Student Services

SOARing Virtually

On Monday, April 13, about a month into our new virtual world, First Year Initiatives Counselor Katelyn Eden sent an email to faculty and staff about the new "virtual" SOAR sessions. 

She and New Student Orientation Coordinator Cara Luyster, had worked feverishly to create a new experience for students that would be hosted on Zoom. Their first session was only days away.

The newly designed Orientation was still required for new students, it still had two parts, students still had to register through Reynolds website, and the same material - directions, Financial Aid, resources, success tips, advising - would be covered. But, all of it virtually.

Now, three months later, the new normal, is, well, becoming normal.  

Katelyn gives this report about the accomplishments of the virtual SOAR sessions to date:


Alongside Cara Luyster . . .

• We made 1,500 SOAR seats available from our start back on April 15th through August 14th. So far, we have had 214 students attend as of Friday, May 22nd.
• SOAR will remain virtual for the remainder of the summer through August, and we are working on a plan to extend SOAR into the fall semester for 12 week start students and beyond.
• SOAR is mostly on Wednesday and Fridays, however there are several Tuesday sessions and Wednesday evening sessions to increase the number of seats that are available and flexibility for students who have other obligations during the daytime hours.
• Reynolds is one of the first in the VCCS to have a live virtual orientation, and we have had other schools and staff shadow our innovation!
• SOAR is composed of a 30 minute welcome, 30 minute “How to Pay for College” session with financial aid staff, a 30 minute advising appointment and assistance with registering for courses and identifying any next steps.
• Overall, virtual SOAR has been very positive. We are truly bringing SOAR to the comfort of the student's living room, and we have had several memorable moments including students who have joined orientation from their bed in a fuzzy robe, pets making a guest appearance, while driving in a car, a student joining us from the break room of their job, and a whole family appearance including grandparents and significant others.
• Students and families have expressed that in a time of losing a lot of important moments (like graduation, prom, etc), it has been nice to have a live program to attend and have some of that excitement of senior year return. Our non-traditional students are also appreciating the flexibility of virtual SOAR. Below are a few response from our SOAR eval survey:

Originial email from Katelyn:

From Katelyn Eden, 

Counselor, First Year Initiatives

Email: Monday, April 13

The New Student Orientation team has been quickly working to create a virtual orientation experience for new students. “SOAR” or Student Orientation Advising and Registration program has its first few sessions scheduled for the second week of April, and they will be hosted completely online through Zoom.

SOAR is still a two-part orientation program, and is required for new students wanting to start classes in fall 2020.

Students are encouraged to register for a live virtual SOAR session through our orientation website and will need to complete a virtual Go2Reynolds online orientation component prior to their SOAR session. This online orientation includes:

·         Directions on the enrollment process

·         Valuable information from financial aid on how to pay for college

·         College resources and their functions

·         Tips on how to be a successful college student and more!

The GoReynolds site available to anyone so feel free to visit and review: go2reynolds.com. You do not need to use your MyReynolds log in credentials.

During the live virtual SOAR program students:

·         Engage in a zoom welcome session

·         Meet with an academic advisor

·         Interact with a staff member or Student Ambassador for registration assistance and directions on next steps  

As of right now, we have virtual SOAR dates scheduled into May, however we will likely be extending our virtual program for the remainder of the summer. SOAR sessions take place on Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings for now. [Update: SOAR sessions are scheduled through the summer.]

If a new student approaches you and asks where to begin or how to sign up, please share these handy references:

OrientationChecklist 

SOARregistration site

VirtualSOAR book

You can also refer students to soar@reynolds.edu or our SOAR line 804-523-5155. Thanks for everything you do!

Questions? Contact Katelyn Eden, 523-5369, or Cara Luyster, 523-5096.

Faculty Profile

Lessons Beyond the "Sandbox"

Thanks to Pam Ratliff, Human Services Program Head & Professor in Reynolds 

School of Humanities and Social Sciences, we all get to meet - virtually - Kevin Holder. 

Kevin has been an adjunct faculty member at Reynolds since 2011. He was recently featured in an NBC article on May 11 about the challenges faced by black mental health clinicians during the COVID-19 crisis. 

While the NBC article focused on a more specific topic - black clinicians and the impact of COVID 19 - it was clear there was more to learn from Kevin about his experiences in the Richmond area. As if the stresses of mental health clinicians aren't enough, the pandemic has stretched our local services in ways we may never have considered. 

Kevin's thoughtful, robust, and informative insights give us a better understanding of what is happening all around us right now, even if we aren't out and about to see it in person.

Q:Tell us about your work with Chesterfield County. What was a typical day like before COVID-19?

Kevin: I work as a Senior Emergency Services Clinician for Chesterfield County.  Most people refer to us as Crisis Clinicians. Crisis work is 24/7 – 365 days a year just like police, fire, and EMS. At work I answer crisis phone calls as they come into the call center. I pre-screen individuals for psychiatric hospitalizations when they are having a mental health emergency, whether they are voluntary or involuntary. I provide crisis counseling to individuals and families. Chesterfield Jail is a partner with us so I conduct risk assessments for the people there. I participate in court hearings for “commitments” and “re-commitments” that determine if a patient needs to stay involuntarily at the hospital for additional psychiatric treatment, stay voluntarily, or can be discharged. The job comes with a fair amount of documentation and clinical charting that needs to be completed on a daily basis. In my profession of social work, especially in the Human Services and Mental Health courses I teach, students learn Surveyor’s Rule #1 – “If it hasn’t been documented, it hasn’t been done.”

