Making a Difference

Psychology major Shelby Modisett  ̀10 first heard about the Student Counseling Service (SCS) HelpLine at the MSCC Open House.  She was interested, but felt the time wasn’t right.  It was the fall semester of her freshman year, she was still adjusting to an environment very different from her ultra-conservative hometown of Abilene, TX, and her focus was on her studies.  Involvement would have to wait until she was well settled in Aggieland, her feet planted firmly on her chosen academic path.   As it turned out, the right time rolled around during the spring semester of her sophomore year, after the Psychology Department sent what more or less amounted to a blanket HelpLine recruitment e-mail.

“That was kind of a refresher for me,” she recalls, “and I was like, ‘Ah!  I want to do that!’  So I e-mailed the Coordinator and requested a meeting, because I wanted to ask some questions.”  By the time the ninety-minute meeting with HelpLine Coordinator Susan Vavra and two HelpLine volunteers was over, Shelby knew she was going to apply.  She counts it one of the best decisions she ever made.  “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to serve,” she says, “to help my fellow Aggies.”

The HelpLine—staffed primarily by what Shelby calls “an amazing group of students” and graduate assistants trained by the Counseling Center’s professionals—usually operates from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays and around the clock on weekends.   Its mission is to provide information, referral, support, and crisis assessment/intervention for Aggies and anyone concerned about them.  Of course, HelpLiners can also offer a lot of good information about a wide variety of topics, not to mention refer callers to services and programs provided by SCS, other TAMU departments, even the community at large.  In other words, this group of students stands ready, willing, and well able to help Ags in need ... but their fondest hope is that they won’t have to.

“Everybody who’s on the Line hopes we won’t be needed,” Shelby confesses.  “We hope the calls that come through aren’t serious.  It’s definitely a hard task, emotionally taxing at times.  Some of the things that come through are really hard to know ....  You know, that somebody else is struggling in that way.  But being there in someone’s time of need is very rewarding ... to be able to hang up that phone and know, ‘Hey, that person just needed somebody to listen.’”

The importance and intensity of the work these students do weld them into a close-knit group.  They get to know one another in ways they probably never would have, if they hadn’t met on the Line, and the bonds they form extend beyond their shifts into their personal lives.  According to Shelby, that closeness, “just having those people there for you,” is one of the most helpful and appealing aspects of volunteering with HelpLine. 

A Taste for Justice
If HelpLine is one influence Shelby credits with helping her become “a much more caring Aggie,” her work as a student assistant in the GLBT Resource Center, located in Cain Hall B107, is the other.  She got involved there when she met members of the GLBTA student organization, who encouraged her to meet other people ... and so on, until she was finally introduced to Center Coordinator, Lowell Kane.  The more he told her about the office, the more she wanted to be a part of it.

“The Center is involved in work I’m very interested in:  social justice, advocacy, civil rights,” she explains.  “It’s a very worthy cause.”

A lot of her job is as simple as being there to offer support to members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender community on campus.   In addition to acting as a resource and referral center for them and their straight supporters, the office provides a safe space and educates campus and community groups on GLBT issues. 

The way Shelby sees it, her work there and on the HelpLine go hand in hand.

“I carry my experiences with me into the classroom; they affect how I interact with individuals, help me be more aware of the people around me.  I definitely feel these things have made me more sensitive and well educated.  And I think my work has helped me take a very different perspective on everything—to challenge what I see socially, in the environment, even in the classroom.”

Making a Difference
In addition to those impressive educational benefits, Shelby’s outside-the-classroom experiences will no doubt give a welcome boost to her career plans.  Once she earns her bachelor’s in psychology, she plans to apply to law school.  She hasn’t decided exactly where she’ll go from there—family law or family counseling, maybe—but she’s determined that whatever field she chooses, she’ll be working on behalf of neglected or abused children.

Meanwhile, Shelby Modisett encourages her fellow students to get involved.

“There are so many ways Aggies can give back to the community, whether it be the Aggie community or the community at large.  There are so many organizations and student groups where you can give back.  Each incoming freshman, each transfer student, each student here who’s not involved, should really find some way to go beyond him- or herself.  Find a place where you can actually make a difference in someone else’s life.”

HelpLine:  979-845-2700 (V/TTY)

For more information on MSCC Open House, please visit http://www.mscc.tamu.edu/programs/.

You’ll find information on the Student Counseling Service HelpLine at http://scs.tamu.edu/emergency/helpline.asp.

To find out more about the GLBT Resource center, housed in the Offices of the Dean of Student Life, go to http://glbt.tamu.edu/.

Contributed by
Kathy DiSanto, Communications Specialist
Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs