Jamila Young – Special to Southern News –
Grad intern for counseling services Cate Barber walked into the Farnham programming space supplies in hand and began to set up for her program. The program “Building a Better You!: Develop the True You” was created to talk about the issues that students may face during their college experience, like developing healthy habits to avoiding stress.
The discussion was geared towards identity and personality, how these can help you on campus, and also discovering and exploring yourself.
Barber shared her goals for the event which included the need to help students with issues she once encountered as well.
“Students struggle with connecting with their professor, and I want to give students the power to take in the information they’re learning, for their success at Southern.”
Barber had the students participate in exercises. The first was to draw a pig on a piece of paper. After that, everyone evaluated their pig, and depending on how they drew it, and where on the paper they drew it, it had a connection with how the person thinks. If someone drew a pig at the top of the page, they are an optimist, if it was at the bottom; they see the glass as half empty. If the face of the pig was facing forward, the person is straightforward, if it was facing to the left, the person believes in tradition, and if it was facing to the right, then the person is innovative.
Barber discussed the difference between personality and identity. “Personality has to deal with your beliefs; your physical, emotional, and spiritual self,” she said.
The event also taught that there are two kinds of identity, outer and inner identity.
“Identity is how you feel and act,” said Barber. “It’s what makes you, you.”
The second exercise Barber had students do was take a learning style quiz, to show students how they learn best. The outcome would either be kinetic, reading and writing, auditory, or visual learning.
According to learning-styles-online.com, a site that provides information for people to understand and use learning styles, for visual learners it is best to use images, pictures, colors and maps to organize information and communicate; for auditory learners, sound, rhyme and music are best to use. Kinesthetic learners use touch, action, movement and like to be hands-on. Reading and writing learners find it easy to express themselves in writing and verbally.
Alicia Divito, a freshman business administration major, attended the event after coming to another counseling sponsored event the week before.
“I’m writing about the event for my inquiry class,” said Divito. “My best form of learning was kinesthetic, but I think it depends on the class I’m in.”
Senior math major Steven Warner heard about the event while walking around campus.
“It seemed interesting,” said Warner. “It was an interesting program; I learned about how I learn.”
Warner’s results from the learning style quiz showed that he was an even balance between reading and writing, and kinesthetic learning.
“It switches,” said Warner. “I’m an auditory learner when I’m playing guitar.”
Exercises such as the ones performed in “Building a Better You” can help ease the stresses that are often affiliated with having several professors with different teaching styles.
Dayna Clark, a freshman nursing major, came to the event after attending another event the week before with Alicia Divito.
Clark’s best learning style is kinesthetic, based on the learning style quiz.
“I came to support the program,” said Clark.
The event came just in time for Samantha Angotto, a senior and liberal studies major who was in search for something fun and education on campus to attend.
