On Tuesday, Sept. 17 the Office of Student Government hosted Discover Kean to expose students to the various resources on campus. The event took place in the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons (NTLC) and featured multiple departments.

Discover Kean was headed by Jareé Cox, student aide for the Office of Student Government, as part of the Commuter Resource Center's Commuter Appreciation Week. The concept is an offshoot for a past event the Office of Student Government hosted called "Mix and Mingle with Kean." The event facilitated a networking opportunity between students to make connections to add to their success in their future career. The event also included Career Services, Residential Assistants (RA) and General Education Mentors (GEMs), all of whom provided support and encouragement for students as they made friends and future colleagues.

"When we were thinking about Commuter Appreciation Week, I thought, why not do something around the same concept but with services. A lot of the time, students don't know that there's Student Health Services and [that] you can go there if you have a respiratory tract infection [to] get free antibiotics. [Students] don't know that if you're feeling anxious or depressed about a paper you can go to the Counseling Center and get services there. They [can] help you with services if you have stress with your financial situation and things like that. Also, I wanted students to know [that] if they need help with writing or public speaking, these services are available," said Cox.

Discover Kean highlighted Student Health Services, the Counseling Center, the Tutoring Center, the Center for Leadership and Services (CLS), the Writing Center, the Public Speaking Lab, the Office of Student Government and the Commuter Resource Center (CRC). Each department had their own table beginning from the entrance of the NTLC all the way to the new CRC. Each department had representatives from their department to personally introduce their services to students. As individuals visited each table they were able to redeem raffle tickets for an Amazon Echo Dot. Discover Kean allowed students to find out about a variety of resources to help with academics, health and social needs within a matter of moments.

Representatives from the Center for Leadership and Services (CLS) promoted their services to interested students. CLS' services focuses mostly on student involvement.

"We're hoping to bring awareness to students about the types of organizations we have such as student groups, Greek Life, the leadership programs as well as the community and volunteer services. We're also really promoting students to register to vote for the State of New Jersey with the upcoming elections. We're trying to make it more accessible for college students to be able to register and get involved with politics locally and on a state level. We're also promoting our upcoming community service projects to give back to the local community," said Service Specialist Kara Kitchen.

CLS houses the following divisions:

• Involvement Center
• Community and Volunteer Services
• The Cougar's Byte
• Jumpstart
• Leadership Institute
• Co-Curricular Transcript

"Getting involved is super easy and we have so many resources available to be able to help you. Whether you are interested in joining a student club or getting more involved in your local community, we're able to help and make it an easy transition [into Kean] and an easy process to get involved," said Kitchen.

Students interested in finding out more about what CLS has to offer may visit their office in the Miron Student Center (MSC), Room 215. Students may also contact the office by email at cls@kean.edu or by phone at (908) 737- 5170.

Departments created with a focus on helping students succeed academically included the Tutoring Center, Public Speaking Lab and the Writing Center.

"The Tutoring Center is located on the second floor [of the NTLC]. We're open seven days a week; you can look on our website for the specific hours. We offer tutoring in a wide variety of courses, anything ranging from math, science, computer science, accounting and business. It is personal, one on one peer tutoring and each session is 50 minutes long. We are going by appointments. There are three ways to make an appointment: you can make an appointment online through TutorTrac, you can stop by the Tutoring Center, or you can give us a call and we can make the appointment for you. If you ever need help I encourage you to stop by," said Math Tutor Giovanni Garcia.

Students can easily set up an appointment via TutorTrac. To make an appointment or for more information on their services, students can call the Tutoring Center at (908) 737- 4680.

Students may also utilize the Writing Center located in NTLC, Room 108. The Writing Center helps students improve their writing be it for their resume, lab reports, courses and more. Appointments can also be made through TutorTrac. For more questions, students can email the center at writingcenter@kean.edu or call in at (908) 737- 4793.

Adjacent to the center, the Public Speaking Lab is located in NTLC Room 107. Similar to the Tutoring Center, students can make an appointment through TutorTrac. The Public Speaking Lab helps students practice their public speaking and presentation skills as they are coached in one on one sessions by a specialist. For more information, students can contact the lab by email at publicspeaking@kean.edu or by phone at (908) 737- 4604.

Departments participating in Discover Kean that focused on student health and wellness included the Counseling Center and Student Health Services. The Counseling Center is located in Downs Hall, Room 127 and may be contacted via phone at (908) 737- 4855. Counseling services are free to enrolled students and are confidential. Appointments may be made by calling in or stopping by the center. Both the Counseling Center and Student Health Services are able to assist with a wide variety of ailments that students may have. To make an appointment with Student Health Services, students may access their Patient Portal. For more information, students may contact Student Health Services in Downs Hall, Room 126 or call (908) 737- 4880.

For many students, Discover Kean was their first time discovering these resources.

"We are trying to [inform] people about the various resources that are on campus because I know a lot of people don't really know. This is a great opportunity for them to learn more because there's a lot of ways you can improve your college experience and help yourself learn about things on campus that if you [had known you] have available to you, you're going to have a much better time than if you didn't. I think it's an important thing to know about because it really helps a lot of people," Kayla Deeden, writing coach for the Writing Center.

Kean is actively seeking to improve students' experiences by providing them the resources they need to make the most of their time at Kean and beyond. For more events like this and more, check out Cougar Link.