Happy Homecoming Friday!
In this Issue:
- Email to students currently abroad re: US State Department travel caution
- Email to students re health and wellbeing, and one about leaf blowing
- NY Times article on student independence and lessening of anxiety
- Friday reminder: call your Deacs
It’s Homecoming weekend, which is an all-hands-on-deck time for our staff. So I am getting straight to the news today.
Email to students currently abroad re: US State Department travel caution
This message was sent yesterday to students currently abroad and was shared via email with their identified parent contact with our Global Programs and Studies (GPS) office. It reads, in part:
“As you may have already seen, on 10/19/23 the U.S. State Department issued a new “worldwide caution” to travelers around the globe. The issuance of this notification comes as a result of the heightened global tensions brought on by the unfolding Israel-Palestine crisis. The caution is general in nature and has not resulted in any changes to our Wake Forest programs or to Affiliate partner programs. That said, all travelers are reminded to follow normal travel safety recommendations.” You can read the full message here.
The message contains an important reminder of an app all our abroad Deacs should download (if they had not already):
“as Wake Forest travelers, you have access to the Worldcue mobile app. If you haven’t already, you can download the app from the App Store or Android Google Play. The app will provide you with country-specific health and safety information, as well as give you one-touch access to WFU’s dedicated emergency crisis line (1-312-894-3199).”
I also want to reassure families that we have an outstanding team in GPS and they take our students’ safety very seriously. I have been through a couple of major incidents with them (I’m thinking of the Paris attacks back in 2015) and there are robust protocols in place to alert students to potential situations and have them check in to report they are safe if there is an incident. As a mom, I felt very reassured. I hope you will too.
Email to students re health and wellbeing, and one about leaf blowing
The Office of Residence Life and Housing shared this message with resident students. It begins:
“Each fall we see a number of recurring respiratory illnesses that are easily transmitted in our community. As we move into the second half of the semester, Student Health Service (SHS) would like to remind you of this healthy habits message.”
Read the full message here. Please encourage your Deacs to use healthy habits: practice regular hand washing, use a tissue or cough/sneeze into their elbow, wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing to avoid spreading germs, clean surfaces daily using antibacterial solutions, and stay home if they are sick or have a fever.
The Office of Residence Life and Housing also sent resident students this message about leaf blowing that will take place throughout the rest of the semester.
NY Times article on student independence and lessening of anxiety
This article came out in The New York Times a month or so ago and I missed it when it first appeared. While it might be geared towards younger children, you can still discern some potentially valuable advice. Here’s a teaser from the article:
“as kids’ freedom has been going down, their anxiety has been shooting up. The surgeon general has declared this “the crisis of our time.” As a society, we’ve been trying everything from breathing exercises to therapeutic horse grooming to keep kids from shrinking from life.
While there could be many reasons our kids are suffering, what if the problem was simply that kids are growing up so overprotected that they’re scared of the world?
If so, the solution would be simple, too: Start letting them do more things on their own.”
Even if you don’t have younger children, the idea of letting our college students do more things on their own is something we as parents and family members have to grapple with.
Just recently, my own ’27 wanted to come home for one of his high school football games, which happened to be on a Thursday night (he had a class Friday morning). The game ended around 9:30 or 10 pm and he had a 2 hour drive back to Raleigh. I shared with him that I wasn’t particularly happy at the idea of him being in his car alone (just in case he had a breakdown or fell asleep at the wheel – I am famous in my house for imagining every Worst Case Scenario), or having a really late night and being tired for his busy Friday schedule (3 classes plus a 2 hour marching band rehearsal). But he was like “MOM [massive imagined eyeroll over text], I will be fiiiiiiiine.’
Mr. Daily Deac said to me ‘you know, this is exactly the kind of thing I did at his age‘ – and he was right. Many of us did those late night things that would have made their parents squirm.
Happy ending here: our ’27 got home safe, and he was fine. While I was uncomfortable in the moment, he probably gained a sense of independence and self-sufficiency that will serve him well.
Friday reminder: call your Deacs
You know why 🙂
To all our alumni Daily Deac-ers who are back for Homecoming, I wish you a great weekend renewing the bonds of friendship you forged many years ago on our beloved campus.
And to all our non-alumni families: know that this will be waiting for your Deacs in the years after they graduate 🙂
