In this episode of L.I.V.E, Dr. Jones and Etinosa discuss key strategies for overcoming the midterm slump and the importance self-care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In this episode of L.I.V.E, Dr. Jones and Etinosa discuss key strategies for overcoming the midterm slump and the importance self-care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/10\/2021-10-21_LIVE-Podcast_mastered-audio.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"55.85M","filesize_raw":"58563200","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[656,654,653,655],"series":[2],"class_list":{"0":"post-333","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"tag-midterm-slump","6":"tag-midterms","7":"tag-self-care-2","8":"tag-stress","9":"series-live","10":"entry"},"acf":{"related_episodes":"","hosts":[{"ID":68,"post_author":"39","post_date":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:29:28","post_content":"","post_title":"Dr. Brandon Jones","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"dr-brandon-jones","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_modified_gmt":"2020-07-20 20:33:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=68","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":287,"post_author":"52","post_date":"2021-04-29 17:49:47","post_date_gmt":"2021-04-29 17:49:47","post_content":"\n
Etinosa is a charismatic innovative idealist. Her passion and personal mission statement are to help people rise to the next level in all aspects of their lives. Currently, she is a graduate student at the University of Missouri in Kansas City working towards her Masters in Education Administration in Higher Education. Higher education is a field that electrifies her soul. Watching and walking alongside students as they reach their education goals pushes Etinosa to want to provide the best experience possible within residential life.
Etinosa kick-started her career within education by serving as a college adviser to high school students. Then transitioning into residential life at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. She is making more transitions by accepting a position as a community coordinator at The University of Texas at Austin in Housing and Dining. She believes that creativity and innovation will bring the needed change to higher education to provide our students with the best educational experience. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Etinosa Ogbevoen","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"etinosa-ogbevoen","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2021-04-29 20:11:11","post_modified_gmt":"2021-04-29 20:11:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/?post_type=speaker&p=287","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"guests":"","Transcript":"
Welcome to live leadership, innovation, ventures, and entrepreneurship, a podcast that showcases the talents, skills and abilities of UT faculty, staff, and students. I’m your host, Brandon Jones, associate director for student learning and development in housing and dining. And we’re excited to have you listening to us.<\/p>\n
Welcome everybody to the midterm edition of the leadership, innovation ventures and entrepreneurship podcast. We back we are in the back. It has been a minute. It’s been awhile. I’ve missed the podcast. I’ve missed the podcast too, but don’t worry folks. We are back we in full effect and we promise to deliver you on brand and on-point content, uh, all the way up until finals, because now we got more work to do in housing and dining.<\/p>\n
So really excited to be back. How have you been telling people how you, Ooh, he’s heard that deep breath that I just took. That’s really how I van Ooh, it has been, it’s been cool. Like I, I think a good word. Cool. Okay. Just lukewarm. I’m trying to make it. I’m trying. I’m surviving. My head is right above the water.<\/p>\n
I feel like we are what middle of October? I think everybody is feeling it. Yeah. And, and the it that you’re describing, would you, how would, if you could, if you could describe the it, that you’re feeling in one word, what would your one word in one word, what is the issue that I’m feeling. Stress. Okay.<\/p>\n
Stress that’s real is a real feeling. Yes. Okay. And I think that’s common. Let me throw my word in there. I would say, um, the word I’m feeling, I’m trying to combine all the things into one word. Um, I would say. Interesting. I’m going to call it. Interesting. Okay. Let’s dig deeper. What is interesting is it’s, it’s weird because there’s a lot going on personally.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot going on professionally. And so I call it interesting because it’s not good. It’s not bad. And I’m not going to even dare say it’s a weird in between. It’s just, it’s interesting because it could go either way. And so, because a lot of the things that I’m working on and that we’re doing haven’t concluded, or there’s no reason to personalize it or put a ton of emotion in it just yet.<\/p>\n
Yeah. It’s just a lot. Um, I would just say it’s interesting because just when I feel like, okay, we got, I got my foot in here in one area. Um, one of my kids does something, um, and my kids, my own kids, not the students that we work with. Then of course there are the kids that we work with, the students that we work with here at the university.<\/p>\n
And so that’s interesting. And then of course there’s the, um, just the never ending saga of academia and the things that we deal with in higher education. And so it’s, it’s interesting. It is very interesting. And because, I mean, I am emotionally invested. I have to. Take that deep breath and just kind of look back at things.<\/p>\n
And so, um, I hope our audience is doing well whenever they’re listening to this, whenever you’re choosing to listen to this episode, like comment and subscribe, of course, wherever you’re getting your podcasts. Um, but also just why it’s October and it’s almost over, over, oh my gosh. It’s what’s today’s date.<\/p>\n
Okay. It’s the 21st of October, it flew by, I think this month is really flying by, but like going slowly at the same time. I can see that. And I think there’s a lot to do. There’s some both end with that. Yes. There’s just a lot to do. And I think for me, Chose stress is because I don’t know, I decided I’m going to take a vacation, did decide that.<\/p>\n
And so I’m just running around, running around, making sure all the bits and pieces are there. And that, like you said, that emotional piece doesn’t like overwhelm. Like I have to be emotionally invested in some areas, but I can’t like, let that slow me down. Like I got to really push through and I feel like that sentiment resonates a lot with our students of like, There’s a lot going on.<\/p>\n
There’s a lot of pieces. There’s a lot of assignments and tests and papers and all these different moving pieces. And you just can’t let it. You can’t just like break down completely. Because we still are grades. I feel like I’m getting a grade in my work. I said, are you getting a grade in life? Seriously?<\/p>\n
What grade would you feel like you’re getting right now? I’m doing a good job. I’ll get myself a solid a, there you go. And Weiss yourself up. Rate yourself. Exactly. I think another thing that’s going on in the life of not only our university, but in our community and with our students is the. You know, October comes midterms and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing it on the faces of our students and the programs and the classes that I teach in the workshops that I’ve done recently.<\/p>\n
Our students are tired too, and they’re having some interesting times they’re stressed and also they’re having some fun too. You know, this past weekend was Fest Africa, which is when. Favorite, uh, things that our students do here on campus. Shout out to the African student organization. I love ASO and I’m mad that I did not get to go to the show this year because we didn’t get to do it last year.<\/p>\n
Now culture shock is coming up too, and it’s probably one of the best. Uh, performances that happens on this campus. It’s a, it’s a multicultural, multiethnic celebration of that our students put on and it’s a combination of student organizations working together to make this happen. And so shout out to the MEC and all the advisors to help that help bring that on, but our students are struggling with.<\/p>\n
They’re preparing for those shows. They put a lot of work into this. Like if you see Fest Africa, and you look at the photos, these students, didn’t just start practicing that this past week they’ve been working on it all year. And so to see the fruit of their labor, um, materialize and manifest, it’s been interesting and fun.<\/p>\n
And also they got tests too. They’ve got exams. The family’s life hasn’t stopped happening in the midst of them getting geared up for these performances and with November being literally right around the corner, um, that’s a short. Because of the holidays it’s there. And then shortly thereafter, they got like a week or so of classes left and then it’s final.<\/p>\n
So I get the stress that they’re under. What about what you all are seeing over at the apartments in graduate and family? Yeah. I think like, even from the community advisors that I get to supervise, oh my gosh, our staff meeting, it was I’m stressed. I’m busy. I’m everything is just unloading on them all at once kind of thing.<\/p>\n
And it was just like, Ooh, when do we get to take a deep breath? We have a lot of our, like master’s PhD students. Seriously, focusing days, weeks, hours, just writing dissertations, researching, preparing themselves, you know what I mean? They’re trying to meet these deadlines and it’s like, okay, we’re trying to figure out how to give them an outlet.<\/p>\n
Just a little break. You know, we’re working on getting this harvest dinner together. So just to bring people together, just a little break, bring the kids out and stuff like that. So. We are trying our hardest to break that cycle. You know what I mean? Just to have that outlet. Um, but everything pretty much going pretty smoothly.<\/p>\n
You know what I mean? We’re just trying to keep things in order, give them a safe space, give them a continuous space of knowing that there is support here, that they have people in their community who are rooting for them, even when they’re grinding. And they are really. Really grinding. Sure. Yeah. Sure.<\/p>\n
And I think that, you know, in the midst of all of this, I like the fact that we’re in a space and in a time now where we can be open and honest about these things. Right. Because a lot of the times I know in the culture that I grew up in and in the, you know, when I was coming through college, it was all about trying to find ways to tough it out.<\/p>\n
And per se and persistence is a good thing. I really do. I really do think persistence is a good thing on top of that. I also think that. We should continue to have these conversations that we were having in 2020 about. Being okay. With things not being okay and recognizing when I’m not. Okay. And so to all of our listeners, students, faculty, staff, parents, wherever you’re listening to this from, or whenever you’re listening, we want to make sure that we’re encouraging you to do that to gnosis doing and take a break take, you know, cause when at the notes that said I’m taking a vacation.<\/p>\n
I’m like good for you now don’t get me wrong. That means my teammate won’t be around for a couple of days at the same time, as she said, she’s making preparations before leaving so that everything continues to happen. And at the gnosis is going to be away from here being able to catch her breath. And the thing that I appreciate about the fact that you did that is this isn’t a very traditional time to take a break.<\/p>\n
Right? It’s the. End of October and it’s advising season. We’ll come back to that in just a second. Um, you all have, you know, a different, um, cycle going on over there in the apartments than what we do in the residence halls. And so we’re gearing up for closing. Y’all never closed, right? We’re gearing up for finals.<\/p>\n
And when the students go home, people live there. This is their home. This is their home home, right. Students, the residence halls is their home and the apartments that we own as well, it’s their home, but they go somewhere else for a time. Not at the families, the families live there. And so I appreciate the fact that you’re, you know, you earned your leave, you earned your account time.<\/p>\n
And so take your time until the, the faculty and the staff that are out there and students look, take a break. It’s okay. Use those absences. Perfect attendance rewards are cool and all, and at the same time in college, you don’t get a perfect attendance award. So you might as well use your absences if you can.<\/p>\n
I’m not saying skip. I am also not saying don’t focus on you. I’m telling you to focus on you, do what you need to do. What do you think about that? Taking a break as a self self-management tool, right. And I think like, like you mentioned like that perfect attendance award mentality is like, nah, you got to keep going.<\/p>\n
You gotta keep going. You gotta keep persisting and stuff like that. And I think kind of what we mentioned, having the conversation about. What does it look like to take a break? It doesn’t mean taking a vacation to go somewhere exotic and stuff like that. It really could be like, I’m not looking at my computer.<\/p>\n
I’m not looking at social media. I’m not doing any of those things for my mental health or my emotional health for my physical health. Um, and just being able to be like, I am now learning. What those self-management tools look like for myself? You know what I mean? It looks different for everyone.<\/p>\n
Sometimes. Like I physically have to, well, I live where I work, so it is tough for me to just be at my house and not be working. Right. And our phones are on twenty four seven. Right. We’re working in housing and dining, you know, people think, well, you go home at five. I’m like I’m at home. It doesn’t mean my mind isn’t on these buildings and these facts you live there.<\/p>\n
I lived there. And so I, I it’s like I breathe. I eat, I see work all the time. So taking that break and figuring out all those things in my life has been. I transitioned, right? Like from coming from undergrad to my masters, to now late twenties, I’m like, Ooh, what does this look like? How do I even encourage people around me to do those self-management tools and be like, how do you take a break?<\/p>\n
So let me ask you, how does that look like for you when you are taking. Well, the thing that I try to do is things that are intentionally restorative, because that is the true to me. That is the true definition of self-care. And self-management, I understand myself, I understand when I’m overwhelmed and I know that it’s not good for myself or anybody else when I am overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
And so I have to do what needs to be done in terms of making sure that. Putting myself in the position to do those activities and functions that are intentionally restorative. Some people it is, it’s turning your phone off. Some people I have to physically leave my space for me. Uh, when, you know, when COVID first hit and it was in March, I was home for two weeks.<\/p>\n
Didn’t leave the house. My wife was working at a hospital, so she was. You know, the one having to go back and forth. So I had to figure out, okay, what does that look like for me? And so going on drives, uh, became something that I started doing for myself. At that time. I started playing with Legos. Even we talked about that on one episode where it was like, look, what are those things that I can do to just mentally separate myself from work and, you know, going from my bed to the desk and the downstairs.<\/p>\n
You know, I’m working where, uh, I’m living, not too far from where I’m sleeping. So how do I create that separation? And so the activities that are intentionally restorative video games for me, um, talking on the phone, I did some zoom calls with friends. Uh, we did some virtual happy hours. Did plenty of those.<\/p>\n
Those were fun, uh, cause you at home and you’re safe. Right? So, uh, that was something that we participated in. And then when the world started to open back up a little bit in 2021, right? Definitely not 2020. Uh, but in 2021, we started doing a couple of trips here and there. I just got back from a conference in Chicago last week.<\/p>\n
That was my first time being on a plane in two years. And then. It could be as small as again, playing video games, just turning the phone off reading books. I got I’m building my vinyl collection. And so playing my records, sitting in my recliner, just hanging out. Yeah, yeah. Creating your own ambience and vibe.<\/p>\n
