We will leave time at the end
to address questions that are submitted
in the Q&A. If you have any questions
throughout the presentation,
just simply type them in the Q&A at the
bottom of your screen and we will get to
them at the end. This session will also
be recorded captioned and uploaded for
viewing on the Orientation Services
website soon. So i'm Cassie Walizer from
TRIO Student Support Services. I also
have a co-presenter with me who will
introduce himself in a minute. You will
hear from both of us throughout the
presentation. Now you have heard us
mention that we work for TRIO Student
Support Services or TRIO SSS as we call
it it's a program on campus that
supports students who are First
Generation, from low-income backgrounds,
and/or have a documented disability. We
are one of many resources for
First-Generation college students on
campus and we'll tell you a little bit
more about our program towards the end
of the presentation. Cody would you like
to go ahead and introduce yourself?
Good evening everyone,
my name's Cody Pritchard and I have the
pleasure of serving as the Project
Director for TRIO Student Support
Services. Welcome, and you will see me a
bit more here in just a little bit.
Thanks Cody. As I mentioned there are
also some fantastic First-Generation
college students on the line with us
today and they'll be chatting with you a
little bit later today: We have Luz, Rolando, and Paulina and I'm going to let
each of them tell us about themselves too -
Luz, do you want to get us started?
Good evening I am Luz Martinez, I will
be a senior and I am majoring in
Religious Studies I'm on the Pre-Med
track and I'm also minoring in Spanish.
Thanks Luz
Hello my name is Rolando Garcia I'm an
incoming second year student I'm
majoring in Biomedical Engineering with
a minor in French.
(Paulina) Hi I'm Paulina, I'm majoring; I'm a
rising junior and I'm majoring in Social
Justice with a minor in Latino, Latina,
LatinX studies.
Thanks everybody.
So in college students need to adjust
both academically and socially in order
to succeed on campus and ultimately
graduate. We can take we can call this
academic and social integration. Academic
integration includes things like
adapting to the academic culture of the
institution, expectations of classes, and
the rigor of college coursework. Examples
of social integration include feeling
like they belong on campus, making
friends, and getting involve. Today we
will cover topics about both the
academic and social components to your
student success and how you can best
support them. First we will discuss some
information about college academics.
So college classes are structured a bit
differently from high school classes:
there are several ways in which this is
true: the syllabus, faculty relationships,
class sizes, the use of technology, course
materials, and grading. Class sizes vary
tremendously at the University of Iowa;
your student will likely have classes
that range from
several hundred students to 20 or less.
Students tend to see the larger classes
in their first couple of years when they
are taking courses that have higher
enrollment and are needed for more
advanced coursework. However there are
some courses for first-year students
that are specifically designed to be
smaller, and even for large courses your
student will likely have a weekly
discussion section as part of that
course that it is designed to be
small and led by what's called a
Teaching Assistant or TA. who is a
graduate-level student in that field of
study. If your student has questions
about class sizes they can ask their
academic advisor. Most of us have
probably heard a variety of things about
textbooks in college and have images of
what they cost or what they look like in
their heads, whether it's from the media
or our own experiences. Yes your student
is going to need to buy some books, but
you may also notice that there's some
things besides books on their bookstore
receipts. Students may also need to buy
access codes for online learning tools,
they may need materials for labs, or even
art supplies if they're taking an art
course. Grading also looks a lot
different in college. There are fewer
grading opportunities for course than in
high school. Some of your student's
classes may consist of two to three
exams, a couple homework assignments, and
a few participation points. Exams tend to
be anywhere from twenty to forty percent
of the student's final course grade. This
is why students get so stressed about
exams. Grades in college are also a
little bit different and they tend to be
either just raw scores that the student
received, much like in high school - you
know if you earn a 95 you get a 95
percent, right? Or sometimes they're based
on a curve and with current grading, the
professor takes all of the scores and
determines that a certain amount of
students earned As, Bs, Cs. Tthis means that
no matter what the high score is on an
exam, even if it's a 70%
then the student with the highest scores
earn As. This can be a real benefit to
students, but when they get their initial
exam grade back it's usually just the
