Who ya gonna call? Student Resources!

We all need help, whether it be with our Excel projects, English papers, or general health and career advice. Life gets really stressful sometimes, work piles up, and we need to find ways to divide our time between ourselves, our work, and our friends. There are so many useful organizations throughout all these different fields at Villanova, but initially they can be hard to find or access. On September 4th, one of the first opportunities we had to seek and immediately find all of these organizations was the Student Resource Fair in the Nydick Commons.

The Health Center

Every organization dedicated to helping the student body of VSB was present, from professionals to student-run groups. Tables were set up with a sign indicating which group was which. The first organization I learned about and took some complementary pamphlets from was the Health Center, which is located across the street from Bartley Hall and adjacent to Driscoll. Two nurses behind the table answered every question I had, from getting better sleep to quick, easy cures for colds and stuffy noses. They also had pamphlets from health topics ranging all the way from the common cold to mental health (since you can also get free individual or group counseling at the Health Center) to STDs. They encouraged me to take some of these pamphlets about the subjects we talked about, since they would have more in-depth information regarding them.

MLRC and Writing Centers

I then moved on from the Health Center’s table to the tables for the Math Learning Resource Center and the Writing Center. These organizations are located on opposite sides of the hall in the library on the 2nd floor. They both utilize the skills and experience of upperclassmen as well as professional, paid tutors. I have not yet had to use the MLRC, but I have been to the Writing Center a few times, meeting with students and tutors. They always give very constructive feedback and advice whenever I visit. They both have sets of walk-in hours where you can drop by and be helped by the earliest available student or tutor, but if you know your schedule and want to be proactive, you can go online, sign in with your Villanova account, and schedule an appointment with anyone with available time slots.

The Clay Center

The final table that I visited was for the Clay Center. The Clay Center is the advising hub for VSB. You can schedule appointments with your advisor, sit down and talk to fellow VSB Ambassador students, and sign up for various career planning and professional development events. I utilize the Clay Center often, even if its just to say hi to Kimberly at the desk, chat, and take a lollipop for the road.

Overall, the Student Resource Fair was a very worthwhile event to attend. Having little to no experience with the inner workings of Villanova, learning about the different outlets for support and help for students was extremely helpful and led me to use many of them.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

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