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Inside this Issue
Alcohol: Refining our
Message
2
Refresh 2
UI 20th Annual Powwow 3
Spotlight: Brittney Thomas 3
IC($) 4
Passport Project 5
Alternative Spring Break 5
Student Financial Literacy Services
March, 2013
Do you know a student who needs help:
finding financial aid?
understanding the aid they already have?
creating a budget they can stick to?
understanding loan repayment?
Graduate Assistants (GAs) Sarah Lobb and Nate Bauer are here to walk students through the financial aid process step-by-step. To fulfill a need for in-depth, ongoing assistance to students, UI Office of Student Financial Aid (UI OSFA) appointed two GAs through the UI College of Education.
GAs are prepared to:
Provide personalized, in-depth loan
counseling beyond the required federal entrance loan counseling
Discuss loan repayment options and
assist students in estimating future earn-ings
Provide budgeting assistance so borrow-
ing can be minimized Please tell students to email [email protected] to set up their appoint-ment with UI OSFA Financial Literacy Services today.
The process of selecting a major and a career path can prove difficult for many students. Feeling lost, overwhelmed, or confused are all common emotions as students consider how their interests, abilities, and values align with majors and occupations. Find Your Focus, a new program offered by the Pomerantz Career Center, can provide assistance to stu-dents struggling to define their interests and is an ideal fit for open majors and for students who are questioning a declared major choice. Find Your Focus provides a step-by-step approach to beginning the career exploration process by helping students answer: Who Am I?: Begin with self-assessment by taking a career interest inventory and examining work interests, abilities, and values What Are My Possibilities?: Identify and research majors and occupations of interest by utilizing various resources Who Can Help Me?: Conduct informa-tional interviews with professors and pro-fessionals to gather insight and advice How Can I Try It?: Locate career-related opportunities for job-shadowing, volun-teering, student organization involvement, and part-time work
Find Your Focus By Alicia Joens, Pomerantz Career Center
Through a series of appointments, students will complete activities that will allow them to define and reflect upon their interests, in addition to learning how to utilize University resources that will aid them as they explore majors and careers. Partici-pation with Find Your Focus re-quires a commitment and invest-ment from students to thoroughly examine and research various major and career interests. Students will receive indi-vidualized guidance that will prepare them for the next stages of career development. As a result of completing Find Your Focus, students will: Prepare a "SWOT" Analysis that identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats regarding their academic or occupa-tional goals. Complete a Career Gap Analysis that recognizes their current knowledge, skills, and experiences compared to require-ments for their desired occupation/career field. Acknowledging the "gap" that exists between their current and future self will allow students to determine the steps nec-essary to confront any discrepancies. Develop a Career Action Plan (C.A.P.) that summarizes their academic and occu-
pational exploration and identifies the next steps they will take within their career de-velopment. Students will utilize their C.A.P. once they have selected a course of study and begin meeting with a specific Career Advisor within their major. In addition to the program, students can also attend the Find Your Focus workshop series. The program will host a workshop in April: 5 Ways to Explore Majors and Careers This Summer (offered twice) Thursday, April 4, 12-1pm, C230 PC – OR – Wednesday, April 10, 12:30-1:30pm, C230 PC For additional details on Find Your Focus, visit http://www.careers.uiowa.edu/nav/findyourfocus/ or contact Alicia Joens, Career Advisor and Open Major Liaison, at 335-1023.
On Tuesday, February 19th, Kelly Bend-er, the Campus-Community Harm Re-duction Initiatives Coordinator, spoke to the Student Success Team about the messages that we give to our students about alcohol. Kelly’s message chal-lenged the traditional “If you drink, be safe” message that many students hear from faculty, staff and other students on campus. Instead, Kelly suggests that delaying drinking is the most student success oriented message we can con-vey.
In her position, Kelly Bender works on creating two strategic plans for alcohol safety, the UI Alcohol Harm Reduction Plan-Campus Environment and the Part-nership for Alcohol Safety-Community Environment. Both of these plans are evidence-based, comprehensive, and mutually reinforcing. These plans also work to bring attention to the fact that there are many students on the Universi-ty of Iowa campus that choose not to drink.
