Happy New Year to all, and wishing all our Deac families a wonderful 2012! Because the new year is a time for resolutions and new beginnings, we thought we might share a few thoughts on worthy resolutions for first year students. If your student is inclined to make resolutions, please feel free to share these.
Take care of your health – to do their best, students need to have enough sleep (and yes, that means more than 4 hours!), good nutrition, reasonable exercise. They should think about taking vitamins, getting recommended immunizations, practicing good hand washing or using hand sanitizer to keep germs at bay. Urge your students to try to get to bed an hour or two earlier than they normally do. Many of our first year students are taking (or have taken) Health and Exercise Science 100, which is a class that helps teach about healthy living as an adult. Time to act on what they have learned!
Plan your time wisely – we urge students in the first semester not to overcommit on their schedules. Many second semester students will now add more extracurricular activities or may be embarking upon Greek life, which can add a lot of new activity to their schedules. It is far easier to plan for things than to play catch-up after you are already behind – so urge your student to set regular study hours and avoid procrastinating on homework and assignments. With proper planning, students can minimize the impact of an increased social life on their GPAs.
Find a trusted adult or mentor – WFU prides itself on its personal attention to students, and we have many people here who wish to connect and help with students if they ask for it. Students should begin to form ties with professors in classes they especially like or in departments they may wish to consider for their major; they can visit faculty members’ office hours or invite them to chat for coffee. Students can also work with their academic advisor or staff members and administrators to be a resource and a sounding board for them when needed. We also have an outstanding Campus Ministry staff and Counseling Center to lend an ear and support to our students.
Reflect - our students seem busy all of the time. Every student should take some personal time each week to reflect on their experiences. What did I do this week that I liked? What went well? What did not go as well? What should I do differently next time? What matters to me right now? Reflection and introspection can bring greater inner peace, identify issues to work on to improve, and bring focus. All too soon, students will graduate, hard as that is to believe. They need to be sure they know who they are and what they want before they leave our campus. If they haven’t worked with the Office of Personal and Career Development on self-discovery, it’s a great time to start.
Take advantage of every opportunity – every week there are special events, lectures, artistic and cultural opportunities, athletic events, and volunteer service. Your students will probably never again have as much free time as they will these four years, so urge them to go to the many special events Wake Forest hosts, volunteer some time, learn something new.
Have fun! – students should find time every week for fun activities, to celebrate small joys, to cultivate friendships, and to be present in the moment. Walk through Reynolda Gardens, go see a midnight movie with friends, make that late night Krispy Kreme run, and do random acts of kindness for others on campus.
Make this year all that it can be!
