6.5.2: Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

This week, I learned a lot about program proposals and writing goals. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how to do this, but I do feel like it will be much more difficult when it comes times to write real goals and objectives. I have some questions on program proposals, but I will go over them with my supervisor on Monday. It was cool to see examples of real program proposals and goals/objectives after practicing writing these throughout my education. 

As for the resource fair, it was challenging at times to talk to everyone and really give them one on one attention as a lot of people were coming up all at once. Overall, I kept up pretty well. I now feel like I have a good "elevator pitch" to give people who come up to the table to get a feel of what they're interested in. I can then further tailor the conversation to their interests and needs. A of incoming students are showing interest in the cooking classes that The Fontaine Center offers. I might create an additional pamphlet or QR code specifically for this since so many students asked questions about how to sign up. It was also fun to meet some future health promotion students. I was able to answer some of their questions about the program, and I could see their excitement!

This week I met the competencies 1.2.1, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, 1.3.3, 1.3.4, 1.3.5, 1.3.6, 1.4.2, 2.2.3, 2.2.4, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 6.1.2, 6.5.2, and 6.5.5.

1.3.1 Determine the health status of the priority population(s).

1.3.2 Determine the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, skills, and behaviors that impact the health and health literacy of the priority population(s). 

1.3.3 Identify the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that impact health and/or learning processes of the priority population(s).

1.3.6 List the needs of the priority population(s).

1.4.2 Prioritize health education and promotion needs.

I met these competencies by researching about UGA Greek life to get a better understanding of this populations needs. I looked through the websites of all four Greek councils, and I read the recruitments publications for the Interfraternity council and the Panhellenic council. I also looked at presentations that my supervisor sent me. These presentations included some made by The Fontaine Center and some were presentations from conferences such as NASPA AODV. I also read through data on actual use within high risk student groups versus the group members perceived use. After reading all of this information and using my knowledge from talking to Greek life members, I was able to identify the needs of this population and what risk factors they faced. I also identified high risk days for these students groups such as recruitment, gamedays, formals, etc.

1.3.4 Assess existing and available resources, policies, programs, practices, and interventions.

1.3.5 Determine the capacity (available resources, policies, programs, practices, and interventions) to improve and/or maintain health.

I met these competencies by reading through the NASPA AODV presentation on "Student Organizations and High-Risk Alcohol Use: Addressing Group Risk-Taking through Focused Strategy", the CPN Summit on "Preventing High Risk Behavior in Fraternities and Sororities", and the CPN Summit on "How to Support AOD Prevention and Health Promotion Among Special Student Populations". My supervisor also sent me a super cool program called FailSafe. This program is a toolkit broken down into modules for student organizations to use to guide themselves in risk reduction. This program also guides student organization leaders to think about what message their organization is sending and if it allows with their values. I used this information to pull content that could be used to address the needs of the Greek life councils at UGA. 

2.2.3 Develop vision, mission, and goal statements for the intervention(s).

2.2.4 Develop specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) objectives.

I met these competencies by writing a program proposal for the new member Greek life programming. I used the identified needs and information I gathered to write goals and objectives and to fill out a program proposal.

2.4.2 Develop materials needed for implementation.

2.4.3 Address factors that influence implementation.

6.1.2 Identify the assets, needs, and characteristics of the audience(s) that affect communication and message design (e.g., literacy levels, language, culture, and cognitive and perceptual abilities). 

I met this when creating the new members Greek life presentation. I tried to think of how a student would perceive the information and factors would influence this. My supervisor also sent me a presentation that the University of South Carolina started to do with their new Greek life members. Their presentation is Q&A style so new members can ask a panel of current Greek life members for tips. My supervisor wanted to incorporate this to give new members a chance to ask questions and to give the students more autonomy. I also incorporated some key AOD messaging that my supervisor wanted in it such as risk reduction strategies, identifying an overdose, etc. I tried to keep the presentation mainly Q&A and for the risk reduction stategies to come from the current Greek life members. My supervisor also had me include some questions for the Greek life members to give advice on how new members can approach them for questions and use refusal skills during the new member process. This was important to include because although there is a no hazing policy, hazing still occurs. There is also a power dynamic between older members and new members which might cause new members to be afraid to say no to something they don't want to participate in. While older members may not be forcing the new members to do these activities, new members may not know they can actually say no.

