Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Join Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and guests for conversations about interesting things happening in the Erie community.
Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
The Healthy Campus Initiative, with Melissa Sulkowski
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Melissa Sulkowski, director of Student Wellness Services, about the Healthy Campus Initiative, which includes new programming at the Counseling Center and Health Center. Originally recorded on September 12, 2024.
I am Dr Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and you are listening to Behrend Talks. I have a special guest today, Melissa Sulkowski, the Director of Student Wellness and Services here at Behrend. Welcome to the show, Melissa.
Melissa Sulkowski:Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Ralph Ford:Well it's a pleasure to have you here. Melissa oversees our health center here newly named health center, not health and wellness center, we'll talk about that as well as our Counseling Center, and is coordinating a new initiative here on campus that we'll talk about further, something called our new Healthy Campus Initiative. I'll tell you a little bit about Melissa's background. You hold a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's degree in counseling, both from Edinboro University, and you are BARD certified by the National Board of Certified Counselors and are licensed in Pennsylvania as a registered nurse and personal counselor Sorry, a mouthful there. Furthermore, you opened your own practice in 2001 and gradually added a number of services, including meditation, coaching for couples and co-parents and a collaborative practice where you take an approach to conflict resolution that fits in the space between mediation and litigation.
Ralph Ford:So I think we've got a lot to talk about here today. You know I wanted to start out with this question. Actually, looking at your certifications and all I just talked through there, could you explain a little bit? What does it mean to be board certified? What's it mean to be a certified counselor licensing? What does all of that mean? Because I think what you're telling me is I can't just become a personal counselor. You've got to go through a lot of education and training, so go ahead.
Melissa Sulkowski:That is true, yes, so being licensed essentially means you finish your degree and sit for a licensure exam and once you pass that exam you're licensed as a professional. The National Board for Certified Counselors is a higher level national certification that you can receive as a counselor, again by way of obtaining so many continuing education credits and staying engaged in the services that they provide and resources that they provide. So I'm also licensed in Florida as a counselor just by way of having done collaborative practice, which is an international practice, working with interdisciplinary teams and such and it's located in Florida.
Ralph Ford:Or is Florida some sort of a gold standard?
Melissa Sulkowski:It. Actually it's an international practice, but I had quite a few colleagues that wanted to work with me and bring me in to work with families in Florida, so it just made it something that would be helpful to do.
Ralph Ford:And each and every year, I'm assuming do you have to retake an exam or demonstrate. You know how do you continue to demonstrate your competence and growth in the field?
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes. So for the nursing license, you have to, every two years, have at least 30 continuing education credit hours. And then also for the licensure as a counselor, every two years you have to have 30 credits for continuing education as well. And then for the National Board of Certified Counselors, you have to, over five years, have 100 hours of continuing education.
Ralph Ford:It's pretty significant quite significant. Did you ever practice as a nurse?
Melissa Sulkowski:I did. I actually started in psychology in undergraduate and my advisor said you're not going to get a great job with a four-year degree in psychology, so what else would you like to consider? Which was wise advice, and so I was also interested in the medical field, decided to go into nursing and I was on the fence as to pursue labor and delivery and maternal health care or psychology, psychiatric nursing and care. That way and I had been working at Sarah Reed Children's Center at the time, knew that I always wanted to work with kids and families, and after graduating from nursing school they took me on in their nursing department as a nurse for Sarah Reed and that sort of ended up kind of playing out where I went down the field of the psychology and nursing and Morphed it into personal counseling.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, ended up. My favorite part of nursing was talking to patients anyway, which you don't get a whole lot of time to do. I love the medical aspects, but certainly enjoyed the opportunity to talk with patients and spend time with them.
Ralph Ford:Well, that's great because ultimately, you did get to employ that psychology degree and all that you learned there, so you joined Behrend relatively new 2023. So tell us, how did you end up at Behrend? You've got your own thriving personal practice and decided to join Penn State University.
Melissa Sulkowski:I did so. Ironically, I was thinking about this before I even had children. I had in my mind that I had three things that I wanted to do in my career, and the first was open a girls' home, which I did when I went to work at Abraxas. I opened our girls' residential treatment facility because I always had a passion about helping young girls. And then I wanted to do private practice and build a business, which I did for the last 24 years, and actually Sue Daly, the previous director, would refer to my practice fairly often, so I developed a relationship with her over time. And my third goal that I had written out or thought of many years ago was to work in higher education at the end of my career, and so it all sort of worked out when the opportunity presented itself.
