Learn stress management, goal setting, college success skills, problem solving and improved quality of life with the Program to Encourage Active and Rewarding Lives that will be available as a six-week seminar for San Diego Mesa College students.

The seminar begins on Nov. 9 and will be held each Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. in room H214. To participate in the seminar a student must get approval by psychotherapist Sue Shrader-Hanes. To make an appointment to speak to Shrader-Hanes call the Health Services Department at 619-388-2774 or visit them in room L504.

Not everyone walks into a college ready with all the skills needed to thrive. Some students have never sat through an hour and a half lecture or given the responsibility of a semester long class. Personal motivation and determination is required to succeed in many college classes. While some professors plan out the whole semester, others give students a wide berth and this can bring about procrastination and create a stressful semester.

Scheduling time for school, homework, study, work, family and having a life is not a skill most parents teach their children, but the PEARLS seminar gets down to the root of the skills and puts it in an understandable perspective. PEARLS touches on good goal setting that includes realistic and attainable solutions.

Most importantly all the skills PEARLS offers students will help them in their future lives. As students move past college and into the workplace, the stress associated will have to be handled and PEARLS gives the tools to do just that.