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

I really enjoyed the work I did this week regarding the Greek life programming and reading about best practices for different high risk groups! It was interesting to see the impact that perceived social norms within these high risk student groups has on their substance use. The data comparing actual use versus perceived use within these high risk groups was really cool to look at. 

It was definitely a challenge filling out a program proposal, but I felt prepared and overall successful. I had to keep refocusing myself on what the needs were and what we really wanted to focus with the program. My supervisor was very helpful in answering my questions when going over the goals and objectives. She did a good job explaining how everyone does program proposals differently and that different places may have other formats. The Fontaine Center has a template that they use. I told her I had only ever written goals and objectives in a classroom setting. I noticed that the examples I read through of completed program proposals where no where near as specific as the ones I wrote in class. She gave me a lot of clarity on on this and helped me with some of the wording. 

I think The Fontaine Center does a great job of staying informed and working with student groups to meet them where they're at. I like the FailSafe program because it allows the student groups to be in charge of defining their group values and rules while helping them correct misperceived social norms within the group. It is great to see how much autonomy it gives the student leaders. Student buy in is a huge component of successful programming, especially with these high risk groups. From my understanding, it sounds like UGA did not gather data on Greek life AOD use or do much programming until recently. Because of this, implementing some of this has been difficult due to students who knew the old way. My supervisor said they tried something similar but the student leaders were not as engaged due to being familiar with how it was before. My supervisor said that they were going to send the presentation and other programming content to Greek life student leaders beforehand to get their feedback.

I really like the idea of the new Greek life member presentation. I used QR codes in the presentation so students could anonymously ask questions. I think this serves as a great way for new members to ask questions they might otherwise be scared to ask. Recruitment can be overwhelming and most student go through it at the beginning of their college career when they're vulnerable to so many changes. A component I really liked from the presentation is that it asks the student leaders to identify behaviors Hopefully this presentation will provide some further guidance from the student leaders and give new members strategies for navigating substance use and utilizing refusal skills. 

This week I met the competencies 1.2.1, 2.4.2, 2.4.3, 6.1.1, 6.1.2, 6.3.3, 6.5.2, and 6.5.5.

1.2.1 Identify primary data, secondary data, and evidence-informed resources.

I met this by searching for evidence-informed resources while doing website revamping. This included finding sources for content we should put on The Fontaine Center's AOD page.

I also attended SAMHSA's webinar on preventing fentanyl use by youth and young adults. This provided a lot of new information since this is a current public health problem that needs to be addressed. The speakers each provided good resources such as the Arizona Youth Partnership Toolkit, the SAMHSA Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit, Screen4Success, and Find Treatment.gov.

2.4.2 Develop materials needed for implementation.

I met this by creating a presentation for new Greek life members. This presentation will serve as a way for new members of Greek life to ask questions and receive some helpful information about risk reduction strategies and how to say no to participating in activities that they do not want to.

2.4.3 Address factors that influence implementation.

I did this when making the presentation. New Greek life members receive a lot of information that is just given to them. We wanted to create programming that students could have more of an active role, we addressed attitudes, social norms

6.1.1 Segment the audience(s) to be addressed, as needed.

6.1.2 Identify the assets, needs, and characteristics of the audience(s) that affect communication and message design (e.g., literacy levels, language, culture, and cognitive and perceptual abilities). 

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s).

I met these competencies when writing needs and creating content for Greek life programming. Although we have the same goal for the all of the Greek life councils, we will need to make modifications in how each one is addressed and identify the needs of each council. The new members will as also need to be addressed because they have different needs from established members. 

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

This week I finished up the new Greek life membership presentation. I received positive feedback on this and had some helpful suggestions. Everyone in the office has been good abut giving me constructive feedback when working on content, especially when it comes to wording. This is great because wording is so important to how the message is received. A big part of this for me when working on AOD content has been using wording that is inclusive to those who don't use substances. I at first found it difficult to write about risk reduction while staying inclusive, but I got better with practice. 

It was also helpful to see how other universities approach AOD content and wording when looking at their websites. It was interesting to see the difference in what schools showed. Some had a lot of resources and information on all types of substances and others only had information on alcohol. I am so happy to see all the information that The Fontaine Center has on their page, especially with being a publicly funded university in the South. I know that these universities tend to face more limitations in this regard.

I also really enjoyed the SAMHSA webinar! The AOD coordinator has been super nice and including me in a lot of her work which is greatly appreciated. This webinar included some very important speakers such as Rich Lucey, the Senior Prevention Program Manager for the DEA, and Beth Connolly, the Assistant Director of the Office of Public Health. It has been great to see content from some important figures in public health. I have been writing down the names of people nd keeping a list so I can stay informed on their work. This webinar provided a lot of good information on current efforts to address the rise of fentanyl, but it was also scary to see the increasing numbers of substances containing fentanyl. Xylazine was mentioned some. It will be interesting to see what happens in regards to this as well. 

This week I also really started to work on organizing content for off-campus housing. I went asked everyone in the office about their ideas or content from their topic area that they would like to include. Everyone had a lot of great ideas. I hope that off-campus apartments will be receptive and want to collaborate, but it seems as if there has not been great success with this in the past. I drafted an email to send to off-campus housing complexes, and I sent it to my supervisor for approval. This took me much longer than I anticipated because we don't have all the content put together. I sent the email to my supervisor. To my surprise, she only made a minor edit and said it was good to send. Unfortunately a lot of off-campus housing complexes do not have emails listed, so I called each place up to get a contact. Some places were very excited and gave me a specific contact of the manager while others just gave me a general email. I then sent the email to each contact I was given, and I tried to personalize the message for places we have worked with in the past. 

On Friday, I went with the IPV prevention coordinator and the sexual health and healthy relationships coordinator to look at messaging around campus. These staff members are relatively new, so I was able to help them navigate campus. It was nice to get to spend some more time with these staff members and to get to know them more. It was also interesting to see what messaging is up and to look for places that we could put messaging. I showed them how to use the buses to get back to the health center and we talked about making messaging to go on the buses which I think is a great idea.

As for orientation this week, I now feel very confident in my ability to table and answer questions. Although it is a lot of talking and I'm not sure what questions will be thrown at me, it has been rewarding because a lot of parents express how happy they are to see that UGA is doing this work and that resources such as RSVP available to students. 

This week I met the competencies 4.3.3, 6.3.3, 6.4.3, 6.5.2, and 6.5.5.

4.3.3 Use appropriate modalities to collect and manage data.

I met this competency by collecting information for benchmarking. Although it was not necessarily collecting data for our specific wellness coaching program, I did collect information on wellness coaching from other schools. I also searched for information on what information other schools have on cannabis. Collecting and tracking this information is important so The Fontaine Center can justify offering services for free and stay up to date on what other universities are doing.

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s). 

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g.; infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

I met these competencies by working on the tabling activities with the sexual health and healthy relationships coordinator. My job was to offer a student's perspective on the current activities, and to brainstorm how to make it more relevant to students. I also looked over the playing cards activity that will be using in programming in the Fall.

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

I spent a lot of time this week reading over content and familiarizing myself with the material. My supervisor wanted me to spend a lot of time with the UMatter content so that I could be ready to present any of the material. I also read through information on BASICS and motivational interviewing to start getting familiar with this, but I did not spend nearly as much time with this material. 

It was fun to work on the tabling activities, but it ended up being more challenging than I anticipated, especially for the boundaries activity. Unfortunately, tabling is not the ideal setting to discuss boundaries because boundaries could take a whole hour long presentation. However, it is still good to get students thinking about boundaries and to help them identify some relationships and boundaries they might not have originally thought of. The goal is also to get them to think about how they might set a boundary to work on that skill building. I made a list of ideas on my own and then I met with the sexual health and healthy relationship coordinator to make a final list. I feel like we did a good job capturing different types of relationships.

