Carolina offers an overwhelming amount of opportunities and resources for undergraduate students to become involved. After Fall Fest students become committed to a variety of causes and clubs. Often we get entrenched in our day to day schedules of meetings and appointments, and don’t get to seize all the opportunities available to us.
Thus, I am urging you all now, with three years left in your undergraduate career, take the time to pencil the following trainings into your calendar.
UNC-CH offers a training, HAVEN, that aims to “train non-employee students how to help a friend who has experienced interpersonal violence”. This quote was taken from this website, which provides more information on the program. You can register here.
By participating in the second training, Safe Zone, you can become a Safe Zone Ally. Being a Safe Zone Ally means having “a deeper awareness of personal ideas, stereotypes, and assumptions related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and allied (LGBTIQA) students” and “an increased comfort level in addressing concepts and language regarding LGBTIQA communities with the university community and with individuals”. You can learn more about the program here and register here.
Two organizations within UNC-CH’s Campus Y also provide valuable training programs:
Rethink, an organization focused on “changing the way that we think and talk about mental illnesses on our campus and in our community”, provides training on how to understand and interact with this topic. Learn more about training sessions here.
Embody, an organization that aims to “educate students about identifying and supporting someone struggling with an eating disorder” provides training on how to serve as an ally. You can learn information on training sessions here.
Not only will completing these trainings provide you with a greater understanding of the issues surrounding our campus, but can be applied to understanding how to interact with others in the workforce.