Jaylen Beaner-Walker, Kenny Quinn, Deshawn Ferrell, William Middleton, and Calvin Watkins
On April 30, journalism students from the news reporting class held the Voices of Support engagement event for the Towson University student community, showcasing their solutions journalism work from 11 am to 12:15 pm.
The purpose of this event was to engage students with the available resources that TU has readily available. The goal of their work was to highlight the academic overload that students might face and the struggle to maintain their own mental health with resources from academic coaching and counseling services.
A few freshman students discussed their experiences arriving at TU. “Experiencing the real college experience here, everyone at Towson University is fantastic […] so it was a really easy transition, it kind of felt like another home as soon as I got here,” said Logan Martini. Andrea Tocto expressed how the tutoring center in the math building was a helpful asset for her last semester.
Meanwhile, part-time transfer students like Jack Wynd spoke to the help he’s found in the ADS (Accessibility & Disability Services), which helped him manage both his OCD and transfer process. He believes helping students adjust to the University and the breadth of resources to which they have access can go a long way. Hailey Ensor, Junior transfer student, explained how she hasn’t made much use of the mental health services at TU due to having her own private help, but has found herself confused about the specifics of mental health services provided at the counseling center. “I went in there once because I wanted to ask a question about something specific […] it was sort of hard because I couldn’t find many resources about their group counseling online.”
Corey Cooper, Junior, expressed that he will use other centers for help in the future, having previously visited the health center and the tutoring center.
With this event, students have become more aware of the services available on campus, many of which were previously unknown to them. Based on the students’ knowledge, TU’s focus should be on improving its promotion of these services to maximize the benefits for its students.