Soniya Shah is the co-Campus Correspondent of Her Campus CMU, but she is so much more than that. Soniya, a junior majoring in technical writing with a minor in environmental science, was instrumental in starting a groundbreaking initiative at CMU, a class for freshmen called thrive@CMU. She is currently an upperclass mentor for the class that she worked so hard to create.
thrive@CMU is a discussion-based forum for freshmen at CMU designed with 6 themes: Transitions, Holistic Health and Balance, Stress, Relationships, Resilience and Passion. Each week, students and mentors delve into discussions about these themes, pushing first-year students to think and reframe the ways they are thinking about the topics. There are group activities and reflections within the classes. thrive@CMU aims to show students through reflection how they can make the best of their time while at CMU, and gives them concrete strategies to do so. It’s also a moment where students can take one hour and twenty minutes just for themselves. That’s time for them to do nothing but focusing on their goals. Fifteen students completed the course last semester and there are currently fifteen enrolled right now.
thrive@CMU began as a product of the campus culture conversations that happened last year. “I wrote a proposal for one of my classes,” said Soniya, “and it was adopted by Student Senate soon after. There were some changes to the original proposal, but the idea to have a discussion-based class was ultimately the same.”
The process of starting an entirely new class at CMU was not an easy one. “It was a long process for Senate to work with CMU to get it approved,” said Soniya. “When I came back for in the fall of 2013 I worked closely with Vivek Nair to get the course started. We were assisted by our faculty advisor, Angie Lusk, who is the house fellow for Boss and McGill. We also worked with Dr. Amy Burkert, the vice provost of education at CMU.”
thrive@CMU ran during Mini 2 in the fall 2013 semester, and it was a large success. “We had positive feedback from students and so we decided to do another section during Mini 4 in the spring semester,” said Soniya. “The two courses look very different. Our pilot course relied on faculty instructors who are experts in their fields. We used their materials to create the course curriculum for this year. We’ve been working a lot to rewrite the curriculum so that it is more sustainable for the future, which is probably the most exciting thing!”
Soniya says her proudest moment was when a student from the class last semester told her that the class changed her decision to transfer. “As someone who struggled during my first year at CMU, I’m so glad that thrive helped her to see the potential within herself,” said Soniya.
In addition to Her Campus and her work with thrive@CMU, Soniya is an Emerging Leaders mentor, works three jobs on campus, and is a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She also loves travel and is very interested in medical writing. I am so proud to call Soniya my co-Campus Correspondant and my sister.