make sure that we\u2019ve got people available at those busier times of the year so that we can meet students sooner than later,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cWe also do a lot with\u2014or try to do a little bit more with\u2014respect to our partnerships with the [Camosun College] Student Society and doing some sort of proactive programming, like we had the therapy dogs on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings also mentions the kind of messaging the college tries to send out to students encouraging them to take care of themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes down to the basics\u2014make sure you\u2019ve got enough sleep, make sure you\u2019re eating well and getting some exercise,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cThose are critical and then reach out for help if you need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brendan Folkerts is a first-year Sport Management student at Camosun College who has to balance studies with his duties playing on the Camosun Chargers men\u2019s volleyball team.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Stress] would definitely come if I didn\u2019t stay on top of myself,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cSo, honestly, just throughout the year I had to get better at time management because the worse I was at it, the worse my stress was, and that affected everything\u2026 my studies, and volleyball, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year Marketing student Selena Puglas\u2019 way of dealing with stress also largely comes down to how she manages her time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work two jobs and I go to school full-time so I just kind of manage my time accordingly,\u201d says Puglas. \u201cYeah, I would definitely say time management is a huge thing and just getting proper sleep and eating properly, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year Mechanical Engineering Bridge student Edward Archer has a personal approach to dealing with stress as a college student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try and prep in advance, so I do a lot of meal prep or anxiety baking,\u201d says Archer. \u201cSometimes I talk to friends and I do a lot of working out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year Accounting student Katerina Hamann has been experimenting with different study loads.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strategy dealing with tons of stress is basically to take fewer courses,\u201d says Hamann. \u201cSo I\u2019ve been going part-time for two out of four semesters that I\u2019ve been in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

To improve his chances of success in both aspects of his post-secondary education experience, Folkerts has identified what works best for him and developed a couple of tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to do homework I\u2019d get out of my house because there\u2019s lots more distractions at my house,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cAnd then I\u2019d also try to kind of schedule out my day, so just in a notebook I\u2019d try to make a plan of attack in the morning on how to best take advantage of the day. It\u2019s not always perfect but at least if I have a plan of attack it\u2019s usually better than if I don\u2019t have a plan of attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folkerts had taken a few years off from school before starting at Camosun; he learned a lot of strategies from friends and family on how to cope with stress as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m actually in a program I\u2019m actually interested in, so that combined with the strategies and actually having the motivation and discipline to implement them I would say that\u2019s kind of the biggest thing,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cAnd then the more you kind of force yourself to do it, the easier it becomes and the more consistent you are with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puglas\u2019 experience as a student was not always stress-free; she learned how to overcome this kind of issue as she advanced in her program.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, when I first started I think I was kind of learning how to manage my time effectively,\u201d says Puglas. \u201cI did a lot of late nights because I would leave things to the last minute, you know, and now I just know that if I study progressively and consistently that I have more chances of succeeding in my studies and not being so stressed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puglas acknowledges that there are some other students who are probably not being successful with their time management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t lie\u2014a lot of my girlfriends will leave things to the last minute and I\u2019m like, \u2018If you just study 30 minutes or 45 minutes every day for each class,\u2019 you know what I mean?\u201d says Puglas. \u201cWhen it comes down to the end, like when exams and finals and stuff are approaching, you\u2019re not going to be as stressed out because you\u2019re going to know the material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides time management, Puglas says that going to classes actually helps for lowering stress levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttending all your classes would probably be a big one as well because if you miss classes you\u2019re losing content,\u201d says Puglas. \u201cAnd also I feel using a lot of the resources that Camosun offers, like with the free tutors and seeing your teachers when you have questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coping with stress is a skill that Archer believes to be transferrable between school and work environments. He\u2019s had jobs he found stressful and had to deal with them, and he encourages students to not keep things bottled up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about it with someone,\u201d says Archer. \u201cIt\u2019s not shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Praising the commitment of the student services team at Camosun, Cummings believes that services are already good but are going to get a lot better this year and students are going to see the benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are in good hands, people care about our students,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cNo student should be struggling on their own, there\u2019s a community here to support them and that\u2019s the only message I can possibly say: \u2018Please reach out to somebody.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says that a number of recommendations have been made after a recent third-party operational review of the college\u2019s services; the team is taking those into consideration as well as the newly approved Student Services fee to enhance services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to hire some additional people but it\u2019s not just about having extra people,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cIt\u2019s also about working smarter and making sure that we are spending the time on the most value-added experiences for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting upon the well-being services currently available at Camosun, Hamann quickly remembers one she would like to benefit from.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely therapy dogs. I have yet to go but I\u2019m looking forward to cuddling with dogs,\u201d says Hamann. \u201cWhen I go home, I have an old dog, you know, they\u2019re always so friendly and they always make my day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folkerts is amused by the idea of therapy dogs on campus and plans on checking them out too, but the college service he highlights the most is the academic assistance from the Writing Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the main things, if I have a paper\u2026 I can get a little stressed out and anxious about it if I\u2019m not sure if all my citations and everything is proper,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cSo if I get that taken care of and then I can get them to check it out then that definitely helps a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially in regards to accounting, Folkerts appreciates the help provided by tutors as another valuable service at the college.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking advantage of the resources helps everything,\u201d says Folkert. \u201cBut, again, it goes back to time management, where if you don\u2019t give yourself enough time to seek out that help and you\u2019re only working on that assignment the night before, you\u2019re not helping anybody, definitely not yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Puglas has benefited from free tutoring in courses like accounting and finance. She regrets that there are no tutors for Economics at the moment but values the Economics teachers\u2019 proactivity in helping the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the teachers are on board,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I\u2019ve been doing that\u2026 I definitely find it really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archer says he sometimes he sees a counsellor at the college; he mentions he did when his father was sick.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad had cancer recently,\u201d says Archer, adding that the services at Camosun helped with that. \u201cIt was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamann\u2019s preference for part-time studies relates to the particular support she has been receiving from the college in regards to her learning experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) student,\u201d says Hamann. \u201cSo I\u2019m granted double time to complete tests and exams, so I prefer to get to know each subject better as opposed to rushing through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamann finds the CAL very helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn high school I was part of learning resources, which is similar,\u201d says Hamann. \u201cAnd I was always given double time since I was in Grade 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academic advising is another service that Hamann has used at the college, and she has good things to say about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some great people over there [Academic Advising] who help you plan your years of study at Camosun, how many courses to take, what\u2019s your best fit, what can you expect from the course load as you increase,\u201d says Hamann.<\/p>\n