raw score without the curve add to it
and that can be really stressful for
students. So if you hear your student
talking about the curve, that is what
they mean. So here you'll find an example
of part of a syllabus. So a syllabus is
the guiding document for the course and
your student may have had a couple of
these or maybe all of them in high
school as well. But in college they look
a little bit different: every course has
to have one. Your students will go over
these in each of their classes on the
first day of class. The college syllabus
tends to be like 8 to 10 pages long and
it's very comprehensive. It includes the
instructors contact information, how to
meet with their professors including
during in their office hours, we'll talk
more about that later, the grading scale
for the course, all the academic policies,
information about assignments and
deadlines, and then also schedule and
what topics will be covered in each
class period. So if your student has
questions about due dates, assignment
details, or how their grade is determined
those sorts of things about a course - the
first place that they should look would
be that syllabus; and students can find
electronic copies of their syllabus and
other course documents on ICON. So ICON
is the university's official learning
management system. and the best way to
describe it is like if you're familiar
with Power School or any other learning
management-type of softwares in high
school, it's like that but it's the
college version and it's just for
students. On ICON professors have the
ability to post recordings of their
lectures, class reading materials, they
can enter grades, and this is also how
your student will submit most of their
assignments through electronic
submission on ICON. ICON also has a
gradebook and so if your student
isn't sure how to find their current
course grade, ask if they've checked ICON;
and for online courses or any course
that might be a hybrid, a lot of times
there will be discussions that are done
through an online discussion board and
this can be a great way for students to
learn and engage with their peers and
the online environment, as well. So if
your student has already registered for
classes and you've seen their schedule
something might seem peculiar to you:
Students only spend around 15 to 18
hours in the classroom each week. When
looking at your student's weekly schedule,
you may wonder what exactly they are
supposed to be doing with the rest of
their time. Well I'm sure our student
panelists will be the first to tell you
that the answer to that question is not
always napping or watching Netflix.The
vast majority of learning will occur
outside of the classroom, and much of the
responsibility is placed on your student
to learn the material on their own. In
high school students are accustomed to
teachers being responsible to teach; and
that's definitely still true in college
but there's even more responsibility
placed on the student to learn the
material and understand it on their own. However they are never entirely on their
own, there are many academic resources for
students to use and it's an expectation
that students actually use academic
support and tutoring centers that are on
campus - it's what good students do. Good
students also go visit their professor
when they have questions or want to
learn more about the material. Each
professor has something called
office hours, which is time set aside
each week for students to come ask them
questions and they can find these hours
located on their syllabus. So we've
shared about how college classes are
different in structure and expectations,
now let's talk about some more things
your student can do to be successful in
their courses. So after looking at years
worth of data we know that students who
do the following tend to do better in
their classes than their peers who don't:
We call these basic and advanced academic behaviors. The first one is go to class.
I always tell my first-year students that
if they learn nothing else from me it's
that they absolutely have to go to class
as the bare minimum. Students should also
be doing the reading before going to
class, taking good notes, participating in
class, and start studying early. This
means different things to different
students, but typically students should
start studying for exams seven to ten
days beforehand. Students should also
review their notes between classes: This
will help them keep up with the material
and have less to learn right before the
exam. Additionally students have a lot to
keep track of on their own in college.
They should use a planner or other means
of keeping track of their deadlines and
responsibilities; and finally, we know
that good students get help. There are a
wealth of academic support resources on
campus such as tutoring labs. I always
tell students to pencil it into their
planner right into their schedule when
they're going to tutoring and just treat
it like another class. So as you can
imagine success in the classroom
requires your student to have structure.
Students need to find a routine; and this
can take a few weeks - and that's okay.
