Health

Employee Spotlight: Jen Stansel
By Laura Stussie, UA Campus Recreation in Health, Teaching and Students

Jen Stansel is the UA's Outdoor Adventures graduate assistant and has worked with Campus Recreation since May 2011.

Stansel, who is pursuing a graduate degree in special education, answered some of our questions about her work at Campus Recreation and some of the programs available there.

Q: Why were you interested in working in Campus Rec?

Stansel: I wanted to work at Campus Rec because I knew that working at Outdoor Adventures would be a great job with a lot of opportunities to learn about business, but more importantly, how many people can say that their job is to go canoeing for a weekend? I get to go rafting, climbing, skiing, hiking, and biking, and get paid to do it. I get to work with an amazing staff that is knowledgeable and passionate about the outdoors, and I’m always learning new things about the desert that I love.

Q: What is your favorite memory from an Outdoor Adventures trip?

Stansel: Watching the sunrise over the Grand Canyon at five in the morning with blankets and hot chocolate. If students were only able to take one OA trip during their time here at U of A, which trip would you recommend? I would recommend canoeing Black Canyon on the Colorado River (April 12-15). It's a challenging trip through slot canyons with great wildlife sighting opportunities and the possibility of a visit to the nearby hot springs.

Q: Do people usually sign up with friends? What if none of your friends want to sign up with you?

Stansel: Participants will sometimes sign up with friends, but this often isn't the case. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, since groups tend to live family-style for the weekend and everyone leaves with new friends.

Q: What is the "challenge course"?

Stansel: The Challenge Program is a division of Outdoor Adventures that works to put groups and teams of people in challenging situations. Participants must work together to accomplish a common goal. The program consists of both a low and a high ropes course. While the low ropes course is made up of low-to-the ground initiatives, the high ropes course is a structure that is over 40 feet high and includes a zip-line. What can I expect to gain if I brought my organization to the challenge course? The Challenge Program focuses on leadership, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. We've had a wide variety of groups, from FBI employees to UA Greek Life to sports groups and Resident Assistants, and each group has gained self-confidence and new insight into [their organization.]

Q: How will your experience with Campus Rec help you in your career?

Stansel: Campus Rec has taught me to be an effective manager, an efficient worker, and an innovative thinker. I've learned to collaborate with others and develop positive working relationships with co-workers and clientele. Campus Rec has taught many transferable skills that will help me in any future work experience, regardless of the field.

Tags:
Athletics, Outreach, Education, Q&A

UA Aiding Students Toward Health Careers
By Leah Cresswell in Health, Teaching and Students

Today, professional schools are looking for well-rounded students who are involved inside and outside of the sciences.

But the process toward medical school admissions can be confusing and daunting.

To help students understand how to successfully move into a health profession, the UA Office of Admissions and the Pre-Health Professions Advising Center are collaborating on the 2013 Health Professions Week, to be held March 4-8.

The event is designed for UA and community college students, transfer students and also youth in elementary and middle school. Details for the week of events are online and include an expo, webinar, panel discussion and open house. 

"We’re touching all different groups, which is really exciting because then we’ll have a lot of activity on campus. We’re trying to reach all students at all different levels," said Josie Gin Morgan, an adviser for the UA Colleges of Letters, Arts, and Science, CLAS.

Above all, the event is meant to help those students to learn about the profession and to provide them with information and resources necessary to ensure that they are prepared to apply to professional schools.

Morgan noted a broad demand exists for the event. 

Previously, the event was once held only for a single day, but after noticing that students had a lot of unanswered questions, the UA decided to expand the event over one week. The UA partners with Arizona State University and Northern Arizona State University, but out of the other two in-state schools, UA is the only one to have expanded the program to one week.

Those involved in working the event have high hopes for the students' future.

“I would love to see this get larger because, of the 4,700 incoming freshman, approximately 800 indicated that they were interested in health professions in some way,” Morgan said, adding that another hope is that the event would, one day, be entirely student-run.

“We set up infrastructure and then students will run it in the future."

Tags:
Students, Staff, Faculty, Research, Outreach

Beating the Valentine's Blues
By Alexis Blue in Health

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love, but for those struggling in the romance department, it can be a profound reminder of their unattached status.

You need look no further than Facebook to see the polarizing nature of this particular holiday. While happily coupled friends may post snapshots of the flower arrangements their significant others sent them at the office, single guys and gals are more likely to lament the senselessness of the holiday or opt to celebrate "Singles Awareness Day" instead.

So how does one beat the blues if flying solo on a day designed for duos?

We went to relationships expert David Sbarra, a UA associate professor of psychology, for some pointers.

Q: What emotions are common for single people to experience around Valentine's Day?

A: Loneliness is the big one. Loneliness and sadness, but loneliness is really the engine that drives a lot of that. Loneliness is our social alarm system. It's designed to tell us that there are gaps in our social connections, and it's motivating. When we feel lonely, we're motivated to change that. Sometimes we might not know how, but it really is a motivating feeling. On Valentine's Day, you're lonelier because you see everyone with other people.

Q: What can people do to feel better?