But again, it’s got to be intentionally restorative because if it’s not restorative, it’s really not a break. Care. Yeah, because the whole point is to restore and recharge that battery. And so if we’re not showing up for ourselves in those areas, um, we’re doing more harm than good. In my opinion, I’m not therapist.<\/p>\n
My wife is, uh, I’m not that kind of doctor, I’m a PhD. I got Dr. Philosophy. So I’m not that kind of doctor, but I will say that doing those things that intentionally restore those things that recharge your battery. Right. Um, those are the things that I think. Uh, we should be mindful of students, faculty, staff, parents, everybody listening.<\/p>\n
Yes. You really talked about this intentionality of it. So what happens with. Work life, everything just overwhelms you. And there’s not really a break and it come, it becomes burnout. So what does that feel like to you and what do you do when you recognize that? Oh, I’m at a point where I’m burnt out. Yeah.<\/p>\n
Yeah. Burnout is real. And we, I want to make sure that all of our students here on campus, no. You’ve got people on campus that are there to walk you through that and help you navigate it. Uh, shout out to our friends over in the counseling and mental health center, our friends over in the Vick center for, for strategic advising on campus.<\/p>\n
Uh, Dr. Ryan Sutton and. Uh, the team over in the human sweat center for the black male, Ty, he’s more over at the fearless leadership Institute for our women of color on campus. Uh, athletics. They’ve got people in place. Um, every student has access to all of these different resources and that those are just a few that I was able to name Longhorn, Longhorn wellness, our friend, Brittany O’Malley, who’s been on this show.<\/p>\n
Um, those are Kate lower over with shift. All kinds of folks that are here on campus that are there to help you recognize that you achieved, that you’re reaching that point of burnout. When I get there, little things start to annoy me. For example, when I get an email, I know if I’m annoyed at the fact that this little part of my job, the littlest part, the small, I said littlest, I have a daughter littlest pet shop on in our house.<\/p>\n
The smallest part of my job is checking email. When NAZ starts to get annoying, I’m like, okay. Um, I’m at that point or I’m reaching that point. And so one of the things that I have to build in is what is the step of when this, when is it time to step away for a second right now life happens. And then there’s things that get, as I said earlier.<\/p>\n
Interesting. And so as a result, when I’m noticing that that calendar is filling up, if I’m noticing that my outlook calendar is getting overbooked, I go and find the gap in the calendar. That’s the first thing I do. And I look and see when the first available gap is, and I immediately block it because what I found is that if I don’t do that other people won’t, and I’m not saying that people in my life are bad or don’t help me, but it’s just that they’re doing their job.<\/p>\n
It’s my, it’s our admin’s job to put appointments on my calendar. It’s our job to go in and make sure that students who want to see me can see me. With that being said, if that time that I’ve set aside is starting to fill up. I don’t want it to be too, too far along before I get those meetings in. And so as a result, my days can fill up quite quickly, quite fast.<\/p>\n
So I go and block it on the calendar. The second thing I’ll do it. And I learned this in zoom world. I’m not going to stay on the zoom call until one minute before my next call. Right. That’s the next, that’s the technique that I picked up. We’re doing all these zoom meetings, because you could go from one meeting to another and it’s like, all right, it’s 9 59.<\/p>\n
And I have a 10 o’clock. I got to go with no break in between that wasn’t smarter than me. And that led to quick burnout on a Monday. Okay. We got four more days in the workweek left plus I’m a full-time parent parenting. Didn’t stop. My kids were upstairs at that time. So for me, I built in that 15 to 10 to 10 to 15 minute window, just like we would do if we were on campus walking somewhere.<\/p>\n
Um, I would build that in too. And the other part about being intentional is you have to be intentional about knowing your signs that you’re becoming burnt out again, for me, when emails starts to get annoying, that’s an immediate warning for me. Hey, the scale is starting to tip here and I got to stop somewhere.<\/p>\n
If I can’t take a one day breaker, if I can’t take a day off, I’m going to identify small pockets of time where I can go and do that. And for me, that looked a bunch of ways. And I know I’ve been rambling for a couple of minutes, but I want to get this one out there too. And hear from you. Oh, what I would do between meetings.<\/p>\n
If I had five to 10 minutes, I put my AirPods in and walk outside. I’d walk out to my backyard and my neighbors probably thought I was crazy. Cause I just paced back and forth on the patio. And I put on one of my favorite songs, joy and pain by maze and Frankie, Beverly play that and just listened and would focus on different parts of the song because focusing on that mentally, it was an immediate distraction because if I’m focused on.<\/p>\n
The Oregon on the song. And then the, then a couple seconds later, I’m focused on the drum or the, the different instruments that are being utilized in the song, the conga drums, all of that. Then five minutes will go by and I’m like, okay. I was not on planet earth for about five minutes. And I got so good at it.<\/p>\n
