September has been a busy month for college students since they got back to work after a long vacation. Having to deal with deadlines, classes, tests, work and other school activities, college students usually find the experience stressful on campus.
More than 85 percent of students reported that they had felt overwhelmed by all the work they had to do within the past year, according to the 2015 National College Health Assessment.
“I see all kinds of stress with students,” said PSUC Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Educator Janis Krug. “Students might experience them in physical ways, and some people have more emotional types of stress or general mental health concerns as well.”
She also said the stress that those students experience come from their work load, internships and future employments.
“They want to make sure that they are doing enough to be competitive once they enter the workforce,” Krug said. “It is demanding to be a student for those things.”
Beside classes, Krug said stress could also come from family relationships or students’ personal relationships.
She alerted students that long-term exposure to stress could lead to some health problems.
“Self-awareness is definitely one of the best things that someone can do or help to prevent it,” she said.
She gave examples of different ways to deal with stress.
“To relieve the stress, some people are better by doing physical exercises. Others just need to relax by watching Netflix for a while or spend time with their friends,” Krug said. “There are lots of different ways to deal with this, but you have to understand what works best for you in a long run.”
Many students find it difficult balancing classes and social life. Therefore, Krug emphasized that students should use campus resources to help them out if they are really stressed out.
She said students could also benefit from counseling or take advantage of the health center and fitness center on campus.
“Joining a club or organization to be active with people can be a way of managing the stress as long as you are not doing that too much,” Krug said. “Or if you are behind with coursework, take some time to sit down and complete what you need to do so you are not overwhelmed.”
She wants students to take care of the problems instead of waiting for it to get worse.
Senior marketing and business administration major Ba Wool Lim is currently the president of the Korean Association and Club International.
Because he is a busy person, he has trouble balancing academic life and the social life.
“During finals week, we have to study, and we still have to prepare for the clubs,” he said.
However, being a senior and having been through many experiences in college, Lim has his own way to deal with stress and balance everything.
To manage time effectively, he writes down his schedule to memorize what he has to do.
“The most important thing is time management. If you do not manage your time, you will fail either in your academic life and social life,” he said.
Likewise, senior social work major Resident Assistant of Adirondack Hall Zachary Desjardins said college was always stressful.
He said how students manage their stress might make their experience be the best or maybe the worst.
To cope with stress, Desjardins often hangs out with his friends.
“When you are stressed out, you think negatively. You want people to bump you up and make you excited,” he said.
Desjardins also works on music to relieve his stress.
He writes out music and his thoughts to make him feel more positive.
“If you do not deal with stress, it is going to become more and more depressed inside of you,” Desjardins said. “At the end of the day, it is not going to help you.”
He encouraged everybody to go and do something that they love to do.
“You want to do everything with your full potential, not just half potential,” Desjardins said.
Email Hilly Nguyen at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
