In this Issue: Lunar New Year; Wake Washington summer apartment rental applications; stay healthy reminders for our students; student insurance deadline of January 30 (important if your Deac wasn’t on campus last fall); take a quick survey about the new format changes to the Daily Deac

Happy Friday, Deac families! It’s the end of the week, and I hope you are looking forward to a restful and happy weekend! Here’s your news for today:

Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year begins on Sunday, January 22nd. As the Chaplain’s office describes, it is: “one of the most important festivals celebrated in Asian cultures. In the West, Lunar New Year is often referred to as Chinese New Year. During this 15-day festival, family and friends travel across the nation to reunite over great food such as dumplings. People decorate houses with red lanterns, Spring couplets, and paper-cut outs. Young people love setting off firecrackers and receiving cash in paper (or electronic nowadays) red envelopes.”

I was fortunate enough to learn a little about Lunar New Year from a friend from Vietnam, and they shared some of their traditions and practices. I am happy to say that per tradition, I have done a deep cleaning of my house so that good luck finds a clean place to land in my home 🙂 To all who are celebrating Lunar New Year and the Year of the Rabbit, my wish for you is “Gong hei fat choy!

Wake Washington summer apartment rental applications

I hope our families are aware of our terrific study away program in DC called Wake Washington. Students live in DC and combine academic classwork with an internship, and they are housed in what I would consider pretty swanky apartments for a college student 🙂 In the summer months, those apartments can be rented to Wake students. I got a message about this from one of our Wake Washington team:

“Once again, Wake Washington will be opening its apartments to any continuously enrolled Wake Forest student — undergraduate, graduate, law, business, etc. — who will be interning in Washington, DC this summer. The application is now open, and students may visit our website for more information and to apply. Review of applications will begin in February and continue on a rolling basis until all available beds are filled.”

I had been asked to stress that these are only for current Wake Forest students (undergrad or grad). We cannot make them available to alumni or students from other universities. But if your Deac is interning in DC this summer and is looking for a place to live, check out Wake Washington.

Stay healthy reminders for our students

As part of the weekly WFU Should Know email that is sent to students each Thursday, our Campus Health Committee shared some reminders for keeping our community healthy:

“As we continue to navigate cold and flu season, COVID-19, and other communicable diseases, the Campus Health Committee would like to share some information and a few reminders to consider as we begin the semester. We ask that you remain vigilant about community spread and do all that you can do to stay healthy. Read the full message for tips on staying healthy and what to do if you become ill.”

While I hope none of your Deacs get sick, I know my own senior in high school was out of school for most of last week with some bug that is going around town. Urge your Deacs to be very attentive to good hygiene (hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes, etc.).

Student Insurance deadline of January 30 (important if your Deac wasn’t on campus last fall)

Most of our families already took care of their student insurance requirement back in August. But if your Deac was not on campus in the fall (e.g., they took a semester off, or were abroad in a non-WFU program), you may not have had to have insurance during their time away. But now that those students are back on campus, families have until Jan. 30 to enroll or waive your student in the BCBS Student Blue Insurance Program. If you choose to enroll your student, the cost is $1,417 for coverage from Jan. 1 to July 31, 2023. To enroll or waive, or to check your student’s insurance status, have your student go to the website and access their account and take the appropriate steps to enroll or waive. If you take no action and your student has not enrolled or waived, your student will be charged for our Student Blue insurance. Contact the Student Insurance office if you have any questions.

Take a quick survey about the new format changes to the Daily Deac

Now that we have made some format changes to the Daily Deac, based on the results of the Family Communications survey we ran in November, I’d love to see how this new format is working for you.

Please take this quick 5 question survey and let me know what you think of the format of the Daily Deacs that you have read since we implemented changes in January. Your feedback is so important to us – thank you in advance!

Have a great weekend!

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