Kelly’s presentation focused in on the importance of giving students a message that states they should think about delay-ing their drinking, which will have posi-tive effects on their academic perfor-mance and health in the long run. While we want students to be safe, we need to
Alcohol: Refining Our Message By Becky Wilson, Residence Life
ask ourselves if we are being clear about safe drinking behavior is and if that match-es the student definition of safe behavior.
Kelly provided statistics that show the costs of underage drinking on the students and the surrounding community. Facts such as “excessive drinking is the 3rd lead-ing cause of preventable death in the U.S. and globally” (CDC, WHO) show that en-couraging students to delay their drinking is important. The earlier that one begins to drink the more likely they will develop ex-cessive drinking behaviors which can lead to alcohol dependence. The research states “when people wait until 21 to drink, they drink less and have fewer negative consequences now and in the future than those who started drinking at younger ages” (NIAAA).
Kelly has made a similar presentation to a variety of departments on campus includ-ing professional staff members in Resi-dence Life, Anti-Violence Coalition mem-bers, and Resident Assistants. She will present in training sessions with the On Iowa! Student leaders and Hawkeye Guides this spring.
In the future, Kelly would like to reach out to faculty members and teaching assis-tants. The direct and indirect messages that students receive in the classroom
about alcohol and campus culture can be just as powerful as what they hear in the residence halls and student organiza-tions.
Research supports that changing the environmental conditions that influence students’ choices about drinking is a more effective way to create wide spread cul-tural change than working to increase individual students’ knowledge about what’s risky and what’s not. The messag-es students receive from others in their environment about what’s normal, ex-pected, or necessary related to alcohol use are a key influence on college stu-dent drinking. Often, we inadvertently send messages to students that reinforce unhealthy perceptions about high-risk drinking being normal and necessary part of the college experience.
Those of us who send messages to stu-dents about drinking need to have accu-rate information about what works and what doesn’t and why delaying drinking is an important message for us to consist-ently and directly send to students. Kelly is willing to meet with anyone that has questions, comments, or concerns about this topic. Please contact her at: [email protected] or at 319-335-0102.
Page 2
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Email ideas to
Your ideas or comments are always
welcome!
Refresh Sleep Program By Tanya Villhauer and Trish Welter, Health Iowa
College life is not the most conducive to good sleep. According to the 2012 Nation-al College Health Assessment data, only about 23% of University of Iowa students living in the residence halls got enough sleep to feel rested 6 or 7 days in the last week. And nearly half of students living in residence halls reported feeling tired, dragged out, or sleepy during the day at least 3 days in the past week--not a good scenario for learning. Health Iowa/Student Health Service has a new program called “Refresh” that can help students improve sleep quality. This 8-week program was developed with college students in mind. It is a cognitive behavior-al self-help program that has been found effective in improving sleep quality for col-lege students. The program is free for all UI students. It can be started at any time, and once registered, students will receive a weekly email that includes a PDF of that
week’s information and activities. These include great information and many benefi-cial strategies to help students sleep better:
Daily sleep logs
Learning about circadian rhythms
Relaxation training
Constructing a sleep environment
Sleep and exams
Worry-busting strategies
Mindfulness training
It takes more than just reading about what to do, so a little dedication will achieve much greater results. Students who partici-pate are encouraged to spend about 30 minutes each week on practice activities. If you know a student who may benefit from this program, they can register here:
http://studenthealth.uiowa.edu/new-sleep-program If you would like some information cards for your office, please contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Refresh
UI 20th Annual Powwow By Valerie Garr, College of Nursing
