Podcasts about collegiate recovery community

Last week I sat down with members of the TCNJ Collegiate Recovery Community. We talked about the importance of support groups, struggles with addiction, the importance of crying and many other topics. This week I'm releasing the first segment of our conversation which focuses primarily on the importance of support groups and the impact The Collegiate Recovery Program has on individuals who join.

In this episode, I speak with Kristina Canfield, M.ED. about collegiate recovery programs. Kristina is the Executive Director for the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE), the sole organization exclusively representing collegiate recovery programs and communities. Kristina explains how collegiate recovery programs came about, their benefits for students in recovery, and how ARHE can provide education, resources, and community connection to those looking to establish a collegiate recovery program in their school. Kristina attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where she earned both her bachelor's degree in History and a master's degree in College Student Personnel. During her time at Ohio University, Kristina helped to establish the Collegiate Recovery Community in order to assist students in or seeking recovery from substance use disorders on that campus.  After graduation, she worked in an inpatient treatment facility where she continued to gain valuable experience in the continuum of care for substance use disorders. Previously, she was employed as the program coordinator for the Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP) at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and as the Substance Abuse Prevention & Recovery Coordinator for The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Kristina is very passionate about the field of collegiate recovery and prior to her current role, she worked closely with ARHE as Conference Manager for the ARHE/ARS/AAPG National Conference, Secretary of the Advisory Council, and Project Lead for two grant projects focused on advancing the field of collegiate recovery. Her vision is that one day, every institution of higher education offers support for students in or seeking recovery so that they feel supported no matter their chosen path of recovery.As we approach Collegiate Recovery Day, ARHE will be celebrating thirteen years of propagating and supporting the vision of collegiate recovery programs. ARHE offers time-tested, research and experience-based modeling for fostering and supporting those in recovery who seek to excel in higher education.  Learn more about ARHE at https://collegiaterecovery.org/If you enjoy what you hear, please feel free to contribute at www.trappedunderstandingaddiction.com to support harm reduction efforts. Social media:https://twitter.com/trappedcasthttps://www.instagram.com/trappedcast/

She's also open about being sober and how her ongoing recovery has transformed her life from, as she says, a stark soul-sick place to one rich with friends and activities she loves to do like reading by the lake on a Michigan summer day, supporting working women in any way she can, and connecting with college students and young adults who have courageously found their way to recovery.Susan was both Homecoming Grand Marshal and an MSU Commencement speaker in 2019. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in advertising and public relations from MSU. She's also a prolific author, and her latest book is titled The Little Book of College Sobriety. Susan tells why she chose MSU for college and describes how MSU prepared her for her career. And she talks about going from writing questionnaires to working at HBO then on to helping create some of America's most-watched television channels. And she talks about her own path to sobriety.“I'm one of those people who never had any real consequences from my alcohol use, but I was at a place of horrible loneliness and just feeling utterly alone. And it made no sense because I was happily married, starting a family, and had a great job. I didn't understand it.“But what helped to numb it was many glasses of wine every night when I got home. I was in high stress roles. Alcohol really helped with that up until the point where it didn't anymore, it just stopped working. And then it was a very dark place and I realized that I needed to do something to help myself. And while I was at HGTV, I started that sort of slow, painful walk toward recovery.“The book is called The Little Book of College Sobriety: Living, Happy, Healthy, and Free. There are 12 stories in the book, and they're from all over the country. I do have four or five MSU stories, but then I have stories from Colorado and Texas and Virginia and Ohio. The students helped me with everything from the title of the book to their stories themselves, which they put in there.“And their stories are about their journey from despair and addiction into this hope-rich place of recovery. And their stories were so tremendously inspiring to me. I have written two books, so I know how to write a book. I thought I could capture their stories. And I put my story in there, too. This as a book that students who might be questioning whether they should be experiencing college sober could pick up, and maybe they could learn something from it.”You're very involved with MSU's Collegiate Recovery Community. Why is it important to you to talk about substance use disorder and recovery with college students?“It's important to me because I remember when I was a college student and I felt something was wrong with me because I drank so much and abused drugs. And yet, I was in the Honors College. There was just something that was completely disjointed about that. If I had known the questions to ask myself back then and if there had been a Collegiate Recovery Community for me to walk into a lounge and to see people who were happy and who were experiencing college sober, maybe my whole experience of college would've been very different. And maybe it wouldn't have taken me two more decades to get to that place of recovery.”And what do you get from being involved with college students?“Oh, I get so much. It's all about the students. They inspire me every day. They'll send me little notes, and I'll send them notes congratulating them on a sobriety date. They'll tell me about their trips. I feel like I'm sort of the aunt. I'm not anybody's mom. I'm not really related to anybody. They're more open with me than they might be with others who are family. And they've become very dear to me, all of them. And they inspire me. They helped me with my sobriety and my recovery.”Why is the transparent discussing of recovery important?“It's important because mental health is just a part of who we are. We basically are our physical selves, our mental selves, and our social selves. And we try to take care of our physical selves. I mean, not all of us do, but we know about taking care of our physical selves. We know about taking care of our social well-being, especially after COVID, and the importance of being interconnected. But when it comes to our mental health, no one wants to own it or talk about it. It's our culture and I think it's ridiculous. Our mental health is just one part of who we are and it's not even the most important part unless you don't care for it, then it may become the most important part with a lot of negative consequences. I try to model for others that you can live a life of recovery, and you can talk about mental health. I think that hopefully some people will listen and maybe it'll open them up a little bit.”When you think back, what do you imagine the college version of you would've done with the content of the book?“I would have been steadier. I would've had better peace of mind. I would've had more friends, real friends, safe friends. College for me, I mean, it was fun. I would always use that word if anybody asked me, yes, it was fun. But it was also an emotional struggle for me in large part because of the drugs and alcohol.”What would you say are some key takeaways from the book that you'd like people to have and your advice for anyone struggling with substance use disorder?“I personally believe that substance use disorder is a disease of disconnectedness. I believe that an individual just feels completely apart and utterly alone. The antidote to that is finding a community. One of the reasons I wrote the book is only 5 percent of universities around the country have these communities like Michigan State has. All the proceeds from the book are going to a national organization that will grow these recovery communities. You just need to find people who you can feel comfortable and safe with. And after that, recovery is a beautiful, hope-rich way to live.”And what message, Susan, do you have for alumni interested in getting involved with Michigan State University students and initiatives of all kinds?“It starts with what's your passion. Let's say you're a veteran and you want to have some sort of engagement with the vets who are on campus. You can do that. Let's say you love music or you're a musician and you want to have some connection with the musicians at the music school on campus. You can do that. It really depends. I love the students. It may be that certain individuals would prefer to teach a class, or suggest some curriculum, or make donations. There are all kinds of ways you can get involved. For me, though, it begins and ends with the students.”I have one other question on your TV career before I let you go. We hear about cord cutters and how many are paying more for apps than they were for cable. Where is this crazy world of TV and media consumption going in your view?“I feel like we're going in a cyclical way. We're going back to the way it was. Yeah, there are a lot of cord cutters and people are just buying individual networks like Netflix and Amazon Prime and others. That sounds to me a whole lot like Cable TV was 10 or 20 years ago. I believe that we'll have more ability to choose what we want, but there will be a price point issue just like there always has been. And a network like Netflix is now looking at an ad-supported option. When we built cable networks HGTV and CNBC, we had two sources of revenue. They have only always had one source of revenue, which is subscribers. So now they're looking at, ‘Oh my God, how do I grow more revenue?' And this may work for certain people. They might be okay with it for a lesser price point. I feel like it's so much of the same, only being repackaged and called something different.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dawn Kepler is the coordinator of the Collegiate Recovery Community at Michigan State University, where she's seen - no joke - a decrease in alcohol use on campus. To truly appreciate that feat, imagine life as a student at a Big Ten university. The tailgates. The parties. The lines outside bars. The general overwhelming pressure to fit into what's been drilled into us as the traditional college student experience. If a student is self-aware enough to say enough is enough, it's going to be tough sledding staying clean without an all-conference support team. Dawn herself is 21 years sober, and as a sexual assault survivor, she's able to connect with students who've suffered a wide range of trauma, no matter what stage they're at in their recovery. ************************************ This episode was presented by Gateway Foundation. If drugs and alcohol are starting to take over your life, or the life of someone you love, it's time to be honest and enlist some help. Gateway offers life-saving inpatient services, as well as virtual treatment. Call 877-505-HOPE to schedule a consultation, or visit gatewayfoundation.org for more information. ************************************ Catch me on IGTV (@40000_Steps) and Facebook Live at 11 a.m. CST every Tuesday and Thursday. Join the discussion. Bring your own snacks. ************************************ If you or someone you know would like to star on the podcast, or be interviewed on IGTV, email us at 40000steps@gmail.com. ************************************ Sign up for our free newsletter and read my regular musings in The Big Blog at 40000steps.com, where you can also read about and listen to every episode of 40,000 Steps Radio. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/christopher-heimerman/message

Today, we're joined by Dawn Kepler, coordinator for the MSU Collegiate Recovery Community, and Chris Anthony vice president of US Consumer Goods at Salesforce. We're discussing recovery, sobriety, and the de-stigmatization of both on college campuses and in the corporate world.Dawn's passion for helping others struggling with substance use stems from her journey with recovery, 18 years in the making. With a BS in psychology and work in the substance use disorder prevention and recovery fields, Dawn strives to improve behavioral health services by incorporating research on program design with the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable outcomes for those in recovery.Chris studied marketing at MSU and has established himself as a business leader, public speaker, coach, mentor, and lifelong student striving to be of service to others. With over 25 years of experience in technology, he currently serves as the vice-president of US Consumer Goods at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, where he grew from account executive to vice president. Chris recently opened up about his 15-year journey with sobriety and established thesoberexec.com to help others navigate recovery and sobriety. “Our Collegiate Recovery Community here at MSU has been on quite a journey,” says Kepler. “From the very beginning, it has been spearheaded by students. It's for students and by students who have come to MSU. It was approximately three years ago that a more formal program was established that is similar to what we have today, the Collegiate Recovery Community.  MSU has the first on-campus recovery housing in the state of Michigan. It all stemmed from needs being identified then students advocating for them and working with staff and faculty on-campus to make things happen. The ultimate mission of the Collegiate Recovery Community is to help students achieve their goals - their academic goals, their personal goals, and their recovery goals - and live a full college experience feeling supported in their recovery from a substance use disorder.”Kepler and Anthony talk about the need to destigmatize recovery and sobriety, and they discuss how they dealt with their own recoveries while on campus. And they talk about how the pandemic is impacting recovery and sobriety.“It's a really challenging situation we're in for a lot of individuals,” says Anthony. “It's hard enough for people to make themselves vulnerable to reach out and ask for help. When we're quarantined or locked in place, it makes it harder sometimes to reach out to others. And with so many of us working from home, the challenge around addiction in any form whatsoever is hidden more than ever right now because we're all on Zoom; we're all on video. Someone can easily be living a very dark moment in their life and get on camera and smile to everybody. When that camera turns off, they're back in their dark dungeon of whatever misery they're experiencing. They're not going into an office space where someone can notice that they're declining, or it's easier to hide use now because you can have a coffee cup with wine in it and sit on a Zoom and do that all day long and no one knows the better.”“There's a lot of awareness, think goodness, around other mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety,” Kepler adds. “I think that's the direction we need to go with substance use disorders. Some of the students we have in our Collegiate Recovery Community have told us that they were diagnosed with depression years ago and sought treatment for the depression, but they weren't made aware that their substance use might be part of the problem. They didn't see that turning point until they were diagnosed with a substance use disorder and began receiving treatment and assistance for the substance piece.”Kepler says students in the Collegiate Recovery Community “are some of the most successful students at colleges. We see it here at MSU and the research that's been done across the country. Our students have gone on and graduated and done amazing things. As anyone who knows an individual in recovery knows, you will be able to recognize the resilience and strength and dedication of that individual. On top of that, most of our students also have jobs and do a lot of work through community service. Our students are very busy, they're very dedicated, and they do go on to do amazing things after they graduate MSU.”After 15 years of sobriety, Anthony felt comfortable with the vulnerability of becoming an advocate for recovery and sobriety and made his feelings public in a LinkedIn post. He explains how working with both Navy Seals and the band Metallica helped him come out publicly about his sobriety. The Seals thought Anthony's sobriety was “cool,” and Metallica thought Anthony's talking about it publicly would help others.“I knew that I was creeping up on 15 years of sobriety, and I was thinking a lot about the fact that here I am hitting almost 15 years and yet I really don't talk about it publicly. People around me who worked with me would know, but I didn't talk about it publicly, and that was really bothering me a lot.“My wake-up moment was, I'm like, ‘OK, if Navy Seals think it's ok that I'm sober, and the Metallica community thinks it's cool that I'm sober, I'm like, What is my problem? Why am I so ashamed and hiding this?' On June 20th of this year, I decided to, quote unquote, come out about my sobriety. I posted an article on LinkedIn on the 15 Things I've Learned in 15 Years of Sobriety, and I put it all out there. I was scared as could be, and I put it on a couple other social media channels as well.“Exactly zero bad things happened to me. In fact, just the opposite occurred. In that very moment, I had discovered my why in life. I discovered my purpose in life, and I knew right then that it was simple, to be of service to others. Literally every day, since that post, I get asked for help. It's been an outstanding experience. Here I am, and it's the greatest feeling ever. And if it gives anybody an ounce of encouragement that they can speak up about being sober and be proud of it, I'm doing my job.”Both on college campuses and in the corporate world, there can be pressure to celebrate and commiserate with alcohol or substances. “Look, I work in sales,” adds Anthony. “Anybody in the sales culture knows that alcohol is central to it. The phrase, ‘we wine and dine customers' denotes alcohol. And celebration often focuses on alcohol. I think in the business world, it's very typical and normal.“I've been navigating it for 15 plus years. To me, it's about saying no, and it's about remembering that I'm simply just trying to be healthy. Never, ever apologize or feel sorry about it. For whatever reason, there is often a massive stigma attached to saying, ‘I don't drink.' That doesn't happen with mayonnaise or cilantro when you say no to it. People don't say, ‘What do you mean? You're not addicted to cilantro? Are you addicted to mayonnaise?' Nope. You just have to get comfortable in your own skin answering it.“No apology is ever needed. There is no need to ever feel bad for choosing a healthy lifestyle. Now that I've opened up about my sobriety, I hear horror stories. But I am here to say that part of my other mission is I'm going to end the stigma, but there is no need ever to apologize for being healthy.”Anthony talks about why he refers to his sobriety as his “superpower,” and says “there's an old saying for people who have challenges with addiction that says you either get locked up, covered up, or sobered up. I chose to get sobered up and it has paid dividends since the day I made that choice. It's my superpower.”Kepler and Anthony talk about how we can all be allies to people fighting substance abuse or in recovery like offering non-alcoholic options at gatherings.“I really like what Dawn talked about with the idea of just being thoughtful with our language,” Anthony adds. “I think back to the stigma concept, too. We're running into this territory again where when someone makes the declaration, ‘Hey, I'm not drinking,' they find themselves on their heels trying to defend why. It is really possible with just sparkling water or a Red Bull to have equally as a good a time.“For the individual who's on the receiving end of that type of questioning and stuck with managing through that, it can be scary. It is just ominous for so many individuals, and it keeps people cooped up in their homes because they don't want to go out for fear of being asked that question. There are a lot of different paths to start to open up this dialogue with others so you can get comfortable with that conversation and almost be ready and excited to answer the question about whether you're drinking or not. It's a matter of seeking some community and knowing that you're also not alone.”“Many of the stereotypes around what an individual who struggles with substance use looks like are not, in fact, what we see,” Kepler says. “Often when you start discussing your recovery and sobriety, other people will join in the conversation because they personally have been affected by addiction as well. It is very widespread. It is a disease like any disease, and it is something that should not be silenced because people feel shame or guilt over it. People in recovery go on to lead hugely successful, happy lives. Raising awareness will help more and more individuals to be able to achieve their goals and live that healthy, happy life.”In closing, Anthony says the most important thing to do is ask for help.“Ask for help, full stop, ask for help. If you are struggling or if someone you love or care about is struggling, ask for help. I don't care what walk of life you're from, there are tons of resources that we'd be thrilled to help you with. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, and I have a website that I created in all this called thesoberexec.com. You can reach out to me there. Nothing would make me happier than to point you in the right direction.“And if any current student in recovery now hears this and is scared about going into the corporate world or on to a career because they think their sobriety and choice to be healthy is going to put a cap on their career, I'm here to tell you that it will not. You may have to manage it. You're going to have to learn to manage some conversations, but you should not be fearful about achieving everything you hope and dream to achieve in your life.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on 105.1 FM, AM 870, and however you stream at home. Follow and subscribe at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