Like my kids would be standing there like, Hey, Hey. And I’m like, Okay. So I literally zoned out, but it was intentional because I knew I only had five to 10 minutes and it was good for myself and everybody involved to, for me to do that. The last thing I say with that. The apple watch. Oh my gosh. All those tools on there to check your heart rate and to see if my beats per minute was going down, uh, before I played the song and after the deep breathing, I would sit, set aside some time to do those things.<\/p>\n
Cause that’s just one minute you do it for 30 seconds. Checking your. Heart rate. And then it’s one minute for deep breathing. And now they’ve got that mindfulness minute, uh, as a result of the new iOS update, check it out. If you haven’t already, uh, apple is not, apple is not an approved sponsor of the show yet, but one of the things I want to make sure is that we share those techniques because it can be that simple.<\/p>\n
It does not have to be on the couch with the therapist, although if you can do it, I have, and I do, uh, at the same time. There’s other ways. Right over rant over. Woo. My rent. Oh, what a great question. I hate when I ask these questions, I never really have an answer. Um, I never really did burnout for me. Uh, it looks a couple of different ways.<\/p>\n
I think like my anxiety ramps up, like I’m just going through my day and. Anxious about what comes next. And I’m like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, my brain is racing and it doesn’t have a time to just take a break. Um, like you said, my heart rate, I can feel it now. Like I have to take those deep breaths.<\/p>\n
I have to be like, okay, you were here, you were in the moment kind of theme. But what really starts to happen is the themes that I’ve placed as self-care start to wither away. Like, I replaced them with like, oh, I I’ve got to do work right now. Or I got to meet up with this person and stuff like that. And that’s when I know I’m burning out or I go home at the end of the day and it’s like, I’m on the verge of tears.<\/p>\n
Like it’s just sitting in the water line and I’m like, why? And I’m just like, oh my gosh, I haven’t had time to breathe for three days straight, four day, straight weeks, weeks at a time. And I’m like, oh, I haven’t gone to the gym. I haven’t gotten a facial. I haven’t like, oh my gosh, I’m a creative person. I haven’t done a photo shoot when I cannot be.<\/p>\n
Creative and just my own little world, I know burnout is coming. Right. And now I’m about to have a breakdown. And like you said, being intentional to be like, okay, I need to articulate, like, I need to speak to the people that are supposed to be in my corner to help me. So for example, like I’ll talk to my supervisor.<\/p>\n
Like I personally very much enjoy having one-on-ones because it, it forces me to have an outlet to be like, okay, they’re asking me about work, but then they’re asking me about my personal life. And now I get to articulate that. Not doing okay. I hear myself being like, I’m not doing okay, so now I need to be intentional about adding those themes back in.<\/p>\n
Right. And so, um, breathing, I need to really, uh, re I think I turn off the notification for that mindfulness thing. I said, Ooh, yikes. Need to turn that back on. But. Yeah. Some of the things that I do to just get out of that burnout is Ooh, that me and the gym and I will turn on my air pods. I will put, what is it?<\/p>\n
Transparency mode on or off? I can’t hear anything. And I just go in, like, I use all that excess energy. Just push it out. A facial. Oh my gosh. I love about the spot day. I got one yesterday and it was glorious. I put it on my calendar all whole month in advance and nothing was gonna get me to not go to that facial.<\/p>\n
And it’s literally only 30 minutes and I’m like, oh my gosh, not only do I feel amazing. I now look amazing and it’s glorious mean, I think everyone needs to figure out what that looks like. Right. I think right. Sure we could go down the rabbit hole of self care, but figuring out those points. What restores, what replenishes you, what rejuvenates you at your core?<\/p>\n
Right? Um, and stuff like that. I can actually, I mean, on that, what I called that is minding your D’s and F’s my name, IDs and abs these are the things that get pleat and drain you. And the F’s are the things that feel right. I learned that doing, uh, academic coaching when I was at, uh, other institutions.<\/p>\n
And the thing that I found was that we don’t pay enough attention to those things. That’s a big part of self-care and self-management, as a technique, you got to know those things that drain you. You know, I know that checking emails would drain me certain times. So I know that when I’m done with that, what’s that intentionally restorative activity that’s gonna refill the tank.<\/p>\n
Right. Because we try to pour into people on yeah. Well, w what are we going to pour? If we don’t have anything, are we going to pour a vapor? They run on vapor cars, don’t run on vapor and you try it. You can try it. And your car will only go so far. Right? It’s the same thing with us. When you mind your D’s and F’s and pay attention to those things that drain and fill you up, you’re going to be in a better position, right?<\/p>\n
To, uh, To pour into others to do our jobs. And it should be something that we daily practice at the same time. We understand that. You know, it might be Friday before you get back to it. Now don’t project your happiness into the future date. I think that would be the second thing I’d add. Don’t project it into, I will only be happy on Friday.<\/p>\n