Ralph Ford:Sue was retiring and you ended up here. Well, hopefully it's the beginning of a long third leg of your career. That's the goal. Why don't you, if you could set the stage for our listeners? I mean, a lot of people know about Behrend, but they probably don't know about the Personal Counseling Center. So what exactly is the Personal Counseling Center here on campus? Where is it located? What services do you offer?
Melissa Sulkowski:We are in the new Erie Hall, which is a great location for us. That was part of the draw to and coming here was just integrating that mind-body connection which was a big part of my business. So we're over in Erie Hall and we provide services to all enrolled students and we actually recently changed the way that we do that, which has increased the accessibility for students to our services and lowered some barriers for students and also added quite a bit of flexibility in the things that we offer. So, rather than a one size fits all, which was sort of what it was when I came on board more of a traditional sort of outpatient type model.
Melissa Sulkowski:It's now more of what would be called a flexible care model where we do consultations with students in their first meeting with us 20-minute consultations. There's no commitment to counseling beyond that unless the counselor would recommend that as something that would be indicated. However, any student can come in for a 20-minute consultation and it's really an opportunity to collaborate with the counselor and sort of resource the student. So we really look at several domains when they come to us how they're doing with peer support and peer connection, how they're doing with self-care and self-maintenance, what type of campus resources they may need, rather than just thrusting them right into counseling.
Ralph Ford:It sounds like you're able to see a lot more students this way, and so let's talk a little bit about what brings a student to the personal counseling center. So it can be intimidating, although I think that's maybe going away. Students seem to me to be much more open to the idea of seeing a counselor. I'm sure that's still part of it, but maybe not as much. So, anyways, could you work through that? What brings them there? What sort of issues are they facing?
Melissa Sulkowski:I would say a few things. Sometimes relationship issues whether it be roommate conflicts or relationships that they're engaged in anxiety, stress, just that sense of feeling out of balance and I talk a lot about this even with adults. If you took any one of us and plopped us somewhere that we weren't familiar with, with people we didn't know, it's going to create sort of that out of order feeling internally, and I think that provides an opportunity for us as a campus to really reestablish that balance for the students. So things like that loneliness is another thing that's trending up. So we're doing a lot of connection events out of our counseling center just to be able to create more connections for students. But I would say those are some of the primary things that we see in our office when students present.
Ralph Ford:What's driving the loneliness epidemic?
Melissa Sulkowski:I think there's just more some of the technology and social media and kids are communicating more in those ways, which is fine. That's part of the generation I think that we're in. However, I think that, coupled with being in a new environment and not really potentially knowing many people just different personalities, I think tend to retreat and withdraw and isolate more in those times of stress, just as a way of coping. So I think if they aren't equipped or they're not wired to kind of push themselves into uncomfortable situations, the default is going to be to kind of keep to themselves. So easy.
Ralph Ford:They can sit in their residence hall and don't want to stereotype, but text on the mobile phone and play video games. But it's very real, you know. One thing we've noticed is that we have more students now who are requesting single rooms, and I suppose that's probably good in a lot of ways, but by doing so I worry, you know. I think we worry that they're left alone and, while they may have roommate counts like that might be more preferable than somebody being left alone and locking themselves in the room for a while. Perhaps that's a little bit of a stereotype, but I think it is real in some cases that they lock themselves in their room and they're not seeing others. So we need to get them out.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, the Surgeon General actually stated that the loneliness epidemic now in college campuses is quite a thing, and so he actually is going around to different universities to speak about it, which is really exciting and was really a driver in us creating the Connections events for students.
Ralph Ford:So talk about the Connections events. So what sort of things do you do in those Connection events?
Melissa Sulkowski:So the one we did last semester was the 75 Ways to Connect in honor of our 75th anniversary, and we actually had a list of 75 ways that students could connect and I think at least 40 45 that were actually happening live in that event anything from drum circles to we had a massage therapist, to building spaghetti towers, to just dance with the dance team, we had an egg boxing contest all kinds of interesting.
Ralph Ford:Egg boxing what's that?
Melissa Sulkowski:I did not know what it was either until one of our counselors suggested it, but it was quite popular. It's way boiled, I think. It was like 90 eggs, and if you click the eggs together, only one will break. So whoever's doesn't break goes on to the next round, and it was quite entertaining.
Ralph Ford:So each person has one and you hit them. Ah, I get it Okay, entertaining.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yeah.
Ralph Ford:I've done the spaghetti tower, spaghettis and marshmallows.