In the best of times, pursuing recovery from substance use disorders and maintaining sobriety are a daily grind. Factor in the pandemic, its isolating effects, the social and economic upheaval that has followed, and those personal challenges are made all the more difficult.

Z-Man Goes to College! For the first stop on the Fall 2018 College Tour, Z-Man visits the Collegiate Recovery Community at Kent State & University of Akron in Ohio.

Z-Man Goes to College! For the second stop on the Fall 2018 College Tour, Z-Man visits the Collegiate Recovery Community at Michigan State University in East Lansing Michigan.

Guests: Dr. Dominiquie Clemmons-James, certified rehabilitation counselor in the Office of Counseling Services, N.C. A&T, Brittany Chang, psychology student, member of Collegiate Recovery Community street team Clemmons-James and Change discuss the university’s Collegiate Recovery Community on campus and working with students to successfully pursue academic, personal and professional goals to enrich their quality of life.

Todd visits East Carolina University to screen The Long Way Back Film and speak to the students about the message of the film.  While visiting ECU, Todd sits down to interview Jarmichael Harris, ECU Collegiate Recovery Community Coordinator and Claire Perry, ECU Collegiate Recovery Week Chair.  They discuss how the Collegiate Recovery Community came about and how it functions on campus at ECU.  They also talk about topics like the opioid epidemic and what it takes to erase the stigma associated with being in recovery.