Puglas also evaluates Academic Advising at Camosun in a positive way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have used the academic advisor and I found her very helpful,\u201d says Puglas. \u201cShe definitely led me towards what it is that I wanted to do with marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folkerts says he had heard about the Writing Centre through his classes at the beginning of the year and appreciates that Camosun staff helps spread the word about this kind of services.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty good because any prof or librarian you talk to can tell you where to go for that,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cSo they do a good job mentioning it and then you just need to do a little bit of work for yourself to figure out where to go and set up a time, so I\u2019d say the school staff has been pretty helpful with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even aware that some information about services are posted around the school, Puglas sees potential for improvement on letting students know what is available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know because my teachers have told me, but I do know a lot of my friends that have taken other classes didn\u2019t know about the services because they were never told so,\u201d says Puglas. \u201cI feel like a lot of people don\u2019t know how to look online on the Camosun website, you know what I mean? So probably just showcasing it a little bit more on the school or having teachers talk about it would probably be a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Cummings, students receive standard communication notably through email messages, but information is also provided at CamFest, on Camosun\u2019s website, and through materials handed out with registration packages. Also, she says that instructors play a key role in referring students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critical for us to have our faculty, our instructing partners, because most times our students\u2019 experience with the college is what\u2019s going on in the classroom,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cSo when an instructor lets them know about the services, that helps the students find their way to ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says that, even though it is hard to get to every instructor at the college, the leadership team participates in faculty training and attends program meetings to try to improve communication about services for students who are struggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of connecting people to get some more information and then once one person knows, of course they share that information and more people know,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cThe value of word of mouth can never be undervalued, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archer mentions that he heard about the counselling services by seeing a poster around campus; he says he didn\u2019t have to wait long to book appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst time I didn\u2019t get in, second time I did because I just came in early in the morning and then got in for one of the quick sessions,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cAnd then I did two\u2014like one in one week and one in the week after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings explains that a new service delivery model for counselling services was piloted this semester with really positive results at the Interurban campus; she says the team will be meeting to expand it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent of our students who have sought that support have been able to be seen by somebody within five days; two-thirds of them are able to be seen in the same day,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cSo that already is a dramatic improvement, and that was a pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year, for the first time, Camosun students have been invited to take the Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey (CCWS) which is an initiative launched last fall in a small number of campuses and recently implemented at post-secondary institutions across British Columbia.<\/p>\n

Even though Folkerts admits to having only glanced at a Camosun email about the that, he finds great value in this kind of approach to students, especially students who might be dealing with mental-health issues but have not yet reached out for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in a place where I was really struggling in it\u2014because [at] times I\u2019ve dealt with quite a bit of anxiety\u2014then maybe I\u2019d read through that whole email then take advantage of that kind of stuff,\u201d says Folkerts. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s good because if you\u2019re somebody that needs it, it can be a reminder of what\u2019s available and then whoever needs it will read through the whole thing and take advantage of it, so, it\u2019s definitely good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says she is really interested to see what the results will be and to work on them with the leadership team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny information that we can learn from our students about their well-being at their experience at the institution is valuable information for us,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cWe\u2019re always participating in a sort of a series of process improvements\u2014\u2018How do we improve our services for students? How do we improve our communications?\u2019 We\u2019re always trying to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the CCWS, Cummings mentions that Camosun does a Student Experience Survey every year to all students, which gives them a chance to express to the college their perception of the services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask them for their experiences at the institution and their experience with our service areas and we leave a section at the end for just written comments. That\u2019s a great place for students just to say, \u2018Here\u2019s my experience, here\u2019s my recommendation, here\u2019s my idea,\u2019\u201d says Cummings. \u201cWe read those and, again, we use that information to look at our service delivery models on how we can make tweaks here and there to better enhance them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings says that students are also always welcome to provide feedback to the service providers directly, and that\u2019s also a great way to provide information to the college.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The service providers] want to do a good job, they want students to be happy with the service,\u201d says Cummings. \u201cSo if they\u2019re hearing the same criticism or concern being raised over and over again, that team is talking about it and saying, \u2018We\u2019re hearing this, we need to adjust it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s encouraging to see the college opening up more channels of communication with students and dedicating time to improving student services. Hopefully this will bring benefits to the whole college community and more students will become successful in dealing with stressful times throughout their post-secondary experience.<\/p>\n

Still, communicating the available services to students requires a continuous effort. For different reasons, students may not always be used to reaching out to this kind of assistance, and that\u2019s when institutional communication comes into play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Note: This story was written before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit Victoria.] Being a post-secondary student\u2014or at least a somewhat successful one\u2014requires a great level of commitment. If it\u2019s not dealing with due dates it\u2019s bigger-picture academic goals, such as maintaining a favourable GPA so you can get bursaries or be able to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19315,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19314\/revisions\/19315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}