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Parent ProgramJim Matthews, M.Ed., Author, Professional Speaker, Educator
The Truth about College Drinking
Campus tours for prospective new students and their parents often simply scratch the surface of the campus culture. Researching potential college is critical in determining how the campus culture will impact your son or daughter’s safety, health and success while living in that environment.
A campus with a high risk drinking atmosphere can have a direct influence on the drinking choices of new students. And of course, a student’s high risk drinking can have dramatic negative impact on that student’s college experience. Additionally, students who attend campuses where there is heavy drinking will more than likely be impacted by the heavy drinking of other students. This program assists parents and students in understanding what they should look for, what questions to ask, who to ask and who to believe when they are evaluating the drinking situation of a college and considering their potential $100,000 + investment.
Format
Lecture combined with computer generated, multi-media graphics and video with audience participation encouraged.
Duration
60 – 70 Minutes
Audience
PTO/PTA sponsored programs, High school transition programs, Community groups
Topics
Researching alcohol education and abuse prevention personnel, Substance free housing, Alcohol policies, Athletics, and much more. Participants will be provided with a list of questions to ask and who the best people to talk with are.
Audience reactions
“I wish I would have heard this before I sent my first son off to college. Maybe he wouldn’t be having the problems at school that he is now facing”
“I feel a lot more confident now about talking to the college people."
“Every parent should hear this.”
“The admissions staff never discussed this with us.”
“Wow! What an eye-opener. Thank you. Thank You. Thank You."
“On the one hand the program really scared me, but on the other I now feel ready to work together with my son in helping him survive college.”
“I am grateful that there are people like you doing the work that you do. Your program and book have given me the direction I need to help my twins prepare for the college pressures that you never see in the campus promotional materials or hear from the college reps.”
Background Information for Parents The Holderness School is a private secondary school in New Hampshire. The school newspaper featured the following article following Jim’s appearance.
Talking to “Adults”: Discussing Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse with Students
by: Stephen Solberg
How do you devise a message about alcohol – and more specifically alcohol abuse – that is effective in helping to curb teen drinking? Well, if you listen to students like Woo Sung Lee ’06, the best and effective messages are those that “treat us like adults.’ And last night’s Health Night speaker, Mr. Jim Matthews, Coordinator of Health Education at Merrimack College and author of “Beers, Booze, and Books”, did exactly that. With a message that focused on education rather than “Just Say No’, Mr. Matthews discussed the facts about alcohol and alcohol abuse, talked about problems related to abuse, and gave us something to think about with respect to the media and its relationship to our “societal norms.”
Last night’s talk which was split up by grades (11th and 12th and then 9th and 10th) to allow for a more focused message and a smaller audience, featured many of the same themes covered in previous Health Days. Our speaker Mr. Matthews, by using a series of images and movie clips, demonstrated how the media has influenced our understanding of alcohol from a young age, pointing to Disney’s “Snow White” and “Beauty and the Beast’ as examples. Animations are common beer ads, as are beautiful men and women, somehow able to keep the pounds off and keep in shape, despite the fattening effects of beer and many alcoholic beverages. Alcohol, Mr. Matthews continued, affects the body directly, impairing the brain’s ability to function, causing slower hand-eye coordination, loss of balance, and delayed reasoning skills.
The talk was well received, both from students and the faculty who attended. “Mr. Matthews combined humor with tremendous fact-giving,” said Mr. Ford, Director of Residential Life. Ms Summers, our school counselor and a co-organizer of the event with Mrs. Weymouth, Dean of Students, commented, “He did a good job of depicting the risks, and also tuning our students into some important realities. I think many of our kids were shocked to hear that the majority of college students do not engage in binge drinking. While drinking to excess tends to be a loud attention-getting behavior, it is not necessarily typical.”
Bruce Hamlin ’06 appreciated the tone Mr. Matthews set. “He came at this material from the perspective of ‘Hey, I’m probably not going to be able to change your mind about drinking in a just a few minutes, but I can give you some important information.’" It’s the right way to get through to kids.”
Overall, the evening was successful in its goals and thought-provoking in its content. Our goal was to get real information into the hands of our students, so they, like the adults they will become, can make responsible and informed decisions about alcohol.
