Micro-Seminar: Befriend with your anxiety to succeed in college PART ONE

Micro-Seminars have two parts. Attendance to both parts is required. Registering for the PART ONE session will automatically enroll you in the PART TWO session on Friday.

Part 1: Thursday, August 22, 2024 from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (PST)
Part 2: Friday, August 23, 2024 from 10:00 – 11:30 am (PST)

As a new college student at USC, you may be excited but also nervous about college life. This anxiety is normal and in fact, can be a great motivator for you; but with this huge adjustment and related stress, the normal anxiety can be easily transformed to a significant barrier that prevents you from success. This seminar will reflect what you want to achieve from your new chapter of life in college before you start and provide several tips to befriend with your anxiety (instead of fighting or ignoring) to make your anxiety a great partner for your success in the long run.

Expected learning outcomes
1. Understand various roles of anxiety and how "my anxiety" usually kicks in.
2. Define what the success would be like at the end of college
3. Learn and implement at least 2 strategies to cope with anxiety
4. Learn about resources at USC that I can utilize for success.

Day 1.
- Ice breaker & reflection: "How I want to be in 4 years from now on?"
- Short lecture: Three components of anxiety & Positive and negative impact of anxiety
- Reflection activity : How do I experience "my anxiety" based on these three components of anxiety?
- Tip 1: Mindfulness
- Tip 2: "Defusion"

Day2 -
Reflecting on what was discussed in Day 1
- Short lecture: why do we worry?
- Tip 3: Worry time
- Tip 4: Self-intervention to make worries into actionable/realistic plans
- Tip 5: SMART goal & reward system
- Tip 6: Using self-talk to succeed - USC resources to utilize for success

Target audience: Any new students who are motivated to reflect on themselves and apply what they would learn from this seminar to succeed.

Lead By: Professor Jiyun Kang

Dr. Jiyun Kang received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Purdue University, IN, completed her pre-doctoral internship at University of Memphis Counseling Center. Jiyun worked as a staff psychologist at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Counseling Center for 4 years and Acacia Counseling & Wellness for a couple of months before she joined USC in 2021. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in psychology from Ewha Womans University in South Korea and worked as a licensed counselor in Korea prior to her Ph.D. program. She is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Counseling Mental Health Services in Student Health, which is a part of a Keck School of Medicine.

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