The University of Iowa American Indian Student Association (AISA) is hosting its 20th Annual Powwow April 13th and 14th, 2013 at the UI Recreation Building. The Powwow celebrates Native American music, dance, food, arts and craft. Previ-ous powwows have drawn visitors from across Iowa, surrounding states, and Can-ada to experience The University of Iowa’s campus and the surrounding community. The 20th Annual Powwow offers Native American students, staff, and the greater University community a family friendly format to celebrate and enrich understand-ing about Native American customs, ena-bling both participants and spectators the opportunity to appreciate and engage in the unique aspects of Native American culture. Kyleshawn Stead, a Lakota Sioux first year Secondary English Education major/ Native American Studies minor born and raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, is president of the UI American Indian Student Association (AISA) and says that the University of Io-wa Powwow is the largest event that AISA shares with the public and that provides a small part of the diverse heritages of Na-tive cultures. He says this event also helps show the strong bond in the Native com-munity while also increasing their visibility on campus. “We want people to know that Powwows are the Native American people’s way of coming together, to join in dancing, sing-ing, visiting, renewing old friendships, and making new ones,” says Stead. “This is a time to renew Native American culture and
preserve the rich heritage of American Indians and share it with others. The origin of the word "Pow Wow" comes from the Algonquin word "Pau Wau" which was used to describe medicine men and spir-itual leaders. Mistakenly, early Europeans thought that the word referred to the entire event. As Indian tribes learned English, they accepted this definition and it has remained one of the main ways that Na-tive American people continue to come together to celebrate our heritage.” Understanding powwow etiquette and protocol is very important to learn and follow. Participants need to remember that the same respect that people give to their nation’s anthem, religion, or other national material culture is the same respect that must be given at a powwow. Explains Stead, “It is customary to stand quietly and remove your hat when special songs are played – these songs include Grand Entry, Flag Songs, Veteran Songs, Memorial Songs, and Prayer Songs. One
should not take pictures unless given permission, never pick up an eagle feather, stand by it and have someone tell pow-wow staff that it has fall-en as a special ceremony must be done when re-trieving it; do not record songs as many are sa-cred and permission is needed to record if given at all; remember that the area around the dance floor is for dancers; re-spect the dancers rega-lia, it is not a costume
and should not be touched as they are sacred, fragile and irreplaceable. If a part of the regalia has fallen, again do not pick it up but notify the powwow staff that it has fallen.” Sydney Switzer, a Mohawk graduate student from Iowa City, has been a key player in advising and coordinating the UI Powwow for almost 15 years. “Besides providing an opportunity for the community to learn about Native cultures, the Powwow is also significant because it serves as a means to bring Native students together to learn lead-ership skills and to become more com-fortable with their own voice so they can become campus-wide student leaders and leaders in their respective commu-nities,” says Switzer. For event infor-mation and more about UI Powwow etiquette, please visit: http://powwow.uiowa.edu/
Brittney Thomas is excited to return to the University of Iowa as the new Learning Commons Coordinator. An Iowa native, she completed her MLIS at the School of Library and Information Studies. She worked as the Public Services Librarian at Illinois College before starting her new job at the end of February. She has two dogs: Roxy, an English bulldog and Petey, a puggle.
Brittney brings great personal interest in emerging technology to this position, and enthusiasm for using social media to reach
Page 3
Spotlight: Brittney Thomas By Kelly McElroy, University Libraries
out to students for topics both academic and beyond. Her undergraduate degree in art history informs her work with tech-nology and learning.
Overall, she is looking forward to getting to know campus as a whole. Success comes from collaborating and sharing ideas, and she is excited to start the conversation in the Learning Commons. Please introduce yourself and welcome Brittney at the next SST meeting!
Page 4 IC($) By Linda Varvel, Residence Life
Association events, and are “caught” demonstrating the pillars of The IOWA Challenge, they receive an IC($). These bills are distributed by Resident Assistants, Assistant Hall Coordinators, and Hall Coor-dinators. In addition, staff members plan residence hall programs aligned with The Challenge, and IC$ are distributed to attendees.
Excel: Attend an academically themed
program or utilize any of the tutoring services in any of the East Neighbor-hood residence halls
Stretch: Attend a diversity or social
justice themed program
Engage: Attend a Hall Association
meeting/event or a social program or Late Hour event
Choose: Work out in one of the Fit-
ness Centers in one of the East Neigh-borhood residence halls or attend a health/wellness themed program
Serve: Attend a Saturdays in Service
event or any civic engagement pro-gram
The IC($) Semester-End Event for fall was on December 5, 2012 the Iowa Memorial Union. A huge group of students waited outside the 2nd Floor Ballroom of the IMU before doors opened to get into the event. The event featured RA-created interactive booths for each of The IOWA Challenge areas. Resident Assistants also created videos dedicated to various pillars of The IOWA Challenge. When the videos were screened at the event, the students were engaged and cheered when they saw their own RA on the big screen. The IC($) Year-End Event for spring will be on May 1, 2013 at 9 pm in the 2nd Floor Ballroom of the IMU with a graduation/school spirit theme to celebrate the end of the school year. To begin the evening, IOWA Challenge videos created by each East Neighborhood RA staff will be screened. Students will then be able to visit the Iowa Challenge area booths and have their photo taken with Herky! IC$ will be collected for a raffle style drawing that will include a wide variety of prizes (i.e. iPad, Kindle, UI Athletic Season Tickets, CAB/SCOPE events, iPod Nano, gifts cards - TOMS, Hot House Yoga, variety of local restaurants, etc. ). A DJ will play music as host to a large dance party at the event. An assessment was conducted at the IC($) Semester-End Event at the conclusion of the fall 2012 semester, and 237 students completed the survey. Assessment results indicate that the majority of students who received an IC($) could name a specific reason why they received an IC($), and that a majority of students were motivated
Brandon Paulson, Currier Hall Coordinator, has experience with student success pro-grams. At previous institutions he participat-ed in “Study Bucks” programs, which reward students “caught” studying in their rooms or study lounges. Resident Assistants handed out study bucks to students studying and at the end of the semester students turn in their study bucks to win prizes. The principle of the program is to recognize positive stu-dent academic behavior and help create a positive relationship between students and RAs. Paulson wanted to take a program like this one step further at Iowa. After working at the University of Iowa for two years, Paulson set out to create a new academic initiative in Currier Hall for the 2011-2012 academic year. He decided to expand the study bucks program idea to include The IOWA Challenge. While teach-ing The College Transition class, he read research that many first-year students hear a lot about The IOWA Challenge at the be-ginning of the academic year but do not hear (or think) about it after the first few months at the university. Paulson wanted to encourage participation in activities that support The IOWA Challenge and recognize students who participated. Those students are rewarded for participating in Challenge-related activities and instilling those core values into daily life and activities around the East Neighborhood. He also wanted to make sure the message of The IOWA Challenge was shared with the students the entire academic year. The program is called “IC($),” and stands for “IOWA Challenge Dollars.” Paulson enlisted the help of the Currier Hall and Stanley Hall Resident Assistants during fall 2011 RA Training to brainstorm ideas to implement the initiative. Two Resident As-sistants, Andrew Smith and Kaitlin Wren, served on a small committee working with the initiative during its pilot year in 2011-2012. Initially, the initiative was only imple-mented in Currier and Stanley Halls. How-ever, based on the positive results from two follow-up assessments, the program was expanded to all of the East Neighborhood residence halls this academic year including Currier, Stanley, Mayflower, Burge, Daum and Centerstone. The program’s learning outcomes help guide the programming done surrounding this effort. Students who participate should be able to: (1) Measure their participation in residence hall programs connected to the Iowa Challenge. (2) Fulfill The IOWA Chal-lenge and role model the behavior to other students. (3) Demonstrate knowledge of campus resources to support their success. As residents attend IC($) programs, Hall
to continue to engage in the IOWA Challenge after receiving an IC($). The East Neighbor-hood had a total of 6,850 IC($) bills entered into the raffle at the IC($) Semester-End Event. The IC($) initiative is also being implemented this semester by six Resident Assistants, Reggie Ross, Morgan Miller, Colin Schrader, Yifan Lai, Nick Hullermann, and Steven Bieber. There is also one non-RA member on the planning committee, a student leader from MAYCO, Sabra Cacho. Paulson serves as a co-chair of the IC($) committee with Mayflow-er Hall Coordinator, Amy Franco. Paulson is really proud of the positive re-sponse from the Resident Assistants, Hall Coordinators/Assistant Hall Coordinators, and students living in the residence halls. He has also been impressed by the participation of our partners including Residence Life Tutor-ing, Late Hour, and National Residence Hall Honorary. They have collaborated to help promote the IC($) and The IOWA Challenge to all the East Neighborhood students attend-ing their programs. Paulson and his team are discussing ways in which more faculty and staff members might get involved in the IC($) program. If you have any ideas on how you might like to be in-volved in the IC($) program, you can contact Brandon Paulson at [email protected]. Faculty and staff are welcome to attend the year-end event!
