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Archives for March 2021

Working on words

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During COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020, Missouri State University offered a “virtual friend” program for international students who were unable to travel back to their home countries.

The program piqued the interest of Deborah Cron, clinical professor of speech-language pathology in the communication sciences and disorders department. She volunteered and formed a friendship with an international student from China.

Then she had an idea.

Practicing pronunciation

Many international students arrive at Missouri State wanting to improve their English speaking. This was no different for Cron’s virtual friend.

In summer 2020, Cron and Jinzi Fan, China programs specialist, developed a program for SLP graduate students to meet virtually with international students to practice pronunciation techniques.

“When COVID hit, the Chinese students I work with were suddenly isolated,” Fan said. “But they were still eager to learn. This program is an opportunity for them to improve their English beyond their classes.”

The virtual program continued via zoom after campus reopened in fall 2020 and is now a flourishing partnership between SLP and International Programs.

Staying connected through culture

For SLP graduate students Monica Ballay, Hanah Braden, Ashton Doza and Brendyn Petty, the program gave them a different perspective of culture.

“We learn a lot about the international students’ cultures working with them,” Braden said. “But we also learn about our own culture, as we explain the context of certain terms and their pronunciations.”

Yidan Ge, an international student from China who participates in the program, echoes that sentiment. Ge appreciated learning important aspects of American culture, while also making progress with her English.

“I’ve only been in the States for a year,” Ge said. “So, it’s been really nice to stay connected with this group and be able to practice during the weirdness of COVID.”

The goal of the pronunciation sessions is to help them produce speech sounds that non-native English speakers  use in their mother language. The students also  learn context, vocal inflection and sentence structure.

“We never want to erase someone’s native accent,” Cron said. “The goal is to make their English understandable.”

Ge says English slang, vowel sounds and plural pronunciations are what she struggles with most.

“Take ‘clothes,’ for example,” she said. “I used to pronounce it like ‘clothe-is.’ But this group has helped me work on those plural pronunciations.”

How to participate

Students, faculty, staff, alumni, even community members coming from any language background can sign up for upcoming sessions by sending an email to Deborah Cron.

Include “English Pronunciation Groups” in the email subject line.

MCHHS allocates funding for student success projects

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The McQueary College of Health and Human Services at Missouri State University wants students to succeed — and have ample opportunity do so.

To push this effort forward, the college plans to allocate $240,000 during the 2021-22 academic year toward the MCHHS Student Success Innovative Project (MSSIP).

About the project

In fall 2020, MSU approved a $25 per credit hour fee for most MCHHS undergraduate courses. A portion of that fee will fund the MSSIP.

The college will put $120,000 toward projects submitted during the spring 2021 semester.

Outcomes for students include:

  • Educational opportunities.
  • Professional skill and career development.
  • Enhanced experiences relevant to diversity, equity, inclusion and/or cultural competence.
  • Enhanced inter-professional/cross-disciplinary experiences.

Submitting a project proposal

MCHHS staff, faculty, faculty teams, faculty with student contributors and students with faculty advisors are eligible to submit proposals to the MSSIP.

Application materials

The deadline for spring 2021 proposals is 6 p.m. April 2.

Submit completed applications and supporting materials via email to MSSIP@MissouriState.edu.

He gained the tools he needed to succeed in corporate health

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Matt Hancock earned a bachelor’s in exercise science, became a personal trainer and managed a gym.

The Springfield native eyed MSU’s health promotion and wellness management graduate program because he wanted to make change on a larger scale.

“I really wanted to get into corporate health,” Hancock said. “It has been blowing up over the past couple of years. There’s a lot of opportunity. Companies are realizing healthier employees are more productive, too.”

Working while completing his degree

Missouri State’s program was attractive because it was flexible and offered a mix of seated and online courses. He worked full time at Mercy and was able to go to school part time and tackle his degree in chunks.

“I really liked the core classes because they let me learn a lot more about the direct areas I was going into, such as how to build up a program, how to look at a population health approach. My undergrad was more studying facts. My master’s was more applicable to everyday life and translating into a working situation,” Hancock said.

As part of a clinical requirement for his master’s, Hancock completed a 420-hour internship at Bass Pro working for the company’s wellbeing program.

He added on a certificate in health education because Hancock felt it would give him an edge in the job market and it did.

Shortly after graduating in spring 2019, Hancock left Mercy and joined Prime Inc., as Driver Health and Fitness Coordinator.

Matt Hancock giving presentation at work.
At Prime, Inc., Matt Hancock oversees programs that improve employee health.

Making a difference

At Prime, Hancock was able to use the knowledge he learned in his master’s courses to directly impact driver health.

He revamped the wellness program and reaches nearly 8,000 drivers.

