RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STUDENTS

It has been a full year and many students may have already made plans for the summer.  Hopefully they can take some well-deserved time to relax!  Encourage your student to keep in touch with his or her campus friends and maybe try to reconnect with some hometown friends as well.  You may remind them that the summer is a great opportunity to keep growing as a young professional.  They may want to look for meaningful work and service opportunities to build new skill sets and keep occupied. If you're student is heading home for the summer, recognize that you may have to make some adjustments to your routine.  Your student has become accustomed to living independently and being responsible for his or her own day-to-day decisions, but your student's cleaning habits, for instance, may not mesh well with your expectations.  Your may want your student to call if they are going to be late getting back to the house one night.  You may find yourself saying "It's just common courtesy to let us know," while your student's thinking is, "But this is how I lived for the last ten months, and I managed just fine!"  It can be a challenge to make these types of adjustments for the summer months, but it can be done!  Our best advice is to have a chat with your student the very first week of summer break.  Look to set some common expectations about what their responsibilities may be while he or she is home again.  But most importantly, enjoy your student being home before he or she heads back to Fayetteville!