I do not have much to say about Weeks 7 and 8, despite the fact that they were a nice break, as neither of them had training for me!
Week 7 concerned scheduling, which for honors students, is pretty exciting. The students learned that the schedule before any non-honors student of the Ohio State University. The other peer mentors and myself told them that none of us have ever encountered the nightmare situation where we were not able to get into a much needed course. I saw the looks of relief on everyone’s faces!
When I remember scheduling my first spring semester, I recall being absolutely terrified. Our peer leaders and advisors had walked us through the course selection for our first semester during orientation… so what was I supposed to do when it came time to schedule again? I had no idea what I was supposed to be taking, how to get this information, or how to even make the schedule!
I remember the feeling of hope and security that this particular survey lesson gave me my freshman year, and I wanted to make sure these freshmen walked out feeling similarly.
We broke up into groups and taught freshmen the method to the madness that is scheduling. First of all, we made a point to stress the fact that ADVISORS ARE THE BEST SCHEDULING RESOURCE! We explained that major advisors can significantly help you pick courses to stay on track in a major, as well as complete your Honors Contract. It took a few attempts before they understood that their survey instructor is not their major advisor, but I think (hope) we got this through to them. Moreover, Honors advisors were cited as being an excellent guide to selecting GEs that will not get you kicked out of Honors! Next, we showed them where a course catalog and schedule of classes can be found on the www.buckeyelink.osu.edu homepage. These are important because it shows what classes are being offered this semester and when! Also, some majors offer mock four-year plans (luckily, mine was one of them and it helped so much), so for those who were able to access such a resource, I showed them where they could go about doing so.
Following that all, we moved on to schedule planner (dun-dun-dun). The students I worked with were a little overly anxious to build a schedule, and were visibly paying no attention to me. THAT was frustrating. I had them close their devices in order to get the most out of this initial introduction to the platform. I showed them where they can access schedule planner, how to remove any holds on their account, and how to get to adding classes into their schedule. Then I showed them how to generate and export/import schedule to Buckeyelink.
I then set them free to mess around with potential schedules until then end of class.
The day after this class meeting, Thursday, October 5, 2017, I spent the day in the Emergency Room. They gave me no solid answers as to why I was feeling the way I did. With no answers, I had no results, and skipped class the next Wednesday, October 11, 2017. However, today, I found out that a gluten allergy is to blame. Bye, bye, delicious gluten. Below, I am depicted as a bird.
(https://www.glutenfreeclub.com/gluten-free-club-cartoon-gluten-free/)
Weeks 7 and 8 were also spent researching statistics for my final project, in which I will discuss mental health and resources for maintaining/enhancing it.
I look forward to returning to my coursework as a peer mentor in week 9. I will be hosting a peer mentor event, and putting the final touches on my internship presentation in Week 10.