Month: July 2020

Tips for Student Athletes

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Class of 2024 student athletes, it is unfathomable the hardships you have faced with your last high school season getting cut short and now your fall season being cancelled. While there is nothing that can be said to make up for those lost moments, there are ways to use what you have learned as an athlete to prepare you for the academic rigor of Wesleyan.

Even as a student first, “athlete” remains a crucial part of your identity. The two go hand-in-hand in many ways. Below are some tips on how to best prepare for this upcoming semester with or without an official season impeding on your classes.

To start, time management is a big one. From the classroom to lifting back to the library then to practice and then a review session, your days can become very busy. Thus, it is essential that you find a way to best manage your time. Organization is a key factor of time management. It is so important that you implement some form of planner system or google calendar to ensure that your classes do not overlap with practices or games.

From that last point, one of the go to answers when asked by any coach of how to improve in a game is communication. This applies on and off the field. It is imperative that you establish a relationship with your professors early on so that it is easier to communicate for the very minimal times that athletes may interfere with academics. With that, communication with coaches is also part of your academic success and ensuring the prioritization of academics over athletics in special circumstances. Use your coach as a vehicle towards achieving academic as well as athletic success. In succession with the team as a resource, the use of older teammates in helping navigate the cohesion with your sport and classes is a key point of advice. They have experience with the structure of NESCAC athletics and the rigor of the Wesleyan education.

Lastly, success in any aspect of life is contingent upon proper preparation, which includes sufficient fuel and care of the body and mind. The life of a student-athlete is often go go go, which leaves little room for self reflection. It is ok to take a break and give yourself the downtime that you deserve. Ultimately, while you are labeled as a student-athlete on campus, these tips will help you to distinguish between or separate athletics and academics while also establishing a balance with both.

Check list:

  • Time management
  • Organization (planner)
  • Communication (on and off the field)
  • Relationships with professors
  • Plan ahead
  • Use teammates as resources
  • Coaches as resources
  • Separate/find balance with athletics and academics
  • Take care of body and mind (fuel)
  • Give yourself a break and down time

What Do Academic Peer Advisors Do?

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This post serves to introduce you to Wesleyan’s Academic Peer Advisors, students who work under the umbrella of the Office of Student Academic Resources to enhance students’ access to academic resources and promote their academic success.

Especially in such tumultuous times, APAs are here to serve as a resource to all Wesleyan students. Although life at Wesleyan will look quite different than it has in past years due to the pandemic, APAs are available to address any concerns you may have, ranging from queries about course selection to questions about getting involved on campus! Over the summer, we are available to answer your questions via email (peeradvisors@wesleyan.edu). Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

During NSO, which will be taking place mostly virtually before arriving on campus, APAs will focus on helping students plan and schedule their fall semester courses. We are part of a large network of academic support that you will be able to access once on campus, which includes pre-major advisors and deans. Before classes begin,  you — and every other first-year student — will meet with an APA to discuss course selection for your first semester, as well as any other questions you might have. Throughout the entire academic year, we will continue meeting with students individually as well as hosting group workshops. We are as available as students want us to be, whether you’d like to meet once a week, once a semester, or once a year! Also, we are always extra available during the Pre-Registration and Drop/Add periods of each semester, and you will see us work in conjunction with other offices on campus.

In our one-on-one meetings with students, we help with various academic skills like time management, organization, study strategies, and reading or note-taking, as well as with course registration, major planning, and a variety of other academics-related skills and topics! In our workshops — which can be with different Residence Halls, class deans, athletic teams, or other liaison groups, campus groups, and communities — we also help students become familiar with the various academic processes and skills that were mentioned above, but in a group setting instead of an individual one. We also serve as liaisons to other campus resources, both general and specific, helping to connect students with any and all resources they might need, from peer tutors, math and writing workshops, and the library, to the Resource Center, CAPS, and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life — plus everything in between. Basically, we are here not only to help you but also to help you help yourself!