I started working on benchmarking this week for wellness coaching and the T-break guide. It was more challenging than I thought it would be to find the needed information on wellness coaching. I was hoping that universities could just give the information over the phone but a lot of the health promotion departments asked me to email a specific person in their department. This made me appreciate how informed and good the receptionist at The Fontaine Center is at her job. She can answer most questions that students call about on her own and if she doesn't, she immediately transfer the caller to someone in the department who does know. Despite these minor obstacles, it has been fun to see what other universities are doing. Searching for what programming universities are doing for cannabis has made me realized I am interested in this!

This week I also finished calling off-campus housing complexes to get contacts. I emailed everyone, and I started to hear back from places that were interested. It was exciting to see that a decent amount of places responded,

I also helped make safer sex bags this week for the Pride Center. This was super fun because I got to include a brand of condoms that has artwork on the wrapper. 

Orientation has been going well and I enjoyed talking to the new students. A lot of students asked for advice and different ways they can get involved.

This week I met the competencies 4.3.3, 6.3.3, and 6.4.3.

4.3.3 Use appropriate modalities to collect and manage data.

I met this by working on benchmarking. 

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s). 

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g.; infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

I met these competencies by working on the AOD handouts. I had to transfer information from larger handouts into a smaller trifold card. I had to think of how to get the necessary information on there but do so in a way that students would actually read it. I did not want it to be just a bunch of words because I figured most students would not care for that. 

Reflection

This was a short week for me because of the fourth of July and because I had to take Friday afternoon off. I mainly worked on collecting information for wellness coaching this week. I realized that this was going to take me a lot longer than I originally thought, especially for the wellness coaching information. I continued to face a lot of obstacles with contacting schools about the wellness coaching, but working on the t-break and cannabis information made it more fun.

I did not spend as much time on the AOD handouts this week, but I kind of made a rough outline and plan for what I wanted. The AOD coordinator gave me a lot of freedom in what information and resources I could include. She gave me specifics of what content she wanted on there, but she said that she trusted my judgement on everything else. 

This week I met the competencies 4.3.3, 6.3.3, 6.4.1, 6.4.2, 6.4.3, 6.5.2, and 6.5.5.

4.3.3 Use appropriate modalities to collect and manage data.

I met this competency by working on benchmarking. 

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s). 

6.4.1 Differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of various communication channels and technologies (e.g., mass media, community mobilization, counseling, peer communication, information/digital technology, and apps).

6.4.2 Select communication channels and current and emerging technologies that are most appropriate for the audience(s) and message(s). 

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g.; infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

I met these competencies by helping make program descriptions for the IPV prevention coordinator, helping the sexual health and healthy relationship coordinator with messaging, and by helping make AOD trifold cards. I offered the perspective of a student and helped tailor the information to students. For the program descriptions, I helped make some of the language clearer to students and I offered suggestions such as adding a link to the UMatter description since the description will be online.

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

In creating my own content, I realized that the more knowledgeable you are in a subject, it can make writing descriptions or doing creative work for that program difficult. This has made me realize the importance of having others look at your work to make sure you are using language that could be understood by most students. Wording is so important in public health and this internship has really made that clear. 

This week I dedicated a lot of time to the AOD trifold cards. I ended up creating multiple options for the AOD coordinator to choose from. I really enjoyed doing some creative work.

This week my supervisor let me join her for a presentation she did for the Thrive staff. It is great that the staff asked her to come present and that they're trying to help the Thrive students. They asked for her to present mainly on mental health, but she incorporated some AOD messaging as well because the Thrive students are usually a high risk group of students. Although I did not present, it was great to see my supervisor's presentation style. The Thrive staff were very engaged and they asked some good questions.

I continued my benchmarking work this week. I had a scheduled phone call with someone from the Unviersity of Coloardo's Health Promotion department. The phone call went well. I gave her contact information to my supervisor for them to talk further about wellness coaching. Although the phone call was just to collect information on wellness coaching, it was cool to kind of practice cultivating relationships with other universities. 

