FAACT's Roundtable

Ep. 243: Must Knows to Navigate FAACT's College Resource Center

We're exploring FAACT's College Resource Center to show you how to make the most of everything it offers. FAACT's Vice President of Community Relations, Caroline Moassessi, will discuss how you can help your student explore college options and prepare to start—or return to—college life. But we’re not just talking about packing bags and picking dorms. We’re tackling the critical, often overlooked details of navigating college safely with food allergies.

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Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions,

each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice.

Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog.

And I am FAACT's Vice President of Community Relations.

Before we start today's podcast, we would like to take a moment to thank Genentech for being a kind sponsor of FAACT's roundtable podcast. Also, please note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

Hello everyone. Today's episode is a special one. We're diving into how you can help your student explore college options and prepare to start or return to college life. But we're not just talking about packing bags and picking dorms.

We're tackling the critical and often overlooked details of navigating college safely with food allergies. I'll walk you through FAACT's comprehensive College Resource Center and show you how to make the most of everything it offers.

Plus, I'll share essential tips for staying safe on campus, making social connections and using FAACT's checklists for both students and caregivers so no important task gets missed.

Before we start our conversation today, I just want to take a quick second here and say congratulations.

Job well done.

It is not easy getting our students to this point and getting them to the point of either joining the workforce right from high school,

or exploring colleges, or getting ready to start college or even returning.

So to everyone who's listening today, congratulations.

That was a long haul and you did a great job.

So now let's get started. Sending your student to college or even welcoming back is very exciting, but let's be honest, it's also really stressful.

So how do you, as a parent or caregiver, step back while ensuring your student is prepared to manage their food allergies on their own? Because this stresses us quite a bit.

So on that note, I want to share a story with you.

Years ago, when my now 27 year old son was about 3 years old, I attended a lecture presented by a pediatric behavioral specialist and the topic was Chronic Health and food allergies.

And what she said is that basically, when you get a new diagnosis, you become the warden, you lock down the house, you lock down the family, you learn all you can.

You control what your child eats, you control who they're with, you control just everything you can until you can learn about food allergies, and you start to find your way.

So then eventually you move into the role of prison guard, where now your child has more autonomy. They're doing things, you're there, you're overseeing everything. You're still running the show, but they're starting to take charge.

Then finally, you want to move to the role of parole officer and then coach. And so what that means is then you want to get your student, by the time they're in their teens and heading to college or workforce,

they're really handling everything and they're just checking in with you. And at that point, you become the coach, either cheering them on,

giving them information,

providing direction, but the goal is to have them on their own in doing this. And that's why we're having actually this podcast right now. So as your family prepares for college, there are a few areas that need to be addressed.

Although many of you may have already established a lot of the items we're about to discuss,

stay with us because it's really essential for you to stay tuned to pick up any tips or items that you might have overlooked. And so we just want to catch them.

If your student is not in college yet, stay with us because again, you're going to be picking up tips.

Also, if your student is a Commuter Student,

this will apply to them too. They still need to get accommodations. They might not need housing accommodations, but they might need dining accommodations and a lot of the stuff we're going to be talking about.

And so just to give you a really quick overview,

the areas that are probably the most important when a student is going to college are accommodations,

dining and eating on and off campus,

housing emergencies,

including disaster preparedness and go and stay bags. And we'll talk about that in just a little bit.

Legal considerations,

behavioral health and mental wellness and socializing.

And so all these items are covered in the college resource center.

So now fact realized to support both students and parents and caregivers, fact created this comprehensive college resource center that guides students through every stage of the college journey, from researching the schools to navigating,

being accepted and admitted,

preparing for move in day,

and then also lots of information about students who are going straight from high school right into the workforce. Because there are laws that protect students and there are all sorts of things that Students need to think about once they join the workforce too.

We have nine centers. We highly recommend that you explore these centers and then explore them with your student as needed.

So now I'm going to go through these different centers to get you familiar. So the first center is actually the toolkit introduction, and it's just that it's going to introduce you to the center and give you tips and information on how to navigate it.

The next two centers are some of the most critical centers.

And these are two areas.

One that's for parents and caregivers, and the second one is for students.

And what's in these two centers are checklists. And in those checklists are items and areas that need to be thought about,

discussed and explored for every step of the college journey. For example, if you go to the For Parents and Caregivers center, you'll see checklists for Exploring Colleges.

