Jaguars on the journey to resilience

As everyone in the Augusta University community looks toward recovering, restoring and rebuilding the city and campuses, the collective experience of enduring a natural disaster such as Hurricane Helene brings stories of resilience, friendship and gratitude.

After returning to campus and resuming studies and classes on Monday, Oct. 7, students in the Jaguar Jumpstart Program Living Learning Community joined a “Chat and Chew,” to gather together and share the stories of each individual’s experience.

The JJSP Living Learning Community adds an additional layer of support for incoming Jags, from the summer before freshman year, all the way through graduate school.

Sharing stories of their personal experiences while expressing gratitude for one another, as well as being back on campus, everyone had the opportunity to talk about what they went through during Hurricane Helene.

“It was kind of surreal,” said Mason Green, a second-year undergraduate animation student in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Green recounted waking up in the house he rents across the street from the Summerville Campus the Friday morning after the storm.

“I looked out and saw what looked like a giant bush covering my car. After further inspection, I saw that it was a huge tree that had stopped right before crushing my car.”

Green, like many AU students, left town in search of fuel, enough to get home to his parents, a two-hour drive from Augusta.

“A two-hour drive took me five hours,” he said. “I lost service as I tried to find a gas station with the type of fuel that I needed. Without my GPS, without navigation and not having cell service to speak to my parents, it was scary.”

Now, back among his friends, talking and laughing in The Treehouse in University Hall, Green knows how fortunate he is. “I feel blessed.”

That sentiment is carried throughout each individual story of strength and resilience.

“I’ve never been through anything like this before,” said Sariyah Whatley, a first-year undergraduate pre-respiratory therapy student in the College of Allied Health Sciences.

On the morning of the storm, Whatley woke up to no power in Oak Hall. “I walked down to the Atrium Dining Hall, and it was like a breath of fresh air. There was A/C, Wi-Fi and people from all over.”

Whatley recalls a sense of gratitude and relief, being together with others.

“It was just beautiful how people came together, all walks of life, taking care of one another,” she said. “I’m so grateful for the staff, being there to take care of us even though they had their own troubles from the storm.”

“Gratitude is the key to resiliency,” said Beth Huggins, EdD, director of First- and Second-Year Experience. “I think processing their experiences out loud gave them grace and space to acknowledge their own grit in times of stress.”

Huggins shared that October is GRIT and Gratitude Month, a time to look at and reflect on what makes us stronger.

What is grit and how do we develop it? According to Huggins, it’s learning to celebrate failure and allowing grace to build resiliency.

“It also allowed them to consider gratitude for those who stepped up to help, for example the Atrium Dining Hall staff,” said Huggins. “Perhaps this entire experience will provide a 360-degree viewpoint for students to support others and, at the same time, equip their own resiliency for future stressors.”

With the challenges that the entire community continues to work through, Huggins encourages participation in activities around building resiliency and grit.

“Grit and Gratitude Month is an opportunity for all of us to process our own personal resiliency and gratefulness.”