That’s not fair to you. Right? Find a way to put, put some little my, as Darren Roberts caused that those micro wins. Can you put some of those micro wins in your day where it feels you back up? I didn’t want to miss that moment. Wired me to bring that out because when I do my student workshops, that’s bullet number one right there.<\/p>\n
So definitely want to, yeah, I’m a big fan of celebrating the little wins. I think people don’t do it enough. My big thing is birthdays. It really, I don’t know if I would say irritates my soul, but irritates my soul when people don’t want to acknowledge their birthday. Because I know I was like, this is, this is my PSA to everybody.<\/p>\n
Celebrate your birthday is one day that’s. I mean, there’s a lot of people maybe with your birthday, but you were born that day and that I am happy that you were here and I want to celebrate that little win of your life. That’s why I think people should celebrate their birthday. I’m just going to keep it real.<\/p>\n
We, I just, I struggle with being celebrated. And so as a result, as much as I’ve accomplished in my. I am just awkward when I’m being celebrated. For example, I don’t like my bio being read whenever somebody is introduced, like, everybody’s like, can you sing your bile? And I’m I delay until the last second, every time, because I don’t know what to do during that.<\/p>\n
However long it’s going to take to read it. I’m like, if you will let me do that myself. I promise you they’ll get the bio. But that reading of that, I was literally the other day doing a workshop for some faculty and. I was standing there, pinching myself while they were reading it. Cause I’m like, I don’t know how to handle this moment.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. And so I acknowledged afterwards. I said, if y’all were watching me and you saw me nervously pinching my hand, it’s because I don’t know how to be celebrated. And I think a lot of our students are like that too. I think a lot of our faculty and staff are like that.<\/p>\n
It’s just, we don’t know how to be celebrated because of this. As I see. I don’t know what to call it. This culture of overwork, let’s just call it that. Um, it’s just part of life. Like why would I sell, celebrate that? Cause it’s just, it’s just what I do, right. Means something. And we should learn to, I do know that I need to learn to be grateful for those things because it’s one.<\/p>\n
Cause for me initially, I framed it under what I’m trying not to be arrogant about this. I want to come across as humble. Right? Then my wife said when it kind of comes across as ungrateful, if you’re not careful because people want to celebrate you and it can have the opposite effect. And so to our students out there celebrate those micro wins.<\/p>\n
Did you pass that test today? That means something. Did you make it to all your classes on time? Yeah. On a day that it rained celebrate those micro wins to parents. Can we talk to the parents? Because you know, I like talking to the parents now that’s a new feature of the show. Parents, October is a time where.<\/p>\n
You’re student is incredibly stressed and burnt out. And yes, for the, if they’re, if they’re freshmen, you probably are. You were used to being able to see that because they were at the dinner table and you could see it, you pick them up from school and you could re read it on their faces. They’re miles away now.<\/p>\n
Or if they’re in the same town they’re on campus and you may or may not see. Check-in and ask specific questions, right? Because the, how you’re doing is only going to get you the, how you’re doing answer. Hey, how are you doing fine. I can tell you, listen for the listen closer, listen with a little bit more intentionality and also be aware that.<\/p>\n
We don’t want to put too much pressure on as well, let them know that you’re there, let them know you care. And that the grades and performance are not the only thing you’re interested in because I know a lot of the times the parents that I’ve been talking to recently, they’re like, well, I haven’t heard from them.<\/p>\n
I’m like, well, it’s October 21st and advising, we need to talk about that too. Before we get out of here, advising season is around the corner or it’s happening right now. So that means that they’re planning their life out for the next semester. Not to mention. The fact that we are in Austin, Texas, and your student is also looking for a place to stay for August of next year.<\/p>\n
Can we talk about that too? Right. So now, so not only are you looking for a place to live, you’re planning out your academic life. You may want to apply for a job or an internship or a summer experience. All of those decisions are being made in October for a lot of our students. And some of them know exactly what.<\/p>\n
And then there’s our students that may be first gen and don’t have the slightest clue yet because there’s been no, there was no one that walked that path before. And so we want to, I want to encourage parents to exercise a little bit of patience and also, um, when you’re checking in, check in, be a little bit.<\/p>\n
Intentional gracious, specific, um, the vulnerable, I think I would say vulnerable. I think this is a, I think this is a time where it’s like one thing I noticed about my parent. I never asked them questions about when they were my age until I got older. And so I think. Sharing your experience because like for a long time, your child looks at you and they’re like, this is my guardian.<\/p>\n
