A New Year and MLK Week at VCU
Welcome back to VCU for a new year and a new semester. I hope the time away from classes allowed all of you to recharge for the spring.
It’s always important to take care of ourselves, mentally and physically, but it’s a lesson we often forget when work or life are making demands on us. That’s why this article from Harvard Business Review seems worth considering: Five Mistakes We Make When We’re Overwhelmed.
As much as we may resolve to stay on top of things this semester, we all are going to feel overwhelmed at some point in the next few months. The article reminds us of a few important ways we thwart ourselves when we’re overwhelmed, and what we can do differently.
This includes giving ourselves permission to relax our focus and slow down; being flexible in how we approach problems; and maintaining connections to our support system of friends and family.
Consider taking a few minutes to read it – it’s worth the time to consider how we respond to stressful situations, and what we can do to better prepare ourselves for those situations that we all experience from time to time.
And, as always, thank you for being civil and respectful with others, even when you disagree or are being challenged.
Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
This coming week, we are honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with a focus on his message about economic justice.
In his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway in 1964, Dr. King said, “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
Everyone deserves those things, and yet nearly 60 years later, we still work toward becoming a society where all human beings have access to food, education, equality and freedom.
Those goals speak to our mission at VCU and VCU Health – to put the needs of students and patients first, and provide greater access to education and health care as we help build and support thriving communities.
Please attend one of the events celebrating Dr. King’s life and his abiding legacy of empowerment and justice. His work continues to teach us lessons and inform our future.
And as we move through this semester, we keep Dr. King’s words in mind – that we have the audacity to believe in and work toward a more just and equitable world.
Thank you for making VCU a great place.
Categories 21st-Century University, Periodic update, To VCU, Uncategorized, VCU HealthTagged MLK Week 2023, New year message 2023