Coming Up in ELC:

Final Reception: TALENT SHOW

• Monday, April 29
• 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
• Texas Union – Santa Rita Suite (UNB 3.502)
• Winners of the Summer 2024 scholarships will be announced!
• Dinner will be served.
• We have a nice program prepared for you. Several of your classmates, teachers, and staff will perform!
• We also have a slide show of photos from throughout the semester. You can still add photos online!

Last Day of Class

• Monday, April 29
• Last day of Spring 2024

Grade Packets

• Final grades and certificates.
• Available for pick up at the Texas Global front desk. 
  • • Friday, May 3 & Monday, May 6
    • 8 am – 5 pm (ELC not available from 12-1 pm)
• You MUST BRING PHOTO ID to pick up your grade packet.
• Texas Global, 2400 Nueces St. Suite B (on the corner of 24th St. and Nueces St.)
  • • The remaining packets that are not picked up by Monday will be mailed to the local address we have on file for you. It may take several weeks for these grade packets to arrive in the mail.
    • If you are traveling outside of the US and would like us to mail your grades to a DIFFERENT address, email your new address to elc@austin.utexas.edu by 5:00 pm on Monday, May 6.
    • If you are traveling outside of the US during summer break, leaving before May 3, and returning to the US to study in Summer 2024, we can hold your grade packet for you to pick up when you return to the US. You must send an email to elc@austin.utexas.edu by 5:00 pm on Monday, May 6.
    • If you want someone else to pick up your grade packet for you, then you must send an email to elc@austin.utexas.edu with your name and EID, and the first and last name of the person picking up your grade packet. This person must bring their photo ID with them to pick up your grade packet. 

Continuing Student Applications

• For Summer 2024
• Application available online HERE
• We would love to see you again!

International Dance Class

• International Dance Day is Monday, April 29!
• Lyndsay Shaw of Study in the USA is offering a free and fun dance fitness class for all levels to celebrate. “We’ll move our bodies, engage our brains, blow off steam, and have fun!”
• Wear tennis shoes and bring water.
• Monday, April 29
• 4:00 – 5:00 pm
• WCP Dance Rehearsal Space (WCP, 2.310)

Stress Relief:

Stress is our body’s reaction to a challenging situation. Stress can be helpful in the short term. It can help us meet a deadline or avoid danger. As humans, we all experience this occasionally. But, longterm stress can get in the way of us meeting our goals and can even contribute to physical or mental health problems.

Now that we have reached the end of the semester, we all need to relieve our stress and anxiety. Here are some helpful ways manage it.

 

Yoga:

“Yoga is a discipline with spiritual origins that has motivated many in the United States to attend to their mental and physical health, often as part of a larger motivation to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Yoga [can be] an inclusive and individualized practice of attunement of the mind with the body in a way that fosters health and wellness. The science behind cognitive behavioral therapy, the relaxation response, meditation, exercises, etc., all support yoga practices that are part of a more than 2,000-year-old wisdom tradition.” – Dr. Darshan Shah and Dr. David Ring, “Health Benefits of Yoga.”

Yoga with Adriene

• Adriene’s mission is “to connect as many people as possible through high-quality free yoga videos.”
• Her videos are “designed to give you the tools to build a happy, healthy at-home yoga practice.”
• She encourages her students to “do your best, be authentic, and find what feels good.”
• It can be healing to acknowledge whatever emotion and feeling we are having. The videos below are a good example of that.

Yoga For Vulnerability:

Yoga for Anxiety and Stress:

Yoga for When You’re Angry:

Yoga for Bedtime:

Longhorn Yoga

• This UT student organization is “dedicated to promoting mindfulness and well-being through weekly yoga sessions!”
• The student organization describes their yoga sessions as perfect for both beginners and experienced yogis.
• This group has a few extra mats available, but they encourage you to bring a mat if you already have one.
• They do not charge any dues or fees. “There is no required commitment – simply join whenever you like!”
• They hold free yoga classes every week during the Fall and Spring semesters. Sign up for their weekly newsletter to stay updated.

