Lots of miscellaneous updates and opportunities to share today. As always, read the bits of interest, scroll past others if they do not apply.

Some of you have asked about a webinar for fraternity recruitment. Our Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has scheduled a family webinar for Interfraternity Council recruitment on Tuesday, January 19th at 6pm. The registration is available here.

Just learned of a new resource available for our students:

Wake Forest has a commitment to holistic wellbeing through the THRIVE initiative, a campus-wide initiative to make wellbeing part of every experience in the lives of our students, faculty, and staff. During this difficult time, many students are experiencing uncertainty in their financial wellbeing, which certainly can impact multiple areas of a student’s wellbeing. To help address this, the Student Resource Committee, a multi-disciplinary team across campus divisions to support the financial wellbeing of students, has developed a list of resources to support students’ financial wellbeing.

At the new Student Financial Resources website, students can find information about loans, scholarships, medical assistance, professional development, textbook assistance, and more. Information is also provided about local off-campus and community resources. The website includes a form to provide feedback or request additional assistance for students who may need it. This list will be updated frequently and we hope this one convenient place to find a list of resources can help reduce access barriers for Wake Forest students who are in need assistance.

Sophomores and Juniors interested in a broad range of public policy issues are invited to apply to be the Student Lead for the Wake Forest University Pilot21 Team. Students can learn more here; the deadline to apply is February 3. Pilot21 is led by North Carolina State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues. It includes seven partner universities across North Carolina, with the goal of encouraging undergraduate student participation in public policy development. Student Leads from each school will identify a public policy topic (March 2021) and choose 3 team members (April 2021). Teams will study and propose public policy solutions for their selected topic. The Student Lead will be eligible for an honorarium.

Students living at the Crowne Properties were sent an email from Residence Life and Housing about how to pick up their keys when they return. key pick up is at their property (not at RL&H) at the following days/times:

  • Saturday, January 23 – Key pick-up between 10 am and 5 pm
  • Sunday, January 24 – Key pick-up between 1 pm and 4 pm
  • Monday, January 25 – Friday, January 29 – Key pick-up between 9 am and 5 pm

I also wanted to share a feel-good story. There was a small group of students who were unable to go home for the holidays and had to stay at the Best Western Plus during the break. These students were not a part of one of our sports teams that was here for official business (and thus knew each other/had camaraderie, participated in team events, etc.); they were on their own. So a group of local alumni – with some help from WFU staff – gave their time and their resources to help these students feel some holiday spirit since they could not be with their families and loved ones.

To introduce “Project Holiday Cheer” to the students, this flyer was placed under their doors. When they came by The Piedmont Room of the hotel, they discovered three tables filled with room decorating supplies and gingerbread kits. On December 24th, personalized stockings filled with candy, small games, socks, and other treats were placed at each of their doors. WFU Swag Bags were delivered in anticipation of cheering on the Deacs in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, and New Year’s Eve Bags (filled with horns, hats, & sparkling cider) were delivered to each door. Alumni also sent cards and notes for the students.

I share this because it is a great reminder of the caring spirit of Wake Foresters and the strong alumni network we have. Your students look after each other well while they are on campus, and our alumni network tries to help other Wake Foresters too. We have a strong ‘pay it forward’ mentality: your Deacs will graduate into this strong alumni network – and that can translate into big things, like how Wake alumni like to hire other Wake grads, or helping young alumni be welcomed into WAKECommunities when they move to their post-WF first job location, or sometimes it means doing something nice for students stuck here during a pandemic.

Many thanks to my colleagues who helped organize this, and our alumni and others who provided the resources to make the holidays a little better for our students who couldn’t get home.

Project Holiday Cheer gifts and crafts Project Holiday Cheer food and goodies

— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)

Recent Posts

Archives