Amidst pandemic, stress grows for students. Photo by Chaz Kawamura.

By Chaz Kawamura, Staff Reporter

After the initial announcement of classes being moved online by the California State University Office of the Chancellor back in the spring semester of last year, there have been many students around the country and around the CSU system struggling with not having in-person classes. However, there are still many things students can do in order to help cope with these struggles while also relieving stress. 

According to an article by the Los Angeles Times, the pandemic has taken a huge toll on educators and students as a whole, especially within the collegiate system. Many of which have come to agree that it is extremely stressful trying to juggle school and work along with your personal life prior to a global pandemic, but since has been made difficult for different reasons.

 “It is very stressful. When I am at home, I am not only an employee at CSUDH. I am a mother of two children and a partner to somebody else,” said Josephine Lara, mental health education assistant at CSUDH. “I can only imagine the pressure. You need both boundaries where the two sides do not merge and clutter.”

Being stuck at home with so many roles, jobs, and assignments leads you to try and find ways to relieve that stress in order to keep your daily life balanced between your education, job, and social life as well. For Lara, it is all too familiar as she tries to juggle everything that comes with being a mother, an employee at a state university with such a large system, and a woman who still needs time for herself.

Her first-hand experience makes it so that she understands the process of which students who are transitioning into online learning are experiencing. And as the mental health education assistant for CSUDH, the resources she is able to provide for students is somewhat of an expansive list ranging from tactic tools, to virtual tools. 

According to another article made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are many effects that stress can have on you as a whole that include feelings of fear, changes in appetite and energy, and worsening of mental health conditions. With the stress, there are also solutions to relieving stress for students and educators alike. Although it may be hard to find those solutions, Lara explains some of the things that a student can do in order to relieve that stress when taking online classes at home. 

“Mental health breaks also help as well, this is where people are off their screens and instead are doing things they enjoy,” said Lara. “Proper nutrition, making sure they sleep right, and exercising. If we lack one of those, our mental health does decline. To do all those things is extremely important.” Another thing that Lara talked about was the resources that students have in order to help them with their stress relief, especially in a time like this. Resources like the Toro Learning and Testing Center, Student Health Services, and Student Psychological Services can help students out by seeking help and talking to a specialist. 

However, those resources are not the only resources that students can access during this pandemic. Along with this, CSUDH has also now created a new resource for students, the YOU CSUDH page, which was made for students to get tips and tools to better their college experience as a whole. 

Overall, students and educators alike are having a hard time finding the solutions to destress their environment. But with the resources readily available for students at CSUDH, especially with the new addition of the YOU page, one can argue that students at the school are in good hands knowing that the school has all these resources in order to help students relieve stress during this tough time. 

The most important thing a student during this pandemic can do is realize you are not okay. After you accept that, you can then explore the solutions that are available to you in order to destress yourself.