Georgia Tech STAR

STAR is gearing up for an amazing fall semester! Ana, one of STAR’s Student Assistants, spent some time this afternoon talking with many incoming first year students during the FASET Resource Fair. There’s a lot of interest in volunteering and donating! It’s going to be a great year.

We’ve got 180 bamboo to give away at today’s Community Market by the Exhibition Hall - please come by!

We were able to plant almost 900 bamboo today, thanks to a rotating crew of student volunteers. Student signed up for one of five 1-hour shifts so we would work in small groups with safe distancing. I asked the students to remove their masks for the pictures (but to make sure their masks were visible!).

The bamboo will be available at next Wednesday’s GT Community Market, and we will definitely hold more events like this one!

Due to the cancelation of the MLK Day of Service, we have 900 bamboo that need to be placed in 900 jars ... and we need your help to do it! You are invited to spend an hour planting bamboo tomorrow - January 21, 2022 - sometime between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. Bonus: you will leave with your very own bamboo plant! Sign up for a shift through the following links:

10:00 am – 11:00 am: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753824
11:00 am – noon: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753825
Noon – 1:00 pm: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753826
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753827
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753828
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: https://gatech.campuslabs.com/engage/event/7753829

Campus Kitchens Project, Klemis Kitchen, and STAR made today's Georgia Tech Daily Digest! Check out the story here:

Student Life Progress and service are two constants that guide Georgia Tech’s Campus Kitchens Project in providing support and sustainable food options for our community. Started in 2013, the Campus Kitchens Project is a service within the Students’ Temporary Assistance and Resources (STAR)'s Klemis Kitchen,...

Many thanks to Shiloh, Rhea, and Paloma for planting bamboo this afternoon! Also, thanks to Ana (not pictured) and Shiloh for planting bamboo yesterday. And a big shout out to the Georgia Tech LGBTQIA Resource Center for allowing us to work in their workroom!

If you are on the list to receive a bamboo, you can pick it up Monday. If you’re not on the list, visit the STAR table at the GT Community Market next Wednesday between 10 am and 2 pm.

We’re back this semester to get more people involved in STAR’s mission: help other students in need. Tonight’s virtual meeting will be an introduction to how to get more engaged in the work of STAR and also how to benefit from the programs in our network. The Engage link will be in our bio to RSVP and the Teams link will also be in the Engage portal. Hope to see you soon!

Continuing our STAR recap, we’ll talk about housing and finances. For students struggling to have a place to stay, there are two options on our website directed towards helping them. The Crisis Housing Petition is for students that need a temporary place to stay during an emergency for up to two weeks. A plan for long term housing, including the possibility of a crisis housing grant, may be developed during this period. The Homeless Initiative Scholarship is geared for a more long term housing solution with the funds of the scholarship going towards some or all of the cost of housing for as long as one semester. For students needed financial assistance, the Dean Griffin Pocket Fund offers interest-free emergency loans.

We wanted to give a recap of what STAR does and how we can assist students in need! If you’re an incoming freshman or just someone interested in knowing more about us, we’ll be talking about the points that makes STAR, STAR. Over the next couple of days we’ll dive in to each point. Today, we wanted to show the five points in STAR: Clothing, Finances, Food, Housing, and Connections. You can check out our highlights to learn more about Campus Closet, Klemis Kitchen, and Emergency Housing.

As we prepare to begin the summer semester, the New York Times "Well" Series is offering a 10-Day Fresh Start Challenge, beginning May 17 (first day of summer school!).

The full article is below; here's a synopsis of the program, and how to sign up:

"A good first step is to take our 10-Day Fresh Start Challenge. Sign up, and starting Monday, May 17, we’ll send one or two messages a day to prompt moments of mindful reflection, build stronger connections and take small steps toward building healthy new habits. You can text us, too! The challenge will include 10 daily challenges, with a break over the weekend.

To sign up, just text “Hi” or any word to 917-809-4995 for a link to join. If you prefer not to text or live outside the United States, you can follow along on the website or app. Just bookmark the page and join us on May 17 for the first challenge."

Need a Reset? Take the 10-Day Fresh Start Challenge Studies show that moments of disruption offer a unique opportunity to set and achieve new goals.

If you happened to miss the article about Green Goodbyes in the Georgia Tech Daily Digest, you can check it out in Mirage News, an Australian media outlet (yes, there is "buzz" about GT's Green Goodbyes in Australia!). Shout out to Office of Campus Sustainability - Georgia Tech and Georgia Tech Housing for making making Green Goodbyes happen this year.

Saying Green Goodbyes: Sustainability & Student Support in Move-Out Each year as residents move out of campus housing, dumpsters fill with unwanted items that go to landfills. This spring Georgia Tech Housing and...