MALORIE GILBERT
NEWS REPORTER

Endless assignments, reading to complete and jumbled, jam-packed time schedules stress is getting worse for students, said a Humber professor.
“With students, there is a generally high level of stress and a lot of performance anxiety,” said Jennifer Walsh, a Toronto-based psychotherapist with a MA in clinical psychology. “Students today tend to push, push, push.”
This is the case for a lot of Humber students, and as midterm time creeps closer, they’re feeling the harsh physical effects of their stress.
“I lose a lot of sleep having such a heavy workload,” said Ellen Ettinger, a second-year hospitality management student at Humber’s North campus. “I have a lower immune system, I am constantly sick and it is really difficult to deal with.”
According to Walsh, a healthy amount of stress is vital to keeping students motivated, though too much can be dangerous.
“Stress can manifest itself in headaches, stomach aches, that kind of thing,” she said. “A lot of students will use caffeine pills at the very mildest to cope with their stress and in more extreme cases they use things like Ritalin or prescription drugs typically meant for things like ADHD.”
Still, some students on campus recognize excess stress and use healthy coping methods to deal with it effectively.
“I do extracurricular things, like ball hockey,” said Ettinger. “And I think you have to balance your work with your extra time.”
Walsh agrees, and recommends exercise as a way to cope with school or work related stress.
“People who go to the gym a lot tend to have a better, balanced lifestyle as opposed to someone that doesn’t have an outlet for their stress,” she said.
Humber faculty is aware of the stress many students feel, and acknowledge that school-related stress is a problem.
“I think it’s extremely severe,” said Alexander Schvarts, a liberal arts and sciences professor at North campus. “I think it’s getting worse in the case of kids today. They get stress from so many more places than they did in the past,” he said.
Schvarts relates these alternate stresses to the media and an overall younger age group venturing into post-secondary since the removal of Grade 13.
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Photo by Malorie Gilbert
Noel Folke, first-year business adminstration student, needs to realize a healthy amount of stress can help motivate.