On the evening of September 17th, Stockton hosted a course for Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS). This course’s purpose is to try to prevent over intoxication, underage drinking, and driving drunk. I took this course to make myself more prepared for college drinking and to add TIPS certification to my résumé.
I learned how to properly identify a person who might be in a potentially dangerous situation (involving alcohol), and how to effectively use my people skills to get them to stop drinking. A lot of the class was self explanatory; for example, what is an indicator when a person is heavily intoxicated. But a proportion of the class made me re-evaluate the way I judge and deal with a potentially dangerous situation. One potentially dangerous scenario can be a couple of friends drinking Jell-O-shots in a short sitting when one friend has never drunk before. Another valuable tool to get a person to stop drinking is to distract the person with something they are interested in and slyfully take away their drink so the person can’t get even drunker.
I feel that I learned valuable information that can and will be applied in my lifetime. I am better prepared for scenarios when I am confronted with alcohol and will know when everyone is drinking safely. More people should take this course, for it will be practical information and will make students aware of unsafe/safe drinking conditions. Being certified in this course will save lives of people that have drunk to much.