ATENEO IS one big blue sea and students, especially freshmen, may have a hard time swimming through it.
To help them, Ateneo Peers held a workshop on adjusting to college and dealing with problems of culture shock, academic stress and homesickness.
Titled “Big Blue Sea: A Freshmen Transition to College Workshop,” the event allowed the participants to share and discuss the problems they encounter in college. Upperclassmen also shared their experiences and gave tips to the freshmen.
Peers is an organization that caters to the emotional and psychological wellness of the Ateneans and other communities. The workshop was held August 10 at the Manuel V. Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership Roofdeck.
Honest questions
Sanggunian President Gio Tingson, a guest speaker in the workshop, advised the freshmen to always be honest with themselves. He said that college offers a lot of opportunities, but students should choose fields where they excel most.
“Before I wanted to be like Chris Tiu, but now I am thankful that I did not become like him because he’s so good at so many things,” Tingson said in Filipino.
He also said that college is very different from high school and freshmen year is the period of adjustment. “College is all about asking so many questions, journeying and finding solutions.”
“It’s about asking, ‘Now, where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What do you really want to have?’” said Tingson.
Overcoming problems
Pieces of paper were handed out for the freshmen for them to write the biggest problem they encountered in college. The facilitator asked them to shout what they wrote and to tear the paper afterwards.
Various pledges were made like overcoming stress, relationship problems, loneliness, addiction to Facebook and insecurities.
“At first, I didn’t think that my fellow students can listen to my problems but when I actually immersed myself to the event, I felt that I am more open to sharing my problems and receiving advice from other people,” participant Diego Santiago said.
Some upperclassmen described their college experiences and gave tips to the freshmen. Even Tingson shared his own story.
“To be honest, I dropped out of my Spanish class because it was so hard for me. But as they say, life can be understood backwards, but can only be lived forwards,” he said.
Helpful but lacks promotion
“The event was beautiful. It showed that freshmen, as well as upperclassmen are not alone in their problems. It was very interesting to see how some people wanted to be loved more by others,” senior Mikey Boren said.
“The tips of the upperclassmen on how to cope up with studies helped me [but] I think very few people came here [because there were] not enough advertisements or dissemination,” freshman Jan Garrick Hatol meanwhile said.
Peers Finance and Logistics Head Lara Lakap agreed. “The event is not as I would like it to be. Maybe it needs more promotion. But overall, it was good since we aimed for an intimate setting.”