A: Don’t be isolated. Try to connect with friends and family that you can do things with. Stay active and on the move. Don't be entirely alone and take care of yourself. Give yourself a valentine. Give your friends valentines. Try not to get sucked down into your loneliness or sadness, and I think that point is really important. It's totally fine to feel these things, but trying not to get stuck in them is the real secret. So if you feel lonely, if you feel sad, you let it come up, you acknowledge it, you let it pass. Then you just get on with it, and that’s really an important part of maintaining emotional balance.

Q: How can we stay connected with others?

A: Facebook can be a good tool. We are not designed, from an evolutionary perspective, to live very far away from our families, and the reason is because when things get difficult and we face tough times, we go back to our families. For the most part, this is what people do when relationships end – that might be physically moving back home or going home more on the weekends. As we've become more and more spread out, in this country in particular, we live further and further away from our childhood friends, our parents and our siblings, and Facebook is great because it allows us to stay connected with people. Of course, Facebook can cause all kinds of problems because we’re too connected, but that's a different story entirely.

Q: Are there certain behaviors you would caution against around Valentine's Day?

A: You don’t need to act on your emotions, and this is something that comes up quite a lot. Suppose you're out of a relationship a couple months and Valentine's Day comes around and your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend is with a new person and you feel incredibly jealous. Our emotions are fundamentally motivational states to drive action, so what do you do with that jealousy? People will say, "I text him or her just to know what he or she is doing, because if they text me back I know they're not doing something with someone else." But what happens is every time you do that you maintain the connection, which keeps the attachment alive. The spirit of "you don’t need to respond to every emotion" is about acknowledging it and letting it pass, because otherwise you can get sucked in.

Q: The holiday can be stressful for couples, too. What do you recommend for people in relationships?

A: I think the most important thing if you're in a relationship is just being on the same page with your partner about what the expectations are. Do you have to buy something big? Are there flowers? People should be aware of what those expectations are and negotiate for what they think is reasonable. If it's your first Valentine's Day with someone, forget everything I just said and go all out.

Tags:
Research, Q&A

UA Students Can Access Grants for Child Care
By La Monica Everett-Haynes in Health, Teaching and Students

Student parents have a unique set of challenges in completing their academic work – one of them being the need to coordinate safe and secure care for their children while they are studying. 

At the UA, the Graduate and Professional Student Council (GPSC) has been working to make sure that those undergraduate and graduate students receive some support along the way.

Nationally, about one-fourth of all college and university students are parents and, of those, 57 percent are low-income, according to a 2011 report released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. The report also noted that about 12 percent of undergraduates in the U.S. are single parents with the vast majority of them being low-income.

Toward improving support for UA students parents, GPSC worked toward expanding the long-standing Child Care & Housing Subsidy Program for Students, which is supported by the University's Student Services Fee and facilitated through Life & Work Connections. 

The program, which offers variable funding amounts, also is supported by UA Student Affairs and the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

"A lot of what we do here has a positive impact on graduate students," said Zachary S. Brooks, the GPSC president and a doctoral student in the Second Language Acquisition & Teaching (SLAT) program. "We decided to take the lead on the issue and, this year, advocate on behalf of the students."

Funding available for child care was expanded during the fall of 2012 after $26,000 in student fee money was set aside. Today, grants remains available to undergraduate and graduate students.

"Child care has always been a big financial factor and an overall scheduling factor for students," said Jill Krenecki Lloyd, program coordinator for GPSC in the UA Dean of Students Office.

For some student parents, it is purely financial – they cannot afford the cost of child care, especially at those facilities that are licensed, registered and monitored by the state, she said. For others, it is an issue of time and the need to negotiate between school, work and other responsibilities.

"We do support that all inclusive balance of one's professional, academic and personal life," she said, adding that GPSC will pursue additional funding," Lloyd said. "This is something we are committed to continuing every year, so long as we have the demand from our students."

Want to submit an application for aid?

And, are you a new parent or will you be soon?

Life & Work Connections is holding an information session Feb. 12, noon to 1 p.m. in the Presidio Room of the Student Union Memorial Center. Organized for students and employees, the session will cover child care resources and nutritional tips.

Contacts: Zachary S. Brooks, the UA Graduate and Professional Student Council president, at 520-626-7526; Jill Krenecki Lloyd, program coordinator for GPSC at  520-626-7526 or jkl2@email.arizona.edu. 

Tags:
Students, Student Life

Rodriguez Family to Support UA Program

By UA Steele Children’s Research Center in Health, Sports

UA football Coach Rich Rodriguez and his family have chosen the UA Steele Children’s Research Center “Kids of Steele” as their personal charity of choice.

"Kids of Steele,"the family auxiliary of the UA Steele Center, is comprised of local families who want to teach their children about service and kindness, while raising awareness and funds for the Steele Center.

“My family and I have been involved with children’s hospitals for many years and are excited to continue helping children through Kids of Steele,” Rodriguez said.

The Rodriguez family plans to be involved in various "Kids of Steele" fundraising activities throughout the year.

“We are very excited that Coach Rodriguez and his family have chosen to join us at Kids of Steele in supporting the Steele Center and its  mission to teach, to heal and to discover," said Lucinda Peralta, who chairs "Kids of Steele."

Contact: Darci Slaten, communications and marketing director for the UA Steele Children's Research Center and pediatrics department, at 520-626-7217 or darci@peds.arizona.edu.

Tags:
Arizona Athletics, Sports, Outreach

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