Mindfulness & Meditation:

3-Minute Body Scan to Cultivate Mindfulness

• You can do anything for 3 minutes, right? I like to start small with anything. If I bite off more than I can chew, sometimes I’ll become disheartened and give up. But 3 minutes is nothing, right?! That’s about how long you spend brushing your teeth!
• So spend 3 minutes on yourself, just 3 minutes!
• If you liked that, even a little bit, click here to find out more about Mindfulness!
• I’ll even tell you the biggest secret! It’s not about emptying your mind! Not at all. It’s about paying attention to the present!

CMHC Resources

• Managing Stress
  • Learn about sources of stress and tips for managing them. “The key to stress reduction is identifying strategies that work for you. As you begin to understand more about how stress affects you, you will develop your own ideas to help relieve tension.”
• Mindful UT
  • “Use this guide to find a list of mindfulness and stress reduction activities you can do at home to help manage your emotional well-being. Please note that some of these techniques may work better for you than others and that’s okay. Explore and find what mindfulness and relaxation techniques work best for you.”
• Self Care Activities
  • “Self-care is more than an occasional treat, but a way of living each day that incorporates practices and behaviors that help you feel refreshed, re-energized, and rested. Self-care helps you deal with the daily stresses in your life—from academic pressures, to interpersonal relationships, to future plans, and others. Everyone deals with stress differently, and everyone’s preference for practicing self-care is different as well.”

MindBody Labs

• “MindBody Labs are self-paced environments designed to help UT students explore resources for improving their emotional and physical health. The labs currently feature audio and video instruction on a variety of topics. Most material is experiential, enabling students to follow along and practice skills as they are being discussed.”
• MindBody Labs currently contain information and guided exercises on: breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, meditation, relaxation imagery/relaxation sounds, guided imagery, health and well being, sleep issues, food and eating issues.
• They also offer these tools for biofeedback: RESPeRATE, and Galvanic Skin Resistance 2 (GSR2) – only at the SSB location.
  • According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Biofeedback is a mind-body therapy that can improve physical and mental health. During a biofeedback session, a practitioner will use painless sensors to measure certain bodily functions. You will see the results on a screen, then test ways to change the results. With practice, you will be able to make adjustments without the equipment.”
• Campus Locations:
  • McCombs Wellness Center (CBA 3.204)
    • Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm
    • Check in at front desk to use mindfulness materials including RESPeRATE.
  • Student Services Building (SSB), 5th floor
    • Monday – Friday, 8 am – 4:30 pm
    • Check in at reception desk.
  • Nursing School (NUR), Room 5.10D
    • Monday – Friday, 8 am – 5 pm
    • Check out equipment in NUR 5.196
  • William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center (WCP), 2nd floor
    • Monday – Friday, 7 am – 8 pm, Saturday, 10 am – 8 pm, and Sunday, 12 pm – 8 pm
    • Check-in is at the hospitality desk on the first floor.
• You can try a few guided exercises online from your home. Exercises include deep breathing, muscle relaxation, meditations, and more!

Sleep:

• Many of us experience trouble sleeping.
• Try these Healthy Sleep Tips for a good night’s rest.
• Learn about sleep hygiene and many other sleep related topics online.

University Health Services Sleep Resources

• UHS website has a section devoted to help you understand and improve your sleep. “Getting an average of eight hours of quality sleep per night is an important part of overall health and academic success. The benefits of sufficient sleep are numerous, especially for students, as sleep is essential for increased memory consolidation, learning, decision making and critical thinking. Studies show that students who receive seven to nine hours of sleep had higher grade point averages than students who didn’t get seven to nine hours of sleep regularly (Yu & Arendt, 2017).”
• Check out these resources:
  • Get a free sleep kit!
  • Sleep benefits & myths
  • Take a sleep assessment
  • Track your sleep by using a sleep diary
  • Learn how to set up your room for success
  • Find apps to help you sleep
  • Fill out a sleep strategies worksheet
  • Find out about the benefits of napping and good napping spots on campus!

The Study Cycle:

• Study Smart, Not Hard
• “Spend two to three hours studying outside of class for every hour in class. Listen to the lectures and read the texts, but balance those activities by finding ways to write, speak about, and graph or draw the content you are learning.”
• Check out UT’s Sanger Learning Center’s study strategies page.