It’s no secret that schoolwork is stressful. For some, it can add a huge, overwhelming load of work to do on top of an already overloaded life; this could lead to stress, skipping work, or even worse.
That’s why the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) puts on the DeStress Fest.
The event offers students a way to unwind on campus and also teaches them techniques they can use in their everyday lives to ease their minds a little.
CCSS outreach coordinator Quinn Park says that the event is now annual and this year should look similar to years past.
“[DeStress Fest is] something that the society likes to host, as it allows us to give some powerful tools to students for helping to cope with the everyday stresses of being a student. Some of those tools might be mindfulness activities, expert advice, and some are more fun things like playing with dogs or popping bubble wrap. Since it’s a student society event, we can’t not bring food, too, so there will be that,” says Park. “This year will be no different—we’re hoping to get some tai chi, some yoga instructors in, some therapy dogs, and we are also bringing in a climbing wall.”
Camosun counsellor Chris Balmer is one of the external resources the CCSS consults for DeStress Fest; he says that the event gives the college an opportunity to show that student mental well-being provides a direct link to academic success.
“I think it’s important to have an event like this because the college needs to step up, recognize, and provide physical examples and evidence that student well-being matters and that student well-being is intricately connected to academic progress and success,” says Balmer. “There’s sometimes a lot of talk about self care, care for the caregiver, and looking after yourself, but, in reality, what students often experience is that that’s all well and good to say, but they don’t have time or space for that, due to so many out-of-school commitments like work, family, and friends. Typically, students don’t maintain themselves as a top priority when it comes to taking care of people. It’s often taking care of other people first and themselves last, or never.”
Park says that holding the DeStress Fest is just one way for the CCSS to do its part in helping students to maintain their mental health. He notes that staff limitations prevent the CCSS from holding the fest at both campuses.
“Students are under a big squeeze of pressure, and it’s one of the purposes of the student society to help students cope with those stresses. So if one of those ways is DeStress Fest, then we will keep having DeStress Fest,” says Park. “The biggest thing that’s different this year is that the event is at Lansdowne instead of Interurban. We switch events back and forth to get campus parity, so our sustainability [event] is at Interurban this year. It’s mostly the nature of the beast that prevents us from having DeStress Fest at both campuses. We’d have to ship all the items, get all our folks to the other campus, and DeStress Fest is mainly an ‘all hands on deck’ event, so we’d have to reduce some our front-line services that we offer to students, and that’s not good for students, when they can’t access health and mental programs.”
DeStress Fest
10 am to 2 pm, Wednesday, April 4
Lansdowne campus, Camosun College
camosunstudent.org