Campus Life on a Tightrope: How Students Juggle Grades and Good Times

Andrea Adames | Contributing Writer

Emelia Karim | Contributing Writer

Abigail White | Contributing Writer

Photo credit: Envato.com

Between late-night study sessions and campus events, students are finding creative ways to balance their academic and social lives. Find out what the Campus Activity Board (CAB)’s graduate intern and an Academic Success Center’s student employee have to say about planning, communication, and self-awareness!

One thing all freshmen can agree on is that balancing college life isn’t easy. Half a semester in, and we are buried in readings and essays, promising ourselves we’ll take a break in the next five minutes— minutes that never come. Then again, we’re also impulsively saying yes to every CAB event, every RA PSG, and late-night Ping Pong and 8-Ball in the lobby, only to realise we’ve left our study schedule turned ash. Finding that middle ground between fun and focus feels like walking on a tightrope.

Many students share the same concern: how do we make the most of college without burning out? Luckily, here at Eastern, there are many resources that help students find their rhythm. Two of which are the Academic Success Center (ASC), which focuses on guiding students towards their best academic potential, while the Campus Activity Board (CAB) builds community and connection, offering various events for all to enjoy.

To get a better understanding of how students can balance both worlds, we interviewed an Academic Center student employee, Erin Clark, and CAB’s graduate intern, Makayla “MJ” Jackson. Each has shared personal insights into how planning, communication, and self-awareness can make the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling in control.

Through the Academic Success Center we interviewed Erin, a student employee. She was able to share with us how college life felt through an academic focus. The Academic Success Center is run by an overall director and many advisors, as well as student tutors and employees who help guide others in need of academic support. The main goal for this agency is to help students function and aid them in the direction towards success. Inside the ASC there is advising, the math achievement center and tutoring, and the writing center. You are also able to meet with your advisor to talk about your classes and any issues you have with them.

Erin explained that she has accessed the Academic Center frequently throughout her time as a college student. The ASC does its best to create a very welcoming environment so that students feel compelled to reach out for help if need be. The student employee says she feels that this job gives her experience of working with different types of people, expressing that “it just gives a deeper look as to how Eastern works.” Erin encourages freshmen not to be afraid to use all the resources available and to ask for help if and when they need it. She was not always aware of all the free resources and beneficial options she had on campus; now that she does, she’s grateful she has used them.

Erin says she is the type of student who is very big on planning and “writing it all down”, which helps her balance work, social life, and academic life. She doesn’t recommend favouring academics over a social life; both should be made priorities. She says it is important to stay aware of your grades because if they are slipping, then that would be the time to access the on-campus resources. Erin believes she has deeply evolved as a person in the past few years. She has expressed being very shy at first, and now she studies while having dinner with friends, encouraging freshmen to become more social without sacrificing academics.

We decided to do something different with our interview with CAB. We were able to interview a graduate intern, someone who has had more experience and was able to give information we thought to be very helpful towards those struggling to juggle academics and a personal life. Her name is Makayla, also known as MJ. She is a supervisor for CAB, but still reminded us that this is a student-run organization and all planning for the events is done by students.

CAB’s main goal is to give students new experiences, by also providing them with better opportunities and incorporating all people. CAB intends to give students at Eastern something to do, making sure everyone is included in the events, which allows people to make new connections and friends.

From learning about CAB, we were able to question MJ on her point of view on academics and also having a social life, especially now, being a graduate. She met all of our hopes for what we wanted to accomplish from this interview. What she shared is something that we think everyone should remember, as we are all experiencing similar things during our college experience.

MJ told us, “Involvement helps support academic journey.” She highlights how college has different things for all students; it is important to do both so that you are getting the full college experience. Advocating for branching out of your comfort zone and trying to meet other people will make a larger and more diverse community for yourself. Even if you are focusing more on academics than personal life, it is important to find things that you like. In closing, we asked if she had anything else to add to our interview, and one point that has stuck is to “Try to find something out of nothing.”

Struggling with academics can be hard, but there is no need to go through it alone. Through these agencies, we were able to interview, and we found that there are so many things that can be offered to all students, but it is up to them to take advantage of the resources given. The people who are a part of the organizations are prepared to help anyone who needs assistance in academics or even their own social life. From our article, we hope that this will send a positive message to those students who are in this type of situation, and how there are resources around Eastern which can accommodate the troubles you might be facing.