“A wonderful aspect of the student experience at U.Va. is having the ability to take an idea, grow it through collaboration with other students, and then receive the support and backing of  administrators and faculty to bring it to life. Project R.I.S.E. started as an idea that fellow second-year Reggie White and I had in spring 2006 for a peer counseling program designed to help de-stigmatize the idea of counseling among African-American students at the University and provide a peer-based resource and referral system. We saw many friends go through emotional struggles and realized that we weren’t equipped to be an effective sounding board when they came to us for help. We vetted the idea and received valuable feedback from our peers and from administrators in the Office of African-American Affairs, the Dean of Students, and Counseling and Psychological Services. On January 22, we launched the Project R.I.S.E. (Resolving. Issues. through Support. and Education) peer counseling pilot program to the African-American community at U.Va., and we hope to ultimately expand it to other minority groups. Everyone in Student Affairs was willing to extend a hand to help us get started, and Project R.I.S.E. would not have gotten off the ground without their strong support. It was a real blessing.”KRYSTAL COMMONS (CLAS 2009) |