REACH Program Parent Blog

Parents of Rising Sophomores and Juniors: as you review next semester’s housing options with your student, please keep in mind that the REACH Program highly recommends and encourages selecting a room where your student lives with a roommate, as opposed to a private room with suite-mates.

Having a roommate is crucial for your student’s education, and enables us to teach them how to live with traditional students, develop relationships, manage their time, settle disputes, etc.  It is a vital component of our Socialization and Independent Living instruction.

While this may not be your student’s preference, please know that the program’s alumni who weren’t segregated from living with traditional roommates have had the most success living independently in their communities post-graduation.

Unless we have specifically contacted you to recommend your student live in a private room due to a need for a higher level of intensive social skill instruction,  please ensure your student has a roommate.

Hello, parents! You will soon be contacted for payment of the Spring 2020 Residential Support Fee.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Update:

The Residential Support Fee is listed as the Program Fee on the Application for Admission to the REACH Program. It is part of a collection of expenses that relates to the Independent Living and Social Skills Development support that takes place outside of class.

We’ve been posting quite a few articles to help prepare you for your student’s upcoming visit home, and here’s one more! Grown and Flown, always a source of useful advice, recently published a blog that can help to give you that extra parenting boost to make your Thanksgiving one that your family will remember fondly for years to come.

5 Things to Know Before Your College Student Comes Home for the Holidays

With Halloween now behind us, the holiday season has officially begun. As the parent of a college freshman, the festive atmosphere likely heralds your student’s first significant visit home.

It’s been several months since your student first left for college, and while you may have seen them briefly during the hurricane evacuation or over Fall Break, the student who comes home for Thanksgiving is probably not the same person who left for Charleston in August. The post below offers some helpful suggestions on how to approach the changes for a successful and stress-free Thanksgiving break.

Three Ways to Make Your Freshman’s Thanksgiving Break a Success

And it will be a struggle for parents everywhere. We’ve included an article covering an in-depth list of some of the more common things parents experience when their children return home for Thanksgiving, and we hope you’ll give it a read.

College Students and Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is less than a month away, and while you may be looking forward to established traditions and time-honored family gatherings, this first Thanksgiving since your young adult moved away will also bring new revelations and behaviors along with the usual feasting and football.

Marybeth Bock’s below article from Grown and Flown details one of her most treasured memories: her daughter’s first Thanksgiving visit home, and how it brought her family even closer together.

Your College Student’s First Thanksgiving Home May Be Your Best Ever

In today’s fast-paced, ever-connected world, we often expect swift replies when we reach out to connect with someone electronically, especially when it’s a close friend or family-member.

It can be especially frustrating and anxiety-inducing when you’ve texted your student, and hours (or days) pass before you receive a reply.

Relax! Your student is probably too busy with their social and academic life on-campus and isn’t intentionally ignoring you. As the blog below details, this delay is actually a good thing, because it means your student isn’t reaching out to Mom or Dad to unload about homesickness or for a lonely bit of social connection.

College Kid is Too Busy to Text You Back? That’s a GOOD Thing

Mid-October is one of the most beautiful times of the year in Charleston, and you may be arranging to a campus visit to see your student and enjoy the wonderful weather. Before you make any plans, we recommend reading the below article so you know how to make the most of your time with your student in their new home, and what to expect (or avoid.)

Parents Weekend: 19 Do’s and Don’ts of Visiting a Kid in College

With mid-terms on the horizon and the semester in full swing, your student is likely settling into life on-campus, making new friends and slowly adapting to living separately from you.

Fall Break less than 3 weeks away, however, and once your young adult is back at home, they may start to express anxiety at the thought of returning to campus and leaving their friends and family. The excellent article below offers some practical tips to ready your student to return to campus.

Academic Advisor Has 12 Things She Wants to Tell College Parents

Freshman parents: to prepare for your student’s Spring 2020 employment, please make sure that he/she returns to campus from Fall Break with the correct identification to submit with his/her employment documents. The list of acceptable documents is below.