Sarah Nerad is joined by Dr. Meri Shadley and Jordan Baes from the Nevada Recovery and Prevention Program, or NRAP, at the University of Nevada, Reno to discuss their Inside Out Peer Mentor Program.

Sarah Nerad is joined by Daniel Fred, formerly of Transforming Youth Recovery, to discuss his personal and professional journey with collegiate recovery and the work of TYR!

In this episode of the Cover2 Resources PPT Podcast, Greg interviews Sarah Nerad. She is the Program Manager for the Ohio State University Collegiate Recovery Community in Columbus, Ohio, and the Director of Recovery for the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention in Recovery. Sarah struggled with addiction herself at age 15, and she describes herself as in recovery. She credits her high school community in Houston, TX, for helping her enter recovery. “I never stopped receiving services, and that’s what made it so successful for me,” she says. Now Sarah is giving back. She has built an incredible recovery community at OSU for students struggling with substance abuse disorder. To hear how Sarah is fighting the opioid epidemic one life at a time, check out the episode here.

Ahmed Hosni is joined by Keith Murphy of Rutgers to discuss diversity within the collegiate recovery community.

Charlotte View embraces the opportunity to help Marketing Specialist, Carol Rose, grow the first Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC) Program in the UNC system. This is a message of hope and help and "Second Chances" for young adults dealing with any kind of addiction. Short Link:http://tobtr.com/s/4414045 During this interview, the program is explained and we listen, first-hand, to the stories of 2 recovering students, Hillary Belk and Chelsea Schmidt. The CRC supports students in college who are in recovery from addiction (of all kinds) The CRC offers weekly 12 Step Meetings (both Alcoholic Anonymous AA and Narcotic Anonymous NA),  peer support, community service, seminars on recovery issues and "Game Night" on Wednesdays 6-8pm in the new CRC room room 121 , designed and furnished by Charlotte IKEA. Statistics show that recovering students who attend a university with a CRC have 66%  chance of maintaining their sobriety in the first 3 years of school  and 86% of maintaining their sobriety within 4-6 years of attending school. CRC allows students to have a "typical" college experience. CRC is looking for donations that would  raise funding for their tuition scholarship program. The CRC just gave two $1000 scholarships to two of our CRC students.

Two years ago, in a program that aired on CNN, Kitty Harris-Wilkes stated, “To be in recovery from substance abuse and to be on a college campus is an absolute catastrophe without support.” Her answer to that challenge has been to help the Texas Tech Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery (CSAR) become the foremost of its kind on any U.S. university campus. As a result of her efforts and other Texas Tech faculty members and staff, the center has amassed an enviable success record success working with Texas Tech students who have substance abuse and eating disorders, including a relapse rate of less than 10 percent following counseling and continuing help by the Collegiate Recovery Community. The work of CSAR also extends to research efforts that have received significant extramural funding from state, federal, and private sources. In addition to her work with CSAR, Harris-Wilkes assists the director of the Center for Prevention and Resiliency, which has spearheaded numerous projects including United Future Leaders, a program funded by United Supermarket. The latter program’s focus is on civility, leadership, and ethics among pre-adolescents. Harris-Wilkes also has been instrumental in establishing the Lubbock Independent School District’s School for Young Women Leaders, which has benefited from her special passion for service. Overall, the results of her research and extraordinary service contributions have been brought into instructional programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the College of Human Sciences, where Harris-Wilkes is known as a knowledgeable, caring, and enthusiastic teacher. On top of all of the above, Harris-Wilkes holds the George C. Miller Family Regents Professorship and serves as associate dean for outreach, engagement, and external relations in the College of Human Sciences. Thus, she has been able to blend her roles as teacher, researcher, and service provider, along with college-level administration, in unique ways. In the process, she has become one the university’s highly regarded integrated scholars.

Young adults are naturally resilient and have the ability to get their lives on track. But in a culture that glorifies addictive behavior as a rite of passage, it is difficult to create the supportive, sober peer community essential for long-term recovery. Exciting cutting-edge treatment programs, coupled with aftercare in an innovative Collegiate Recovery Community, give new hope for young adults. Daniel Krasner, Clinical Solutions Provider of The Ranch at Dove Tree, shares how a unique partnership with the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery at Texas Tech University is opening new doors. Visit http://www.depts.ttu.edu/hs/csa/ and www.ranchatdovetree.com to learn more about recovery support for young adults.