I hope everyone had a great start of the semester. I have been extremely busy due to wedding planning, volunteering at the Montgomery County Humane Society, participating in the Graduate Student Association, classes, work, and family. In the spirit of Valentines Day, I thought I would write about my passion for giving back to the community. I love helping others especially animals. About six years ago, I adopted a stray kitten, hence, my soft spot for homeless animals.  

To give you a little background about my experience with community service, during my last two years in high school, I was able to accumulate over 450 community service hours by the end of my senior year. I was involved as a teacher’s assistant, math tutor, and after school help to my teachers. My community involvements helped me realize my passion for helping others and education. Though I was not able to get actively involved the last two years, I knew I wanted to volunteer again. I love animals so I applied to volunteer at the Montgomery County Humane Society. In addition, because I was part of the Student Council in undergrad at USG, I also decided to participate in the USG Graduate Student Association this year. Although most of us come and go due to our life responsibilities, I thought that it was important to voice our opinions. USG is our campus and we are impacted by any changes that happen so it is important to ask other fellow graduate students about any changes that they think will benefit all of us.    

Montgomery County Humane Society (MCHS)

MCHS is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is to end animal homelessness in the community. The recue animals from over crowded shelters and make sure that they find their forever homes. They also go into the community to educate people about the importance of adopting a pet and how to care for them. They run solely on donations so the USG GSA decided to run a collection drive (February 5th-March 9th) to help collect supplies using MCHS’ Wish List, which they use to care for the homeless animals that they currently house in their facility.  

Collection Drive

How can you help these wonderful animals? You can help our collection drive to by donating supplies for our homeless animals at MCHS. There are collection bins by the elevators in building three in the first floor and inside the Student and Academic Services suite in the first floor of building three. If you have any questions, please feel comment to this post.   

How do I balance it all?

I learned about my own strategies through my past experiences. I encourage you to utilize the Center for Academic Success (CAS) because their workshops also helped me figure out additional strategies. I had many roles when I worked there from being a Writing Fellow for the Psychology program to being a students worker which lead to being an assistant coordinator so time management was vital. For those who are trying to balance your many life responsibilities, I encourage you to use their Time Management academic coaching. You can schedule an appointment with them online via WCOnline.

If you feel stressed, anxious, depressed, or just want to talk to someone, I highly recommend the Center for Counseling and Consultation. Because my background is in counseling, I truly believe that people need to value their mental health because this significantly impact how you live your life. I worked there for a short period of time so I had to the opportunity to get to know the counselors there too. I honestly would say that they are fantastic. Give them a call to set up an appointment!