CAPS leads success seminars

The first semester can be stressful for students, especially those in their first year.
At the 2011 Student Success Seminar Series, Steve Veldkamp, the assistant dean of students and director of Student Life and Learning, facilitated a talk to students about their involvement on campus.

“There are lots of organizations you might want to look at that are completely different than your major or minor,” Veldkamp told a group of students in Room 174 at the Herman B Wells Library.

The eight-week-long series takes place from noon to 1 p.m. every Tuesday.
It is organized by IU Counseling and Psychological Services in coordination with Student Life and Learning, the Student Academic Center, Recreational Sports, IU Health and Wellness and Career Development.

The series gives students a talk on various topics to maintain well-being.

This Tuesday’s topic, “Student Involvement on Campus,” was facilitated by Veldkamp, who helped jump-start the series four years ago.

“We thought it’d be great to essentially develop the seminar series, get people on campus who were experts to come and talk to students and to give them information on the resources available to the students through their offices,” said Andrea L. Maltese, who coordinated the seminar series and is also a clinical therapist
at CAPS.

The future topics include forming relationships, academic success, emotional coping, career planning, healthy eating and exercising and forming a meaningful and spiritual life.

“I think in this environment, it’s really easy to not eat well, not sleep well, and there’s so much to do,” Maltese said. “You can always be doing something, and socially or academically, you can always do more. But it’s easy to stop taking care of yourself.”

Maltese said the number of students who seek services at CAPS has increased in the last six years.

One of the goals of the seminar series is to reintroduce information that students might be bombarded with at the start of each semester.

“I remember one student saying he felt like all incoming freshmen should attend the series,” Maltese said. “When they’re first starting and there’s so much going on, it’s hard to tune into the information that you are getting.”

Both Veldkamp and Maltese said students who are involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to stay in college and graduate on time.

“That’s exactly why Student Success Seminars start off with the idea of involvement,” Veldkamp said. “We call that integrative learning, where you take learning that’s from your classroom and you apply it to your co-curricular life, and then vice versa.”

But Veldkamp said it is important to join organizations that will challenge students’ comfort zones.

Freshman Ted Tarricone of Greenfield, Ind., said he is considering joining a break dance club or an intramural soccer team. He wants to study exercise science. 

“I haven’t really completely left all of my high school glory days behind and transitioned to really going to college full-force,” he said.

However, Tarricone said that he plans to attend more seminars because it is a way “to get that ball rolling.”

“I feel a little bit more optimistic about starting things and branching out now, and another seminar can also be equally beneficial,” he said.