17 minute read
Mount Mary rebrands the Counseling and Wellness Center
Kay Bollmus, third-year graduate intern in Mount Mary University’s Counseling and Wellness Center, has seen firstgeneration college students experience added layers of stress than other college students, and the pandemic brought a rise to those mental health concerns.
“The pandemic has definitely created more stress, anxiety and depression in our communities. There is so much uncertainty, and we have a hard time as humans to process and move forward with confidence in situations like these where the uncertainty drags out for so long,” Bollmus said.
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A 2021 survey of about 33,000 college students nationwide by a Boston University researcher showed an increase of depression and anxiety among the college population, currently its highest percentage in history.
The pandemic has led to new life experiences for many, which often leads to mental health concerns among college students.
“Some of the biggest themes we are seeing in the counseling center are grief, loss of family members or friends due to the pandemic, losses of jobs and security and grief over the loss of things like a ‘normal’ high school graduation and stuff like that, sadness, loneliness, difficulty making friends and toxic relationships/boundary-making,” Bollmus said.
Among this rise in mental health, both Bollmus andHuelmely De Jesus, coach and first year student initiatives coordinator at Mount Mary University’s TRIO Promise Program, share that first-generation college students often experience mental health issues at a higher rate.
“A first-generation college student can sometimes, or often, have another layer of stress and challenge just because there is not someone at home or in their support system that has experienced college before,” Bollmus said.
Having been a first-generation college student herself, De Jesus shares that the added layer of stress comes from having an incorrect perception of college because of the lack of exposure to others who have already gone through the whole college experience.
Often first-generation students have an added level of responsibility to juggle that other college students commonly do not bear. “A lot of times, (first-generation) students don’t have time to do yoga for an hour to destress because maybe that one hour can be spent sleeping because they have to work a third shift, because they also have to go take their brothers and sisters to school…where other students don’t have those outside external responsibilities so they do have a little more time to destress or the ability to call someone and say ‘hey, I don’t really understand my homework, can you help me out?’” De Jesus said.
Maria Aguilera, a Mount Mary Caroline Scholar and junior majoring in social work with Spanish and psychology minors, shares the struggles she experiences as a first-generation college student.
“I think when quarantine came, I had a lot of time on my hands, or so they (my family) thought, and then my sister had just had a baby and she had nobody to babysit her baby,” Aguilera said. “At the time, I didn’t have a job, so I took on that responsibility of taking care of my nephew, but at the same time I was still in school. I had about five classes to manage, plus trying to continue volunteer work if I was able to.”
Caroline Scholars need to complete 300 hours of community service each academic year. During the 2020-2021 school year, the number of hours was reduced to 50 hours, but service sites became limited especially for in-person service.
A year and a half into her added responsibilities, Aguilera recognized she had to advocate for herself.
“It was really hard having to communicate to my family that I could no longer take care of my nephew because of the level of stress that it was adding to my life,” Aguilera said. “Trying to manage going back to normal, in a sense, and even though I love my family, I also realize I have to prioritize my mental health because it was affecting me very much.”
Bollmus shares that recognizing the troubling thoughts, stress, anxiety, loneliness and depression, can be a start, but then different avenues for coping should be pursued, like the counseling center and self-care. “Our job as counselors is not to tell you what to do or fix things for you. We can, however, help you sort out your thoughts and feelings, and help you know yourself better. You can have a safe place where you can think out loud. Explore your feelings. Cry, if you need to, you lead the sessions,” Bollmus said.
Samantha Long, Autumnstarr Baker and Megan Frerichs wrote and discussed what makes them feel worthy.
This semester, the Counseling Center got rebranded as the Counseling and Wellness Center to shift focus towards mental health and wellness.
Jamie Hollins Mast, administrative assistant for the Counseling and Wellness Center, has helped with the rebranding process and developing new groups for the Counseling and Wellness Center.
