Academic/Career
Academic wellness is about expanding your knowledge and creating networks to support
lifelong learning. It means managing academic workloads and preparation for the future,
using resources to make decisions, challenging yourself to new academic experiences and
meeting academic goals in a healthy way.
Career wellness is closely connected to academic wellness, which focuses on self-development
and self-discovery in relation to an individual’s career goals. It is an ongoing process
involving seeking out new experiences, reflecting on personal values and goals and
ultimately making decisions towards your own career development. Career wellness promotes
seeking out a career path that is personally meaningful and rewarding for you, one
that is carefully selected based on personal values, interests and beliefs.
Signs of Healthy Academic and Career Wellness
Academic
- Recognizing your strengths and areas of growth
- Setting academic goals
- Seeking help when needed
- Maintaining a school/ life balance
- Maintaining positive study habits and time management skills
- Consistent and frequent class attendance
- Positive engagement in courses
- Academic wellness is not always reflected with strong grades, as this looks different
for every student
Career
- Asking questions and seeking out resources
- Seeking out opportunities to build experience
- Trying new things to determine interests and dislikes
- Pursuing work that you find motivating and interesting
- Finding a balance between work and leisure
- Feeling inspired and challenged by your work
Signs you may want to enhance your Academic and/or Career Wellness
Academic
- Poor class attendance
- Procrastination in completion of course work such as assignments, essays, etc.
- Academically at-risk or difficulty with majority of courses
Career
- Letting others impact your decision making process
- Feeling overwhelmed with making a decision
- Comparing your “progress” to others
- Settling for a job/career you find unfulfilling
- Over working yourself and lacking work-life balance
Strategies to enhance your Academic and Career Wellness
Academic
- Meet with an academic advisor to discuss course concerns and course planning
- Ask questions! Meet with your professor during office hours to review course content
that you did not quite understand in lecture
- Review your assignments and/or exams with them to improve for next time
- Start academic work early. Give yourself the time needed to make adjustments and improvements
to your work. Cramming for exams does not equal success
- Time management is key to academic wellness. Utilize and implement proven time management
strategies
- Get to know you. What kind of student are you? What strategies work for you? What
do you need assistance with? What could you improve? Use strategies that are effective
for you
- Set academic goals that are realistic yet encourage you to reach your fullest potential
- Engage in opportunities to support your academic goals like going to the writing centre
at Brescia or learning a new language for fun
- It is important to maintain all seven dimensions of wellness as all other areas of
wellness impact and effect academic wellness
- Ensure you are getting enough sleep, eating healthy and creating balance in your life.
This will help promote academic wellness.
Career
- Start early – it’s never too early to start thinking about what type of career you
want to pursue after university
- Begin with creating an updated resume and start building your experiences to include
those at the university level- visit the Student Life Centre for Resume and Cover
letter drop in hours
- Gain a variety of experiences – Whether it is through volunteering or a part-time
job by pursuing a variety of different experiences you will be able to start narrowing
down what your interests are what type of work you want to be doing (or not doing)
and help you make connections that will help you when you enter the workforce
- Embrace the non-linear path of career development – Today undergraduate degrees tend
to be the minimum requirement for many jobs instead of just one. This can often be
stressful for students who want to know what job they can get with their degree. Reframing
your thinking to appreciate the fact that there are many options out there instead
of being stressed that you do not know which one to pick can be an important first
step.
- Try not to compare your path to others – when you are in an environment surrounded
by ambitious and hardworking individuals it is often tempting to compare yourself
to others. Some people know what they want early on and seem to have it “all
figured out” while others are very unsure of where they are headed. No matter where
you fall on this spectrum, you are doing just fine.
Benefits/Facts of Academic and Career Wellness
Academic
- Positive academic experience and general satisfaction in all courses
- Positive impact to the other dimensions of wellness
- Positive school/life balance
Career
- Pursuing a career path that you find personally and professionally satisfying contributes
significantly to your overall wellbeing
- Typically, work takes up a large percentage of our time during week and it is important
to consider how your career will influence your lifestyle and make choices to reflect
your own individual values, interests, and needs
- Careers and Career Journeys have changed
- Career Paths are no longer linear
- Jobs that exist today may not have existed 10 or 20 years ago; and jobs that exist
now, may not exist in 10 or 20 years
- Needs, demands, and trends are always changing (visit Labour Market Information (LMI)
through the Government of Canada.
Contract to contract work, especially for new professionals is common
- It is okay not have a plan for the rest of your career journey
- Our careers change and adapt based on our experiences, our interests, skills, values
and personal style
- As new opportunities and experience arise, we may find ourselves taking unexpected
turns and twists in our career journey for the positive, and many times it is opportunities
we did not even know existed
Resources
On and Off-Campus
OpenClose
Career
- Western Student Success Centre (Workshops, Online Resources, Job Postings etc.)
- Career Appointments with SLC Staff Member- book appointments in The Hive
- Lumosity- Brain Training
- Talettoday- Personality test for your career
Recommend a resource, tool, tip or app that has helped you with the seven dimensions
of wellness by emailing the Student Life Centre.
References
http://www.uvic.ca/services/health/healthy/wellnesswheel/academic/index.php
https://meds.queensu.ca/education/undergraduate/student_affairs_/academic_wellness
http://www.ucalgary.ca/wellnesscentre/resources/guide/academic-career/academic
http://wellnessnetworkedmonton.com/wellness-dimensions/career-academic/
http://www.ucalgary.ca/wellnesscentre/resources/guide/academic-career
https://healthysteps4u.org/test/occupational-wellness/
https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/wellness/occupational
https://www.unh.edu/health-services/ohep/occupational-wellness