Parent & Family Newsletter

December 2017

 

This is my favorite time of year – a season to hit pause and reflect on what we are thankful for in our lives. A time for gratitude.

Gratitude is about affirming that there is goodness in the world, and that we have received blessings, gifts, or benefits from it. It is also a recognition that the source of goodness comes from somewhere other than ourselves. That someone, somewhere gave us this gift to help us achieve something, or some feeling… of “good.”

There has been no shortage of tragedy on the global and national stage lately and perhaps no shortage of challenges and hardship in our individual lives. But affirming the support and goodness we receive from others and expressing gratitude is vital to our instinct to repay or pay forward this gift.

So, in this spirit of gratitude, I want to thank you as parents and families of our students for the following acts of support and kindness that have made an impression on me this semester:

• Supporting our Here for Home, Always hurricane relief efforts;
• Attending the 2017 Parent & Family Day;
• Listening to your student’s experiences with empathy;
• Supporting the Lions Lifting Lions student emergency fund;
• Giving your student that necessary pep talk – you know the one;
• Challenging them to resolve an issue on their own; and
• Teaching your student to stand up for what they believe in!

This has been a semester of creating connections for our students. Opportunities to dialogue across differences, learn how to create change through activism, explore intersections of race and academic achievement, and rally in support of those impacted by national disasters have all challenged our community to think about connections differently. I have deep gratitude for the students who had the courage to engage and spread the “good.”

The Division of Student Affairs will continue to create space for students to share, reflect, and grow as we focus on leadership, resilience, health & wellness, and diversity & inclusion initiatives. Giving thanks and spreading goodness is not limited to the holiday season, afterall!

Have the happiest of holidays and enjoy having your student home for a bit. Let them sleep in a little, they’ve earned it!

Take care,

Angela Lauer Chong, J.D.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs

Table of Contents
 

Connect with us!
Save the Date 2018 Parent and Family Day 
Home for the Holidays
Meet Dr. Don
Health and Wellness Newsletter
Faculty Corner
School Spotlight
Winter Closing Information
Housing Application Information
Significant Dates and Deadlines
Helping Your Student Cope with Finals
Here for Home, Always
Are You a TCNJ Legacy Family?
Advancing Your Student's Education
Spencer Savings Bank 
TCNJ Barnes & Noble Bookstore Coupon
Enterprise CarShare Offer
 

SAVE THE DATE!
2018 TCNJ Parent & Family Day

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2017 TCNJ Parent & Family Day! For those who attended, please share any feedback on the day's events by filling out our feedback survey if you have not done so already. To see photos from the event, check out our Parent and Family Day webpage. 




Mark your calendar! We are already looking forward to a day of fun on campus with our TCNJ families on September 29th, 2018.

The holidays can be a stressful time for families, especially when students return home from college. Dr. Mark J. Forest, Interim AVP for Health and Wellness and Director of TCNJ’s Counseling and Psychological Services, offers guidance on keeping the peace during the holiday season and recognizing signs of mental unrest within your student. Check it out here! 

Meet Dr. Don
By Dr. Don Trahan
Director of Student Diversity & Inclusion, Student Affairs

It is with great excitement that I bring greetings on behalf of the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion. As the director, I am overjoyed with the commitment and support that TCNJ has shown towards this very important endeavor. This office is committed to cultivating a campus climate that is forward-thinking and innovative in order to move TCNJ forward. One such area is our commitment to social justice. My aim is to challenge everyone to collectively recognize that all have civil liberties and basic human rights that should be upheld and honored, regardless of the intersection of ones cultural identities. Like diversity and inclusion, social justice is not limited to racism and other social constructs but rather a framework to understand our society from a holistic lens. In order to be proactive, we have to avoid being reactive. As a community, we need to continue being mindful, at all times, that regardless if inequities directly impact us, we have a responsibility to speak up and hold each other accountable as a society. To this end, my heart smiles as I reflect on the history in the making we are shaping as a collective campus community. I am committed to positioning TCNJ as a model for inclusive excellence in contemporary society. Moreover, I am moved by this office's ability to be a sounding board for students from diverse backgrounds and a beacon of support, ensuring that equity is at the cornerstone for how we reimagine being "bolder, better, and brighter" as a campus community. We will build on the past, focus on the future, and take TCNJ to the next level.

