[Note: This story was written before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit Victoria.]
Being a post-secondary student—or at least a somewhat successful one—requires a great level of commitment. If it’s not dealing with due dates it’s 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’t a mandatory requirement that all college students need to fulfil in order to say they’ve 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’re at now.
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’s, 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.
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’s 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.
It’s 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.
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.
Camosun vice president of student experience Heather Cummings recognizes that it’s challenging to make sure that most of the students are aware of the kind of services that are available at the college.
“You’re communicating with students but not everybody is listening and part of that is student readiness,” says Cummings. “You really aren’t paying attention to a service that you can’t imagine using until you actually need to use it and at that point you’d forgotten about it, you don’t know, you didn’t pay attention, and now you’re seeking that information.”
Cummings acknowledges that the middle and the end of the semester are particularly stressful times for students.
“When we plan our services models we try to make sure that we’ve got people available at those busier times of the year so that we can meet students sooner than later,” says Cummings. “We also do a lot with—or try to do a little bit more with—respect to our partnerships with the [Camosun College] Student Society and doing some sort of proactive programming, like we had the therapy dogs on campus.”
Cummings also mentions the kind of messaging the college tries to send out to students encouraging them to take care of themselves.
“It comes down to the basics—make sure you’ve got enough sleep, make sure you’re eating well and getting some exercise,” says Cummings. “Those are critical and then reach out for help if you need it.”
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’s volleyball team.
“[Stress] would definitely come if I didn’t stay on top of myself,” says Folkerts. “So, 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… my studies, and volleyball, as well.”
Second-year Marketing student Selena Puglas’ way of dealing with stress also largely comes down to how she manages her time.
“I work two jobs and I go to school full-time so I just kind of manage my time accordingly,” says Puglas. “Yeah, I would definitely say time management is a huge thing and just getting proper sleep and eating properly, as well.”
First-year Mechanical Engineering Bridge student Edward Archer has a personal approach to dealing with stress as a college student.
“I try and prep in advance, so I do a lot of meal prep or anxiety baking,” says Archer. “Sometimes I talk to friends and I do a lot of working out.”
Second-year Accounting student Katerina Hamann has been experimenting with different study loads.
“My strategy dealing with tons of stress is basically to take fewer courses,” says Hamann. “So I’ve been going part-time for two out of four semesters that I’ve been in college.”
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.
“If I had to do homework I’d get out of my house because there’s lots more distractions at my house,” says Folkerts. “And then I’d also try to kind of schedule out my day, so just in a notebook I’d try to make a plan of attack in the morning on how to best take advantage of the day. It’s not always perfect but at least if I have a plan of attack it’s usually better than if I don’t have a plan of attack.”
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.
“Now I’m actually in a program I’m actually interested in, so that combined with the strategies and actually having the motivation and discipline to implement them I would say that’s kind of the biggest thing,” says Folkerts. “And then the more you kind of force yourself to do it, the easier it becomes and the more consistent you are with it.”
Puglas’ experience as a student was not always stress-free; she learned how to overcome this kind of issue as she advanced in her program.
“Honestly, when I first started I think I was kind of learning how to manage my time effectively,” says Puglas. “I 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.”
Puglas acknowledges that there are some other students who are probably not being successful with their time management.
“I won’t lie—a lot of my girlfriends will leave things to the last minute and I’m like, ‘If you just study 30 minutes or 45 minutes every day for each class,’ you know what I mean?” says Puglas. “When it comes down to the end, like when exams and finals and stuff are approaching, you’re not going to be as stressed out because you’re going to know the material.”
Besides time management, Puglas says that going to classes actually helps for lowering stress levels.
“Attending all your classes would probably be a big one as well because if you miss classes you’re losing content,” says Puglas. “And 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.”
Coping with stress is a skill that Archer believes to be transferrable between school and work environments. He’s had jobs he found stressful and had to deal with them, and he encourages students to not keep things bottled up.
“Talk about it with someone,” says Archer. “It’s not shameful.”
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.
“The students are in good hands, people care about our students,” says Cummings. “No student should be struggling on their own, there’s a community here to support them and that’s the only message I can possibly say: ‘Please reach out to somebody.’”
Cummings says that a number of recommendations have been made after a recent third-party operational review of the college’s services; the team is taking those into consideration as well as the newly approved Student Services fee to enhance services.
“We’re hoping to hire some additional people but it’s not just about having extra people,” says Cummings. “It’s also about working smarter and making sure that we are spending the time on the most value-added experiences for students.”
Reflecting upon the well-being services currently available at Camosun, Hamann quickly remembers one she would like to benefit from.
“Definitely therapy dogs. I have yet to go but I’m looking forward to cuddling with dogs,” says Hamann. “When I go home, I have an old dog, you know, they’re always so friendly and they always make my day.”
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.
“That’s probably one of the main things, if I have a paper… I can get a little stressed out and anxious about it if I’m not sure if all my citations and everything is proper,” says Folkerts. “So if I get that taken care of and then I can get them to check it out then that definitely helps a lot.”
Especially in regards to accounting, Folkerts appreciates the help provided by tutors as another valuable service at the college.
“Taking advantage of the resources helps everything,” says Folkert. “But, again, it goes back to time management, where if you don’t give yourself enough time to seek out that help and you’re only working on that assignment the night before, you’re not helping anybody, definitely not yourself.”
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’ proactivity in helping the students.
“All the teachers are on board,” she says. “So I’ve been doing that… I definitely find it really helpful.”
Archer says he sometimes he sees a counsellor at the college; he mentions he did when his father was sick.
“My dad had cancer recently,” says Archer, adding that the services at Camosun helped with that. “It was tough.”
Hamann’s preference for part-time studies relates to the particular support she has been receiving from the college in regards to her learning experience.
“I’m a Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) student,” says Hamann. “So I’m granted double time to complete tests and exams, so I prefer to get to know each subject better as opposed to rushing through it.”
Hamann finds the CAL very helpful.
“In high school I was part of learning resources, which is similar,” says Hamann. “And I was always given double time since I was in Grade 7.”
Academic advising is another service that Hamann has used at the college, and she has good things to say about it.
“There’s some great people over there [Academic Advising] who help you plan your years of study at Camosun, how many courses to take, what’s your best fit, what can you expect from the course load as you increase,” says Hamann.
Puglas also evaluates Academic Advising at Camosun in a positive way.
“I have used the academic advisor and I found her very helpful,” says Puglas. “She definitely led me towards what it is that I wanted to do with marketing.”
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.
“I think it’s pretty good because any prof or librarian you talk to can tell you where to go for that,” says Folkerts. “So 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’d say the school staff has been pretty helpful with that.”
Even aware that some information about services are posted around the school, Puglas sees potential for improvement on letting students know what is available.
“I just know because my teachers have told me, but I do know a lot of my friends that have taken other classes didn’t know about the services because they were never told so,” says Puglas. “I feel like a lot of people don’t 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.”
According to Cummings, students receive standard communication notably through email messages, but information is also provided at CamFest, on Camosun’s website, and through materials handed out with registration packages. Also, she says that instructors play a key role in referring students.
“It’s critical for us to have our faculty, our instructing partners, because most times our students’ experience with the college is what’s going on in the classroom,” says Cummings. “So when an instructor lets them know about the services, that helps the students find their way to ask.”
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.
“It’s 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,” says Cummings. “The value of word of mouth can never be undervalued, it’s amazing.”
Archer mentions that he heard about the counselling services by seeing a poster around campus; he says he didn’t have to wait long to book appointments.
“First time I didn’t 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,” says Folkerts. “And then I did two—like one in one week and one in the week after.”
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.
“One 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,” says Cummings. “So that already is a dramatic improvement, and that was a pilot.”
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.
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.
“If I was in a place where I was really struggling in it—because [at] times I’ve dealt with quite a bit of anxiety—then maybe I’d read through that whole email then take advantage of that kind of stuff,” says Folkerts. “So I think it’s good because if you’re somebody that needs it, it can be a reminder of what’s available and then whoever needs it will read through the whole thing and take advantage of it, so, it’s definitely good.”
Cummings says she is really interested to see what the results will be and to work on them with the leadership team.
“Any information that we can learn from our students about their well-being at their experience at the institution is valuable information for us,” says Cummings. “We’re always participating in a sort of a series of process improvements—‘How do we improve our services for students? How do we improve our communications?’ We’re always trying to be better.”
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.
“We 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’s a great place for students just to say, ‘Here’s my experience, here’s my recommendation, here’s my idea,’” says Cummings. “We 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.”
Cummings says that students are also always welcome to provide feedback to the service providers directly, and that’s also a great way to provide information to the college.
“[The service providers] want to do a good job, they want students to be happy with the service,” says Cummings. “So if they’re hearing the same criticism or concern being raised over and over again, that team is talking about it and saying, ‘We’re hearing this, we need to adjust it.’”
It’s 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.
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’s when institutional communication comes into play.