Adult Responsibilities, Advice, college, Outlook, USC

Success Begins with a Healthy Mind

By Sasha Park

Edited By Natalie Grace Sipula 

College can often be overwhelming. While trying to juggle academics, extracurricular activities, social life, sleep, and potentially a job, we often neglect to take care of and check in on our mental health. USC has many resources that directly and indirectly help students to cope with stress and improve their mental health, especially in overwhelming and challenging times such as the circumstances we are facing today. Here are some resources you can reach out to in-person or visually for support.

USC Counseling Services:

Student Counseling Services can help you meet your academic and personal goals. It offers many resources including drop-in workshops and group counseling. For students in distress, it provides support in the form of individual therapy, crisis support, psychiatric services as well as consultation to those who are interested in reaching out to a student in distress.  When indicated, it also provides connection to other USC resources or community providers. You can make your first Counseling Consultation appointment online in your student health portal, and they are offering online appointments at this time as well: usc.edu/myshr.

Photo from Piqsels

Professor Beau, the Wellness Dog

No article about wellness at USC is complete without a mention of Professor Beau, USC’s first (and hopefully not last) full-time canine staff member. You can visit this professionally trained Golden Doodle at his office hours on Tuesday and Thursday at 12-1 pm and 11:20 am to 12:30 p.m. respectively at the Student Wellness Lounge (ESH 203). Plus, he’s hypoallergenic! You can check out his (verified) Instagram account here to get your Beau fix from home: https://www.instagram.com/beau_usc/.

Photo from the USC website

Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services

Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services is located in Engemann, Suite 356.  It provides immediate therapy services for situations related to gender and power-based harm (e.g., sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking). Through its educational programs, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services fosters a better understanding of sexual violence, relationship abuse, stalking, and healthy relationships/sexuality. Above all, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services serves as a haven for students and provides opportunities to make change on campus, through its educational programs and peer outreach program, VOICE .

Contact them at (213) 740-4900

Photo from Piqsels
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Asian American, Cultural Exchange, Family, L.A. Life, Language, USC

The Single Space Between Korean and American

By Jacqueline Choe

Throughout middle school and high school, if someone asked about my cultural heritage, I always said, “I’m more American than Korean.”

Korean American. That single space between Korean and American divides this compound word in half. Obviously, nationality and ethnicity aren’t as distinctly partitioned. But language is a tricky thing, and English had fooled me into thinking that I could develop only one half of my cultural identity without missing the other.

I’m a second-generation Korean American, but I grew up speaking English, and only English. I’m from a small suburban town half an hour’s drive from Seattle. In high school, I knew of maybe three or four other Korean kids, but  I didn’t know them on a personal level. My Koreatown was the H Mart (the local supermarket) in Bellevue, the only place outside of our own house where I could eat jjamppong and jajangmyeon and practically the only place where we could buy them.

Photo by Laura on Flickr

My brother and cousin don’t speak Korean either. On New Year’s, when our family meets up for mandu-guk, our parents would have conversations with our grandmother that we couldn’t understand. Sometimes our names came up. We accused them of gossip and laughed about it. Then we grasped for words in the common language between frustration and loneliness: two lands in which we are not outsiders.

Photo from Wikipedia

Los Angeles is different. Los Angeles has the largest population of Korean Americans in the country, and Koreatown is the most densely populated district in Los Angeles county. In a world like this, Korean Americans are Korean American, and that single space between the two words is not a divider, but a connector. Identity is intrinsic to life and vice-versa. Language and culture bond people together in ways I didn’t understand until I came to LA, walked down a city block, and saw what I couldn’t be a part of because I had spent so much time disregarding my Korean identity.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons
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Adult Responsibilities, Advice, college, Food, New Experience

Cooking in College

By Brianneth Rocha

            There is a lot to prepare for as an incoming college student, or even as a current student. For those getting ready to live on campus, the list of things to do is endless. Whether it is preparing for your courses, purchasing appliances, assembling a grocery list, I would argue that the most important way to prepare is learning how to cook. I am currently a sophomore living in an apartment, which has taught me to be a little more independent. In particular, I have started learning how to cook, something which is much more complicated than it seems. I can tell you now that the first few attempts will not go perfectly, so don’t give up! I have provided some of the easiest recipes for any beginner. All of these recipes have ingredients that can be substituted to fit various diets. Now especially might be a good time to get a head start on practicing these simple recipes while we are all at home in quarantine. You can even ask your family to evaluate how good your cooking skills are by taste-testing!

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