ST. BONAVENTURE (Feb. 11) — Alex Ross, smiling ear to ear, skipped into Bonacoustics and sat down among 20 new faces. Her heart beat at a fast pace as she stretched out her eager hands to grab the sheet music hot off the printer. Her eyes scanned the familiar array of black notes on white paper. She and her soon-to-be best friends in the a cappella singing group opened their mouths and sang.
In high school, Ross, now a freshman at St. Bonaventure University, performed lead roles in five musicals, sang in four choruses and played violin in orchestra. She said the devotion and togetherness it took to perform with other students helped her overcome troubles of high school. Ross said she hoped the same deemed true in college.
Students and counselors said friends, passionate professors, and active involvement on campus ease the emotional trek from high school to college life.
Charles Walker, a professor of psychology, said involvement affects a student’s well-being.
“Well-being,” Walker said, “is not just happiness. It’s a fairly complex recipe for achieving growth and feeling like you’re thriving or flourishing in life.”
The well-being of a student can grow by participation in intramurals or one of the more than 100 clubs on campus, he added.
“It has to do with engagement and networking,” Walker said. “It’s a social variable. It’s more than just a mere activity. Students start to see they should get out of their clamshells and become a part of the community.”
As new members of the men’s rugby team, freshmen Tommy Tyler and Justin Walker said they sought help from older teammates who willingly showed them around campus.
“Coming down and visiting the rugby guys before we came here helped a lot.” said Walker, a marketing major. “Thanks to them, we got used to where everything was on campus.”
“It’s just the simple fact of knowing someone that made the transition easier,” said Tyler, a sports studies major.
Failure to separate from support systems back home makes for a more difficult transition for students now than in the past, said Roger Keener, director of the Counseling Center.
“We’ve got students texting and calling their parents all the time because of new technology… I think that sometimes hurts the ability to adapt and change. They’re not coming and being part of the college experience,” Keener said.
The retention rate, or number of 2009 freshmen who returned in fall 2010, decreased from 2008 by 1.6 percent from 82 percent to 80.4 percent.
Sarah Kieffer, a student at Buffalo State University, transferred from Bonaventure after her first semester as a freshman.
Although Kieffer joined women’s rugby, she said it didn’t make her feel as connected to others on campus as she anticipated. She said by the second semester she went home about once every two weeks.
This former Bonaventure psychology major said, “I wanted to go home. It felt better going than staying here because home was comfortable and normal for me.”
Kieffer left Bonaventure to switch majors to interior design. She said she spent her next semester at the University at Buffalo but transferred to Buff State because of UB’s huge campus and what she called the unfriendliness of the students and staff.
Keener said men have an easier time adjusting to college than women.
“Most men are interested in physical activities where women are into relationship building,” Keener said. “They can go to the Richter Center and join intramural teams or other sports. Many women who are doing that are finding it easier to adjust.” The Richter Center, located on campus, serves as the student fitness and recreation center.
However, Walker, the professor, disagreed. He said women have an easier time adjusting.
“Overall, I’m seeing that college is an environment that’s better for women,” Walker said. “Education is a compliance kind of business. You have to come in, sit down, listen, take notes; you have to be a ‘good girl.’ Guys don’t like to do that.”
Walker has researched well-being since 1996 and has discovered a correlation between adjusting to college and student well-being.
“Self-discipline and self-control are extremely important,” Walker said. “Some students start to get insight that they’re the champions of their own life. Some people need that message to help them succeed and adjust.”
The discipline and control students learn helps them to make good decisions in any situation whether it be with schoolwork or partying, Walker said.
Walker, the marketing major, said the difficult transition at first only gets easier. He offered advice for students struggling to adjust.
“Just stick through it. It gets better,” Walker said. “At first it seemed a little rocky trying to find classes and deal with homework. I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
He paused, glanced at the floor, gave a wide smile and said, “It turned out that I love it here.”
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