Admitted students, Move-In ready and then High School to Workforce.

And as you go through each checklist, it's going to bring up information.

So, for example,

if we were to take a peek at the admitted student checklist,

you would find information on accommodations and actually questions that your student could consider asking a college,

such as now that I've been admitted, who's going to be my champion in the disabilities office?

Also, there's going to be information just about that. Some schools call them disabilities office, some schools call it academic assistance.

So all those topics and information are going to be on this checklist in the accommodations area. Then there's a dining services area where it's going to give questions again for your student to consider asking about how to safely eat on campus, what kind of services are in place, Is there already policy about food allergies?

All these questions that you might need to ask are going to be in this checklist. And the same goes for housing. There's information if your student wants to ask about having a medical single, or what do they do if they are going to have roommates?

How do they negotiate that? Can they have a refrigerator in the room? Can they have a microwave in the room? And then equally as crucial, there's information in there on classrooms and labs because food or food proteins can be involved during lab sessions.

Or again, if a classroom is looking at a certain culture, they might want to go out to eat.

So it's really important for professors to know as well who has food allergies and what needs to be done to accommodate that student.

There's even a medical needs section which is going to encourage your student to make sure they have all their doctor's appointments up to date. If they're participating in treatment such as OIT or slit,

this prompts them to ask their doctor certain questions on how they continue that treatment.

These kind of things are on here. There's also information about emergencies in medical care because it's really critical for a student to understand how do they handle emergency at college if they have an allergic reaction, do they call 911?

Do they call campus security?

Each school has different protocol for responding to that. And then just a real short side note and tip on that, it's really important for your student if they think they're having an allergic reaction to when they're calling for help, when they're calling, not to use the word anaphylaxis.

And this information actually came from a fact teen counselor who is now an EMT and finishing college who had said that as an emt, if they get information that says that someone could be going into anaphylaxis, they're drawing up epinephrine and they're getting ready for all the protocol that they need to do to address an allergic reaction while they're driving to you.

So rather than the EMTs getting to your student and then trying to evaluate what's going on,

they're preparing.

So that is just an extra side tip that's really important.

Also on this admitted student checklist is information and questions to ask about civil rights and legal considerations.

And then because we're talking about the parent checklist, we have information for you too on how to pass the torch, questions and conversation starters with your students. And then we even suggest some podcasts for you to visit.

So that was just one example of a parent checklist. And again, I highly recommend that all parents and caregivers go to that for parents and caregivers section and just dig through those checklists and pull out the good information that you can.

And then the for students checklists parallel yours, but these are directed to them specifically.

The next center now is a real big one that's very popular and another just do not miss. Okay, I'm gonna just keep saying that throughout the whole podcast. I think everything is almost a do not miss, but this is another one you definitely don't wanna miss.

And this is For Students How to Conversations.

And so in this area,

there are downloads and informations giving your student tips on how to have certain conversations that can be very awkward or uncomfortable. And I'm just gonna tell you what these are.

There is how to tell potential roommates about your food allergies How to Talk to your Resident Advisor, the RA,

How to Talk to Dining Hall Staff,

How to Talk to Your Professors,

How to Talk to Friends About Food Allergies,

How to Talk to Dates About Food Allergies, and then How to Navigate Alcohol at a Party.

Now, fact does not condone or support underage drinking, but we do know alcohol does exist at college and does exist at parties. And your underage student might have exposure to alcohol, so it's important for them to have the conversation because alcohol is not labeled the same as regular everyday retail foods are.

But this section here is amazing because it gives your student tips on how to start those awkward conversations. I mean, they're actually sentences here of what your student could say.

So, for example, I'm just going to read one to you from the checklist on How to Tell Potential Roommates about Your Food Allergies. Here it is.

"You seem so fun. I would love to room together,

but I did want you to know that I have food allergies. We won't be able to have X allergens in the room. Is this going to be okay with you?"

And then there are just tips on how to navigate the conversation. But this center is just really quite phenomenal and very important.

The next center is another don't miss, and I'm serious, this one you definitely do not want to miss. This is the legal considerations center, and you really don't want to miss it because it covers important areas of Dining Services,

Housing Accommodations,

and and then legal documents that may need to be prepared to allow parents to access an adult student's medical records, financial records, academic records. So you really want to stop by here.