This is actually something your student
will have to learn to do every semester,
because their schedule will look a
little different every semester. Students
also need to learn to manage their time
and hold themselves accountable. They
should pencil in time for studying every
day; they should also designate times and
make a plan for when they will tend to
personal things like exercise, meals. and
time with friends; and it is very
important that students find a place to
study that is free from distractions. In
many instances, this is not their
residence hall room. Residence hall rooms
have all sorts of distractions: roommates,
TVs, laundry to be done, dishes to do,
cereal to eat -
you get the picture. Many students find
that going somewhere to study on campus
is a much better option and there are
endless spots to do this, such as the
Iowa Memorial Union or the library. If
your student will be living at home and
not in the residence halls, talk with
them about where at home is the best
place for them to study that is free of
distractions and help them set up that
place and make it their own. Okay so that
was a lot of information, let's now hear
from our students a little bit:  Um so
Paulina, what did you perceive to be the
biggest differences between high school
and college? So for me the biggest
differences between high school and
college was definitely the workload and
my time management. In college my
workload is way different- like I found
that I needed to stay really on top of
things or else it's really easy to like
fall behind on like my readings and my
homework and studying. And I also found
like with time management
like in high school your schedule is
already given for you and like it's
already planned out; but in college
you're in charge of your own schedule; so
like finding how to structure your
schedule is also really important. Thank
you. Rolando would you like to share a
little as well? Sure! To me I
think the biggest difference between
high school and college is definitely
how these classes are structured because
in high school we're all used to getting
the same print out sheet that says "oh
here's your schedule for the entire week
there's nothing more you have to think
about" but in college it's completely
different because your days will most
likely not look the same each week. Um
you have different classes in different
spots each day and you need to learn how
to allocate time properly into how to
prepare for those classes and as well as
other things they need to take care of.
Thank you. So Luz, what is some advice you
would give to incoming first-year
students?
Yes so my advice would be to look for
your support system the moment you get
to Iowa and don't be scared to ask for
help
honestly there's a lot of resources and
help offered. I most of the help I have
received was from the TRIO staff
and I, after three years at the
University of Iowa, I finally finally
asked for help and it was  life-changing; I was doing better in
every way so that's that's what I really
recommend all students to do, just ask
for help.
Thank you. So Paulina, what are some
academic resources and strategies that
you've used? I think the main like
resource that I've used because like
most of my classes aren't like big
lectures, is going to office hours. I like
to go to office hours just to talk to my
professors about like materials or to
discuss like readings that I don't like
I didn't understand for that week; and I
think going to office hours is important
because you get to build a relationship
with your professors or your TAS and
then eventually like in the long run can
like help you. Thank you. Rolando: What academic resources and
strategies have you used? The biggest
strategy I've used is you know just find a
note-taking style that works for you,
whether if whether you're taking classes
that are more liberal arts or science and
math-oriented, like I am, but as far as as
far as studying strategies go and
tutoring - the biggest one I think is the
TRIO tutoring services because they're
not only free and exclusive to TRIO
students, the tutors will actually work
with you to tailor your lessons to your
skill set, your schedule, your needs, and
whatever it is that you are going to
need help with and it's honestly one of
the most important and really beneficial
study strategies out there; I would
highly recommended it.  Thank you all for
sharing that very valuable perspective.
All right so it's to be my turn now so
hi everybody
so while families tend to be the most
concerned about things related to a
student's basic needs like housing, food,
and safety - students are often most
concerned about meeting new friends; and
so for students who have been with the
same classmates throughout high school,
moving to a new place and having to make
all new friends can be really
intimidating; and that's okay. There are
thousands of other students going
through the same thing which makes
finding friends much easier. There are a
wealth of opportunities for your
students to meet people early on: We know
many of these activities may look
different this year, but there will still
be opportunities for students to engage
in a safe manner. More information will
be announced from the university  throughout this
summer, however one of the most important
things you can ask your student is if
they are getting out of the residence
hall room and attending activities. Some
of these opportunities include the Iowa
Edge program, On Iowa, student
organizations, and residence hall
activities. Students can and should also
get to know people in their classes - they
are going to be seeing them a few times
a week for the 16 weeks, after all. Additionally, if your student is living
on-campus, the residence halls are
fantastic way for students to meet
people: Encourage them to get them know
their floor-mates and say hi to other
folks on their floor and in their
building. Meals are also an important
social time for students so be sure to
also ask your student if they're eating
dinner with folks.
Student organizations are another great
way and are also just they're more than
just fun; they can be meaningful learning
opportunities. Students can choose from a
variety of organizations that are
interest-based or related to their major or
career path. Through student
organizations students don't just meet
each other, they learn valuable
leadership skills and networking that is
beneficial to them beyond college. Your
students health and wellness is
essential to their success.
