Mirka Molina – Contributor
Doing schoolwork right after exercise can help students be more productive. That was one fun fact shared at “Sweat and Study,” a workshop held during Southern’s Success Week this month.
The Center for Academic Success and Accessibility Services, CASAS, presented Success Week, the third week of the semester, where students around campus attended various events like Mindfulness Monday, Sweat and Study, Hispanic Heritage Month Kickoff, Food for Thought and others. This was a way to meet new people and get involved at the university.
The Center for Academic Success and Accessibility Services also celebrated its first birthday bash on Wednesday, Sept. 14, where they gave out cupcakes, made sensory bottles and played board games.
According to Katie De Oliveira, the director of the Center for Academic Success and Accessibility, the birthday bash was the most popular event that week in which many students came by.
“That was an opportunity for students to make appointments,” said De Oliveira.
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, they did Planner Palooza to help students time manage. This is where they had students talk about their goals for the semester and what they want to accomplish.
Sweat and Study was an event where The Center for Academic Success and Accessibility collaborated with campus recreation in which students participated in Yoga.
“The idea on this event,” De Oliveira said, “was to talk about why exercise helps support students. It supports their academics and enhances their memories.”
She explained that this was a way for Southern students to learn the importance of jumping in and doing schoolwork right after exercise because students can be more productive.
De Oliveira believes that exercise helps with memory, concentration, strength.
An event that she wishes would’ve had more student involvement was Planner Polooza because it involved a lot of student organization. She explained how it helps students get more organized with time management.
From De Oliveira’s academic lenses, Success Week is usually on the third week of classes because by week 3, students have gone through all their classes a couple of times. Week 3 is when faculty starts to assign papers and projects.
“Week 3 and week 4 are when students start to get a little nervous about moving forward in the semester,” said De Oliveira.
For the last few years, student involvement has developed theme weeks up until midterm. The first being Week of Welcome, followed by the second being Involvement Week, and the third being Success Week.
The Center for Academic Success and Accessibility Services did a lot of things focusing on success and bringing attention to their resources.
De Oliveira says the idea was to get students to go by their center and see that they have tutoring, skill support and accommodations.
“In our office we don’t want anyone to leave without getting the support they need,” said De Oliveira.
The director of the Center for Academic Success and Accessibility Services idea of Success Week is to let students know that there’s offices out there like advising, career resources, and CASAS, to help support them and their success at Southern.
According to De Oliveira, the plan is to keep doing Success Week every year.
Besides, she says the Center for Academic Success and Accessibility Services plans to do something in the Spring for Success Week.
She is happy that different departments and people on campus are being more and more involved in these weeks, and she hopes that this involvement continues.
“This is a really exciting initiative and I think it’s really cool that Student Involvement came up with all these themes,” said De Oliveira.
Her hope for the future is to get more faculty involved in Success Week.
