By: Brittney Payette
Cameron’s Community Resource Coordinator Francesca Morris is part of the Student Enrichment Center (SEC.)
Morris said that the SEC helps with work, school, and life balance.
“All of those three things have to stay in balance for students to be able to comfortably stay in school and devote a hundred
percent of themselves to their academics,” she said. “If one of those things gets out of balance, then you can come to the
student enrichment center for that.”
Morris can put students in touch with a variety of resources.
“I actually have right now probably over 150 different resources, programs, (and) things in the community that I can
connect students with,” she said.
Morris said her overall goal is to support student’s journeys in pursuing and obtaining their degree.
“I can help with health care/insurance, food, mental health, if you need help with your pets, professional networking, just
community support, clothing, rent and utility assistance, housing, childcare, transportation,” she said. “Basically, I’m the link
between the students and literally whatever exists in the community.”
Morris said that there are other staff members in the SEC who can help out with other areas of student’s lives.
“The school one, if you need help with that, you would see one of our coaches, like the student success coaches or (an)
academic coach,” she said. “If your work gets out of balance, you can see our work-learning experience person.”
SoonerCare Changes
Morris said there are a variety of changes coming to SoonerCare that she wants students who have SoonerCare to be aware
of.
“Everyone on SoonerCare is going to be affected,” Morris said. “SoonerCare is becoming SoonerSelect, and it’s called
SoonerSelect because you’re now going to be able to make selections with your care.”
She said SoonerSelect allows people to choose between three different health plans that offer different benefit packages.
“For example, one of them has like a monthly allowance for diapers,” Morris said. “But if you’re not planning on having
children right now or whatever, maybe you don’t really care about that plan. Maybe you like the benefits of this other plan.”
She said there are amazing options that SoonerSelect offers.
“They’re (SoonerSelect enrollees) just going to be able to have more opportunities to get certain types of care, but also they
will be able to … customize their care and choose what’s best for them.”
She said that if people currently enrolled in SoonerCare do not make a selection for SoonerSelect, they will be
automatically sorted into one of three health plans.
She also said that she has two upcoming events related to the upcoming changes involved with SoonerCare becoming
SoonerSelect.
“What we are going to do is an informational session,” Morris said. “At that informational session, they will be able to look
at the three plans and kind of get ideas. They can ask the community health worker, like, for clarification … so they can really
understand the plan. ”
The informational session will take place from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. on March 27 in the McCasland Ballroom in the MCC, and
there will be a healthcare worker present to answer questions that students and their beneficiaries have about SoonerSelect.
A second follow-up event will take place from 3 – 7 p.m. on April 3 in the McCasland Ballroom in the MCC. This second
event is a walk-in session where students can meet with a county health worker one-on-one to enroll in the benefits they want.
Moreover, Morris said Cameron students who are interested in joining SoonerSelect for the first time can also attend the
event.
“You have a week to kind of … go online, do some research, look at the handouts and everything,” she said. “And then, if
the student feels comfortable going online and making the selections themselves, they totally can. They will be prepared to do
that after this session.”
She said if the student is still confused after looking at the information after the initial informational session or if they have
a complex case, they are able to meet one-on-one with a community health worker and receive help at the April 3 event, which
is on a first come first serve walk-in basis.
“They’ll be able to sit down right there and enroll, make their selections, you know, everything,” Morris said. “The county
health care worker that will be there will have their own computer, and so the county health care worker will sit down with
you and be like, ‘okay what plan do you think that you want and they’ll go in and do it right then.”
Morris said that the advantage of making the selection with a county health care worker is that they take effect immediately.
“The goal is to ensure that students are able to choose the benefits that they want,” Morris said. “And just making sure that
the student takes advantage of that opportunity, but also the goal is to make sure that the students make their selections before
the end of what’s called open enrollment.”
Open enrollment for SoonerSelect ends on April 30, which means that is the final day that people can make their selections
for their health plan.
For more information about community resources contact Morris at fmorris@cameron.edu.