Listen Here
By Andrea Hoffman
hoffmana1@findlay.edu
As Thanksgiving approaches, the University of Findlay’s Social Work Club is inviting students, faculty and staff to pause and reflect on what they are thankful for.
The club will host its “I Am Grateful” event from noon to 3 p.m. on Nov. 19 in the CBSL. The event offers the campus community a chance to share appreciation through handwritten letters, Post-it notes, and small acts of kindness.
“Basically, people can come, write a letter of gratitude and thankfulness to whoever they want,” said senior social work major and vice president of the social work club Devyn Olson. “If they do it to a student at UF, they’ll hand-deliver the note. If they do it to a faculty, we have an advisor who’s going to look over those notes that are written just to make sure they’re appropriate.”
Social work professor Robin Walters-Powell will review letters written to faculty before the club delivers them personally. Participants can also write words of encouragement on Post-it notes to be displayed around campus.
Along with the writing activity, students can pick up 2026 planners designed by sophomore social work major and the club’s public-relations officer, Ciera Rupert. There will also be brownies, cookies and hot chocolate for students to enjoy while they write their notes.
“I hope that it brings a little bit of stress relief and just a reminder of, during this stressful time of everything that there is to be grateful for,” Olson said. “Whether it be friends that you live with, roommates, teammates, or professors that have helped us through this semester. I’m just hoping it’ll ground people a little bit and remind them of everything that they have.”
The event continues the club’s pattern of hosting “I Am…”-themed activities on campus each semester.
“Last year, we did the I am event during Suicide Prevention Month, where you said like a nice adjective about yourself,” Rupert said. “So this year, instead of it being focused around Suicide Prevention Month, it’s focused towards Thanksgiving. So we’re sticking to the pattern of the ‘I Am…’ but it’s a different theme.”
Last year’s event encouraged self-compassion and positivity by having students write affirmations on shirts that read “I Am.”
“It was neat to be able to bring everyone together,” Olson said. “I saw people wearing these shirts many weeks after, and that was kind of cool to see, and it was a reminder of ‘I hold this positive attribute or I know that I portray this positive quality’.”
As social work majors club members said, the “I Am Grateful” event ties directly to their field.
“It just gets people thinking about kind of like the blessings in their life,” Rupert said. “As social work majors, you try to help people to not just think about yourself or doing something good for yourself, but doing something good for others, giving back to someone else.”
Handwritten letters, they said, are especially meaningful in an age of fast messages and digital communication.
“Handwritten notes aren’t really things that happen that frequently. If it’s not prompted,” Rupert said. “I think the professors and everyone on campus will appreciate that acknowledgement and thankfulness.”
Ultimately, the group hopes the “I Am Grateful” event offers UF students a moment of reflection before the end of the semester and holiday season.
“I think doing something like this on campus kind of shows where our heart is,” Olson said. “Our hearts are here to give back to the students, campus, and community.”
