BY ALICIA FEYERHERM
Health and Wellness Services launched Circles of Support this semester. This organization aims to provide connections and support for online students.
“Many people assumed online students were unaffected by the pandemic because they were already doing classwork online,” organization advisor Greg Atkins said. “Those online students, who are often working adults, actually had a lot of challenges to face.”
Finding childcare, helping their kids with remote learning and other obstacles complicated the routine of online learners.
Emmerie Roth, president of Circles of Support, is a Masters of Social Work student at Fort Hays. She created the program through her practicum with Health and Wellness Services.
“My position was funded to create something for online students to connect more with one another,” Roth said.
Eleven online students were interested in becoming group facilitators. Those facilitators went through training on how to lead a peer support group.
“We had two different training sessions,” Roth said. “The first covered different resources and how to connect students to those resources and then the second session was more of practicing those skills we talked about in the first session.”
Facilitators are now trained and ready to help students. Sessions are held every day of the week except Saturday and are held at different times to make this program available to the most students possible.
Online students can access information about meeting times and join groups by going to the organization’s TigerLink page https://tigerlink.fhsu.edu/organization/circlesofsupport
Atkins and Roth will also be hosting an informational meeting online on March 31 for those interested in learning more about the program. Email enroth2@mail.fhsu.edu for the meeting link.
“These facilitators can give you some inside tips and help you navigate resources,” Atkins said. “As online students themselves, they understand what you’re going through and can really help you go out and be more successful.”