Helping Your Student Find Support

As a college parent, you want to support your college student in any way that you can. You talk on the phone (but not too much), you send mail (students love mail), you send care packages (hopefully food), you listen when she shares, but there is a limit to what you can do. You will need to help your student find her increasing independence and sense of responsibility by encouraging her to find and use appropriate on-campus support systems.

Your college student may continue to turn to you for help. Or he may feel that being grown up means that he needs to do everything for himself. In either case, he may not be finding and taking advantage of the resources available to him. Here are fifteen possible sources of support:

• A professor
• An Academic Advisor
• The Academic Advising Office
• A professional and/or peer tutor in the Academic Enrichment Center
• The Writing Center
• The Speaking Center
• The Library and research librarians
• The Academic Success Coordinator
• The Center for Career Development
• A workshop (offered by various departments, topics such as Time Management, Speaker's Toolbox, Health Services)
• A Resident Assistant (RA)
• Counseling Services
• Health Services
• A friend

Although, as parents or other family members, you have served many of these support functions for your student through the years, as college parents your task is to direct your student to find their own support system. Encourage your student to reach out to those around him.