One area of wellness that you and your
student may be considering or thinking
about is homesickness: There are several
things to keep think about
and keep it in mind as it relates to
homesickness.  First, homesickness is
common and your student is not alone in
feeling this.
So homesickness can be differentiated
between two different types: Acute and
distressed. I'll take a chance
to kind of explain the differences
between those and then how you can help
your student. Acute homesickness may look
something like your student generally missing home -
certain aspects of home life, like
cooked meals, maybe pets, or even their
siblings; but despite these feelings with
acute homesickness, your students are
still able to go about their day fairly
regularly: They're still attending
classes, they're still connecting with
their peers, they're attending events and
so on. With distressed homesickness
though, these feelings may become more
extreme: Now feelings of sadness about
missing certain aspects of home are
impacting their daily routines: They are
skipping class because they can't focus,
they're coming home often during the
weeks but then also during the weekdays
and possibly skipping classes during
that time to do so. They're saying things
like "I don't want to be here anymore" or "I
don't want to, I want to come home" or "I
don't think this is for me". The best
thing you can do in that time first is
listen your student; and then encourage
them to seek help and ask and make
healthy choices so make sure that
they're getting good sleep, that they're
establishing a routine in their days and
in the weeks; and there are some
incredible resources on our campus that
are here to help your students.  So
encourage them to connect with Student
Health, encourage them to connect with
Student Wellness and the University
Counseling Service. If you can't remember
those specific offices or those
specific services on campus, encourage
them to connect with someone on campus.
We care about your students, we care
about their well-being and their success
and we absolutely are here to help.
So want to hear from our students again a little bit more, so Luz
um tell us what an average day looks
like for you? Yes so it depends on the
semester,
um usually my day starts in the morning
obviously: I wake up, I go to class - most of my classes are in the morning, I
try to make at least thirty minutes of
my time to just go eat lunch - it's very
important to eat. I make time also to
walk: Sometimes it takes ten minutes or
five minutes to get from one place to
another so I make time for that.
Afterwards I usually have my meetings
for my organizations in the afternoon
so I go to my meetings, I go with friends
to the library I study obviously, most of
my afternoon is actually spent studying, and by night I just go home, I do my
night routine, and then I go to sleep to
get ready for the next day.
Rolando, how about you?
Um what an average day looks like
for me is I generally tend to wake up at
the same time each morning around 10
a.m. I get to my first class get to my
first class there's about two or three
hours in between; I usually like to go to
the Main Library or to the Iowa Memorial
Union to get some studying out of the
way, and it really helps to you know keep
keep that focused mindset and just have
these academic strategies at hand to
enhance and sort of take up that time
and not be tempted to you know stray 
away from that or get preoccupied by
something else; and throughout the day
I'd have other classes, lectures, labs are
also a big component of my coursework so
those are usually about 2 to 3 hours
of the day usually about once or twice a
week, and by the time all that's done I'm
usually done about 5:00 in the afternoon
and when that time comes around I
usually reserve that time to eat, you
know, have that time for myself, relax a
bit, and then there's any last-minute
things I need to take care of then I usually
get those taken care of at that time.
Paulina, how did you go about making friends in college?
I made friends in college through like the first thing was the Iowa Edge
program, which started like a few days
before classes started and it was really
nice because a lot of the students there
like we shared a lot of similarities; but
once classes started I also made a good
chunk of my friends through the
organizations I'm in, which include
Association for Latinos Moving Ahead and
my sorority Sigma Lambda Gamma.
Luz, what are some things that you are involved in?
I am also involved in various organizations I
am a member of the Hawkeye Marching Band
which was very helpful for me because we
actually start a week before classes
start, so I already had friends coming
into the first day of class
they're a very great group of people and
I really formed a family there. I'm also
involved in my church and it's the Newman
Catholic Student Center I go study there,
I'm there with friends, I pray, and I'm also
in a Latina Sorority- Lambda Theta Nu
Sorority, Inc. and I made a lot of
great friends there. So Rolando, what are
some tips for maintaining wellness in
college? Some tips for maintaining
wellness in college - the first you have
to do is you know be honest with
yourself: You don't want to take on too
many responsibilities so you aren't able
to handle at one time, and the second
best to that is maintaining a consistent
schedule you have to remember to eat,
take care of yourself, exercise, whatever
you can it's time to be each and every
day
just some just often enough that you
feel healthy and you feel you know well
rested in the time being. Thank you, each
of you we'll get to hear from you again
here in just a few minutes.