This year, more so than many others, will be a challenge for the Wesleyan community as a whole. The APAs are here to enhance your access to academic resources and help you reach your academic goals at Wesleyan, despite the extraneous circumstances that make this year especially difficult. But how do you get connected with the peer advisors? All of our bios are posted on the website (with our emails), so if you read through them and think that you would connect well with a certain peer advisor, feel free to reach out to them directly. Otherwise, as we said before, we are available over email at peeradvisors@wesleyan.edu to answer any and all of your questions that you might have — please do not hesitate to reach out! While this was just a quick overview of our roles on campus, we are happy to help with whatever we can. We look forward to working with you, and welcome to Wesleyan!

All You Need to Know about Pre-Reg from the Academic Peer Advisors

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Via Zoom, Thursday, July 23, from 12:00 noon-1:00pm EDT

In this session, join the Academic Peer Advisors and Dean Phillips to learn how to navigate the Pre-Reg system. Topics covered include the whats and hows of Pre-Reg, navigating WesMaps, and factors to consider in choosing courses. There will also be a Q&A at the end of the session where your pre-submitted and on-the-spot questions will be answered, so be sure to tune in!

If you would like to participate in this panel, please sign up though this link (Wesleyan login required).

Course Pre-Registration Opens July 20

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The Course Pre-Registration system opens July 20.  Until the system closes on August 6, you will be able to browse WesMaps and rank your course preferences for the fall semester.  You will be informed of your course placements in mid-August.

You should begin to think in terms of building a manageable course of study that offers challenge as well as flexibility for you to explore the curriculum and discover new interests. As you pursue your educational goals, keep in mind the idea of constructing a schedule that is balanced, challenging, and interesting. An academic schedule is balanced when:

There is a combination of small and large classes, lecture and discussion, and variations in course content and focus (e.g., reading, writing, quantitative work, artistic activity). This can provide breadth and stimulate academic curiosity while keeping a schedule manageable yet challenging.

There is variation in class days and times and instruction mode. For some students, this is as important a consideration as what courses to choose. Without sacrificing intellectual rigor or interest, students should try to distribute their courses across the week and throughout the day in the way that works best for them.

Charting a Course through the Open Curriculum: An Open Conversation with Professor Gottschalk and Dean Phillips

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The open curriculum affords every student the freedom to chart their own educational journey through Wesleyan. Because the curriculum is open, there are no required courses at Wesleyan other than the courses required to complete one’s major.  Students are expected to pursue intellectual breadth and depth during their four-year course of study, but the open curriculum does not proscribe any set path to achieve this goal.  Students are expected to find their own path.

So how do you navigate the open curriculum if there are no guideposts?  How do you chart a path through the open curriculum if you don’t yet know where you’re going?  This fall Wesleyan will be offering over a thousand courses in dozens of fields of study.  How will you decide which ones you want to take?

Peter Gottschalk, Professor of Religion, and David Phillips, Dean for the Class of 2024, will be hosting an open conversation on how to chart a course through the open curriculum via Zoom on Friday, July 24, from 11:30am—12:30pm EDT.  If you would like to join this conversation, please sign up though this link (Wesleyan login required).

Q&A Session for F-1 Visa Students

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As many of you are aware of, on July 6, 2020, Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) issued new guidance regarding online courses and the fall semester for students in F-1 status. On July 7, 2020, additional information was issued in Frequently Asked Questions for Fall 2020.

Two Zoom sessions have been organized to answer your questions related to this polict. Please submit your questions here by 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday, July 12, 2020. We will review your questions and answer them during the sessions.

Zoom Session #1
Thursday, July 16, 2020
3:00-4:00 pm EDT

Zoom link: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/99890137466?pwd=WXBOejMzLy9odzA3TUx2Ync1Smlqdz09
Meeting ID: 998 9013 7466
Password: 628900Zoom Session #2
Friday, July 17, 2020
9:30 to 10:30 am EDTZoom link: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/97829275633?pwd=dlZQNUlQSUs4L3l1OHpaZTdGM1ZOUT09
Meeting ID: 978 2927 5633
Password: 039128

Both Zoom sessions will be recorded. If you are not able to join, please email oisa@wesleyan.edu and you will be sent the link to the recorded sessions afterwards.