Before COVID-19, my typical day would start with going into the office and logging in so the phones would ring in the office and no longer to the on-call clinician. Then I would post the schedule on the walls and door of the roles that clinicians would have throughout the day. I would make sure the fax machine and printers all were filled with paper since we do a lot of faxing and printing throughout the day/night. Then I would check work emails and just wait for the crises to start coming in. If a jail or hospital evaluation was needed, I would drive to the jail or the hospital. If the magistrate issued an order or the police picked somebody up that needed an evaluation, I would meet them at the police station (during late nights, weekends, and holidays). If this occurred during the day, police would bring them to the center to be evaluated. COVID 19 changed all that.

Q: How has your job changed now? What is your daily experience in this pandemic?

Kevin: My job has vastly changed now because I’m only in the office one or two days a week so the rest of the time I’m working from home providing tele-behavioral health services. The crisis calls come in via software that is installed on my work laptop. The face-to-face evaluations are conducted using video conferencing. The person being evaluated might be at the hospitals, jail, police stations, or juvenile detention. The time it takes to complete the work is still about the same, but there is no travel time involved now since I’m using this technology. Although travel time has decreased, I believe the volume of calls and evaluations has increased, unfortunately.

Q: What is the situation in the areas you are serving now? What do you see?

Kevin: A lot of people are hurting emotionally and feel isolated. Sometimes people feel isolated even if they are not the only ones living in their house. This has lead to an increase in suicidality, emotional disturbances in children and adolescents, as well as depression and anxiety in all populations. Psychiatric hospital beds are filled to capacity so people are spending hours and sometimes days in emergency rooms, waiting for a psych bed to become available. This is bad for the patients because being in an ER for that long can be over-stimulating and increase their anxiety. This is bad for the police that often times have to stay with the patients because that’s two police officers that are no longer on the road keeping the public safe.

Q: What does the community need the most?

Kevin: The community needs more inpatient psychiatric beds for children, adolescents, and the geriatric populations. There is a severe shortage of psych beds. We need more therapists providing individual and group telehealth services in the community, in private practice and in public mental health. The community needs equal access to adequate technology to allow for the provision of these services. That includes hardware (devices and laptops), software, and high-speed reliable internet connections. This pandemic has exposed the digital divide that our community has been experiencing for many years. 

Q: Will your experience impact what you share with your students? How?

Kevin: Absolutely! I share as many of my experiences with students as time permits because they need to know what they are getting themselves into and prepare for these situations in the “sandbox” known as my classroom so they can competently navigate these experiences while out in the real world.  Students tell me they appreciate the case scenarios and are often shocked to find out that the scenario was something I actually experienced in the field. I plan to share my telehealth and overall work experiences in this pandemic because part of my experiences will become their new normal once they graduate and are in the workplace.    

Student Profile

“I was happy every day I was at school . . . .”

We all start out with dreams. Of necessity, many of us set those dreams aside, “put them on the back burner” as the saying goes. Life gets in the way. Time goes by. The back burner gets turned down low. Then lower.

But for some of us, like Maureen O’Donnell, dreams are still dreams. For a time they might be lukewarm, but the hope of reigniting them is always there, just waiting for the spark of opportunity. 

“I always knew I wanted to be a nurse,” Maureen said, “and I knew I wanted to work in Hospice back when I was 20. But I got married. I had children. Then I made a home for ten foster children. Then came a divorce. Life really did get in the way. My dream was always there, but the opportunity wasn’t.”

“Six or seven years ago my dream turned up again when my father went into hospice,” Maureen explained. “My experience during that time prompted me to volunteer, and I knew then, that’s what I wanted to pursue. I wanted to become a hospice nurse.”

Two years ago Maureen finally got her spark of opportunity, and started pre-nursing classes at Reynolds. At the time she still didn’t know how she would pay for the classes, or if she was up to the task after so many years. “I was very nervous going back to school at my age. I didn’t know if I could get my brain working again. I didn’t know if I would be able to study. I didn’t know what was going to happen. All I knew was I was taking the first step.” 

“I was happy every day I was at school,” Maureen recalls, “the support I got from Reynolds faculty was amazing. They didn’t just teach the material. They taught me how to get the work done, and how to be successful. All the professors went above and beyond. They always helped me to get past the roadblocks, they always stepped in and worked things out if I had a problem with a class or a requirement. And, it’s not just me saying this. My classmates said the same thing. Reynolds is a wonderful, and inspiring learning environment.”

Two years have passed and Maureen has just finished her pre-nursing studies at Reynolds. She has been accepted into a nursing program with a faith-based approach that will give her the opportunity to do mission work. She currently volunteers each week in their hospice unit and will begin pursuing her BSN in August. “For me nursing is more than a job, it is a mission.”

“My experience at Reynolds was incredible! After returning to college at a much older age, I was nervous about whether I’d be able to, not only complete the required courses, but do well. I was able to maintain a great GPA. I can honestly say the support I received from my professors and the curriculum offered at Reynolds was exceptional, and set me up perfectly for a successful start to accomplishing my career goals. I couldn’t be happier! This dream, my dream, has been a long time coming.”