 Hello, Catamount families. Many of you are getting ready to welcome your students home for a week-long break. I know you're excited to see them and hear how this semester of in-person classes and gatherings has been going for them. Many students will be returning home for the first time since coming to UVM in August. If that's your student, don't be surprised if you're welcoming home someone who looks familiar but has changed since you saw them last. Your students have developed new routines and habits. Their exploration of new ideas and identities can feel unexpected to families, but being open and listening to your student will give you some great starting points for conversation. Thanksgiving break is a welcome respite before the end of the semester, but it's quite different from the spaciousness of winter break. This break is a concentrated time. Students are looking forward to relaxing with friends and family for a little while, but they will likely be coming home with some work to be completed over break, and in the back of their minds, they know they're going to need to jump back into the mix as soon as they return to campus. You can really help your student get ready for a strong finish to the semester, and here are a few hopefully helpful tips to do that. You may want to have a conversation early on during break about what their workload looks like. Encourage them to get the rest they need and the fun they crave, but also plan together when will be good times for them to steal away and do some schoolwork. Proactive planning can go a long way toward helping them sit down and get some projects done. Your student may express overwhelm. Some may express feelings of being pretty far behind. You're going to absorb some of that stress, and if you notice that you're feeling stressed for your student, think about what you can do with your wondering and your worry. How can you shape that into a helpful response that will help your student grow? Engaging your student in questions about what they're studying and involved in will really help them prioritize where to focus their energy during break. And for courses where they may be feeling too far behind to catch up, you might suggest that they make an appointment with their professor during office hours or at the tutoring center or writing center, because connecting with the academic resources on campus will help them think about the next steps forward and break the inertia of overwhelm. This one-week break is like the water station at the Marathon's 23-mile mark. It's meant to refresh and repower for the push to the finish line. One of your roles as their partners in this educational journey is to help them get rested and mentally organized so that when they leave at the end of the week with a suitcase full of clean laundry, they're feeling optimistic and ready for the next few weeks ahead. Your most important role is to remind them that no matter how things go, you're proud of them. They're emerging adults, and they're showing it in wonderful ways, and they still need to hear that just like when they were little, your love for them is unconditional. For my part, I have tremendous respect for all that our students have accomplished. We continue to live through difficult times, and seeing our students strive and do their very best this fall has been wonderful. As always, I appreciate your partnership, and I'm so glad that our students are here at UVM. Thank you.