October is Emotional Wellness Month
October is here, and with it comes a gentle reminder to check in with ourselves—not just physically, but emotionally too. At Cal Poly Humboldt, we value the whole person, and that means making sure we’re taking care of our inner wellbeing as much as our day-to-day tasks. Emotional wellness is not a luxury; it’s a vital part of thriving both at work and in our personal lives.
This month, we encourage you to explore the resources available through our Employee Assistance Program. Whether you’re navigating workplace stress, personal challenges, or simply need someone to talk to, licensed counselors are here to listen and support you. Sometimes, just sharing what’s on your mind can lift a weight off your shoulders.
Emotional wellness also grows through practice—whether that’s learning to communicate more clearly with colleagues, developing empathy as a leader, or practicing mindfulness. Small steps like pausing for a mindful moment, saying “thank you” to a teammate, or choosing curiosity instead of frustration during a tough conversation can make a big difference.
Let’s make October a time to invest in ourselves and each other. By taking part in campus offerings—like Cross-Campus Collaboration courses, guided mindfulness sessions, and personal development opportunities—you’ll not only strengthen your own resilience but also contribute to a healthier, more supportive campus community. After all, when we feel good, we work better together.
Featured Tech Skills Course
Agile Team Conflict Resolution - AI Simulator
In this scenario, a team member and a product owner face a standoff over mid-sprint scope changes. The team must apply Agile principles to collaboratively negotiate changes, conduct trade-off analysis, and establish clear criteria for future decisions. Success depends on maintaining team morale, stakeholder trust, and documenting a process for handling similar conflicts while preserving productivity.
Atomic Habits: Becoming the Architect of Your Life
In this workshop we will reflect on key guidance from the bestselling book, Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book provides practical, clear, and actionable strategies for creating systems that will aid you in breaking bad habits and in developing lasting desired habits with resilience. Use the advice from this book to jump start your own positive habit formation and become the architect of your life!
Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High | A Virtual Preview
The communication skills we teach focus on a specific kind of interaction: those when stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong. This is not a course on winning friends or winning people to your way of thinking; it’s about strengthening relationships and securing results in the moments that matter most.
Emotional well-being affects personal growth
Learning Labs: Mindset Matters - Mindsets for Performance
From overcoming difficulties to building a fulfilling life, our mindset plays a powerful role in shaping how we show up and engage with the world. Mindset Matters is a three-part Learning Lab series that introduces practical tools to help strengthen our thinking, improve our responses to challenges, and support both our professional and personal growth.
This session, Mindsets for Performance, explores mindset tools for our goals, tasks, and projects.
Increase Productivity with MS OneNote
Discover how Microsoft OneNote can become your central hub for organizing information, capturing meeting notes, outlining plans, and boosting productivity. This introductory course will walk you through the core features of OneNote, helping you streamline your workflow with this powerful digital notebook tool.
In-Person SkillShops @ the Library
Featured Soft Skills Course
Leadercamp On-Demand: Improving Your Management Skills
Whether you are new to leadership, or aspiring to be a leader, you need to focus your efforts on building some basic leadership skills that will benefit you in your career. These skills include Communication, Situational Leadership, Managing People Through Change, Understanding and Communicating Corporate Strategy and Vision, Managing Performance, and Creating Effective Teams. We will delve into each one of these skills during Merri's Improving Your Management Skills Leadercamp, discussing why they are the most important, and how you can develop each of them.
Customer Engagement Bootcamp
Join us for a high-energy, low-pressure Customer Engagement Boot Camp! In just two hours, you’ll get the inside scoop on what customer engagement actually means, how to rock it in person, on the phone, or over email, and how to build a game plan to level up your skills back on the job.
Learning Labs: Mindset Matters - Mindsets for Personal Potential
From overcoming difficulties to building a fulfilling life, our mindset plays a powerful role in shaping how we show up and engage with the world. Mindset Matters is a three-part Learning Lab series that introduces practical tools to help strengthen our thinking, improve our responses to challenges, and support both our professional and personal growth. This session, Mindsets for Personal Potential, explores mindset tools for our sense of confidence, self-leadership, and agency.
Weekly Dose of Mindfulness
Weekly Dose of Mindfulness is an opportunity for all CSU community members to experience guided mindfulness practices with a trained facilitator.
Communicating for Success – Tips and Tricks to Enhance Your Skills
This engaging workshop empowers professionals to enhance their communication skills by focusing on clarity, tone, and purpose across various workplace settings. Participants will learn to choose appropriate channels, practice active listening, interpret nonverbal cues, and craft concise, effective messages tailored to their audience.
Preventing Identity Theft
Learn how to protect your personal information and the proper steps to take for recovery from identity theft.
SkillShops Facilitator Training Drop-in Sessions @ the Library
This session is dedicated to planning SkillShops with facilitators and submitting proposals for SkillShops you or student staff/assistants in your departments want to offer. See SkillShops calendar for each date and time - every other Thursday starting on September 25th.
CSU's Got Talent
"The Accidental Project Manager" October 15 from 10:00 - 11:00 PM
A panel discussion featuring project management practitioners from within the CSU, designed to equip you with practical tools and insightes to successfully lead the unexpected projects that come your way.
Upcoming Classes
Breath and Health
Have you ever experienced how altering the pattern you breathe improves your state of mind? Come experience the intimate link between our breath and our emotions. During the session, we will do some light gentle stretches and guided meditation. Come prepared to leave this 30-minute virtual session afresh, anywhere you are!
Culture of Connection: Finding Our Heartbeat Through Engagement & Belonging
Forbes and Harvard both describe lack of connection to colleagues and the "bigger picture" as the leading reason for dissatisfaction in the workplace. Through idea sharing, interactive activities, and observation of the positive change that belonging and engagement can bring to the workplace through data, the aim of this session is to find our common Heartbeat, and emphasize connection that goes beyond our title of "employee."
Activating Your Leadership with Inclusive Values
Understanding your values is essential to being an inclusive leader. We can’t live by values that we can’t name. This session challenges anyone who wishes to build their leadership skills to take the first step by naming their values. We’ll explore transactional leadership vs transformational leadership, managing vs leading, and inclusive leadership in action.
Learning Labs: Mindset Matters - Mindsets for Purpose
From overcoming difficulties to building a fulfilling life, our mindset plays a powerful role in shaping how we show up and engage with the world. Mindset Matters is a three-part Learning Lab series that introduces practical tools to help strengthen our thinking, improve our responses to challenges, and support both our professional and personal growth.
This session, Mindsets for Performance, explores mindset tools for our goals, tasks, and projects
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October is Also Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Throughout the month, Cal Poly Humboldt will spotlight practical steps you can take to strengthen digital security—protecting accounts with MFA and passkeys, keeping devices updated, practicing phishing awareness, and managing your digital footprint. By participating, you’ll not only grow your cybersecurity knowledge but also have a chance to win one of 10 free coffees!
Skillshops @ the Library
Upcoming Skillshops: