On Monday night, the SRU Counseling Center held a virtual wellness event titled “Getting the Most Out of Your Online Semester.” This is a first in the Wellness Series Event that was created by Counselor Megg Spierto. This virtual event allowed for students to discuss a few topics to help students during this semester of online learning.
This forum also allowed for students to share input, interact and discuss these strategies with peers. This, along with future events, are free to students and held on Zoom.
When asked the goal of this event, Dr. John Mathe, counselor at Slippery Rock University, said, “When we sat down and talked, from our point of view, we thought what are things that we can do to kind of get ahead of this right away, prepare and get ready for a semester that may be stressful because things are different.”
The event was broken up into the three categories: time management, stress management and burnout prevention. Spierto decided on these three topics because they were the most popular topics that resonated from students and staff going into this semester.
“We were really hearing from students that this is still going on and it is just something that has been, I think, exhausting for a lot of people, us included,” Spierto said.
The event focused on strategies, advice and campus resources that are provided to students at SRU. The counselors shared insight of their best advice for handling this virtual semester.
“The first thing that comes to mind for me is the idea of going easy on yourself, giving yourself a lot of grace and time, and not expecting too much of yourself. Something that I tell my students is that it has taken a lot of energy for us to adapt to this new situation and then on top of that to expect ourselves to really excel in this time. It is okay but putting that much pressure on yourself is not necessary,” Spierto said.
The Wellness Series will continue with three more events. The next event will be February 15th, “Boundaries and Managing Relationships.” Other events in this series will be “Wellness Series: Spring Break and Mindfulness Yoga.” All events and information will be listed on CORE.
Earl Coburn, another counselor at SRU, spoke of his advice to students this semester.
“I think it is so easy to get overwhelmed, it’s so easy to, you know, really be stressed out,” Coburn said. “But just take a moment to breathe. Even just taking a moment to refocus, reframe and reenergize, I think is so impactful.”
