Honors Advisor Supporting Students Right Where They Live

WHEN MEG STOWE JOINED the Judy Genshaft Honors College as an advisor in February of 2020 and agreed to also oversee the Honors Living Learning Community (LLC) she had no way of knowing just how quickly the world, and her new role, would change.

“I had not worked with housing before, and was eager to work closely with the students and address their programming needs,” says Stowe. “But two weeks after I took over, we were forced to close the campus due to COVID-19, and my plans for student engagement needed an overhaul.”

The Spring LLC students were able to finish up their time in Juniper Hall on campus, and Stowe scheduled virtual programming for the residents to ensure that they still felt connected. She then spent much of the summer preparing for the Fall return, knowing that creativity was necessary to keep the sense of community while adhering to physical distancing policies. Towanda Beck, took LLC residents to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) for an outdoors physically-distanced stargazing event. “The students really enjoyed seeing Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn through the museum’s high-powered telescope,” says Stowe. “And we were able to comply with CDC guidelines to ensure everyone’s safety. It was a great event.”

New state and local restrictions required that the remainder of the semester’s events be virtual, but that did not stop Stowe and Beck from planning an engaging, informative, and community-building schedule of opportunities for their students.

“We worked with USF’s Career Services department to plan professional workshops, scheduled fun virtual trivia games and digital scavenger hunts, delivered fall candy bags to each resident as a reverse-Halloween event, provided craft supplies for art activities, and arranged for online tutoring four days a week,” says Stowe. “We also provided time management seminars and hosted a virtual experiential learning fair with representatives from Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay, and other local organizations to help connect students to safe virtual volunteer opportunities.”

Stowe also worked with the USF Office of National Scholarships Director, Dr. Sayan Basu, and Honors Associate Dean, Dr. Benjamin Young, on a special

“It was important to me, especially during the pandemic, that we allow the students to continue to form connections on campus, even if the method is virtual.”

– Meg Stowe

“I researched successful strategies from around the country, and implemented those that would most benefit our students,” says Stowe. “I also surveyed our LLC residents to see what types of activities they would most enjoy and what dates and times worked best for scheduling. It was important to me, especially during the pandemic, that we allow the students to continue to form connections on campus, even if the method is virtual.”

Stowe was able to facilitate one in-person event for the fall semester. She and her graduate assistant,

hybrid event called “An Evening with a Physicist and a Philosopher,” which was very successful with student participants. This allowed residents to meet other Honors students, form relationships, and participate in critical conversations. A follow-up event is being planned.

The mental health and wellness of the LLC residents was especially important to Stowe. “This has been a unique year for Honors students especially,” she says. “High achieving students are accustomed to being in class and collaborating with other students face to face and the change has been very dramatic, specifically for first-year students, many of whom reside in our LLC. Our students typically participate heavily in shadowing and volunteer opportunities and those were harder to find this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. Not being able to complete these goals can be difficult as far as mental health is concerned, and it is important to offer support for our students.” Stowe and Beck worked with the USF Counseling Center to connect LLC residents with counseling services and stress management resources. “We hosted a series of wellness events. The Counseling Center offered a workshop on managing stress through mindfulness and meditation, and representatives from Student Health Educators offered events focused on managing stress during the pandemic.”

Another way Stowe found to help students with their mental health was through art. She worked with Honors faculty member, Dr. Catherine Wilkins, and her partnership with the Connections program at the Tampa Museum of Art, which trains students to use Visual Thinking Strategies to offer therapeutic tours of the museum for patients with medical conditions such as dementia, depression, and PTSD.

“The students loved the partnership with Connections and Dr. Wilkins,” says Stowe. “They were able to participate in art talks and virtual docent-led tours and workshops. Dr. Wilkins even facilitated an event where students created personal art with found objects in nature and related them to either medicine, personal health, or wellness. It was great to see them share their work with each other on screen and it led to some insightful discussions.” Stowe says that the past year of working with students in the LLC and helping them find opportunities for experiential learning and connection has been very rewarding.

“I really appreciate having so many collaborative partnerships with other staff and faculty, and the support of Dean Adams in implementing these activities,” says Stowe, who is a doctoral candidate in USF’s English department and working on a dissertation in Multi-ethnic climate change literature and Ecocriticism. “This was a hard year for our students, and when I hear a resident say that they made a new friend in the LLC, or that they were worried about being isolated but LLC events helped them to make new friends, I know that we are being successful because students are supported right where they live.”