They they know best, but they forget that you were there, same age struggled. And they resonate with that. And they’re like, oh really? Like, how do I then, how do I navigate these emotions? How do I navigate the stress? How do I navigate when things get interesting? Right. Um, intentionality, vulnerability. And graciousness, I think are three things that parents can really do to help their students, but continue with no, no, no, no.<\/p>\n
Let’s go back to, let’s go to that advising point too. I wish I could have got one of my friends from the advising committee in here and we may do that on the next episode. Of course you might be on vacation, but you know, do your thing. I’m not judging. I’m just being petty. Um, One of the things that I, as a former academic advisor, the thing that I often think about during this time of year is I wonder how many of our students have checked in with their advisors because advisors are busy, they’ve got those high case loads, they gotta get students in and they got to make sure that.<\/p>\n
Are you ready to register? Do you know what to do to register? Do you, are you on track? Because keeping them on track is a very important thing. And I know that for a lot of students knowing what their registration time table is, um, what that window of opportunity is to get that class that they’ve been trying to get.<\/p>\n
That is as a source of incredible stress, too, as much as we know. I don’t think that we talk about that enough here. I think that we need to spend some more time emphasizing it and I’m making it a point that every semester, I think we should address the advising, not dilemma, but just making sure that our students are aware of the seasons here.<\/p>\n
Check that email because your advisor can’t pick up the phone and call all of you because some of our advisors. Hundreds of students that they’re working with. And so shout out to all the academic advisors out there that are working with our students in their respective colleges and majors. They’ve also got other jobs that they’ve got to do during the day.<\/p>\n
So students make sure you’re checking your email parents, make sure you’re encouraging your students. Check the email, make sure that if the advisor has given them steps. Every advisor that I know has an out of op, not an out of office notification, but has a, uh, notification that goes out as soon as you email them, it’s a, Hey, we’re in the midst of advising season.<\/p>\n
And so their responses to emails are going to be slower because of the number of students that they’re seeing. I remember that vividly, and I also remember. Those students that didn’t check emails. It’s like your tick, your time ticket to register is declining and it’s coming to a close and we might’ve missed some steps.<\/p>\n
It’s going to be very important students that you’re following through on that, because I know the midterms. Yep. It’s the slump. You got exams, you got registration. You try to go to football games. You’re trying to be active in your organization. You could hit a slump or a low ball or whatever word you want to call.<\/p>\n
It. That’s might be what we call this episode. Overcoming the midterm slump for parents, students, faculty, and staff. I would say the one piece of advice I would tell students about advising season. I say. And go to your advisor, but also make sure that you know, what you’re supposed to be doing. I think one thing that I learned from college, like there’s usually a big old sheet with all the classes, a whole catalog.<\/p>\n
And I was like, and sometimes you need to take that time to be like, okay, how. Do I help my degree plan? How do I graduate and stuff like that. So you’re going to your advisor and you’re like, Hey, these are the classes I want to take. And this is why I want to take them. And it’s teamwork. It’s a collaboration now.<\/p>\n
It’s like, okay, cool. Like, I feel competent with the fact that I’m in this major and I have my degree plan planned out. And my advisor and I are on the same page. I said, y’all can be best friends, best friends. I also think about how I went to a much, much, much, much smaller school. Uh, we only at Abilene Christian, we only had about 2000, maybe 3000 students total.<\/p>\n
So the undergraduate population was half of that three, two or 3000. So. I knew who I registrar was the person. And I knew who the provost was. Dr. Dwayne van Reenan, never forgot Dr. Van rien in his name. And most people are like, well, who is the provost? And what does the provost do? Right? Who is the registrar?<\/p>\n
What does the registrar do? Right. We should probably get the new provost on at some point. So we can talk about like, Hey, what is the, what is the job you can mean? You’re the academic leader of the institution, the registrar. You help thread the needle for the academic experience of our students. You make sure that that count.<\/p>\n
The academic calendar is set. Oh my gosh. Knowing your registrar. When I worked at the university of Dallas, uh, I made sure I knew who our registrar was because I ran the academic success office. Right. So knowing the academic calendar for future years, the registrar sets that. And so if I’ve got plans to develop something or to launch a new initiative, As far as people I reach out to is the registrar, because I I’ll go to them and say, I’m thinking about doing this.<\/p>\n