“We are referring to the counseling area now as counseling and wellness so that there is an emphasis on holistic health and wellness,” Hollins Mast said.“The idea behind that is that we want students in the community of Mount Mary to know that you don’t have to be at a point of high stress or something really sad or your world is falling apart in order to seek out the Counseling and Wellness Center.” The Counseling and Wellness Center helps the Mount Mary community feel comfortable to talk about anything that has made an impact on them, whether it’s positive or negative.
“It’s for things other than talking about personal issues and mental health,” Hollins Mast said. “We also want the community to know we can address things with body image, finances, spiritual health and wellness as well. So to cater towards the whole person, we can set up counseling to talk specifically about academics as well.”
Students also have the option of group therapy. One of the groups that is being offered is a grief support group.
“So that will be for anyone who has experienced any kind of grief in their life to come and learn about different tools and talk through some of the different emotional, physical responses to grief,” Hollins Mast said.
Hollins Mast emphasizes the importance of talking to someone, even if it is just to pop in and ask a question.
“Hopefully we frame how we all think about
counseling as one-on-one talk therapy. That is still a big part of it, but we also want anyone to feel free and come in and say, ‘Hey, I kind of need three to four sessions just focusing on talking about how do I budget as a college student’?” Hollins Mast said.
The Counseling and Wellness Center will also hold different wellness activities for the Mount Mary community.
“Another (group) that will be coming this semester for sure is a yoga group. So that will be not only held by the clinical director, but we are also going to have, hopefully, another two to three counselors who have some sort of certification in yoga instruction leading a yoga group in the Place of Peace,” Hollins Mast said.
With new groups being developed, the Counseling and Wellness Center has been exploring different ideas of what to offer to the Mount Mary community.
“We are open to see what Mount Mary as a community would like to see offered as wellness groups and also our counselors have different things that are personal interests for them,” Hollins Mast said. “Like, we have a counselor that really likes working with mothers. So she may want to see what it looks like to offer support of young mom groups. And that is just a possibility of something we would offer if there was a lot of interest.”
The introduction of the PhD program for counseling and supervision has played a role in the rebranding process for the Counseling and Wellness Center.
“So we have a group of students, about seven, who are full time PhD students who work out of the Counseling Center and also supervise masters level counseling students, as well as lead their own lives and do outside work in counseling,” Hollins Mast said. “Their plates are full, so we are so thankful that there was enough interest.”
Along with changes in the structure of the Counseling and Wellness Center, the center also experienced physical changes. There are now six rooms for individual counseling and new furniture that was made possible by the PhD of counseling and supervision academic program.
On Sept. 29, the Counseling and Wellness Center held an opening for their rebranding. At the opening, they had various activities that promoted and informed the Mount Mary community of the new changes that were made to the Counseling and Wellness Center.
The center’s rebranding intends to help students like Emma Eisch, junior and interior design major.
“Growing up, I dealt with a lot of food eating problems, so just figuring out what is triggering that and coming up with solutions on what is triggering that,” Eisch said.
The Counseling and Wellness Center is implementing groups that they believe the whole Mount Mary community wants to experience.
Eisch is looking forward to the new yoga group.
“I think that implementing yoga is huge. It’s a way to destress, clear your mind, stretch your body,” Eisch said. “When you relax your muscles, I think your endorphins kick up and you get that dopamine. I think that yoga is a really good idea.”
Overall, the updates that the Counseling and Wellness Center made intend to help the Mount Mary community.
“I think this will help take stress levels down and when you talk about topics that people struggle with, you have a lot more clarity and therefore you know how to deal with those feelings and figure out why you feel that way and how to not feel that way,” Eisch said. “I think it will have people feeling better mentally and physically.”
Allison Gerk and Sister Joanne Poehlman talk with students about tutoring and counseling. The Counseing and Wellness Center held a fun activity where students spun the wheel for an oragami animal.
A mural in front of Alumnae Dining Hall displays different elements that the Mount Mary community felt represent Mount Mary University. Mount Mary becomes an HSI
Words, Photos, Illustration & Design | Giselle Martin Gomez
Mount Mary University obtained federal status as the second Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Wisconsin as of April 2020 due to serving more than 25 percent Latinx students in their student population.
“What it means to me is that I am in a place where there are people that look like me, that speak the same language as me, and just feeling that I am in a space that is inclusive,” Nancy Juarez, a Mount Mary senior double majoring in Spanish and Justice, said.
Dr. Jason Meyler, member of Mount Mary’s Latinx task force and associate professor and chair of the World Languages department, said, “HSI designation means that the university has made a commitment to serving Hispanic students, and, I would say, to serving underrepresented students across the board… it (HSI designation) has to do with so many different parts of the university.”
Dr. Meyler spoke about how being an HSI means serving diverse populations, including recruitment, enrollment, retainment, graduation and alumni populations.
“It’s exciting, but it’s also a moment to pause and say, ‘what have we done as a university to do this’,” Dr. Meyler said. “So it’s a recognition of student engagement, faculty, staff, it’s this big collaborative moment. As much as it might say ‘Hispanic’ in the title, I really think it encompasses so much more.” According to Mount Mary’s website, Mount Mary’s Latinx population rose gradually from 15 to 25 percent between 2014 and 2018. In fall 2019 alone, roughly 50 percent of new incoming students identified as Hispanic.
Dr. Meyler shared that Mount Mary began its goal of finding ways to support the evolving demographics of graduating high school students around 2018 or 2019, and the university reached its goal of increasing Hispanic student enrollment at Mount Mary almost exponentially. “Sometimes in Spanish there’s an expression called ‘correr la voz,’ maybe the word spread really quickly that we are an institution that supports a diverse population,” Dr. Meyler said. “The best people to send that message out are the students themselves, so that’s the magic where I don’t know about the numbers and how it happened so quickly. I’m pleasantly surprised, but I’m not sure I understand why.” Gabriela Barbosa, director of visitor services at Mount Mary and chair of the Latinx task force, shared about what Mount Mary’s projected goal for reaching HSI status was. “We kept seeing an increase, like 2 or 3 percentage points every year in the population on campus, so it actually happened faster than we thought,” Barbosa said. “We set out a goal to become a Hispanic Serving Institution by 2025 and it happened in 2020, so we’re really proud of that.” Dr. Mary Ellen Kohn-Buday, associate professor of the World Languages department, has been witness to the shift in demographics within Mount Mary’s student population. “I have been here 30 years, and I have seen Mount Mary change from a campus that was predominantly white students, and in fact also many Catholic students, to various races, religions or nontraditional students (and) LGBTQ,” Dr. Kohn-Buday said.
Dr. Kohn-Buday believes Mount Mary is fulfilling their mission by serving Hispanic students.
“Part of our mission is to serve the underserved community, women and girls who maybe wouldn’t otherwise have the chances to go to college and advance their careers and their lives,” Dr. Kohn-Buday said. “I think the fact that we now have so much diversity among the student body is showing that we’ve been reaching out and addressing that.”
Barbosa has recently noticed how the diversity has become much more visible this year.
“Just the other day, I was sitting in the lunchroom and I looked around me and the majority of the women in the room were Latina or women of color, and this year in particular is when you can really see it and feel it,” Barbosa said. “And, following the pandemic, to see all of these students here on campus together and how diverse the classrooms are looking, it’s so wonderful, and it’s really one of my favorite things about Mount Mary.” Nancy Juarez, Mount Mary University senior and acting president of Student Government, leads their weekly meeting, sporting an artesanal Mexican shirt for Hispanic Heritage Month.
For Juarez, being at an HSI shows the rise in Latinx students attending college and it makes her feel at home.
“It shows that there are more Hispanics/Latinx people that are attending universities and, especially at Mount Mary, where this number is increasing as we go,” Juarez said. “That’s something I didn’t necessarily expect because there’s not a lot of undergrads as a whole, especially Hispanic population, that goes to college. Being in a space where there’s more Hispanic population makes me feel welcomed, and it makes me feel that I can be at home.”
Dr. Kohn-Buday shared that Mount Mary is showing its commitment to the Latinx Community with their display in the Academic Showcase in Notre Dame Hall, Room 151 featuring works that represent being an HSI, Hispanic Heritage Month and the works of Hispanic students who attend Mount Mary.