Meet the Challenge Awards
Do you know a student who really exempli-fies the values in The IOWA Challenge? Nominate them for our Meet the Challenge awards! The Meet the Challenge Awards will be given during the annual Hawkeye Leadership and Service Awards (http://imu.uiowa.edu/hawkeye-awards/)
Awards will be given in each of the five IOWA Challenge areas (EXCEL, STRETCH, ENGAGE, CHOOSE, and SERVE). Each year one winner will be selected from each of the five (5) IOWA Challenge areas. Nominations are re-viewed by a committee of students, faculty, and staff. The winners will receive a $500 award sponsored by the Office of the Provost. Here is the link to a more detailed description and the application form:
http://imu.uiowa.edu/meet-the-challenge-awards
Applications/nominations are due
March 29th, 4 pm in 145 IMU (CSIL).
mony to the value of engaging new cul-tural experiences.
Next fall's edition of the Passport Project will have over 100 participating students. The dedication of this semester's risk-taking students will contribute invaluably to its success.
This semester ten trail-blazing undergradu-ate students are enrolled in "The Passport Project," a pilot Student Success Initiative course.
Students in this inaugural edition of the "Project" attend twelve events selected from the University and Iowa City's rich intellectual and cultural offerings. The events students can choose include art workshops and open-ings, literary readings, lectures in the scienc-es and humanities, hands-on engineering demonstrations, dance recitals, political fo-rums, plays, and music performances.
Digital Studio for Public Humanities re-searchers Mark NeuCollins and Nikki Dudley have built a website for the project that al-lows students to recommend events, file reflections and read their classmates' first-person accounts. For each event attended, students receive a visa stamp in their virtual passport.
Integral to the project are bi-weekly small group meetings at local coffee houses where students and faculty members Jon Winet, John Logsdon and academic coordinator Patrick Reek discuss events they've attend-
ed. Special events with some of the area's out-standing leaders in research, teaching, and scholarship are also part of the curriculum.
At the midterm, stu-dents have already attended an impressive range of events, and contributed thoughtful written commentaries to the class blog. A reading at Iowa City's legendary Prairie Lights and a night at the opera at the historic Englert Theatre provided first-time ever experi-ences for the students. Consistent with the participatory nature of teaching and learning at its best, students have also requested credit for events in which they perform. Two energetic students partici-pated in their first-ever 24-hour Dance Marathon; another attended a Swing Dance class. The students' enthusiastic first-person accounts are inspiring testi-
Since its formation in 2006 the mission of the Student Success Team is to develop ideas and imple-
ment initiatives that foster undergraduate achievement within a safe, engaging, and inclusive cam-
pus community. The vision of the SST is to: bring together students, faculty, and staff for the shared
purpose of fostering undergraduate student achievement; emphasize collaboration, communica-
tion, and commitment.; ensure that all goals and projects are driven by research and ongoing as-
sessment strategies that demonstrate our results.
Alternative Spring Break By Eric Rossow, Center for Student Involvement and Leadership
The Passport Project: Gateway to Lifelong Learning! By Jon Winet, Associate Professor, Art & Art History
Sixteen University of Iowa students will be traveling to Memphis, Tennessee during spring break to participate in a service learning experience. The students, who range from a second semester first-year student to a graduate and professional stu-dent, will work with and provide service to three unique service agencies within the Memphis area. They will volunteer with Friends for Life, a community center who serves populations affected by HIV and AIDS. The group will also take part in a service project at Hope House, a daycare that assists children affected by HIV or AIDS. Finally, trip participants will spend a day volunteering for Grow Memphis, an organization committed to the urban gar-
dening initiative.
There were over 90 students who applied for and expressed an interest in the alter-native spring break trip. The 16 selected students helped design the trip around their interests and chose to volunteer with-in the area of public health concerns. The students wanted to travel to Memphis be-cause of the health related issues and concerns that currently exist in that region. The area has become a regional center for public health questions regarding HIV/AIDs and obesity. Trip participants have been involved in a five week orientation program and have received presentations from speakers representing UIHC, Health
& Human Physiology faculty members, and a social worker. In addition, a com-mon reading (The Immortal Life of Hen-rietta Lacks) has provided additional context for the visit.
The trip is sponsored by student govern-ment and the Center for Student In-volvement & Leadership. It includes direct service, education and reflections regarding the students’ experiences. Students will also be served a meal by alumni from the Memphis area I-Club. Volunteers will leave Iowa City on March 16 and return to campus on March 21, 2013.
