GPI - Kimberly Charneski, Well-Being Coordinator
By Audrey Rice
Staff Writer
By Sydney Youde
Staff Writer
What is your academic and professional background?
My undergrad degree is in psychology and sociology from UConn, University of Connecticut, and I have a master's in social work from Boston College. I'm also a certified mindfulness and meditation instructor for the Mindfulness Institute of Emerging Adults, which I teach on campus. Then, my professional background is when I was at Boston College, getting my master's, my second-year internship was here at Framingham State in the Counseling Center, and I graduated in 2001, and I was hired in September of 2001. I work in the Counseling Center and then, last year, I took a job for Wellness and Prevention. They just made a new role called the well-being coordinator. They actually got two new roles. It used to be just one person that ran the Wellness and Prevention outreach and education program on campus. But then they decided to create a department with her as the head, Pamela Lemberg, she's our director, and they gave her the ability to hire two coordinators who work with her. I am the well-being coordinator, and Karen Alfaro is our Wellness and Prevention coordinator. We both work in the Wellness and Prevention department. So that's how I ended up here.
What are some responsibilities you have in your role?
As the well-being coordinator, my primary focus has to do with the parts of our mission that are connected to stress reduction, connection, and helping students find calm on campus. My role falls heavily into the stress-reduction part, in that I do a lot of mindfulness and meditation teaching on campus. It's about stress reduction, sleep hygiene, and overall well-being, mental health, and physical health. It is part of my job to help develop and maintain collaborative programming for students, with other departments, like Counseling Center and Health Center. We've done programming with Athletics, Sodexo, the McAuliffe Center, SHAPE, Res Life, as well as student-run organizations. I teach the MIEA class - it's Memphis Institute for Emerging Adults. I teach that in classrooms, primarily for RAMS 101 classes. Then I co-lead a drop-in meditation group called Rams Refresh, and that meets weekly. I do mindful moments, which is sort of a pop-up style, meeting students out in the community, kind of mindfulness approach, where we bring out some activities, like the bubbles or the hula hoops. That's just meant to be like a brief exposure to mindfulness out in the community. Another thing I do - it's not related to my mindfulness and meditation and relaxation necessarily, more about the movement part of our mission - is called Rams on the Move. Marketing is a big part of my role. I run the Instagram, and I don't do it alone. I have lots of help, but that's a big part of what I do. And then I also do something called well-being one-to-ones, where I check in with students who want to go over their well-being, connect, and talk about what resources are available to them on- and off-campus. It’s so they can feel like they know what's available to them and how they can support themselves and get support from others to take care of their well-being.
What is your favorite part of your role?
My favorite part is getting to work with students, getting to be around the students and help them make the transition into college life. It's great. It's an honor to work with students as they come in for the first time, to help them kind of figure out their path. Helping support them to do that, getting to be someone who they can come to trust and who is ready to help. That is the part that makes me feel like it's an honor to do what I get to do. Working with the students, helping them be successful and as healthy as they can be.
What do you like about FSU beyond your job?
I can say this with great honesty because I've been here for so long. There is no throwing around the term FRAMily. It means something. It's real. The staff is just so genuine - everyone truly treats this community like it's a family. The people who work here, the ones that I have had the benefit of encountering, are invested in the well-being of every student at this school. They care very much about student success in every facet, every department, and work really hard to try to help students. Not only that, I love how invested our University is in helping students to prepare for their careers. Everyone tries so hard to make sure that students' needs are met along the way, and that they have access to all the resources they need to prepare themselves to go the next part of the path when they leave here.
And then finally, do you have any advice for FSU students?
I truly believe that every student deserves to understand that they are made up of so many things. All of these factors are important and when we talk about finding your balance in life, college is such an amazing place to practice that. The resources to do so are all around you, and just maybe try to know that the University is here for you. People always say ask for help, and that's true. Asking for help is important, but it is equally as important to accept the help, try to make use of the help, and then help someone else if you can. My last, and the most important thing I have to say is, you will hear people offer you free things around campus all the time. They'll say this is free. You know, we do it all the time. Free this, free that. None of this is free - it's been paid for through your tuition and fees. Please access the things that you are paying for already. It's not free. You've paid for it. It's here waiting for you to come and get it. That's always what I tell students. It's really all there for you.