The AOD coordinator asked me to go through the ONEboxes this week to make sure they were all working and in good condition. It is really exciting to me that UGA is starting to roll these out in strategic places on campus. Hopefully in the future, UGA will be able to do more harm reduction work with substances. I think this will be really important to advocate for, especially with fentanyl and xylazine on the rise.

Here are images of some of the ONEboxes. 

This week I met the competencies 4.3.3,6.5.2, 6.5.5, and 8.1.5. 

4.3.3 Use appropriate modalities to collect and manage data.

I met this competency by working on benchmarking and by collecting wellness coaching data. 

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

8.1.5 Use evidence-informed theories, models, and strategies 

I met this competency by learning about and practicing BASICS and motivation interviewing. Both of these are based on best practices and evidence-based theories. 

Reflection

This week had a heavy focus on BASICS and motivation interviewing. My supervisor did a good job in giving me enough material to help me feel prepared. However, there were multiple moments where I felt very prepared and then I thought of a bunch of questions or scenarios where the approach to BASICS might look different for that student. She did a great job answering all of my questions.

When it first came to motivational interviewing, I felt good about the open ended question because I had practiced a decent amount on my own but the rephrasing and summarizing was a bit challenging for me. This is something that I know will come easier with practice. 

It was fun to work on the wellness coaching data and see all the different reasons that students came in for wellness coaching. There were a lot of students who wanted to work on time management and motivation. Based on the session notes, it seemed like the providers also did a good suggestion self-care and stress management strategies for these students. I even wrote down some strategies that the providers had in their notes.

It was cool to play around in Qualtrics to create a survey since I have taken MANY Qualtrics surveys in my time at UGA. It was good practice to discuss with my supervisor what questions we wanted to use on the survey to measure the objectives for the PNE programs.

It was also super nice that the director took me and some of the staff members to get snow cones!

Here is the back of the new t shirt and an image of some of the shirts I rolled. I just like how satisying it looks :)

This week I met the competencies 4.3.3, 4.4.3, 6.3.3, 6.4.3, 6.5.2, 6.5.5, and 8.1.5. 

4.3.3 Use appropriate modalities to collect and manage data.

I met this competency by working on benchmarking and the wellness coaching data. 

4.4.3 Identify limitations and delimitations of findings. 

I met this competency by working on the wellness coaching data and talking through the findings with my supervisor. We were discussing some of the limitations of the data. 

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s). 

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g.; infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

I met these by going over messaging with the AOD coordinator and by working on content for off-campus housing. I suggested edits from the persepctive of a student for the AOD messaging. For the off-campus housing content I researched similar content that other schools had. I tailored the message to students and I made sure to use language to include those who might not be UGA students or use substances. 

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

I also met these competencies by helping give the UMatter presentation and the AOD presentation to the Thrive students.

Reflection

It was fun to see the graphs for the wellness coaching data. This data collection was not perfect, but it is good to support the continuation of offering wellness coaching to students and to show other universities reasons that UGA students utilize wellness coaching. The graphs are misleading makes it look like a lot of students were self referred but this was because she said the providers will sometimes put that when they don't know the referral source. We also discussed how the data was not perfect because the goals from the session notes were categorized by only me. We discussed how ideally with qualitative data you would have multiple people categorize the data and then compare and discuss. 

I had a great time helping give presentations to the Thrive students this week. The first UMatter presentation was on the smaller side, but the students were very engaged. After the presentation, I stayed around to chat with students and a few of them thanked us and said they think it's important to talk about upstander intervention. These students identified as male and they said that they hope to create a culture where men hold other men accountable for their actions. This group of students also had some great thoughts to add to our discussion on gender and identities in regards to interpersonal violence. 