Dr. Kohn-Buday shares that this was the perfect moment for Mount Mary to show how they are embracing the Hispanic culture and celebrating their HSI status.
“We have Hispanic Heritage month, which is from midSeptember to mid-October. We have the fact that we’ve attained the Hispanic Serving Institution status; we want to acknowledge that, celebrate that, announce it and make it more visible,” Dr. Kohn-Buday said.
The display in the Academic Showcase also highlights what Mount Mary’s Latinx Task Force has done to serve the Hispanic community.
“The Latinx Task Force has produced Spanish-language materials for recruiting students so we have all of our admissions brochures and fast facts, letters to parents in Spanish in the room so that everyone can see how we are addressing the need
of the Hispanic community,” Dr. Kohn-Buday said.
Just like Dr. Kohn-Buday, Juarez believes that Mount Mary is doing a good job with diversity and inclusion, but Juarez expressed that there is still room for growth.
“I think (Mount Mary is) pushing more for diversity and inclusion. Obviously there’s still room for growth and for improvement so I feel like, as of right now, they’re doing a very good job with that,” Juarez said. “They added a vice president for diversity and inclusion and that’s one step forward towards having an inclusive space on campus.”
Juarez believes that one of the places where diversity and inclusion can still grow is within the faculty’s own diversity. “What I would like to see though is more people of color or Hispanic or Latinx individuals that are teaching classes,” Juarez said. “Since we’re being recognized as an HSI, I feel like we should have more professionals in the Hispanic and Latinx community that are teaching on campus. That way we have that connectedness between the student and the professor.”
Dr. Meyler and Barbosa expressed the new opportunities that HSI brings to Mount Mary students.
“In the future, coming up very soon, we’re hoping students will see more and more evidence of what it means to be an HSI,
as there will be internships, grants and opportunities for undergraduate research that will really directly benefit the students thanks to our institution, thanks to the university becoming an HSI,” Dr. Meyler said. “From a financial standpoint, it really opens up doors for us to be able to apply for grants and funding that can help create new programs and initiatives that can support students, and those are not specific to Hispanic students,” Barbosa said. “Our goal is that any grants or money that we receive will benefit all of campus; all students Part of our mission is to serve the underserved community, women and “ would be able to have access to that.” Barbosa shared specific ways in which the girls who maybe wouldn’t otherwise campus community sees changes due to becomhave the chances to go to college and advance their careers.” ing an HSI. “From a cultural standpoint, students will see that the likelihood of - Dr. Mary Ellen Kohn-Buday a Latinx student having class with other Latinx students is greater, so you’re beginning to see yourself reflected in the student body,” Barbosa said. “And that’s really important to feel like there’s others like you and that you’re not the only one in the room with your culture or your particular background, and I think that enhances learning for everybody when you can learn about other cultures and other perspectives.” Barbosa shared how through the HSI designation Mount Mary is able to develop a new program, refresh new spaces and
have faculty and staff receive professional development and learning opportunities so they can enhance their classroom experiences. “All of that is helping campus-wide, so our goal is that all of these opportunities really become institutionalized and that everyone can benefit from it,” Barbosa said. “And the grant money will really help to eliminate barriers for students and really create access to career paths, or technology, or just additional resources that will help them along the way.”
Barbosa shared how the Latinx task force will be collaborating with the office of diversity, equity and inclusion on campus to build HSI initiatives into the university’s strategic plan.
“When you do that, when you include it in the strategic plan, it becomes woven into the fabric of what we’re doing each year, so we’re looking forward to that collaboration with the office of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Barbosa said.
Barbosa and Dr. Meyler are both excited about the HSI designation and what lies ahead.
“It’s a really wonderful environment, so I’m really proud of it,” Barbosa said. “We’re really trying to build a strong foundation...there’s so much more opportunity to come.”
“There’s a lot on the horizon,” Dr. Meyler said. “There’s a lot that I am looking forward to.”
Mount Mary University’s club, SALSA, hosted a Mexican flockoric dance presentation over the noon hour on Sept. 16, 2021 for Mexican Independence Day.