And I want to do it during this time a year off the top of their heads, without looking at a calendar, they can tell you that’s a bad time. Midterms are going on there. Are you crazy? You don’t do that. Or they’re like, Hey, you know what will be a better time for you to do that event on belonging? In September, the first three weeks of school, because there’s no other than the 12th class day.<\/p>\n
And other than, you know, some preliminary stuff, that’s really a good time to create that sense of belonging. And all the research suggests that too, that we create a sense of belonging within that first three to six weeks for our students. And so knowing your registrar. I find the, what I would encourage every student and parent to do is bookmark the registrar’s page.<\/p>\n
I have it bookmarked on all my devices, because if any given moment somebody could ask me, when is. And I’ve got it pulled up. When is the last day of classes this semester? Our academic calendar is changing in the spring. We’re going to have, we’re actually going to finish earlier and we’re going to start a little bit differently in the fall next year.<\/p>\n
So our academic calendar is changing as an institution. How many of our current students know. Because the incoming students, they’re only going to know that word that they come into current students are used to, we start after the king holiday, uh, or we start classes on Wednesdays in the fall. All that’s going to change next year.<\/p>\n
All the calendar is going to look different. Our halls are going to close sooner. And so summer is going to say, Sooner, that’s going to impact conferences and events. That’s going to impact jobs and placements. So learning the academic calendar of your institution is really good too. And if you put those things in your outlook calendar, students, if you’ve got that, if you put that in your Google calendar, if you have a mobile device, use the calendar function.<\/p>\n
If you’re not already, please, please use that. Because we did not have, you know, I’m dating myself. I can got a cell phone. I had a cell phone, but we didn’t use it until the nights and weekends, the seven o’clock when the minutes were free, because I sound so old when I say this, but I’m not that old, but texting was a dollar a message.<\/p>\n
It was a dollar. I remember when my parents got mad at me. Nobody was texting when I went to college, you know, to, okay. The screens weren’t in color. You see how old I sound? This is just 2002. Mind you, but it sounds like 1948 when my dad was born. So yes, my father and my parents are boomers. Okay. I get that.<\/p>\n
I understand that. I own the fact that I’m just an older millennial and I know that we’re like, cause generationally, this college, the college experience for older millennials is different than our younger millennials. And for gen Z years as well. And I understand that calendars, they grew up in a world where that was always an option.<\/p>\n
Yeah. I come from the, the Blackberry Palm pilot, uh, pre tablet world. So, you know, the digital calendar, you know, we had the analog, the paper calendar for years, and that was the thing to give out to college freshmen. It wasn’t. Yeah, they were like, we don’t, we don’t need this. It’s weird. Is there anything else we haven’t talked about with the folks today?<\/p>\n
No, I think we’ve covered all the things that we needed to cover today gave out all the advice that could I could. Yeah. But yeah, I’m wishing everybody the best. Seriously, our students, our parents, our faculty, our staff. I know we are in that midterm slump and we all feeling it in different way shapes and forms.<\/p>\n
And I’m sending out good vibes, positivity, optimism. We will get through this. Yes we will. Yes, we will. And to everybody listening, parents, students, faculty, staff, we want to make sure. And I say that all the time. Cause I want to make sure everybody knows. We talking to all y’all right. Um, we’re going to get through this together as.<\/p>\n
W we, there are so many people out here that the university employees, uh, and that are in your community university community on and off campus that are here to help you navigate and overcome that midterm slump, because it’s real, it’s a thing. We all are feeling it. And there’s also a light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n
And so my hope and my positive thought for you all is that. You reach out if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, we’ve got so many resources that are available to you. Counseling and mental health centered Longhorn wellness, uh, the Vick center for strategic advising. Uh, my friend, Dr. Ryan Sutton over in the sweat center always says to the young men in that program, you are not in this alone.<\/p>\n
And so with that, we’ll wrap up this episode and we’ll talk to you all again, next time. Alrighty. Bye. We hope you enjoy today’s episode to catch the next installment. Be sure to follow us on Spotify, apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and Stitcher. This podcast was recorded and edited in collaboration with the L a I T S development studios.<\/p>\n
Audio department, more information can be found@liberalartsdotutexas.edu slash L a I T. The interest song was composed by Ian Herrera. And you can find his work@ianherrera.com. The outro song was composed by Noah Keller, and you can find more of his work@noahdkeller.com. We’ll see you next time.<\/p>\n"},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2022\/03\/LIVE-logo-TPN.png","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-download\/333\/episode-27-overcoming-the-midterm-slump.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/live\/podcast-player\/333\/episode-27-overcoming-the-midterm-slump.mp3","audio_player":"