Do Better uplifts students with a motivation board workshop
Marieline Kam (left), UMD chapter of Do Better internal membership and outreach coordinator, watches as Kamryn Perry (right), UMD chapter of Do Better secretary, shows everyone her motivation board and explains what all the items on it means. (Jaime Williams/The Black Explosion)
The University of Maryland chapter of Do Better Service and Self-Improvement Organization, a club dedicated to community service and uplifting Black students, held a motivation board workshop for students to relieve stress and feel empowered.
Do Better provided students with a variety of arts and crafts materials they could work with to create the piece that best fit them. Some of the crafts provided included magazines, markers and construction paper.
Before students started working on their creations, Marieline Kam, senior public health science major and internal membership and outreach coordinator for Do Better, gave everyone a quick presentation on what makes a motivation board unique and how students can benefit from creating one.
Kam said that they are a good physical daily reminder to achieve your goals and feel empowered to do what you set out to do.
“[However], you have to make [motivation boards] work. You have to hold yourself accountable for what you put on there,” said Kamryn Perry, junior family science and kinesiology double major and secretary for Do Better.
“You can make them however you want. We used the traditional way [with] magazine clippings. Also, you can print out things you see online [or you could use] pictures, but we mostly did words and I feel like that worked for this event specifically,” Perry said.
“Your goals may change throughout the year. So, you have to make sure that whatever you're working towards, you’re really sticking to [doing] what you need to do to achieve those goals. So, if those goals are changing over time, you have to change your strategies to achieve those goals,” Kam said.
Perry said that everybody can take advantage of motivation boards.
“Anyone who wants to grow or feels like they have something to work towards, [motivation boards] are a good tool for that,” she said.
Yet, Shelby Johnson, junior criminal justice major said, she only recommends people create motivation boards “if they have the motivation to see out what they’re writing on that board.”
Kam said the point of this event was to help students stick to their 2020 goals for the rest of the year.
“We wanted to give people a takeaway item to help them get motivated since it’s midterm season...we just wanted to help them stay motivated throughout the rest of their spring semester. Especially since the weather is going to be breaking soon and people are going to start losing that motivation to go to classes,” she said.
“We wanted to have an event that promoted self-growth and self-confidence for the school community and to have somewhere where [students] can set up their goals clearly as we get into the year,” Perry added.
Kam said the organization hoped that after this event, students feel “motivated to tackle those midterms right before spring break and feel comfortable cultivating a spirit of going to get the bag for the rest of the year and not for just the rest of the semester.”