Striking the Match: Students and Institutions Combat College Burnout
By: Ava Heinert and Viviana Diaz
Go to class, go to work, do homework, socialize, take exams, eat, sleep and repeat.
College students and health and wellness experts said college burnout should be addressed on personal as well as institutional levels.
Burnout negatively impacts student’s mental well-being and academic performance, creating unhealthy habits and a life of imbalance, said Sharleen O’Brien, associate dean and director of the Health and Wellness Department at the University of California Santa Barbara.
The Resilience-Informed Skills Education Program at Pepperdine University and the University of California, Santa Barbara UCSB ’s Health and Wellness Program are both actively tackling the issue of burnout through hosting events and providing accessible mental health resources.
“Burnout is when you keep going back, and you’re like, ‘I got a second wind, I got a third wind, I got a fourth wind,’” O’Brien said. “There’s a point where you don’t have another wind, and things start to deteriorate in your life rather than get better.”
