Daniel Showalter enlightens us with his sabbatical presentation on Student Mental Health: What’s going on, and Why Should we Care?
Showalter serves as Associate Professor of Mathematics at EMU, as well as Program Director of Mathematics and Computer Science. Showalter shares what led him to focus on student mental health and his journey to better understand the network in place to support students in their wellbeing. Specifically, he discusses questions facing faculty members who want to support students beyond the course content but are unsure of what that could/should look like.
The point of a Sabbatical is to somehow add value to what faculty members such as Showalter can offer at EMU. Showalter shares some of his motivations for focusing on student mental health, “After considering several different possibilities, it seemed that the area where I could use the most growth was better understanding how to support students and relate with students in terms of mental health”. Showalter also shares “Obviously, I’ve received lots of training in my content area over the years, but I had very little formal knowledge of anything related to mental health, including what structures are already in place here at EMU and how to refer students to them”. Showalters journey with mental health has evolved and changed throughout his time focusing on it.
Showalter looks back on his journey, “Looking back, I think my initial goal was framed around how to most healthily relate with students struggling with a mental illness. As the sabbatical unfolded, I found it more complete to focus on mental health, because this impacts all students (which includes knowing how to support through mental illness, and also helping anyone else strive for a better quality of life)”. Showalter also learned a lot about his own mental health, “I learned a lot about my own mental health in the process as well, some things I knew beforehand but hadn’t really practiced (such as the role that regular exercise could play for me) and other things were a bit more unexpected”. Student mental health is a very important topic especially in a college setting. Showalter emphasizes that “there are times when students struggle to learn because the concepts are so hard or perhaps because other forms of instruction might be more effective, but there are also times when learning becomes much more difficult because of mental health related situations”. Showalter says “If we as faculty (or students) just try to focus solely on the content and how it’s packaged, it is ineffective. By acknowledging the role that mental health plays in the overall learning process, we can work together to create a more effective and enjoyable learning experience for both students and faculty”.
Showalter leaves us with some insight and takeaways, “I think my default approach when someone is struggling has always been to make the path as easy as possible for the person — whether that be a student, my daughters, a friend, etc. Looking back, this feels shortsighted. While empathy certainly plays a role in supporting others (or ourselves), there is also an important balance to maintain with preserving a certain level of challenge. Of course, they should be reasonable challenges towards achievable goals. In adding in challenges, with support, we can better foster resilience and growth”.
Continued recognition of mental health, especially on students, will make it easier for students themselves to deal with things and also for faculty members to help out in any way that they can, leaving it so that no one has to go through things alone.