So it has information on dining service accommodations. What are your legal rights and what are the things you can request? For example, if your school is saying your student must have a meal plan, but there's no way that student can eat there, and you need to waive that plan and the school's pushing back on you.

You're going to find information about that in here.

So definitely visit this website to look at the dining service information.

There's also housing information in here. So if your student wants to have a medical single, they should be charged the typical rate for a standard double. And this center is going to give you all the information as to why that is legally and then how to request it.

Also, in addition to accommodation plans, it's important to determine what legal documents you may want to prepare prior to your child heading off to college.

Typically, once your child has legally reached adulthood,

that's either 18 or 21, depending on the state,

you will no longer have control over your child's health, school, and financial records. So it's really important to speak with your student about how these legal documents could be beneficial for everyone.

And so these documents typically are the Healthcare Power of Attorney or Healthcare Proxy,

Durable legal power of attorney access to student records,

also known as FERPA. Now, just a little side tip for my family here, we did FERPA, the access to student records. And so that also gave me permission to call my child's school if I needed to.

Never did need to with either student. And your student needs to fill out the forms at their own college regarding FERPA and you having access to the college or access to student records.

Then there's the durable power of attorney or the healthcare power of attorney. We did those with my students.

Both of my children wanted it, and that's. So if they're having a healthcare issue, I can jump in and help and assist,

or if there's anything else, you know, financially, something with a car,

study abroad,

anything like this that they're incapacitated, I can jump in and I can help. But it's definitely a very personal conversation to have with your student.

And definitely don't miss the Legal Considerations Center.

Next is Dining and Food Service.

And there's a lot of information in there as well about dining. But I also just wanted to cover a few tips on that as well. It's really important for students to understand how to establish secure meals,

that they need to carry their epinephrine everywhere, including the dining hall. And. And that it's really important to find safe places to eat on and off campus long before they get on campus.

Because that way, when you're meeting new friends and everyone's saying, let's go for pizza, they can speak up right away and say, hey, you know what I just heard? Xpizza is totally fabulous.

And they've already checked it out. They know it's safe. They're offering a really good suggestion.

It's also really important, too. Just a little side tip for the student to make sure they understand how to handle an allergic reaction in the dining hall. We've heard many stories where students have had reactions in the dining hall, and they leave the dining hall and then they try to walk somewhere to dorm or somewhere else to deal with the reaction.

And you don't want to do that. We want your students to stay right there with lots of people and people who can get them help.

Now, these tips that I just talked about These are all coming from those checklists, so make sure you download those checklists.

The next area is eating, cooking and shopping.

And this center is really important because your student really does need to sit back and think about how are they going to eat on campus, how are they going to eat off campus, how are they going to eat if they travel, let's say they're on an athletic team or theater,

or they're on a debate team and they have to move around and travel somewhere.

So it's really important to look at the center and to have your student kind of premeditate how are they going to handle this? And especially shopping. Do they know how to find the grocery stores that carry their favorite products,

help them navigate how to shop, how to order online,

how to get safe food?

And then also in the center, it does discuss eating at a friend's house. If someone else is cooking for you,

what questions do you ask? How do you handle this? Do you bring your food with you? Those kind of things. So that's just a really important thing to think about there.

The next center is another super popular center, and it's Behavioral Health,

where coping skills, stress management,

mental wellness, resilience and topics like that are discussed. Because you know what, college is stressful, just alone for any student. Then you add in a layer of chronic illness and things can get a little tricky.

So this is a really good center just to pop in, see what resources your student can pull out, see which resources you can pull out and work with your student.

And the last center is High School to Workforce. And this is really important because now, now your student is going right out there into the world. There is no buffer.

And so this center has a wonderful download with a great checklist on it on just things to consider, such like housing and finding roommates. And how do you handle the kitchen,

how do you handle cooking and storing safe foods? Then there's information on the actual workplace, letting your employer know of your food allergies and what your needs are, and thinking out a game plan of handling the lunchroom or travel or eating on the road or if catering is brought in for lunch.

Once you're in the workforce, food can become a heavy part of the workforce day, either going to lunch with colleagues or again, having work meetings or traveling or attending large events.

So it's really important for your student to learn about this. And then also there's information about socializing and how to stay safe. And since we're in the workplace, civil rights and legal considerations are really important.

You'll find Great information in here as well as healthcare,

where if your student needs to take time off of work to continue OIT or any other kind of treatment,

you'll find that information here. And also information on emergency services and medical management,

what to do if you have a reaction, how will your workplace help you with this?