Melissa Sulkowski:That's always a good one.
Ralph Ford:That's a nice one.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yeah, so we had quite a variety of things that the students could engage in speed friending, essential oils. We really made it about connecting to all of your senses. We had someone knitting, teaching students how to knit. So it was quite an exciting and well-attended event by our students and we'll have another one on October 2nd. We're doing a connections event. It'll be campfire connections. We'll start with, I think we're going to do a taco bar for the students. We have a keynote speaker coming from Atlanta who actually presented as the keynote speaker at the Big Ten Counseling Conference and she was quite dynamic and she'll be talking a lot just about the positive aspects of sexual health and educating students in a very entertaining and engaging way, students in a very entertaining and engaging way, and then we'll follow that with a campfire at.
Melissa Sulkowski:Wilson, picnic Grove and a band that we'll be playing, so it should be an exciting event and great opportunity for students to connect.
Ralph Ford:Now, very cool. Now what about? I'll go back to one, because I've seen it happen here on campus drum circles. How's that work? Anyone can play a drum. What's the idea?
Melissa Sulkowski:Anyone can play a drum and we've done it a few different ways. One of our counselors is actually a drummer in a local band and so we've done it a few different ways, where we'll play music and drum along or we'll just start to create a beat, but it does seem to grab the attention of students and our staff. Our counseling staff are wonderful. They are extremely engaging with the students and we'll go up and pull them into things that we're doing and it really gets the students involved and they seem to enjoy it.
Ralph Ford:I've just seen it and it's kind of nice to hear the drums out there on campus and then you walk by and you see what's happening. It's really a neat experience. Let's talk a little bit right now about it's the beginning of the school year, so today, is it turns out, is what September 12th and we're in the third week. My guess is the pressure starting to mount on some of these students as they're thinking about first exams and assignments. What's your advice particularly let's think about the first year and transfer students to them what advice do you give them about interacting with personal counseling center? When should they come? Come see you? How does that happen? Do their parents call you on the phone? I mean, what's it look like to have a student end up coming to the personal counseling center?
Melissa Sulkowski:So it can happen in a variety of ways. I would say, especially now in our new model, that again we've lowered those barriers. We have the opportunity for students to schedule a consultation online. So it's very non-invasive and non-committal. They can do that via phone, they can come in, so there's just a variety of ways that they can access us. Now, and we actually saw in the first week we were able to service 74 students with consultations, which was very exciting just to be able to again help resource them. If they do need something beyond that initial consultation, be it connecting with a campus partner, we can do that. If it does look like they would benefit from ongoing counseling, then we can kind of move them in that direction. But there's quite a few different things that we can bring to them just in that initial consultation.
Ralph Ford:And that initial consultation. Did I hear you correctly? It can be virtual, so they could have a virtual one. Could they do a Zoom call with you?
Melissa Sulkowski:They can, they can, they can do that for their appointments now as well, just to create convenience for them. And we really wanted to engage all students. I wanted to create options that were available Again, not that one size fits all, but options for all of our students to come into the counseling center and really see what we're about, and it doesn't have to be scary or something's wrong with me just really normalizing that. We all have our stuff and we all have moments in time when we need a little more support than others, and that's okay. That's what we're here for.
Ralph Ford:That's what we're here for. And now let's say and you talked about partners but a student comes in, and what if they're struggling and you can see it on the academic side and they're maybe intimidated? I mean, how do you connect them with the academic resources or others on campus but also respect their privacy, which I really have to do?
Melissa Sulkowski:So we would just ask the student if they are comfortable signing a release of information so that we can ensure that they're getting the needs you know, servicing the needs that they have. And if the student is comfortable with that, then that allows us to reach out to the campus partner and help create that collaboration between the departments and ensure that the student, as well as our communication, is being supported.
Ralph Ford:And do most students. Is there a typical? They come and see you a few times, or a lot of repeat, or you know. Is there any way to characterize that? Yes, I realize, some have far more different issues than others.
Melissa Sulkowski:so I would say our average is four visits that students will have with us. That's an average number for most students. Again, that can vary. It really the other thing that the shifting to this model allowed us to do was move to more of a brief, solution-focused model, so more focused on the here and now, which really fits our audience more appropriately because students you know it's a transient population Students are more focused on kind of what's happening in front of them, and that was the challenge in the previous model what's happening in front of them. And that was the challenge in the previous model.
Melissa Sulkowski:We were bumping up against a three-week wait for some students and we would either in three weeks the students either really struggling at that point or what they were concerned about has gone away and so students would either not show up or those sort of things. So it's really decreased our no-shows. It's decreased our urgence because we've created same-day access now for several hours throughout the day for students. Pretty much they can walk in on any given day and be seen by a counselor. So again, more of that here and now helping them solution. We also have in our new model traditional and concise options for counseling appointments, so 20 minute and 50 minute options for appointments. If I just want to check in and let you know how things are going, we don't need to take up a 50 minute slot. This allows us to service two students in that time frame as opposed to again only having one option and maybe seeing five or six students per counselor a day.
Ralph Ford:It's really changed things.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes.
Ralph Ford:You know I'd like to go back to Erie Hall for a minute. I know we touched on it briefly, but you're in Erie Hall. For those listeners who don't know Erie Hall is, we replaced the 70-plus-year-old Erie Hall that was just an icon here on campus, with this new health and wellness center. That is really phenomenal. If anyone has not seen it and they'd like to, they should just come to campus. They will be pleasantly surprised with what they see. But you're connected to that and you use. You have some rooms dedicated, so why don't you talk about that side? What's the connection to Erie Hall and the personal counseling center?
Melissa Sulkowski:So we have right off of our office it's the multi-purpose room that's in Erie Hall with frosted glass so we've been able to use that room to do some of the groups and workshops that we do. We've used it to do some retreat or team building with staff, but it really allows us to have a private space to do programming for students to maintain their privacy in that setting and then just really partnering with Erie Hall, which kind of moves us more into the Healthy Camps Initiative but, just connecting, which was obviously a passion of mine in my previous business, is really looking at the whole person.
Melissa Sulkowski:Even as a therapist, I've always said we could all fit in the book somewhere on any given day, and that's to me more linear and short-sighted, in that we're missing all the pieces of the whole person. And how can we provide resources in that way? And so being in Erie Hall really allows us to do that and to promote that for our students.
Ralph Ford:Do you offer classes in Erie Hall yourself like meditation?
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, we had meditation group, we had communication group, building balance group, so definitely several different options. We have Art Break for your Sake, several workshops on mindfulness, sound meditation, things of that sort.
Ralph Ford:So then, if you and, by the way, you're right in the center of campus in a beautiful spot, so you're really, really the right place to be for a counseling center, but you do a lot to get outside of the office, so let's talk through you've got something called Student Wellness Ambassadors. I know you hold all these events, so the idea is not just to be associated with that physical space but to be out about on campus, and I think that's been one of your initiatives too. So how does that work?
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, definitely wanted to get the counselors out and engaged and sort of joining what I would call joining the student's world and meeting them where they're at and so being able to get out and about and just have things whether it's in the residence hall or out in the lawn area for students to see us and, again, building that safety and engaging us without something needing to be wrong or not staying up, not having to sign up for an appointment.
Ralph Ford:Exactly, and they can see. You're all regular people as well, right? Yes, the student wellness ambassador. Is that your staff? Is that what you mean by student wellness ambassador?
Melissa Sulkowski:So we actually, through the Healthy Campus Initiative, which has been a very strong and intentional collaboration between the Rec Center, the Counseling Center and the Health Center, we brought on six student wellness ambassadors, which are paid positions where the students are committed to really providing and supporting students with those services. With those services, so educating students on the health center and what's available through the health center, educating students and joining students on what's available in the counseling center as well as our rec center. So each of the ambassadors has different. They're just a dynamic group. They're a great dedicated group of students who want to elevate wellness on our campus and so they each have their area of interest and want to join with students and engage them in ways that again elevate their health and wellness. And we can do that by that collaboration with all three of those departments.
Ralph Ford:Let's talk a little bit, and that's great. By the way, all six positions filled right now. Yep. Any openings? Okay, all right. Students are always looking for great jobs here on campus.
Melissa Sulkowski:We do have a peer-to-peer program that we're also starting as well, which was generated by a group of students who did a project for one of their classes on developing a peer mentorship program. The class ended, they wanted to continue that project and bring it into real life, and so I met with them and we're launching that. So we will be looking for peer-to-peers or students who are interested in being peer supports to other students for some lower level emotional needs or concerns.
Melissa Sulkowski:Certainly, the research will show us that students are much more likely to go to a peer than they are a trusted adult, and so how do we create that again point of access for them, so that we're not losing any students and everybody has a place?
Ralph Ford:You also mentioned again the connections to the Healthy Campus Initiative, and so you're connecting Erie Hall and Kelly Wilson in the work that she does there all the way over to nursing. Why don't you talk a little bit more about that?
