I finished my feature piece for the magazine at my internship this week. It's about how mental health procedures have changed in the past years, particularly since the Virginia Tech shootings. It covers some of the privacy policies I deal with in my RA job all the time, such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), and how they are being reinterpreted. It also covers how the stigma behind mental health is changing with our generation. I'll be sure to post it once it is done going through the editing process. I had the opportunity to interview counseling professionals and housing professionals at colleges and universities all over the country. I even got to interview some Ivy League-ers, including Harvard! Yeah, they were DEFINITELY on top of things. They had great support on their campus for mental health, and they knew it, too! I really enjoyed researching all the privacy laws and how they had been violated or changed over the past years. Besides all the interviews I did, I read through the reports from Governor Kaine and the Virginia Tech Review Panel, and I search through studies that were done about the effects of Virginia Tech and subsequent school shootings. It was definitely a challenge taking all that information and combining it into a readable story, but it was so much fun! I love that stuff! I'm so happy to be doing work this summer that I can be proud of, and that will give me experience to jump start my future. And I really enjoy meeting with and talking to new people!
My OSU Calling job on the other hand...let's just say I'm not meant for the life of a telemarketer...learning to deal with angry alumni who don’t want to be asked for money is not easy! You really need to develop a thick-skin, which is definitely one of my weaknesses. I'll be so happy to get a couple days off for my sister's wedding next week.