Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Friday 5 april 2019
Colleges’ message to ease student stress: Failure is normal

By COLLIN BINKLEY
AP Education Writer
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) —
Bentley University has plen-
ty of success stories among
its faculty and alumni. But
one recent evening, the
school invited students to
hear about the failures.
Speaking to a crowded au-
ditorium, one professor re-
counted the time he sank
a $21 million company.
Another recalled failing her
college statistics course.
One graduate described
his past struggles with drug
addiction. Each story rein-
forced the same message:
Even successful people
sometimes fail.
“Failure is normal. It’s
healthy. And I think people
on this panel would argue
it actually is transforma-
tive,” Peter Forkner, direc-
tor of Bentley’s counseling
center, told students. “If
you’re not failing, it prob-
ably means that you’re not
taking enough risks.”
Bentley, a private business In this March 5, 2019 photo, panel members, from left, Angela Giordano, Natalie Baucum, Mike Duggan, Fred Ledley and school
school near Boston, joins counselor Peter Forkner participate in an event at Bentley University, in Waltham, Mass., where professors and alumni shared some
a growing number of U.S. of their worst setbacks to illustrate that even successful people sometimes fail.
colleges trying to ease stu- Associated Press
dents’ anxieties around with an array of programs Cornell College in Iowa dren’s lives and shield them youth,” said Laura Horne,
failure and teach them meant to boost resilience is warning professors that from failure — a tendency program director at Ac-
to cope with it. On many and help students catch they shouldn’t soften their taken to the extreme in the tive Minds, a college men-
campuses, it’s meant to up on life skills. scoring for the sake of stu- college admissions bribery tal health group. “They’re
combat climbing rates of The University of California, dents’ emotions. A direc- scandal , in which dozens just responding to a differ-
stress, depression and other Los Angeles, offers “grit tive on the issue notes that of parents were charged ent and more challeng-
problems that have been coaching .” The University “a grade of a C or below is last month with paying ing landscape with the re-
blamed on reduced resil- of Minnesota recently host- not the end of the world.” bribes to help their children sources we’ve given them.”
ience or grit among young- ed a “resilience resource “Normalize failure. It’s part get into top schools. At Bentley, along with host-
er generations. fair .” Dozens of schools of life. It’s one way we A 2018 survey by the Ameri- ing events on failure, of-
Across the country, cam- now provide “Adulting 101 learn,” the message says. can College Health As- ficials have launched a
pus mental health officials “ workshops covering topics “Sometimes students need sociation found that 22% “Failure Friday” series on
report today’s students from finance to romance. to fail, and not be given of college students were social media that shares
appear to have a harder As part of that work, more an undeserved grade by a diagnosed with anxiety or a different story of failure
time bouncing back from schools are also striving to sympathetic faculty mem- treated for it over the past from someone on campus
adversity. Counseling cen- normalize failure and cre- ber.” year, up from 10% a de- each week.
ters have seen surging de- ate an environment where Others, like Bentley, are cade before. The rate for Lea Guldemond, a junior
mand, often from students students can take risks and highlighting the failures of depression rose from 10% to who attended the event
overwhelmed by everyday learn from setbacks. successful people. Harvard 17% in the same span, the on professors’ failures, said
stresses. Professors have Stanford University encour- University has a website survey found. she welcomes the conver-
raised concerns about ages its students to cele- sharing rejection letters re- Efforts to tackle campus sations about anxiety and
students’ fragility when it brate their failures through ceived by faculty, staff and mental health have some- struggle. Especially at a
comes to receiving bad song, poetry and other cre- alumni. times been met by sneers. business school, she said,
grades. ative outlets at an annual Experts propose a variety On social media, some students face constant
“Anxiety is rising like crazy,” event called “Stanford, I of theories to explain why observers mock a genera- stress to compete for the
said Nance Roy, a psy- Screwed Up! “ Smith Col- today’s students might tion of fragile “snowflakes” best grades, the best in-
chologist who works with lege in Massachusetts and be struggling. Some say who need “safe spaces” ternships and the best jobs.
colleges through the Jed the University of Central the pressure to succeed is and “trigger warnings.” But “We’re under a lot of pres-
Foundation, a nonprofit Arkansas have both issued stronger than ever, making mental health advocates sure and I think we’re
mental health group. “For students “certificates of even small failures seem counter that today’s stu- stressed all the time,” said
many students, it’s the first failure “ as part of broad- disastrous. Some say so- dents are grappling with a Guldemond, 21, of West
time they’re navigating in- er programs on the topic. cial media floods students host of pressures that past Newbury, Massachusetts.
dependently away from Colorado State University with images of perfection generations didn’t, from so- “It’s nice to be able to talk
home, and if they also invites students to take a that make them feel bad cial media to the threat of about it and know that
don’t have basic life skills, pledge to embrace failure about their own lives. Oth- school violence. you’re not alone when you
it’s sort of a perfect storm.” and persist through it. ers blame parents who “There’s this temptation to fail. Everyone deals with
Colleges have responded When it comes to grades, tightly manage their chil- judge or criticize today’s it.”q