Health and Wellness Newsletter
By TCNJ's Health and Wellness Portfolio
 

Faculty Corner
By Dr. Diane Bates
Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology

Community Based Participatory Research with Anchor House


 

Anchor House was founded in Trenton in 1978 to provide housing for New Jersey teens and young adults who, for whatever reason, had no place else to live. Widely known and recognized for the extent and quality of its services, Anchor House devotes its scarce resources to meeting the needs of current and future residents, and did not have the staff available to answer a lingering question about the long-term experiences of their alumni. Thus, Executive Director Kim McNear contacted TCNJ’s Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research (CELR), where staff member Adams Sibley made a connection with my course on Community Based Research and Evaluation (SOC 316).

In Spring 2017, nine students took on this project as the main research activity for this course. Ms. McNear and her senior staff came to TCNJ to provide a history of the organization and a general idea of what they hoped the study would achieve: Were Anchor House alumni able to secure stable housing and employment? Were they able to maintain healthy personal relationships and achieve personal well-being? In turn, TCNJ students visited the Anchor House facilities in Trenton to have discussions with the residential and counseling staff about the residents’ needs, and the long-term outcomes that staff hoped and feared for alumni. Students also received training on handling of sensitive information and how to refer alumni who might be in crisis.  

The student researchers took the lead on all aspects of the data collection and analysis, while continuously working with Anchor House staff to make sure the research met their needs. Students designed a survey that could be administered by phone, as most former residents were not available in the immediate area. Students received feedback from Anchor House staff and pretested the instrument while waiting for approval from the TCNJ Institutional Review Board (IRB), which oversees all scientific research involving human subjects. Then, using a contact list provided by Anchor House staff, the students conducted the surveys—in both English and Spanish. Survey data was then analyzed and the results were presented to the Anchor House staff, both orally and in a written report. The students found that alumni continued to struggle with both housing and employment, but were managing interpersonally much better than Anchor House staff had feared.

In reflection, the student researchers found the experience to be valuable, if daunting at times and frustrating at others. They made important connections to larger issues of social inequality, including how college residence halls act much like transitional group housing, but without the social stigma and with a much better launching trajectory into independent living. Some of the students graduated and have gone on to programs in social work and counseling, a career choice reinforced by this project. Other students, graduating this year, have used their research experience to engage in new internships, new research projects, and on-going work in the non-profit sector. As for me—I will be spending part of my sabbatical in Spring 2018 working as a volunteer at Anchor House, where I will continue to learn about the problems with housing insecurity among Mercer County’s young adult population.  

School of Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science
By Carole Kenner, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, ANEF
Dean, School of Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science
 

• Our programs continue to grow:
  • The graduate Nursing program is now on the TCNJ campus and offsite at St. Peter’s.
  • The Public Health undergraduate program attracted almost 200 students majors, double majors, and minors.
• Our recently approved Master of Public Health (MPH) will start Fall, 2018.
• Our Nursing NCLEX scores are at 95%.
• Our Health Physical Education Teaching PRAXIS scores are at 94.4%
• NursingSchoolsAlmanac.com has named The College of New Jersey one of the country’s top nursing schools. They collected data on over 3,200 institutions nationwide, and just 10% made our final list. Our numbers are:
  • #83 nursing school in the U.S. (top 3% of all schools considered)
  • #44 among public nursing schools
  • #16 overall in the Mid-Atlantic region
• Congratulations to Nursing Student Victoria Prescavage on being selected as one of the recipients of the 2017 NJLN Scholarship Awards in the amount of $1,000!
• Congratulations to Evan Berti, HPET major and HES Exercise Is Medicine President,for successfully completing an ultra marathon this past winter in Hawaii. Evan also competed in and completed his first Ironman Triathlon. The Ironman took place in Lake Placid, New York. Competitors swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles.
• Congratulations to Nursing students on their current edition of the QSEN Newsletter.
• Congratulations to HPET majors Evan Berti, Danielle Carey, Emily Hopkins, Jordan Paton, Amber Adie, Constantine Risiottis, Sabrina Nicoletti, Patrick Ramboski, and Rachel Marino who had their JOPERD Issues submissions addressing “Is social media a positive thing for physical education/health teachers to engage in? Why or Why Not?” published in the July edition.

