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Co-CurricularConnectionsDivision of Student AffairsSpring 2015Points of InterestNew late-night program,DePaul After Dark, offers safe,fun alternative on Thursday nights.2Take care of yourself,take care of each other:New Bystander Interventioncurriculum focuses onpreventing sexual assault.3Health and wellness modulehelps first-year law studentsPrepare to Practice.3Student leadership developmentprograms are moving.6Student Affairs has a new website!. 6Inside this IssueStudent Learning andEngagement 2Student Affairs News 3Get to Know Our Team5Data Points 7Important Dates 8

New late-night program,DePaul After Dark, offerssafe, fun alternative onThursday nightsBy: Rocio Ortega“Bingo!” shouts a DePaul student sitting in a packedroom; not a single empty seat is to be seen among the100 or so other students vying for the prize. Uponwinning bingo, the student heads to the front of theroom to ‘grocery shop’ and pick six items among agranola bar section, a fresh produce section and otherproducts purchased from Whole Foods by the DePaulAfter Dark team.This is pretty much how every grocery bingo game hasplayed out during DePaul After Dark, a new late-nightprogram for students that features free food, giveawaysand a variety of fun and free activities. The Office ofStudent Involvement and the DePaul Activities Board,a mentored student organization, have partnered withthe Ray and Student Centers to launch the programwith the intent to provide students with an alternativeto the typical Thursday night plans of college students.“It is something to do that is actually more fun thangoing out and partying,” said one DePaul student.The first two DePaul After Dark programs drew closeto 600 attendees, making the program a resoundingsuccess.Amy Mynaugh, director of Student Involvement,explained that DePaul may be a mostly commutercampus in the middle of a city packed with thingsto do, but that should not keep the university fromproviding options on campus. “We need to buildcommunity and offer students the opportunity toconnect with one another on campus. When you feellike you genuinely belong to a community, you want tostay there,” says Mynaugh.DePaul After Dark is a built-in study break, too, saysMynaugh. “To be successful, you cannot just hit thebooks 24/7. Students need to give themselves the2 Co-Curricular Connectionsopportunity to recharge and consider their healthand wellness. They need to be engaged beyond theclassroom setting.”The DePaul Activities Board, along with TanyaVandermoon, program coordinator for campusactivities, has taken the lead in planning theseprograms. It has all been created by students,and the activities are bounded only by the limitsof their imaginations. Each program is given adifferent theme, and a variety of activities are staggeredthroughout the night to attract all kinds of students.Rachael Driussi, president of the DePaul ActivitiesBoard, provides support for the volunteers during theseevents. “We dove right in and came up with ways tomotivate students to attend and then get them to stayand enjoy multiple activities once they got there,” saidDriussi. Shannon Daly, vice president of the DePaulActivities Board, said that DePaul After Dark is auniversity tradition in the making. “It has been excitingto watch the program grow over the quarter. For thefirst event, we had no idea that it would draw thecrowd that it did,” said Daly.Data show that the program is reaching a wideaudience that includes commuter students coming fromlocations all across the city. As the pilot continues, theteam will continue to gather information about theaudience, including year of study, discipline and initialimpressions of the event. This summer, they will reviewdata and use it to improve DePaul After Dark, as wellas identify university partners for the program.If you are interested in co-hosting or volunteeringfor an event, or just want more information aboutDePaul After Dark, contact Tanya Vandermoon at773.325.2468.Image courtesy of Jamie Moncrief, DePaul University

