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Many of these weekly columns are about how you, as loving parents, can play a valuable role in your student’s development.  We’ve encouraged you to help your son or daughter to:

• Discover his or her talents;
• Identify goals;
• Create a plan of action to meet those goals; and
• Review on a regular basis to make sure he/she is still on target.

Unfortunately, it’s easy for a college student to get distracted from his or her plan, and that is a why a major part of your role is that review step, helping to keep your family’s collective “eyes on the prize.”

And prizes will come, though maybe not as often as when your student was young, and “gold stars” were handed out regularly, or trophies bestowed, simply for turning in homework or being part of a sports team.

It’s a fact of college life that formal recognition may not come at all.  So as you work behind the scenes in support of your student, you should remember to celebrate – in a way appropriate to your family’s sensibilities – the progress that is being made.

You don’t have to throw a party, but every step that is completed should be acknowledged as being important.  You should make it clear that you are proud of the progress that your student is making.

As you celebrate, you can remind your student that it’s one thing to set a goal and quite another thing to accomplish that goal.  In noting his or her accomplishments, you can make the point that colleges, grad schools and employers are far more interested in what gets done than in how hard someone has worked.

Remember, results count.  That is an important message for students to learn, and for you to serve as a constant reference point.

At College Parents of America, we believe that is part of your job to provide unconditional love, and encouragement, throughout the college years.  If you remember to provide gentle, but firm, reminders of what is to be accomplished while the student is in college, our educated guess is that your family will indeed have much to celebrate.

Rio Salado College officially opened its new cafe Tuesday, Aug. 24 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its main site, 2323 W. 14th St., Tempe. The college’s employees are excited to see an abundance of fresh dining options available.

But it was clear that Michael Hodgins, the cafe manager and director of the Sustainable Food Systems program, was relishing the moment more than anyone.

“I started working at Rio Salado in February and I’ve been waiting for the cafe to open since then,” Hodgins said. Read more…

Congratulations to Jean Ellen Zavertnik, RN, clinical assistant professor at the VCU School of Nursing, on her selection in the National League of Nursing’s 2010-2011 Leadership Development Program for Simulation Educators.

This year-long program is designed for nurse educators who wish to assume a leadership role in simulation. Zavertnik has already made significant contributions to simulations in the junior Adult Health and Nursing Systems courses, and she is looking forward to continuing to enhance and expand her work. It’s a true honor to have VCU represented in this elite group of educators.

The VCU School of Nursing’s Women’s Health Nursing Group (WHNG) will kick off the semester with a general meeting on Monday, Aug. 30 at noon in the SON quiet study room. Participants should bring their lunch.

WHNG is an organization created for VCU nursing students, by VCU nursing students interested in women’s health. The group was created to educate nursing students and the public about women’s health issues; network with local healthcare providers, and volunteer locally.

If you have an interest in the upcoming education session at Fairfield and Whitcomb clinics please meet with us on Tuesday, Aug. 24 at 5 p.m.

Read more…

It’s only natural for you to worry about your son or daughter when he/she is away at school, and to experience a fair amount of nervous energy as a result.  The key is to channel your energies into productive activity in support of your student, and to narrow your concerns into what is really important, not fretting every aspect of day-to-day life.

To help you understand the truly critical concerns, College Parents of America has sifted through a lot of data.  One source we’ve studied with great detail is made up of the reports published by the American College Health Association (ACHA), in particular their annual National College Health Assessment (NCHA).

The most recent ACHA-NCHA study was conducted in 2009 and included survey data from more thousands of students at hundreds of different institutions of higher education.  To quote from the executive summary of the study itself, its purpose is “to assist college health service providers, health educators, counselors and administrators in collecting data about student habits, behaviors and perceptions on the most prevalent college health topics.”  Our purpose is to interpret the data for you.

We assume that the heart of the matter for you as a parent is to understand what specific ailments or illnesses might cause your student to miss school.  The three main reasons cited by students as causing them to miss class during the previous 12 months were:

• Allergies, 19.7%;
• Sinus Infection, 15.9%; and
• Back pain, 13.3%.

In the mid-range of reasons given for missing school, students cited:

• Strep throat, 10.3%;
• Broken bone, 8.1%; and
• Migraine headache, 7.6.

Mononucleosis, often a source of worry for parents and students is certainly a threat, with 1.6% of students surveyed mentioning it as a reason for missing class.  Mono, of course, may last for several weeks, so the amount of total classes missed might reach well into double-digits and may even necessitate the need for considering a medical-related withdrawal.

Of course, it’s one thing to miss class, but then catch up.  It’s quite another – and much more worrisome to your student – to fall behind, then even more behind and never catch up.  There is quite a continuum of issues that can cause stress and anxiety for a college student which, in the classic vicious cycle, can then turn around and affect student performance in class.  In fact, according to ACHA-NCHA, 27.8% of students cite “stress” as affecting their academic performance, while 18.6% mention “anxiety” as doing the same thing.  The chicken-and-egg question then, is whether poor classroom performance causes stress and anxiety, or vice versa.

Whatever the cause, a large number of students (44.2%) told ACHA-NCHA surveyors that academic concerns caused for them “trauma” or a situation that was “difficult to handle.”  Academics topped the list of such concerns, but “finances” weren’t too far behind, coming in at 35.6% of students expressing dollar concerns serious enough to note to researchers.

Now that you’ve read this column, you are probably asking: “what did I get myself into?”

You are pursuing the path that tens of millions of parents have trod before you, and millions more are today.  Only some of you, however, have an unwavering commitment to your student and that in itself is invaluable.  Please read this column every week, as we strive to offer more specific suggestions on how you can best support your student, and help him/her to overcome the inevitable challenges that come with growing up and going off to college.