Discus Awards

Maria Pascucci is a national student leadership speaker, author and the CEO of Campus Calm™. If you’re tired of stressing over school, you can join the club … literally! Unite with students around the world at www.campuscalm.com and receive your free Student Leader Success & Happiness Kit. Learn more about Maria on her About the Author page.

"The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement." ~Sidney Madwed

Ask successful people how they’ve reached their dreams and they’ll likely tell you about their network of positive people who have helped them out along the way. If you want to create your vision of a happy, successful life, surrounding yourself with people who glow from the inside out is the way to do it. People who love their lives and take pride in living each day to the fullest.

While you have some downtime this holiday season, make a conscious effort to surround yourself with cheerleaders (positive people that is!). Don’t know where to start? First, learn about the characteristics that distinguish positive people:

Honesty. There are those people who will tell you what you want to hear. Then there are truly positive people who are brave enough to be honest with you, while still being supportive and having a positive attitude.

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Filed under: Maria Pascucci • Campus Calm

Maria Pascucci is a national student leadership speaker, author and the CEO of Campus Calm™. If you’re tired of stressing over school, you can join the club … literally! Unite with students around the world at www.campuscalm.com and receive your free Student Leader Success & Happiness Kit. Learn more about Maria on her About the Author page.

It's that time of year when college-bound high school students start preparing to take that much-anticipated, and sometimes feared, SAT I. Maybe your parents hired you a tutor or perhaps you're enrolled in an SAT prep course. Or maybe your family can't afford test prep help so you're studying solo. You're probably aiming for a good score so you can get accepted into the college of your choice; some of you Ivy League hopefuls may be shooting for a near-perfect score to beat out the stiff competition. That one test can equal a whole lot of pressure. Before you work yourself up into a full-fledged anxiety attack at the mere mention of the word "SAT" or “ACT”, consider this:

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) lists over 830 four-year colleges in the United States that do not use the SAT I or ACT to admit substantial numbers of bachelor degree applicants. That's right, over 830 colleges! Many of these schools are fantastic schools, colleges where you can earn a great education. Click here for more information. Look no further than the Discus Awards to see how society is beginning to shift the focus from grades and test scores to the whole you.

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Filed under: Maria Pascucci • Campus Calm • College Prep • Outside the Classroom • College Admissions

Maria Pascucci is a national student leadership speaker, author and the CEO of Campus Calm™. If you’re tired of stressing over school, you can join the club … literally! Unite with students around the world at www.campuscalm.com and receive your free Student Leader Success & Happiness Kit.

According to the American College Health Association’s Fall 2009 National College Health Assessment, stress and sleep difficulties are the top two life issues that students say affect their studies. You have the opportunity to lead by example to teach your campus community how to create a successful, less stressful college experience.

Here’s how:

1. Strive to get enough sleep each night so you wake up each morning feeling refreshed. Encourage your friends to do the same. If you have to, enact a “No Facebook After 11” pact with your friends so you all get your butts in bed. As someone who experienced my own fair share of sleep difficulties while in college, I can tell you that sleep deprivation is a recipe for stress, which can compromise your college experience.

Bottom line: Tell yourself and your friends, “Sleep is a necessity. It’s not a luxury we need to earn.”

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Filed under: Maria Pascucci • Campus Calm

Maria Pascucci is a national student leadership speaker, author and the CEO of Campus Calm™. If you’re tired of stressing over school, you can join the club … literally! Unite with students around the world at www.campuscalm.com and receive your free Student Leader Success & Happiness Kit. Learn more about Maria on her About the Author page.

In times of stress and pressure, we often forget that we are not alone. In my book Campus Calm University, I remind students that you’re not alone. Most students feel stressed about grades, and school in general. The important thing to remember is that there are ways to deal with stress.

Here are my favorite tips, excerpted from my book:

Soul search
Figure out why you want to get good grades. Is it because you love learning and want to commit to academic excellence? Is it a personal challenge you want to take on in order to prove to yourself and others that you have what it takes? Have you always been a straight-A student and believe it shapes your identity in the eyes of others or even in your own eyes? Do you want to go to a top college where the cutoff GPA for acceptance is very high?

If your motives are internally driven—if getting good grades is a goal you really want to achieve for you—then you’re probably going to be less stressed than if you’re constantly thinking, “I have to graduate with straight A’s to please my relatives and prove my worth, and I’m never going to be happy or successful if I don’t ace this next test!”

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Filed under: Maria Pascucci • Campus Calm

Maria Pascucci is a national student leadership speaker, author and the CEO of Campus Calm™. If you’re tired of stressing over school, you can join the club … literally! Unite with students around the world at www.campuscalm.com and receive your free Student Leader Success & Happiness Kit.  Learn more about Maria on her About the Author page.

School’s about to start. For some of you, it already has. You have books to read, tests to study for and papers to write. You can't afford to miss class. You don't have time to get sick.

The reality is though student leaders get sick. You become stressed out by all your academic and life commitments, skimp on sleep, fill up on junk food and then when your compromised immune system brushes by some germs - well - pass the tissues. Luckily, there are ways to keep your energy levels up and your immune system strong, able to ward off stress and fight infection. If you're looking for ways to keep your mind, body and spirit healthy in 2010 and beyond, practice these 10 simple affirmations:

1. I will allow myself enough sleep each night to fully rest my body, recharge my batteries and support my immune system to protect against illness.

2. I will exercise my body in ways that I enjoy, even if that means squeezing in a 20-minute walk after school.

3. I will pay attention to my emotions and find positive ways to calm my mind & body down when I'm stressed. I will try deep breathing, yoga or I'll call a friend up and do something fun!

4. I will follow my intuition about what's right for my future and not be swayed by the expectations and demands of others.

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Filed under: Maria Pascucci • Campus Calm • College Prep • College Admissions