And then lastly, a little information on just managing stress.

So as you can see, going to the workplace and college is somewhat similar that you still have those same areas that you need to be concerned about. They're just a little different.

Different.

It's also really important for us to discuss accommodations in general.

Even if the college has food allergy policy in place that looks amazing, it is critical to establish accommodations because things happen,

policies change,

staff changes,

and your student might need those protections.

For example, your student might need an accommodation that says if they have an allergic reaction, they need so many days to catch up and that information needs to be shared with the professors.

Or again,

the most obviously type of accommodations are housing accommodations, dining accommodations.

Also, people often overlook athletics, theater,

debate,

attending conferences,

special events on campus where there's catering. So there are a lot of other activities that happen on a college campus where accommodations will be needed. Because if you're an athlete and you're flying across country to participate in a tournament of some sort or a game or so forth, food allergies still need to be accommodated as you travel and then when you get to that travel location.

And so it's really important to dig into this and as you go through those for parents and caregivers and student checklists, this information will come up in there.

And then lastly is go ahead and visit the Disaster Resource center on the Fact website because disasters do happen when students are on campus. Earthquakes, tornadoes, fire.

Little sidebar conversation here.

My daughter's school was evacuated last year because they were very close to the fires in Los Angeles.

She was home at the time because it was during break and was not evacuated. But both of my students always kept emergency go and stay bags. And if you visit the Disaster Resource center there will be a checklist and tips on how to create those.

But basically there bags that it could be a combined bag that if the student had to just take off,

it's got extra epinephrine in it, it's got copies of prescriptions in it, it has cash, it has food,

it has a lot of things that you just aren't going to think about when you're being told you have to evacuate right now.

So definitely go visit that.

So now that you know about the various Centers and FAACT College Resource Center let's just drill down into just a couple of little tips that are just tried and true from so many Fact families.

Although this first one here, I don't know, I'm a little biased on this one. Definitely tune into the Fact podcast because there are great podcasts in there,

not only from doctors and parents, but students,

actual college students talking about mistakes with alcohol. Yes,

allergic reactions that really probably should not have happened, but they made some mistakes and they wanted to share with everybody so everybody else doesn't make it really good tips. But these podcasts are so authentic and so fantastic and I will make sure in the show notes that I have links to some of these amazing podcasts.

Now back to the tips. Do your homework and identify safe restaurants close to campus and maybe give your student a surprise envelope of gift cards for local restaurants or grocery stores.

Or maybe even a rideshare gift card.

That's a really fun gift when your student's going to college or Christmas or birthday or something.

So then that way if they want to go out for a meal or the dining hall food just isn't doing it for them, they can order their favorite pizza or they could go to the grocery store and pick up something really fun.

Also, we've seen a lot of Fact families send subscriptions of the student's favorite treat to arrive monthly. So if they have a favorite cookie or bar or snack that it just arrives monthly.

And that's been really a fun one. If your student is going to use air travel to get to and from school,

sometimes gifting them a little travel kit that has like small packs of hand wipes and masks or small bags or containers to hold their travel friendly snacks or whatever you think would make life a little fun for your student as they're getting on the airplane.

Also, FAACT offers a private Facebook group for parents and caregivers where you can go on there and ask questions or search information to see if other people have had that experience or have gone to that college.

And so there's a lot of good conversation taking place every single day.

So I'll put the link to that in the show notes notes too in case you're interested.

And lastly,

our students are really smart young adults and they pick up on our stress and anxiety.

And so this is the one time that it's important to keep your levels of anxiety or fear in check. This is that fake it till you make it kind of moment.

And it's a hard ask, but it can be ton but talk to other parents or seek professional support or guidance and find the tools that you can use to help you stay regulated as your student goes off to college and deals with different things or as they explore because they pick up on our stress and if they see us worried and they're not worried,

they're going to start worrying.

So it's really important to just keep our anxiety and fear in check and in such a way that maybe we are still expressing our concerns, but we're not letting them see the panic and fear.

And now you have all the must knows and ins and outs of FAACT's College Resource Center.

So please check out the show Notes notes, follow the links, join the Facebook group and just remember you are never alone. We are all in this together and you got this.

Before we sign off today, I just want to take one more moment to say thank you to Genentech for sponsoring FAACT's Roundtable Podcast.

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Have a great day and always be kind to one another.