Take care of yourself, take care of each other: NewBystander Intervention curriculum focuses on preventingsexual assaultBy: Rocio OrtegaYou are walking down a sidewalk on a sunny eveningand notice a woman fall down while riding her bike.You think, for a second, that you should go andmake sure she is okay, but you are already late for anappointment and, besides, someone else will surely seeher and come to her aid. You let that thought comfortyou, and go about your day.This is the bystander effect, explained ShannonSuffoletto, director of the Office of Health Promotion& Wellness. “Essentially, the idea is that no one doesanything to help because they believe someone elsewill rise to the occasion. That is a societal fact and itis one we want to change at DePaul. We want it to bethe norm that we all feel a responsibility upon enteringthis community to take care of ourselves and others.”With this in mind, the Office of Health Promotionand Wellness launched a new bystander interventiontraining curriculum last fall. The program trainsbystanders to intervene in a problematic situationand is a comprehensive, three-hour curriculum onsexual and relationship violence. Nationally, researchhas shown that bystander intervention is one of themost effective ways to prevent sexual and relationshipviolence on campus, explained Sexual Health andViolence Prevention Specialist, Rima Shah.The training has already been offered to the Officeof Multicultural Student Success STARS mentors.Orientation leaders, transfer student leaders andChicago quarter mentors will complete the training inMay.continued on page 4Health and wellnessmodule helps first-yearlaw students Prepare toPracticeBy: Rocio Ortega‘If necessary, an oxygen mask will drop from above yourseat make sure your mask is secure before helpingothers.’ Upon boarding a plane, all passengers will hearsome variation of these instructions during the preflight safety demonstration. Interestingly enough, theseguidelines are also applicable to many other areas of dayto-day living, explains Brooke Halpern from UniversityCounseling Services and Tom Judge, from the Office ofReligious Diversity in the Loop.Judge partnered with Halpern, an extern with UniversityCounseling Services, along with the Office of HealthPromotion and Wellness and the Lawyers AssistanceProgram to create a 75-minute module on health,wellness and balance as part of a new program calledPreparing to Practice, or P2P. This is the first year of LawCareer Service’s year-long mandatory P2P course forfirst-year law students. The skill-building series introducesstudents to the legal profession and provides an overviewof the strategic and personal skills critical for success inthe professional world.“If we want to help people as lawyers, or just everyday human beings, we have to make sure we take careof ourselves, first,” said Judge. “Legal education ischallenging because there are surprising expectationsset for these students. Once practicing law, their livescontinue to be challenging. They have demanding clientsand demanding employers. All of that pressure and stresscontinued on page 4Co-Curricular Connections3

Bystander Intervention training(continued from page 3)The training is open to the entire DePaul community andis available for classes or student groups upon request.The module gives participants the opportunity topractice intervention techniques and skills and to learnto identify a potentially problematic situation. “We cangive students, faculty and staff basic information, butwhat they really need is a place where they can safelypractice intervening, and break down the cultural andpsychological barriers of intervention,” stated Suffoletto.Cristina Vera, a student at DePaul and the vice presidentof the Student Government Association echoedSuffoletto’s thought. “The most rewarding experience wasputting into action what we had learned. We broke upinto groups and had to critically think about appropriateactions to take in the scenarios we were given,” said Vera.“Now that I have been trained I feel more comfortableand prepared to intervene in ways that will not put me orothers at risk.”The new curriculum is currently being evaluated byfaculty in the Psychology department. “One of the uniquefeatures of bystander intervention programs is that theyencourage an entire campus community to change theculture and norms surrounding sexual and relationshipviolence. Hopefully this can lead to long term decreases inthe prevalence of these forms of violence,” said assistantMichelle Johnson of Health Promotion and Wellness with a studentduring a winter eventprofessor of psychology, Megan Greeson.“Our evaluation team is working with the Office ofHealth Promotion and Wellness to collect data tounderstand students’ reactions to the workshops and theirsuggestions for making it more relevant and relatable totheir lives,” Greeson continued.In addition to the training, all incoming first year andtransfer students entering DePaul next fall will participatein an online sexual assault prevention training module.This educational module, powered by Everfi, includestraining related to sexual violence and relationships,as well as resources available at DePaul. For moreinformation about the Bystander Intervention training,or to schedule a training for your class or department,contact Shannon Suffoletto at 773.325.5653.Health and wellness module helps first-year law students(continued from page 3)can push people to neglect their health and wellness.As a consequence, it’s important for people to have thespiritual and emotional resources needed to flourish intheir lives and in their professions.”Judge and Halpern have presented their module to foursections, each composed of around 60 students, whohave engaged in conversation about their law schoolexperiences. The presentation encourages studentsto think holistically about their mental, physical andspiritual health, and shows them ways to sustain ameaningful career, and a satisfying life for themselves andthose who depend on them. Resources shared includedhandouts outlining 100 ways to reduce stress, the sixareas of wellness and a self-care inventory.Amanda Alasauskas, a student from the College of Lawsaid, “It was eye opening to see all of the ways that weare able to take time for ourselves throughout the day tomanage stress; whether it’s taking a nap, walking a dogor cooking a meal.”4 Co-Curricular ConnectionsBonnie Tunick, assistant director of Law Career Services,believes that Judge and Halpern’s module is one of themost successful P2P sessions yet. “Going through lawschool, or any educational experience, is like a threelegged stool,” said Tunick in an interview. “You haveyour academics, your career development and then thethird leg, which is all about you: get enough sleep, eatright, exercise and balance your work with time forfriends and family. That third leg also needs to be strongor else your stool will fall over. This wellness part of P2Phelped us make that leg of the stool stronger.”Tunick hopes that these types of programs will helpstudents take a more holistic approach to law. “Ifstudents are not happy or whole in their lives, they aregoing to take that pressure wherever they go,” she stated.For more information about the P2P program, contactTom Judge at 312.362.6699.