As week 10 of the semester comes to an end, students discuss their stressors and coping strategies.
Transcript:
0:08: Welcome back to the Chronicle Chronversations.
0:11: I’m your host, Aaron Guzman.
0:13: This week on Chronversations, Columbia students talk about the challenges they face during midterms week and the practices they use to maintain their mental health.
0:22: First-year acting for stage and screen major Justin De Guzman talks about his first experience with midterms here at Columbia as well as the workload he faces this semester.
0:32: My classes are going okay, I would say.
0:35: I think I should not have slacked for a couple of days because I’m kind of behind on stuff, but probably my intro to theatrical design.
0:45: That was probably the project that I spent the most all nighters on.
0:51: Like I’ve only had to pull one.
0:52: I had to pull like three for this one.
0:55: I usually like, in stressful times I like to put music that kind of hypes me up, you know, definitely keeps me energized, you know, slightly motivated to keep going, so yeah.
1:07: Did anybody at orientation or anything you did before getting in,
1:11: Did they, do you feel like they provided you with enough resources of how to cope with your mental health?
1:16: Yeah, they did talk about mental health and stuff like that.
1:23: But, I haven’t been in that situation where I need to seek out resources for mental health.
1:29: Yeah, it hasn’t been that bad.
1:32: So you, you feel like you’ve had everything pretty much under control.
1:36: Yeah, like I’m okay.
1:37: Sophomore photography major Niomi Olivares talks about the projects she worked on during midterms and shares a strategy that she uses to keep calm under pressure.
1:47: She also gives some advice to students who are struggling with classwork.
1:50: I definitely think I get stressed because then I don’t care about any of my other other classes because they’re just like filler classes like math and all that stuff. I have to get them done but if I had to think I would be like I wanna do more photography stuff so I’m more so just get drained really easily doing the regular classes.
2:08: I walk a lot downtown.
2:10: I think walking helps me a lot, helps me clear my head because then you’re not thinking about anything but making sure you don’t get run over, so that’s great, and listening to music always helps.
2:20: That’s good.
2:20: What do you listen to?
2:21: Right now it’s been a lot of like Spanish rock, been getting me through the year, but a lot of everything.
2:27: I think a lot that’s a big reason why I chose this school because they’re like, hey, everybody here probably needs therapy
2:33: So, we offer it for free.
2:35: You don’t have to have any kind of insurance to need to get the therapy.
2:38: I think it’s called TimelyCare or something like it’s that’s what it’s called, for helping out people with their mental health and being able to talk to someone.
2:45: So my parents were also like, you should come to the school because it has good support on mental health, and I really like that.
2:51: Just breathe if you need to not come to class, do not come. If you’re really,
2:55: Like I just, if I go to this class, I’m gonna cry.
2:59: Do not go to that class.
3:00: They will understand a lot of the professors are like, if you need a mental health day, they’re like, we understand, sometimes I do it, and they’re just really nice about it.
3:08: Columbia College Chicago offers a consultation line which can help students, parents, faculty and staff to connect with a mental health professional to get resources and request mental health support.
3:19: Columbia also offers 24/7 mental health care with TimelyCare.
3:24: This offers students 24/7 access to mental health support, which includes one-time and ongoing therapy services at any hour.
3:32: More of this information can be found on students.column.edu/studentwellbeing/keyservices.
3:40: That’s all for this week.
3:41: Make sure to stay up to date with our campus and metro news, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on columbiachronicle.com.
3:48: I’m Aaron Guzman.
3:49: Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco