Arkansas Tech University is taking two proactive steps to help its students protect and enhance their well-being through the transitions that take place during their current stage in life.
First, the ATU Health and Wellness Center has introduced the YOU online portal as a tool that Arkansas Tech students may access for resources and information that can help them manage their day-to-day life and pursue improvement in their approach to challenges.
The YOU portal is available to ATU students, faculty and staff at https://you.atu.edu.
“Part of our mission is to provide prevention, education and outreach for our students,” said Kristy Davis, ATU associate dean for student wellness. “This generation is not as prone to come to workshops or in-person things. We know they are constantly attached to their phones, so if we can get information in their hands and readily available, that’s what we want to do.”
The YOU portal focuses on three categories: succeed (academics, career, internships), thrive (physical and mental health) and matter (belonging, connecting and finding purpose).
“I like that when students first log in, they can set their priorities,” said Davis. “If they really want to improve their academics, they can choose some content that’s related to that. If they are concerned about mental health, making friends or getting connected on campus, they can choose that. I like that they can pick what they’re most interested in and that’s what is going to show up first in their platform.”
Students may access YOU as a stand-alone resource they navigate independently or they can integrate the portal into counseling services they receive at the ATU Health and Wellness Center.
“For students that may never set foot in our counseling center, it’s an easy way to find brief content,” said Davis. “For the ones who do come to the counseling center, we can use the goal-setting feature to help students. The goals are pre-loaded and it breaks it down into simple steps. If someone wants to meet new people, their first goal might be to make eye contact with five people and smile at them. I know that sounds really simple, but we can tell a student to start there and break it down into easy steps.”
Second, the ATU Health and Wellness Center has launched the HelpCompass platform as a means of connecting students facing an immediate need with help.
“We want members of the ATU community to bookmark that site and have it quickly handy,” said Davis. “If they have a student come to them who is struggling with food insecurity, finances, academics or an incident that needs to be reported…all of those types of emergency situations and resources to address them are right there at their fingertips. It’s all the good work we’re doing on campus in an easy, user-friendly portal.”
Davis added that HelpCompass will not replace the existing ATU CARE team. She said it is a supplement to the university’s efforts to share campus resources with students.
HelpCompass is available to ATU students, faculty and staff at https://helpcompass.atu.edu.
Learn more about the ATU Health and Wellness Center at www.atu.edu/hwc.