So we also know that this is a lot of
information and we know college can seem
like a whole new culture fro First-
Generation students as well as their
families. We also know the
First-Generation families want to
be able to support their student however
they can. One of the best ways to support
your student is to simply take an
interest in their college experience and
ask them questions. Here are some
specific things that you can do to help
your student adjust to college life: First get them a planner . Or
encourage them to have that planner or
their phone or device or whatever it may
be, but to be able to get them organized. Ask if they have a routine. And then
create a communication plan with them: It
may be difficult, they may be in class at
times when you might want to be able to
reach out or talk to them but they're
not able to because they're in class; so
setting that communication plan around
their schedule is going to be really
important to communicating that with
them is really helpful. Refer them to the
professor or academic support help we've
heard several of our students talk about
that already. Um ask what campus
resources they are using in addition to
the other academic support resources.
Talk with them about what they are
learning in the classes; this is a great
way
to take a vested interest in what
they're learning in their career path
and helps hear some of some of that
passion of whether studying. Check to make
sure that they have all of their course
materials prior to the first day of
classes: This is very important and allows
them to get off on a good foot. Offer
support during midterm exams: This can be
a very stressful time for many of our
students and this will be the first
potentially real test of how they are
doing in their classes.  And lastly if
they are living at home help them find
that quiet place that Cassie mentioned
for that work space, and then respect
their study tonight so they can commit
their full selves to their academics. As
I mentioned before, there are so many
people on campus that are here to help
your student students should be able to
name at least one or two people on
campus who can help them if they need
anything.  Oftentimes these include their
peers,
academic advisors, professors, supervisors
if they have an on-campus job,
academic coaches in the Center for
Diversity and Enrichment, and the TRIO
SSS Student Success Coaches.
So Rolando we'll start with you again:
Who is in your support system? My support
system is mostly comprised of my
floormates: There the ones I see the most often - their the
ones I got to know for the very first
time once I got on campus; definitely
through meetings and such, and you know
they're just they're just a bunch of
people who you can really talk to and
you know get to know better and just
share your personal feelings about and
you know really not feel any sort of
criticism or negative action towards
sharing and it really helps in you know
finding comfort here at the university.
Paulina, how about you? Um my biggest support system would probably probably be my
sorority sisters and my advisors within
my sorority. I feel like my like sorority
sisters they always are there to like
support me but also my advisors
for them, they always like tell me what I
need to here and not what I want to hear
which I think is really important
because like as friends sometimes they
tell you what you want to hear and like
sometimes you need to hear what like you
actually need to do. Thank you.  Luz, what
are some of the things that you asked
for help with? Yeah so one of the main
things has been mental health: it's
very important to look out for your
mental health I know for me it was very
hard to be away from my family even
though they're not a long drive away
from campus, and so I didn't really know
how to go about that. I was really
struggling with anxiety and depression
so I decided to reach out for help I
actually reached out to Cassie one
of our TRIO coaches, she is great she
listened to me, she guided me and I was
able to reach out to even more people
that were also in my field of study to
like a doctor and she so she could guide
me to like the steps I had to take in
order to hopefully apply to medical
school and it's just like that effect of
asking for help I it was very scary but
I still did it and so that's something I
really do encourage to do from starting
the first your first year, your first semester
just ask for help don't be scared I know
as First-Generation students it's very
hard to do that but definitely do it.
Thank you. I'll give you each the chance
to answer this last question, and Rolando
we'll start with you again.