“In the past, Prime focused on a 13-week weight loss program for drivers,” Hancock said. “We have evolved to focus on a whole person virtual approach now. When COVID entered our lives, we had to look at our health initiatives in a different way. In-person services were no longer an option, so in October 2020 we began designing our own online wellness platform using a learning management system called Learn Dash.”

“The master’s program really helped prepare me for my career by giving me the base of knowledge I needed. I didn’t know anything about corporate health when I started. I learned a lot to prepare for the position I am in now.”

Through this platform they created health risk assessments, collected health data and designed and evaluated programs more efficiently to suit drivers needs based on the health risks that are prevalent in the occupation, such as fatigue and back pain.

A holistic approach to employee health

The platform will allow them to offer fitness, nutrition and mental health programs around-the-clock to fit drivers’ unique schedules over the road.

“All aspects will be gamified so we can create an engaging, competitive atmosphere by offering points to our drivers for completing certain health-related activities and tasks,” Hancock said.

Drivers can access virtual personal training and nutritional counseling with their registered dietitian.

Taking a holistic approach, they also addressed:

  • Mental health, which is so important during the pandemic.
  • Created a tobacco cessation program since 60 percent of drivers use tobacco products, said Hancock.
  • Formed a healthy driver task force and put together exercises that drivers can do at truck stops or using equipment on the truck
  • Showed employees how to make healthier choices on the road.

“Not everyone is interested in losing weight or eating right, but if we have several initiatives they can focus on, then we can let them hone-in on one that helps them lead a healthier life,” Hancock said.  “It has gotten a lot of traction. We are starting to see improvement in employee health. It’s really a rewarding job. This is what I’ve been wanting to do for many years. I want to make a big impact on driver health, satisfaction, happiness and lifestyle.”

Explore a master’s degree in health promotion and wellness management

COVID-19 is a marathon. College students are tired.

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It’s not a surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many existing mental health problems. The world is still experiencing a collective trauma, and many people aren’t getting help.

“We are facing a national mental health crisis that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come,” reads the 2020 “Stress in America” Survey, published yearly by the American Psychological Association.

For college students, the stress of the pandemic has added additional weight to an already heavy problem.

The college student mental health crisis

Prior to 2020, college students were already high on the mental health priority list.

In 2018, 62% of college students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the last 12 months. In the same survey, 41% reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult to function.

By fall 2020, 89% of college students reported actively experiencing stress or anxiety because of COVID-19. One in four students said their existing depression significantly increased.

Dr. Danae Hudson, a clinical psychologist and clinical psychology graduate program coordinator at Missouri State University, cites a lack of access to treatment as one of the factors in the severity of the crisis.

“Access has been a problem for a long time,” she said. “It’s complicated by COVID because there is an increase in the prevalence of people who are struggling, and it is difficult to see someone in an office setting with social distancing measures.”

The combination of decreased access to treatment, isolation, the loss of traditional campus life and regular academic stress makes the college student situation more complex than it has been in the past.

“Usually, the top stressors for college students are related to finances, academics, relationships, job outlook and identity, in that order,” Hudson said.

In the era of COVID, stress about health and safety has taken the top spot, pushing out a focus on identity.

“This makes sense from a psychological standpoint,” she said. “People need to make sure they’re safe and that they are going to live before they start thinking about what they want their futures to look like.”

Pandemic burnout

This heightened sense of survival has taken its toll on everyone, including college students. Nearing the anniversary of the March 2020 shutdowns, many have reported burnout and exhaustion.

MSU Counseling Resources

Hudson believes these feelings of fatigue stem from a heightened, prolonged stress response. With the onset of stress, your body goes into alarm mode, then builds up resistance, which is eventually followed by a period of exhaustion. This is known in psychology as general adaptation syndrome.

“I think we’ve entered that exhaustion phase,” she said. “When we mobilized in spring 2020, we had no idea how long this was going to last. We started sprinting for a 5k, when it’s really a marathon.”

Supporting students through the crisis

Hudson believes the best way for people in the college sphere to support students during the heightened COVID-19 stress is to be flexible.

“We have to have grace for each other,” she said. “People are struggling in different ways, but we are all struggling to some extent.”

As a professor, Hudson’s priority is that her students are okay. Her expectations for late work, exams and class attendance have had to change in the wake of students’ significant COVID-19 and mental health struggles.

“We’re not living in the ‘real world’ right now,” she said. “Our expectations have to be different. I want my students to feel supported more than anything else.”

She also recommends that students extend the same grace to themselves that they would to a friend. It’s an idea she calls radical acceptance.

“You have to learn to tell yourself, ‘Maybe I’m not going to be at my best, and that’s okay. I just need to get through this,’” she said.

Missouri State resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, contact the Missouri State Counseling Center.

Online resources: