{"id":487956,"date":"2026-10-07T10:48:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T10:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487956\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:48:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T10:48:18","slug":"usc-students-welcome-fall-break-but-schoolwork-gets-in-the-way-annenberg-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487956\/","title":{"rendered":"USC students welcome fall break, but schoolwork gets in the way \u2013 Annenberg Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fall Break is coming up for USC students Oct. 8 through 11. The four-day weekend could mean various things: a trip out of town or a chance to catch up on sleep. But for some, the \u201cbreak\u201d will still include studying and completing assignments. <\/p>\n

At USC, fall break is a fairly new concept dating back to 2019<\/a> after the Undergraduate Student Government advocated for it. The break was intended to give students time away from their regular academic schedule and a chance to reset mentally as they head into the second leg of the semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really started as a wellness focus,\u201d Dr. Sarah Van Orman, USC Chief Campus Health Officer, told Annenberg Media during a USC Student Health briefing Tuesday. \u201cIt was designed to help students have that moment to recharge and reduce burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Library of Medicine<\/a>, burnout is a complex term characterized by various levels of \u201cemotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment.\u201d Among students, burnout can affect their well-being and academic performance.<\/p>\n

Van Orman encouraged students to use the break to take a step back from academics. <\/p>\n

\u201cReally make sure you take that time to unplug, recharge, spend at least a part of that break doing something that you enjoy, relaxing, getting good sleep, going outside in nature,\u201d Van Orman said.<\/p>\n

For sophomore neuroscience major Donovan Dooley, the break couldn\u2019t come at a better time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I need it pretty bad,\u201d Dooley said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be good to reset and have some family time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other students are using the weekend to get away from campus. Sophomore political science and business administration major Sean Zemanovic plans to take a three-day trip to San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to hang out a little bit, explore the town, go to the zoo and go to the beach,\u201d Zemanovic said. \u201cOverall, just hang around and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having the time to get away from campus, Zemanovic doesn\u2019t expect to leave schoolwork behind completely. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll still have probably a couple of assignments, but I\u2019m much more motivated to do those things, because I know I have a lot of time to do so,\u201d Zemanovic said.<\/p>\n

Other students echo this statement, saying most of their break time will be spent \u201cjust studying,\u201d said junior communication major Marcel Sezgin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have most of my midterms the following week, so this is kind of a good time for me to just lock in, get some sleep, and focus on the material,\u201d Sezgin said.<\/p>\n

In comparison, junior administration major Roman Alba shared that she has a midterm the following Monday, adding, \u201cI\u2019m still going to probably have to study this entire weekend, but, you know, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Sezgin said that having classes and student organization meetings off his schedule gives him more control over how he spends his time, reiterating that the break \u201ckind of does, in a sense, just act like a reset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edited by JohVonne Roberts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fall Break is coming up for USC students Oct. 8 through 11. The four-day weekend could mean various…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[190556,48,52,51,47,50,49,3183],"class_list":["post-487956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-fall-break","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}