Students encourage students to succeed on Thriving Thursdays

By: ELLIOT MOFFAT SHOJANIA

Langara student Sandeep Singh said he finds it difficult to get his school work done on time because of struggles maintaining balance with his job, studies and the rest of his life.

“Sometimes when I come from work, I really feel very tired,” Singh said, adding that feeling tired can lead to procrastination.

Singh was one of many students who attended a Feb. 17 Thriving Thursday’s session on procrastination.

Thriving Thursdays is a Langara program in which student volunteers known as mental health ambassadors educate other students on issues like procrastination, sleep, stress and burnout. The ambassadors are trained on those topics, which they then present to other students during Thursday sessions in the foyer of the A Building.

“I thought I should ask [the ambassadors] how to overcome procrastination, so I just went there and they helped me out,” Singh said.

Finding the right resources

Amanda Burkholder, a mental health program coordinator at Langara College, said although Langara had peer-to-peer counselling programs to help students with mental health issues, the program wasn’t getting much uptake.

“[Thriving Thursdays] is more casual and less barriers than when you hear the word ‘counselling,’” Burkholder said.

Although the numbers are only quantitative, the ambassadors were able to have approximately 6,000 interactions with students in 2024, according to Burkholder.

“The transition for a lot of students to college can feel a bit overwhelming and they can feel the problems emotionally,” ambassador Asheesh Saincher said. “But sometimes it’s hard to know what to do with that, and it’s hard to know that there are resources that can actually help you along.”

According to Saincher, the two biggest issues students face are sleep problems and procrastination.

Students helping students

During the Feb. 17 session, the ambassadors talked to students about a method they call “the five minute technique,” where an individual starts doing a task they are avoiding for five minutes to try and create momentum to finish the task. They also handed out Langara-branded five-minute timers to help students.

Mental health ambassador Kashish Dhingra said that she also uses momentum to help her battle procrastination.

“If I really want to deal with procrastination, I start doing the activities that I feel more confident about, and I start doing them for just five minutes,” Dhingra said. “If I like and enjoy doing it in that environment right where I am right now, I’ll keep doing it.”

Karine Chen, another mental health ambassador, said she feels like helping students helps her as well.

“I feel like when I get connected to students, at the same time, I am also helping myself to release the stress,” Chen said. “Because I feel good when I talk to people and get to know about their feelings and learn how different people … express themselves in different ways.”

The remaining Thriving Thursdays this semester are Feb. 27, March 20 and March 27.

Moving past procrastination

Procrastination is a challenge that many Langara students face, but there are a number of methods available to beat this common obstacle.

Langara science graduate Anna Adnan remembers advice she received during her first orientation at Langara.

“Manage your time,” Adnan said. “When you’re taking a bunch of courses, you have to sacrifice a couple [courses] based on how important one thing is compared to the other.”

Brendan Starling, a counsellor at the LEAP Clinic on Broadway who primarily works with high school and university students, said that one of the primary issues his clients face is “frustration with academics or procrastination.”

“The young people I often work with discover that the procrastination actually leads to fear, replacing the motivation when it comes time to get their assignments done,” Starling said.

According to Starling, the best way to beat procrastination is by writing out thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

“Can you spend 10 minutes at the end of the day … and write out some of the patterns through this method that we’re looking at? And then what are you learning? That’s how therapy works,” Starling said.

Starling said that anyone who wants to change their behaviour has to spend time in contemplation and reflection.