As for the AOD presentation, the AOD coordinator did a grat job keeping the presentation fun. This was a much larger group of about probably 60 students. It was great to see that many students show up but we were not aware it was going to be that many. We focused on doing activities with the students and incorporated some key AOD risk reduction strategies along the way. The students were shown what a ONEbox is and given information on that. We also asked the students to draw what a night for a UGA student would be. A lot of drawings had substance use in them which the AOD coordinator used to talk about risk reduction strategies, but many drawings were of other activities not involving substances such as watvhing a movie or getting cookies. It was good to see students include these drawings and we used it to reestablish social norms and the healthy majority. We also did the drink pouring activity which the students were very engaged with. I was super proud to see some students from the UMatter presentation speaking up and answering questions on upstander intervention! After the presentation, we had a lot of students come up and ask questions about the presentation and resources. The director of Thrive was very happy and asked the AOD coordinator for some more events in the Fall. As a student, it makes me so happy to see how the AOD coordinator went about the presentation. She did not just lecture at the students, but instead did activities with them that led the discussion. The students came up with strategies and were able to educate each other this way which I think has much more impact. 

This week in the staff meeting, someone brought up trends on social media about misinformation around birth control and college aged students buying a new straw that holds liquor. I added to the conversation by saying I have seen a trend of college aged girls taking bee pollen in hopes of their boobs increasing in size. Many people have had adverse reactions to the bee pollen but this has not stopped others from trying. The nutritionist added to this by bringing up the current trend of "girl dinner" versus "guy dinner". He said he wants to incorporate some social media posts to correct this and suggest ways to create a balanced dinner for anyone. This led to the idea of maybe doing a weekly post of picking a social media trend that is spreading misinformation and correcting it. 

This week I met the competencies 6.3.3, 6.4.3, 6.5.2, 6.5.5, and 8.1.5. 

6.3.3 Tailor message(s) for the audience(s). 

I met this by creating content for off-campus housing and by practicing BASICS sessions for different types of students.

6.4.3 Develop communication aids, materials, or tools using appropriate multimedia (e.g.; infographics, presentation software, brochures, and posters).

I met this by creating content for off-campus housing.

6.5.2 Use public speaking skills.

6.5.5 Deliver oral and written communication that aligns with professional standards of grammar, punctuation, and style.

I met these competencies by working the table at the orientation resource fair. I had to speak to new students and their guests about The Fontaine Center and other resources at the university health center. This required speaking to both individuals and at times groups of people depending on who came up to the table. I did this in a professional manner and adjusted each discussion based on the student's interests in the resources we offer.

Reflection

I spent a lot of time on BASICS this week. I realized that facilitating a first session is much easier than a second session. I honestly felt pretty confident after the first session and my supervisor gave good feedback. The second session was much more challenging because I was trying to help a student who did not use substances come up with a risk reduction plan for substance use. In this case study, a female first year student was sanctioned to attend BASICS due to going to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. The student did not drink before the incident and reported not wanting to drink after the incident. My supervisor and I talked about how this is the ideal student for BASICS because they do not want to use substances, they just need the skills to help them accomplish this. Because of this, I focused on refusal skills and other strategies the student could use when around alcohol. I had to keep reminding myself to try to facilitate the conversation where the student came up with these ideas and to only offer advice if given permission by the student. The session felt awkward, but I felt good overall. I know with more practice I would be a lot more confident.

The other case study was for a student with a substance use disorder who came from a family with a long history of substance use disorders. I felt good about facilitating the first session but the second session was much more challenging. This student would benefit more from counseling, but they were sanctioned BASICS for an incident with the police. This student did express wanting to change their substance use, but had failed with prior attempts. I tried to focus on this aspect when planning the second session and allowing the student to define their experience and what would work for them. I also tried to think of ways to encourage the student and affirm the positive work they have done. 

I was able to talk to our substance use counselor about how to handle a student with a substance use disorder. He gave me a lot of great insight and how to approach from a social work aspect. This was great because the student would benefit more from this approach instead of an educational approach. 

When working on other tasks throughout the week, I also tried to make as many buttons as possible to get a good stash going into the Fall. I have no idea how many buttons I made over the summer but it was hundreds. I honestly really enjoyed my button making. 

Orientation was slow this week because it was one of the last sessions. It is crazy to look back at how fast the summer went by. I remember being nervous my first few orientation tabling sessions and being scared I was going to mess up. I became a tabling pro by the end of the summer.