Minnesota State schools students on school studying tips Furry friends help to de-stress students

By LAUREN VISKA Staff Writer

One thing most college students struggle with is studying. Most want to go out and part or hang out with friends instead of staying home and studying material they will most likely forget on exam day.

Regardless of that, they should still study.

Last week, Sherona Stewart, who works with the Maverick Sucess program, taught a How to Study session for students to learn about different kinds of learning.

This was a part of the Maverick Success workshops that have been going on around campus lately.

Abdurrahman Guantai, the diversity recruitment and retention coordinator within the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, explained this series of workshops and why they are happening.

“The Maverick Success workshop is a series of workshops we are hosting revolving around student success. Essentially on campus, we tend to focus on issues that we noticed our students have problems with,” said Guantai. “We were doing a lot of this programming already for one of the in-house programs, and we decided let’s open it up and make it public to everybody that’s already doing it.”

This event was open to students to come and learn what their learning style is.

Kaylee Foley, a junior business administration major, learned that her learning style is a mix of tactile and auditory. Tactile is learning by touching and doing, whereas auditory is learning by listening.

She came to this event to learn how to improve her testing skills.

“I am in a class called operations and supply chain management. When I took my first test, my brain just went blank,” said Foley. “I came here to see what kind of study tips could help me because it is a close note closed book class.”

Foley attended another one of these workshops. She attended the one for test anxiety. She learned a lot at that workshop, which will help her on future exams, and she learned more about herself.

“We learned that there are different types of anxiety and some ways to calm down. We also learned about different symptoms like tightness in your chest,” said Foley.

“I had tightness in my chest [during exams], and I didn’t know it was a sign of anxiety. But when I came, and I listened to her [Stewart], it’s like, ‘oh yeah, that’s what that is.’”

By MERCEDES KAUPHUSMAN Staff Writer

Hound Hugs and Kanine Kisses gathered in the Centennial Student Union to provide comfort for students experiencing stress Wednesday. Lenny Koupal, CSU Communications Coordinator, organizes the recurring event with the help of volunteers.

“It’s the most rewarding thing that I do, as far as seeing the positive end result,” Koupal said.

For as long as a decade, therapy dogs visit campus periodically to socialize with students and decompress from a hectic schedule. The students that attend Hound Hugs and Kanine Kisses often search for relief from a heavy workload, miss their animals at home, or grieve the loss of a pet of their own.

“There’s so many things that these dogs do for students, whether it’s distressing or reminding them of home,” Koupal said.

The certified dogs come from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a national organization. Its mission hopes to utilize special animals to form connections with both young and old, through the smiles and joy that the dogs provide. The volunteers take their dogs to visit various locations outside of campus such as nursing and retirement homes, middle and elementary schools, and daycares.

“These people are amazing. They volunteer their time, they show up with their dogs, and most of the time the dogs just love it because the students are so attentive to the dogs,” Koupal said.

The animals all carry their own personalities and bring something different to the table. Maggie, one of the original dogs, inspired the name of the event because she gives hugs and kisses to visitors. Gracie, a toy poodle, can entertain an audience by jumping through hoops. Van Gogh, an australian doodle, is mellow and responds well to affection.

Van completed his last day of training to become a certified therapy dog at the event. His owner, Victoria Tambornino, adopted two-year-old Van almost a year ago. She stressed the importance of therapy