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, so we're very excited about this effort and this initiative.
Melissa Sulkowski:So, yes, kelly Wilson and then Jen Anderson in the health center and myself yes, it would have been two semesters ago started this initiative with other leadership on campus and, again, very intentional collaboration to really tie together the emotional, the physical, the mental, all the well-being of the student. And so we've had several events and ways that campaigns, awareness campaigns and again those student wellness ambassadors are charged with really serving as the liaison between the student body and our three departments to launch and identify what students are needing and program around that. And then another exciting thing under the Healthy Campus Initiative is we're really trying to tie and connect and integrate those three departments. And so we're looking at Wellbeing Boulevard, sort of starting from the back door of Erie Hall all the way up to the entrance of the Health Center, and again, intentionally trying to get students to tie those things together because they are very interrelated. And so the more proactive we can be in reaching students and offering different types of programs around that, the better it is for the student.
Ralph Ford:Well, it is a nice physical connection and at least part of it was strategic in putting together the counseling center and Erie Hall so that all worked out really well. I'd like to go a little further on that connection with Erie Hall. We had a very famous therapy dog on campus. For many years he's passed away Sue Daly's dog, ernie. The therapy dog was well known but now I've noticed in recent weeks we have a new therapy dog on campus.
Melissa Sulkowski:So we have Millie as our mascot for the Healthy Campus Initiative, and then we also have one dog in the counseling center who is a certified therapy dog that we're going to start bringing in on different days. It is always a draw Anytime we have dogs on campus. It seems to always be a draw to events and other things, and so it can again just create some calm and comfort for students, especially when they're away from home and not with their pets.
Ralph Ford:So oh, it's a great draw, and Ernie was a fixture here many years on campus, so we look forward to seeing properly trained therapy dogs here on campus interacting with students, faculty and staff. It is a lot of fun and it does help people, no doubt about it. One of the things that I wanted to not miss in this conversation is the importance of the counseling center in terms of student success, and I'll tell you, what really opened my eyes to this was a few years ago, sue brought to me a list of letters that students had written to her testimonials over the years, and I was maybe I shouldn't be, but it was very clear in all of those how much it helped students in a time of crisis so that they were ultimately successful in getting their degree here, their Penn State Behrend and Penn State degree. Whatever it may have been, that was really eye-opening.
Melissa Sulkowski:Yes, I would say definitely. Part of our mission is to be able to contribute to the student success. And again I just think, with students feeling that sort of out of order, out of balance normal feeling in coming to a new environment with new people, we can be a support and a resource. And again, why the value or benefit in having a variety of things that our office puts out for students so that we're again creating opportunities for every student in different ways? But it is very important to us to contribute to student success and be a resource in that way.
Ralph Ford:It is absolutely key. I'm convinced of it, and we're fortunate to have such a well-staffed, functioning counseling center here on campus. So you know, I'm truly grateful for it. But we're coming to the end of the show. We just have a few minutes left and that means it's your opportunity. You know what's on your mind, anything you think that the audience should know. So the floor is yours to tell us a bit about what have we missed, or anything you want the audience to walk away with.
Melissa Sulkowski:I think just the efforts that are being put forth by our students and by the leadership and the Healthy Campus Initiative to really integrate and tie the physical health with the emotional and mental health and the value in that. One of the other things that I'm passionate about and have brought since I've been here or integrated, I guess, since I've been here are just I love the opportunity at this developmental stage for students to introduce or expose them to alternative ways and proactive ways that they can heal themselves, that we can support building capability in them and developing problem-solving skills. And so we've had acupressure now that we've had brought in, at red light therapy for our students, just a myriad of ways that they can be introduced and exposed to, not waiting until they're in their 50s to learn about these things, but really seeing that there are preventative ways to care for their health, whether that be mental health, physical health. And so I just love the collaboration between all three departments and the things that we're doing to elevate the overall well-being of our students.
Ralph Ford:I think it's working. It is important and sometimes, as you said, you just have to get the student to think about it, take a few minutes and realize that that mind-body-spirit connection is so important and it really can make a huge difference. Well, this has been a wonderful conversation, and I'm Dr Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and you have been listening to Behrend Talks. My guest today has been Melissa Sulkowski, the Director of the Student Wellness Services here at Penn State Behrend. Thank you for being here.
Melissa Sulkowski:Thank you for having me.
Ralph Ford:You're welcome.