College is the time to learn about healthy relationships

By Risa Fukaya – Horizon News & Feature Editor & Kendra Burkey – Horizon Advisor

Ask any Hesston College student and they’ll say communication is the key to a good relationship. Freshman Anna Zehr agrees. She says the ideal healthy relationship is expressing your thoughts and feelings and hearing what the other individual has to say. But that’s not always easy.

“I think that healthy relationships, either with friends or romantic, take a lot of work and time commitment to maintain,” Zehr said.

But how to maintain those relationships in a healthy way is a big question mark for a lot of students. That’s where relationship expert Dr. Joanne Davila comes in. Davila presented “The Relationship Workshop: How to Have a Healthy Relationship in the Modern World” last Saturday, May 5 and in forum May 4..

Dr. Davila taking at the Healthy Relationships workshop on May 5. Photo by Jaden Hostetter.

Davila says college students can imagine what healthy relationships are like, but nobody knows how to have one. College students in particular don’t know: Nobody told us how.  Still, college students are making critical decisions in relationships.

“I believe we should teach relationship skills in college,”  Dr. Davila said. “College is time for transition, exploration, and learning.”

Hanna Yoder and Autumn Lungwitz at the Healthy Relationships workshop. Photo by Jaden Hostetter.

Ciara Kroeker agrees. She’s one of the students in Population-Based Nursing, the class responsible for bringing Davila to campus.

“I think that Hesston students need this workshop because we are all human and can always use more tips, tricks, and education on anything and everything, especially relationships,” she said. “…Each and every one of us will have all sorts of different types of relationships throughout our lives.”

Other students say we need the training because relationships begin for the wrong reasons.

“Many people just get in a relationship to have the label of being a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” not because they actually care about that person, or see a future with that person,” sophomore Ashley Yasin said.  “I also see many people take advantage of their friendships and taking them for granted.”

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