For more information, please contact

Chia-Ying Sophia Pan, M.S. Ed.
Director, International Student Services
860.685.3031
cpan@wesleyan.edu

Advice From Health Professions Advisor Mildred Rodriguez

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Hello to all of you first year students considering the health professions!

As you get yourself ready to prepare for your future application to a health professions program such as medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant, nursing, occupational therapy, and any other fields; you need to consider the different facets of your preparation and work on a plan.

To start begin setting goals related to the pre-requisite courses you need to complete alongside the courses for your major. To view a short video on the course selection for health professions go to: http://www.wesleyan.edu/careercenter/students/health/index.html

Here are some other goals you might want to consider:

  • draft a tentative four-year plan for courses (including the pre-requisite science courses the HP programs might require) and include a study abroad experience if that is something you are hoping to incorporate into your educational timeline, and incorporate your future summer experiences
  • how do you plan to explore your health profession, possibly doing some research online but also starting to volunteer in a clinical setting that includes professionals in your health profession of interest
  • how will you maintain balance in your life and stay healthy
  • plan on gaining some shadowing experiences to observe a provider interacting with patients on a day-to-day basis
  • start volunteering in a clinical setting so that you can gain a sense of what bein in healthcare entails
  • set goals for getting involved with community service here in Middletown
  • join a student organization and engage within your campus community
  • take advantage of the wonderful and diverse courses available to you
  • build relationships with faculty and staff
  • focus on personal growth and becoming more resilient
  • hone your critical thinking, ethical responsibility, teamwork, cultural competence and scientific inquiry grounded in research.
  • engage in self-assessment along the way and set goals to comport yourself as a future pre-professional for the health career of your choice
  • read the Health Professions Newsletter and attend as many HP Events as you can
  • visit with the Health Professions Advisor at least once per semester
  • preparing for the health professions is a long process and there are so many other goals I could list here, but instead I encourage you to think about any goals you may have that are not listed and incorporate them into your plan

Next step, begin developing an action plan to tackle those goals. As you move forward and have questions, please come see me. I would be happy to meet you and help in any way I can. Once you are on campus, you can set up an appointment on HandShake, or call (860) 685-2180 or just drop by the Gordon Career Center and ask at the reception desk.

There will be a Health Professions Overview for First Years during New Student Orientation and will have 30 minute appointments throughout orientation and during the first two weeks of classes. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope to see you this fall!

Take good care.

Mildred Rodríguez, Ph.D.
Health Professions Advisor
mrodriguez01@wesleyan.edu

Dual Degree Engineering Programs

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For students wishing to combine the study of engineering with a broad background in liberal arts, Wesleyan maintains Dual Degree Programs with California Institute of Technology, Columbia University (Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science), and Dartmouth College (Thayer School of Engineering). In these programs, students earn two bachelor degrees, a B.A. from Wesleyan and a B.S. (Caltech, Columbia) or B.E. (Dartmouth) from the affiliate engineering school. Various options are available. For more information, please contact Professor Lutz Huwel in the Physics department.

Preferred Name Information

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Some members of the Wesleyan community are known by a name that is different from their legal name. Students who wish to be identified by a preferred name can enter that name in the Personal Information section of their WesPortal. More information is available here.

Cardinal Tech

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Cardinal Tech is Wesleyan’s Apple Authorized Campus Store. Save money with education pricing all year long and take advantage of any Back to School promotion Apple launches.

We are also authorized to sell HP, Dell, and Windows Surface products. Standard configurations are available to order on our website or you can call Cardinal Tech 860-65-4400 for more options. Place your order today at www.wesleyan.edu/cardinaltech.

For more information, contact:
860-685-4400
cardinaltech@wesleyan.edu