Cafe Victoria

Before I head off to study, I want to share this great wellness resource site that was emailed to me by our Student Health Center Coordinator. It reminds us that many of us are dealing with stress, depression or other life changing events often alone. If you are feeling overwhelmed? What to help a friend? A family member? Take some time to email or visit this great Wellness Site produced by MTV University and ULifeline called www.halfofus.com

This weekend I am working on my Counseling Course Mental Health Workshop. My goal is to find time to write a script of a mental health crisis that could be acted out during my presentation. Will see how it goes. The college is allowing me to use this assignment to develop a workshop for the Spring Semester Flex Day. I so excited for the opportunity. I am starting to see myself shine in the area of Staff Development.

In between studying, I hope to buy a Christmas tree with Matthias and do a little Christmas shopping. Ohh..an finish those Christmas cards.

College students, family, friends, co-workers and visitors; what is stressing you out?

For my CSA 584 Course Counseling Issues and Practices, I am working on a slide show and information table on Overcome Stress and Depression by Staying Connected. I need your help, what is stressing you out right now? Leave a comment if you can.

For me: Having 2 grad. school assignments that need faculty input before they leave for Winter Break with only 2 ½ half weeks left in the Fall Semester. Yikes!

Attention all Student Affairs Professionals! Start looking through your travel conference budget at work and see if your college will sponsor you to attend your regional NASPA conference. Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Regional V and VI NASPA conference in San Francisco.
Highlights from the conference were:
*Attending the Women Listener’s workshop where I met Beth Hellwig-Olson, Dean of Students at Gonzaga University.
*Thursday’s night reception at the Giants Baseball Stadium ATT Park. Way cool!
*Being part of the Dorothy J. Keller New Professionals Institute 2006. The 2 day institute allowed me to network with other first time NASPA conference attendees. I think the best part about it was most of the participants were graduate students. It was nice to share the craziness and success of being in grad school in Student Affairs. The guest speakers lead discussion on becoming the best leader for your campus, how to see the greatness in yourself and your future in Student Affairs.

Welcome Napa Valley College staff and faculty and who else might be visiting my blog. This week, I am asking for feedback on a Draft version of a “Frequently Asked Questions for Field Trips” for the Facilities Service / Risk Management Office.
I have been working with Susan Brinson in Facilities who’s role is risk management and coordinator of liability related to travel. She also does many other things at the college like coordinating campus reservations. Together, we have developed a set of questions to better inform and facilitate current and helpful information to all faculty, staff, and administrators of Napa Valley College with the intent to decrease the risk and liability the college faces when Napa Valley College students are traveling. This is part of an assignment for my grad school class Legal and Ethical Issues in College Student Affairs. To complete the assignment, I need your feedback.

Before Thursday afternoon of this week, please take a moment to click on Grad School at the top of this web page and scroll down to the section titled Draft Frequently Asked Questions for Field Trips.

• Read over the draft.
• Check to see if the information is helpful to you.
• Think about what might be missing.
• Then return to this blog entry and leave a comment.

  Cheers! Thank you!

This week at my college campus there was: voter registration, a visit from the local agency Sexual Assault Victim Services passing out information in honor of national RAINN awareness day (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network), the Student Government met in the ASB office instead of their usual student lounge (all 18 of them), more rental listings were posted on the housing board, the new president of the Inter-Club Council lead his first meeting, a good friend who is a spanish instructor turned in a book proposal to a publishing company, and I finally got my club advisors’ September newsletter out just in time to work on the October one.

I work with communtiy college students. So far this fall semester, I have noticed that some of today’s college students:

• Buy daily parking passes because they do not have enough money at the beginning of school to buy a full pass. At my college: $27.50 per semester. Just think…we are in the 8th week of classes. By now, they have paid more for parking.
• Love being on MySpace!
• Really are balancing working, raising a family, homework and still making it to class. Imagine this, there are no dorms on the campus. So, they can’t just crawl out of bed and go to class. They have to get in their car and drive. Some are coming from as far as 25 minutes away.
• For many, English is their second language.
• Are willing to wait for their first choice university, even if it means putting off transfering for another year.

I have discovered that getting an “A” in a grad school course is very important in the survial of graduate school. I got my first A this past summer in my “Student Learning in the Co-Curriculum” class. For the first time, I felt that my writing had finally even up with graduate school writing. I also started to feel like I had something to offer the field of Student Affairs. I’ve never been about focusing on grades, but for some reason, getting an A in a graduate course shifted my way of thinking. The A said to me; yes you can do it! And, yes you too have something to offer the field.