At the University of Jamestown, we care for our students in ways that larger universities maybe don't. You'll learn from everyone at UJ that everyone has their person. Whether that's someone in the business office or one of your mentors on campus, you will find your person. Professors, like by week three, they all know your name. We show up for our students in the stands at their games or at the Royland Fine Arts Center watching plays or performances. I always tell my students, come see me. I'll make you a cup of tea, I'll give you a biscuit, and we'll talk about not just the class, but we'll talk about life as well.
We do have a system called the "We Care System." If we feel as though a student is struggling emotionally, mentally, academically, or maybe on their sports team, anyone can alert our staff, and then one of our staff will reach out and offer the appropriate support to that student. We actually have a Student Success Center in the library. We offer tutoring. We also have the Writing Center. We also have academic advisors who are very passionate about making sure that you're getting the classes that you need to graduate.
We also have career services as well so that we'll connect you with internships and job-shadowing opportunities. We bring in alumni to talk with our students about different career paths that they could go into. They've helped me really narrow down what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want to go into the physical therapy field. We have so many work study options that let you get a taste of your future career. I found my person on campus and they really supported my goals and my dreams. And they helped me to find an amazing internship which absolutely changed my life and my career trajectory.
My freshman year, when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, he was the first person I went to who supported me through that journey. He was like, "let me help you through this," and he really helped me. I see them as an incoming timid freshman and then I see them grow and mature, and nothing brings me more joy than watching them walk across the stage on graduation day with pride, knowing that they could do it when maybe there were days where they thought this wasn't possible.
