Posted Thursday, April 30, 2020 @ 9:33 PM With most colleges and universities deciding to continue online instruction for the summer session, students across the nation are facing the summer semester separated from their friends, roommates, organizations and social lives. A large part of your student’s college experience is most likely centered around establishing relationships with their peers. A 2006 study by George D. Kuh, focused on examining factors that drive student success ranks friendship as one of the most important factors that encourages students to persist and ultimately graduate. This study emphasizes that the individuals that students choose as friends and spend time with are important to what they do in college and how they feel about their experiences. With that, it is important to acknowledge that many students are feeling the effects of a 180-degree change from life at school to life at home. Almost everything has moved virtually, including courses, club and organization meetings and some commencements. Encouraging your students to connect with their friends virtually may not seem like something they are interested in but providing a few fun options might help support students as they continue to adjust to a virtual lifestyle. Check out these options for ways your student can engage with their friends virtually! Online Game Night: There are many online game options for connecting with friends virtually. Students can utilize virtual Scrabble or play Words with Friends, which are available for download on both Apple and Android devices. You can also encourage students to create their own trivia night questions and Bingo boards with their friends! Netflix Party: This Google Chrome extension allows students to livestream movies and TV shows with their friends! Netflix Party also provides a chat function, which gives students the ability to live chat with their friends as they watch Netflix! Zoom PowerPoint Party: This idea takes utilizing Zoom to the next level! Within Zoom, users have the ability to share their computer screens to show participants information that they might need. With a PowerPoint Party, each participant creates a PowerPoint about something they are interested in and share the information with their peers! This can include anything ranging from Top Ten Best One Direction songs to Why Shark Tank is the Best Show of the 2010s! As long as they’ve got the fact and passion to back it up, no topics are off limits! Group Playlist: You can encourage your students to interact virtually by creating a collaborative playlist! A group of friends can add as many songs as they choose to collaborative playlists on Spotify or Apple Music. If your student has one friend who loves Fleetwood Mac and one friend who loves NSYNC, they can create one unique playlist together! Send a quick text or schedule a short video call: Encourage your students to schedule short video with their friends to stay connected. Your students can also send a daily text to check-in with their friends. If your family has a limited number of resources to utilize, consider creating a “technology time” schedule, where each member of the family is allotted certain hours to use shared devices! While these are all great ideas for maintaining relationships, the main goal is to support your student as they navigate this unprecedented change and distance from college. Encourage students to stay connected with their friends. Remember, maintaining these relationships is important to overall student success when they ultimately return to school! Back