 

Winter Closing Information
By the Department of Residential Education & Housing

Residence halls will close for winter break on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 8:00pm, and reopen Sunday, January 21, 2018 at noon. Residents are expected to vacate the halls 24 hours after their last exam or by the closing date, whichever comes first.
 
Please remind your student to take all valuable possessions home for the break, including electronics, jewelry, passports, medication, etc. and also to pack appropriately, as staff will not be available to let people back into their rooms before the halls reopen.
 
If your student is moving into a new room in the Spring, please vacate the Fall room completely by the hall closing date. Any possessions left behind after closing will be discarded as the room is prepared for a new Spring resident.
 
Students will be emailed a notice with a closing check list, tips, dining hall times, and other important information for finals week in early December, and this information will also be posted on our website.

Housing Application Information
By the Department of Residential Education & Housing

You can find TCNJ's full academic calendar here.
 

Helping your Student Cope with the Stress of Final Exams

In 2012, the TCNJ community came together to support those areas impacted by super storm Sandy by making donations and sending volunteers to the shore in a campaign dubbed "Here for Home." 

To help support relief efforts to those areas affected by the multiple hurricanes that occurred this fall, TCNJ decided to expand our definition of "home” and began a new initiative dubbed “Here for Home, Always” led by the Division of Student Affairs, Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research, and Student Government.

The Here for Home, Always initiative’s first step was to raise funds to support two non-profit organizations that directly assist relief efforts in areas affected by recent hurricanes: St. Bernard Project and United for Puerto Rico: Together Changing Paths. On November 17, Angela Lauer Chong, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, announced that the TCNJ community has raised over $5,000 for these two organizations.

Additionally, the Here for Home, Always initiative oversaw a donation drive of needed supplies that were donated to the New Jersey for Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief effort. These included diapers, undergarments, cleaning supplies, and toiletries. The initiative’s work will continue this year, so to stay up-to-date on more Here for Home, Always relief efforts, visit the website here or follow on Twitter @H4Halways.

Advancing Your Student's Education
By Susan Hydro
Director of Graduate and Advancing Education
 

• Is your student looking for a way to get ahead or graduate early? Summer and Winter Sessions might be the path to pursue and registration is open now!
• Does your student have a sibling at home seeking a pre-college program? TCNJ offers residential and non-residential, credit and non-credit options!

Cybersecurity: 5 Ways to Keep Your Personal Information Safer Online
By Rebecca Kelly
Financial Center Manager, Spencer Savings Bank Financial Center

 

Businesses are making cybersecurity a top priority, and college students should, too. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that nearly one-third of reported identity thefts in 2016 involved credit cards. Here are a few best practices for college students to reduce the risk of being hacked.
 

1. Be Wary of Public WiFi
Hackers routinely target public WiFi networks. When making transactions online, stick with private networks that require a password, or use cellular data rather than WiFi on mobile devices.
 
2. Set Secure Passwords
Password manager tools make it easy to create complex passwords and store them for autofill. This way, students can make it more difficult for hackers to target their passwords, without having to re-enter the passwords for each login.
 
3. Don’t “Jailbreak” Devices
Many students like to “jailbreak” their smartphones and tablets to access new functions not included in the factory settings, but doing so can also override important security features and make devices more vulnerable to malicious apps and downloads.
 
4. Keep Track of Belongings
We live in a digital world, but don’t forget the importance of protecting your physical property such as your wallet, laptop, phone and other items with personal information.
 
5. Check Bank Statements
Javelin’s 2015 Identity Fraud Study suggested that students are less likely to notice fraud. We encourage all students to get into the habit of continuously monitoring their bank statements for any suspicious activity.
 
Above and beyond the measures the general public can take, Spencer Savings Bank is committed to providing secure banking tools to TCNJ students and customers across New Jersey. Learn more about our StudentEdge checking and savings accounts at www.spencersavings.com.

 

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