How can you family support their
students? I think the best way for a
family to support their student is to
establish a sense of mutual respect - you
know as a parent you are obviously going
to want to check in on your student and
you know they are really going to
appreciate that sort of connection that
you have with them, but also the parent
need to be needs to be aware of what is
going on with the student for example
there they might there might be days
where we're overwhelmed or just not
really in the right mindset to have
conversation and they
I also need to respect that, you know, at
the same time we are at a university we
do want to sort of discover ourselves
and become more independent in that
process and with independence there's 
there's obviously going to be good
decisions and bad decisions, and we just
need to learn to work through those and
um sort of resolve these problems on our
own and in a way just maintain contact
but not so much so that becomes a
detriment to either the parent or the
student. Thank you. Paulina? I think my my advice is to listen to your student: I know my first
semester my mom got in the habit of like
wanting to call me two to three times a
day and for me like that was like way
too much for me and like I was trying to
like be a student, like go to different
events, like go study, try and like
look for a job and like go to different
meetings and I was trying really hard
to like do all these things, and like
having that conversation with my parents
of like of like me telling them that
like my schedule is gonna vary from like
week-to-week and semester-to-semester
and that like I would make sure to call
them whenever I had time I think was
really important for me just because
like that, we avoided a lot of like
arguments that way, so yeah listen to the
needs of your student and like what they
may need and yeah. Thank you. Finally
Luz,  how can families help
support their students? Yes I agree with
Rolando and Paulina, um communication is
very important: I know for me I live
pretty close to home so my parents
wanted me to come home almost every
single weekend, and that was a little bit
tough to talk to them and say "hey I
really can't because for me the weekends
are really the times that I study and
get most of my stuff done because I'm
pretty busy during the week with other
things too" so just
talking to them and trying to make them
understand because as First Generation
students we're also learning about
different things within the university
and sometimes it may be hard for us to
explain things, so just having patience
with us as well. Wonderful, thank you.
Okay so that's what you
can do to support your student, but we
also want to talk about what we can do
as TRIO Student Support Services to help
your student as well. So a little bit
about TRIO. TRIO SSS is a federally-
funded program designed to support
students who are First-Generation
who may come from low-income backgrounds,
and/ or students with disabilities. Our
program serves 350 students, it is housed
within the Center for Diversity and Enrichment. We support our students by
offering individual coaching around a
wide range of topics; our students also
receive individual and small group
tutoring, which you heard a little bit
about already. Our students also take a
one- semester-hour course together every
semester where we teach them about a
variety of topics related to their
success in college and in a timely
manner throughout their entire
experience. We also put an emphasis on
building a strong community for our
students; we want TRIO SSS to be one of
those places and that place where
students feel like they belong on campus.
I briefly mentioned just now that
students take a course together every
semester that covers a variety of topics
I mean you may be wondering what that
looks like: The course is a composed of
20 TRIO SSS students (or less), taught
by the TRIO SSS staff: We cover topics
related to financial literacy and FAFSA
filing, career development, academics,
graduate and professional school
preparation, diversity equity and
inclusion topics,  leadership skills,
community building, and several others.
Outside of the classroom we also offer
some fun cultural activities like day
trips to different museums around the
area, as well as performances to Hancher
Auditorium which is the Performing Arts
Center on campus. And everything that we
offer as a program is no cost to the
student or to you as a parent.
We know what we do works:
we've been on campus for 45 years and we
are really good at what we do [Laughter]: our students have a higher retention rates and
graduation rates and they report a
higher sense of belonging and peer
connections compared to non-TRIO SSS
students , and we know our students
benefit from the support they receive
from our our Student Success Coaches.
So if TRIO SSS, as a parent a family
member, if that's something that possibly
you feel that your student may
benefit from or for the students who are
with us, if you are interested in
learning more about TRIO SSS, we encourage
you to connect with us on our social
media you can also reach out to us as
well via email or the phone number
that's on the screen, and we also do have
an application process for the program
- that is open right now for the 2020/
2021 academic year so that is an online
application it takes about two to three
minutes to complete and can be found at
our website at diversity.uiowa.edu/trio-sss
With that, we do have a
few more minutes and so I want to
give folks the opportunity to drop
any questions into that Q&A box and
Cassie and I will keep an eye on that
and we'll be able to respond to those
either just here with us or if there's a
chance and we can have some the students do that as well
then we can do that too so we'll keep an
eye on those questions for just one
minute and see if anything comes in and
then we'll go ahead and wrap up after that.
 
That's a really good question:
so the question that we got is "when is
parents week and what are the activities?"
So the University of Iowa does have
Family Weekend and the date for that for
2020 is going to be September 25th to 27th.
There isn't a lot of information
posted about it at this time but as it
gets closer to the start of the academic
year they'll have more information; but
typically at Family Weekend there's a
lot of really exciting things: Some of
the colleges on campus do some Open
Houses so your student can introduce you
to some people like their academic
advisor, or show you some of the things
that they're learning in the classrooms,
sometimes there are other large
activities on campus, sometimes they do
some fun things for little siblings, and
of course there's it's always the
weekend of a home football game too so
there's that.
So let me ask you all this since they don't
see me a lot of questions and you have
the opportunity to hear from three live
students who are first generation
ranging from just finishing their first
year to starting their senior year is
there anything in particular that you
would want to hear from a current
student about their experience they can
certainly answer those more general
questions as well okay students this
question is for you so what is the best
thing a parent can do for a freshman and
also what is the worst thing a parent
can do
Thank You Karin that's a great question
um Rolando why don't you get us started
first share with us maybe the best thing
and then the worst thing I think the
best thing a parent can do for their
freshmen is definitely send word some
encouragement their way because it's
definitely a very very different
transition and there's so many different
elements all we have to deal with and
just hearing those words for parents is
really you know it's it's like
heartening and I think the worst thing a
parent can do is probably call it the
wrong time like if you're not if you're
unaware of your student schedule you
might be calling in the middle of a
class study session or worse yet a final
exam I know that's very kind of you
those are very that was a very nice
worst thing that a parent can do holy
you know would you like to share as well
what's the best thing a parent can do
and the worst thing a parent can do for
a freshman I remember during my
orientation my parents they like wrote
me a little letter and then
they like sent it to me like during my
first week of classes and I think like
reading that whenever I was having like
really tough moments really helped me
like push through those moments and it
just like reminded me that like I'm here
for a reason and like I'm not doing it
just for myself like I'm doing it for my
family too and I think the worst thing a
parent could do um I guess from
experience my mom would always ask me
when I would be coming home but and I
feel like that's kind of sad because
like I I don't always know when I'm
gonna go home cuz like events are always
on the weekends and stuff and then I
like Lou said I do a lot of studying on
the weekends so yeah like making a plan
I guess for when to go home I think is a
good thing to do as well Louise do you
want to share I'm sure so I think the
best thing a parent can do for a
freshman is set up a call schedule so
say you call your parents Sunday night
and Wednesday nights and I mean
obviously there's an emergency you know
like have that communication with your
student but have that time just so that
your student knows okay this is the time
when I can call my parents and I can
just see how they're doing instead of
like calling at random times because
sometimes it can be a little bit
overwhelming I know for a fact my mom
once I was at the library and I was
studying and I was in a like a study
room and I had to leave and talk to her
and I felt really bad to just like to
her hey I can't right now so I it was
just a little bit to do that to my mom
but you know just setting up that call
schedule and I guess that's kind of like
the worst thing no parent can do kind of
kind of um just call it times where
maybe they don't know like you are doing
something so
just communicate with your student well
any last call for questions give you
another like 15 seconds I'm a teacher so
I don't mind waiting in silence well I
just want to say to UM thank you for
attending I'm gonna let Cody wrap up in
a minute
but in my experience working with
college students really the best thing
you can do as parents is what you've
been doing all along and that's just
supporting your student and telling you
you love them and you believe it and
there's really no worse thing that you
can do right I think the best thing to
do is just understand that your students
gonna be growing and changing and just
always always reinforce that message
that you love them and you believe in
them well I want to thank everyone for
joining us again and I think one last
piece that I do want to leave everyone
with is just to encourage your students
to ask ask for help make those
connections with folks on campus I had
mentioned so many different resources
from on student counseling to advisors
to faculty members to supervisors for
on-campus jobs but to know that there
are people on campus we have incredible
folks that work at University of Iowa
I'm better here to help and if if they
can't remember anyone remember that
Cassie and I are are always here and we
want to be able to help you as well so
never hesitate to reach out we're
absolutely here for you all and never
forget that and we're excited to welcome
you to the Hawkeye family here very soon
and thank you so much for joining us
you
