Pumpkin Palooza among events trying to help students manage their stress this midterm season.
Students are helping students get through the term.
The scene at Pumpkin Palooza Photo credit: Ian Smyth
MacEwan University is holding events to help students to decompress their stress throughout the term.
The event, led by MacEwan Student Life and the Peer Health Education Team (PHET), was an arts and crafts stop for students to take a break and temporarily forget about exams.
“We kind of like educate students on like, what’s mental health and how to like, find motivation during the hard times,” said PHET member Abiya Lily Moncy.
Moncy said that they based the event on the Halloween craft season with the goal of letting students unwind during this high midterm season.
“To gain more motivation for learning and to feel the process of learning and enjoy the process of learning, it is much important to take some moments for ourselves.”
Another member of PHET, peer educator Aparna Suresh, discussed why keeping other aspects of yourself alive during midterm season is important. “It’s good to reflect on who you are and keeping every other aspect, especially academics, away because it’s not what determines who you are.”
Student stress levels are consistently high, with a Canadian study conducted by Queen’s University professor Brooke Linden determining that “consistent levels of chronic stress” plague students all year round. Midterms are yet another layer to that chronic stress. Groups like Student Life and PHET continue to work to combat this epidemic.
“You should not be so hard on yourself,” Suresh said. “Just figure out some other things that make you happy and less stressed and get back to whatever you need to get done later on.”
