We’re going to wait just a moment to see if we have a couple of other folks who will be joining us. I did want to let everyone know that we are recording this session so that we can share this information with others who were not able to attend this evening. As we move through the presentation, if you have any questions that you do not want to forget and you want to put them down in the chat box below, they’ll at least be there and we can ask that question or questions after the presentation. I will also unmute you at the end of the presentation, so if you want to ask questions audibly, you may.

Alright, so let’s just give some folks a moment to catch up with us and we will begin. Beautiful! I can see it’s full screen, so you’ll be ready to knock it out of the park here in just a moment. No pressure! I love that little area of campus, too; it’s such a beautiful place to get away from it all. Ah, technology! I thought I unmuted. Okay, we’re good now.

Hi everyone, my name is Emily Van Warmer. I work as the Health Resource Manager at CCS’s Wellness and Counseling office. As you can see on the slide here, we have a variety of services within our very small office. We offer clinical counseling, different activities and classes, we contract with virtual support, and we also help students find resources in the community. We assist with our insurance program that is available to students to enroll in, as well as their general health insurance needs. There can be a lot of variables and unpredictable things that, when you’re on your own for the first time, you might need assistance with. If it has to do with health and wellness, we probably can help.

We are located in the Yamasaki Building, which is on the Ford campus, and we kind of operate out of two different spaces. We have the Health Hub, which is on the first floor, and that’s more like a student lounge. We also have our actual counseling offices, but you can find us online, so we offer telemedicine and have different virtual resources as well. We will also be around campus for various things like yoga, and it’s midterm or finals week for students right now, so we have massages. We did an Earth Day pop-up. We’re kind of all over the place!

In the Health Hub, it’s a student lounge, as I mentioned. We have these awesome hammock chairs that students like to hang out in and just rest and relax. Grab a cup of tea. In the corner is our therapy dog; she comes every week. She also sometimes makes pop-up appearances over at our other campus as well. We have a food pantry that is accessible for all students. You just need to sign in with your student ID, and we can also connect you with other health information. In the Health Hub, you can get various samples. If you need deodorant or a pad or different types of toiletries, students like to use this space as a place to have events. There have been self-care events and conversations and things like that.

On the second floor, that’s our main location for our clinical therapist. We do have three full-time Master’s level clinicians, and we really focus on brief solution-focused therapy. Students come in with a lot of different presenting issues, whether it’s anxiety, depression, homesickness, adjustments, or life changes. This can be in the format of appointment-based, which is usually how most students utilize our office, but we also have weekly walk-in hours. We have a total of three days with one and a half hours each, so that you don’t need an appointment. We also have an office dedicated just for telehealth, which can be if your clinician is working remotely that day and you need to have a private place, or even if you have a different type of telehealth service and you don’t want to use your dorm or the library, we have a space for you to take those appointments.

Starting in the fall, we are implementing a new program based on something that we’ve already been using. Essentially, this virtual care group is going to be 24/7 using a web app or phone call. What’s really cool is that we’ve had a 24/7 kind of mental health resource phone and chat online for a long time, but now we’re adding in unlimited medical visits as well. This is kind of like urgent care but without having to leave your dorm. For example, scratchy throat, pink eye—things like that typically can be resolved with this type of service. There are also various aspects that are enhanced, like life coaching, having specific 50-minute sessions with a clinician. This is also really nice if your schedule doesn’t allow for a visit during normal working hours. We’re open 8:30 to 4:30, Monday through Friday, so this also opens up the opportunity to have appointments after hours and on weekends as well. More information will be coming for incoming students in the fall.

As I mentioned, healthcare navigation is a big thing that I handle. There are a lot of questions around enrollment, claims, coverage, and just finding the different resources and how to make an appointment and how to pay insurance bills, and things like that. We can help you out with that. We also connect with various basic needs. As I mentioned, the food pantry is one of those services. Other things we’ve helped students with include figuring out summer housing and connecting with different services in the city. We can be that point person to help you understand the different aspects that you might need.

We also have a partnership with the Wayne State Rec Center, so that’s a really fun option if you’re looking for greater fitness options or more options than what we offer on campus. The health insurance plan we go through a company called Wellfleet. This is voluntary for domestic students. If you’re an incoming international student, it is a requirement of your visa to have the health insurance plan. It’s really affordable at $1,244 per year, so essentially just about $100 a month. It has a very low in-network deductible of $350. Again, this is voluntary for domestic students, but if you are coming from out of state or just looking for more comprehensive health insurance coverage, this is an option for students, and they can enroll by the semester. It uses the Signa PPO network, so it’s covered pretty much around the country.

Finally, we have our student programming. We have our Wellness Peer Educators, who are a team of students trained on various health topics. They are there to be peers who help fellow students with stress management and different awareness campaigns, just trying to bring the humanity into it because sometimes school can be really intense. They do different events and awareness campaigns and educational programs. We have a pretty robust social media presence focused on wellness topics, and we partner with other groups on campus. All our events are posted on Pride, so that page is public. If you’re ever curious about what we do, we had an Earth Day event where we handed out house plants and shared stickers around the environment. We have massages this week, and previously we went rock climbing. We focus on the full aspects of wellness—your physical, emotional, mental, etc.

This is our contact info. The easiest way to reach us is just through [email protected], which is our main email, along with our office number. You can check us out on social media as well; we mostly post on Instagram, but it also feeds onto the Facebook page.

That’s all I’ve got, Eric. I’m going to go ahead and stop sharing here.

Eric: Fabulous job! I always learn something when I attend these. I don’t think I’ve done one with you two yet, so this was very informative. Thank you.

Holly: Are you ready? It looks like you are.

Eric: I’m getting there. I think we’re here.

Holly: Hi! My name is Holly Tenda. I’m Co-Director of the Center for Tutoring and Writing. I’m just going to give you an overview of the services that we provide for all students. The Center for Tutoring and Writing helps with lots of different things, but the main things that we do are academic coaching and writing assistance.

To start with the academic coaching aspect, this is where you would come in and meet with an academic coach, either myself or my colleague Katherine. We meet one-on-one and talk about your schedule and any challenges you may be having with time management, procrastination, or balancing a job and other life events with your classes. It works best when we can meet once a week or sometimes every other week. It’s really based on what you need, so there’s not a one-size-fits-all for academic coaching. We go through whatever challenges are going on, doing a deep dive into the schedule, and identifying the things that are holding you back, especially with students who struggle with perfectionism.

I think I’m just going to stop my share here because I see I’m locked in. So, academic coaching is something a lot of students can really benefit from. Another key component of the Center for Tutoring and Writing is our peer tutors. Our tutors are upper-level students who are recommended by faculty. We also have a variety of different disciplines available. For instance, if you have a project that is very software-specific to your major, we have tutors who can help you with that. We also can help you with traditional skills like drawing, which is often taught in an environment where students are working on projects, and things can be busy. There are also logistical issues—“I can’t find my classroom; I’m lost”—and we can help with all of those types of things.

Another thing that we offer is writing assistance. This can be anything from brainstorming ideas for a paper to editing your final draft. It’s available at any stage of the writing process, and that can include personal statements and other admissions-related things. We can even go back and edit other essays or documents you may need, and we’re there for you. Appointments can be held in person, which is great if you are on campus. We also offer Zoom appointments if you can’t make it to campus.

Do we have any questions about the services before I pass it back to Eric?

Eric: I just want to thank you again for sharing all that great information! What questions do you have about the Center for Tutoring and Writing or any of our services?

I’d like to thank everyone for joining us this evening! If you have further questions about admissions or our services, please feel free to reach out to us. We want to make sure that you have all the resources you need. Thank you, Emily and Holly, for your informative presentations. Have a wonderful evening, everyone! Take care, and goodbye!