Wellness Check Program Provides Students a Place to Vent, Stress, or Smile with Student Success Team

A graphic of the times and dates of the Student Wellness Drop-ins, events held by the Student Success Office in an attempt to help students during the end of the semester.

Student Success Office

A graphic of the times and dates of the Student Wellness Drop-ins, events held by the Student Success Office in an attempt to help students during the end of the semester.

Guest contributor, Ciel Smith

The Student Success Team is hosting student wellness drop-in sessions on Zoom this month to help students cope with and relieve some stress that they are facing. With exams coming up, students are likely feeling overwhelmed, and these sessions are meant to provide a safe space to talk.

Travis Proffitt, Dean of Student Success, said, “We just wanted to create some space for students to be able to just let us know how they’re doing [and] remind folks that even in this time of year, and even though maybe many of us are far away, that Emory & Henry is still here, and here for students.”

Students are able to talk about anything during the sessions. Proffitt said, “There’s no agenda; there’s no program. It’s just a friendly Student Success staff person just sitting in a Zoom room to just be there if students login and need to vent, or stress, or talk about something fun and exciting.”

Almost every session is being held online due to COVID-19, but also because the Student Success Team wants to make sure all students are included. “Some Emory & Henry students are on campus, and many are at home and physically very far away, and that sense of isolation I think has also been a really big factor in people’s lives over the past year,” said Proffitt.

He added, “[We’re] just really noticing a high level of stress, and tiredness, and burnout. Maybe a little more pronounced this year than in other years.”

David Eldridge, a junior at Emory and also SGA president, is excited about the sessions. “Seeing the school make an effort to reach out and give students the ability to vent and just to have a space to address their concerns and what they’re struggling with, that’s been something that I’m interested in and I think is incredibly important,” he said. “It’s really wonderful to see from Emory & Henry.”

Eldridge described how academic pressure has negatively impacted him this year. “It’s hard to break out of the mindset of like, ‘Oh, I should use this time to work,’ or ‘I don’t have time to go.’ Like, I can make time for my own mental wellness and give myself a break, which is what this allows for.”

There are three more upcoming sessions this month: Apr. 19 at 9 a.m., Apr. 22 at 6 p.m., and Apr. 26 at 3:30 p.m. All three will be conducted over Zoom, and students can contact Ashley Gardner at [email protected] for the link.

If students are unable to attend a session, they can still reach out to the Student Success Team. Proffitt said, “If a student does feel that need to reach out, please reach out to me, and I can connect [you] to the right person whether it’s getting a counseling session, or meeting with a chaplain, or getting hooked up with a tutor in these last few weeks. I don’t want people to think that this is the only chance to reach out and get help if they need it.”

If a student would like to attend one of the sessions but is unable to, they can contact Travis Proffitt at [email protected].