Law Schools Turn to Fun Activities to De-Stress from Finals

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Summary: Meditation, free food, therapy animals, and more are programs that law schools have started for their students to enjoy during finals.

What do you do when you are stressed? Do you prefer quiet meditation, yoga, painting, or something else? Well law schools are taking note of what people turn to in order to calm their worries.

  

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Final exams are in full swing at universities across the country. At the University of St. Thomas School of Law, 100 students were able to alleviate their stress by throwing them away. The students were directed to write down on a piece of paper whatever was causing them trouble, fold the sheet into a paper airplane, and then launch their plane off the fourth floor of the glass atrium. Down at the bottom were targets that students could win by hitting them with their paper airplane.

The first ever “Flight of the Paper Airplane” was designed to help students decompress during a stressful period on campus. The campus wants the students to understand they are not alone in their feelings of fear, anxiety, and overall uneasiness.

Other law schools across the nation have implemented their own programs, ranging from midnight pancake binges and therapy animals to round-the-clock coffee bars and massages. The primary intent of each program is to encourage students to take a break, eat something more than just coffee, and keep a perspective of the big picture.

However it can be hard for law students, especially first-year students, to keep a good perspective. Final exams often account for most if not all of a student’s grade so they can’t afford to slack off even a little. These grades will affect what kind of job offers they will get in clerkships or Big Law.

One of the most popular programs has been the therapy animals. Yale started the trend in 2011 when law librarian Julian Aiken allowed students to “check out” his personal dog Monty. Monty has since passed away from old-age. Another librarian staff has offered up their canine Jozy as the school’s therapy dog-in-residence.

Columbia Law School has turned to food to help their students de-stress. Since 2009 they have hosted a prefinals midnight pancake breakfast served by their professors. Other universities including Harvard Law School have similar activities. Berkeley provides a continental breakfast each morning of finals as well as donuts at the law library and meditation sessions.

Do you have any tips or tricks for relaxing during a stressful time like law school finals? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about law school finals, read these articles:

• Yale Law School Announces New Grading System
• Yale’s Most Interesting Law Student Doesn’t Have to Take Any Finals or Study
• Bowen School of Law Embraces Therapy Animals for Relieving Stress

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