College Survival Kit

Emergency Preparedness for College Kids

------------------------------------------------- Revised 2/1/21
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Emergency binder presentation
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Above will give you some ideas of what to put together an emergency kit for
college student; however, do NOT reduce packaging on medications.*

It really is best to create your own emergency kit for your college
student. Start with a clear c ontainer to put in your items, then
build around the products you use for headache, pain, fever, sore
throat, colds, cuts, rashes, blisters, allergies, diarrhea and
indigestion. Your child may have other needs with regards to
vision, allergies or dental considerations.

Ideas of what to put inside the college first aid survival kit:

Acetamiophen: Tylenol packets
Allergy relief, such as Benedryl
Athletes Foot Cream
Antacid
Antibiotic: Neosporin, polysporin or Medihoney
Anti-diarrheal
Antiseptic towelettes
Bandages in varying sizes
Blister bandages
Burn gel
Bug spray
Cortizone to soothe itch
Cotton flats
Cold compress
Dental wax for braces
Dental cleaner for retainers, Invisalign and mouth guards
Diarrheal medications
Ear swabs
Earplugs
Electrolytes
Eye-glass repair kit
Ibuprofen: Advil tablets for pain relief and fever reducer
Lipbalm
Lotion
Midol for menstrual cramps
Miralax if your kid gets constipated.
Nail clippers
Nasal Spray
N95 Respirators (large supply to include roommates)
Roll of quarters!
Sunscreen
Thermometer
Throat lozenges, e.g. Sambucus, pictured right
Tweezers
Vaseline or other petroleum jelly
Visine eye drops

* IMPORTANT: Do NOT reduce medical packaging to fit your
container. Keep products in their original containers for
identification and important product details on dosage or
instructions for use. Your student will need to know the maximum
Zinc lozenges to take, for example, or to be able to identify Advil
from Tylenol. Get individually sealed packets to save space.

Essential oils for the college student:

Lavender. Lavender essential oil is calming for restful sleep,
but also great for making hand sanitizers.
Orange essential oil. Orange essential oil is another good
oil for making hand sanitizers, but it's also an uplifting one.
Rosemary for remembrance. Diffusing rosemary when
studying can improve.
Thieves oil. College campuses are filled with reasons to wear
thieves oil, a super immunity booster.
Ylang-Ylang. A warm and tropical fragrance, Ylang-ylang
calms the mind and eases tension.

Mental and emotional first aid.
Be sure to talk with your college kid about the emotional toll it
can take in being far away from home and meeting new people.
He or she might not feel a sense of belonging or may feel stress
and overwhelmed by expectations of independence and classwork
that's at a much higher level. Acknowledge the stress!

College students may partake in more high risk behaviors than
they might if at home. It's the freedom of new choices and it can
be overwhelming. Breaking free from the structure of home may
take a toll on your college kit.

How college students die:

alcohol-related deaths, such as from hazing or drunk driving
or even falling off a balcony!
suicide is the second most common death among college kids
drug-related deaths related to marijuana, prescription
meds, such as stimulants, depressants and narcotics.
Health problems, meningits, severe flu
Sexually transmitted diseases.

#4: Food.
A college dorm won't have much room to store emergency food
supplies, so what your kid brings to college requires careful
thought. Send your kid off to college with an emergency supply kit
of food that can fit under a bed.

Hungry kit. Put together a "h ungry kit" so your college
student doesn't dig into the emergency supplies.

Ration bars. Ration bars provide a minimum caloric intake
for survival and are rationed to break apart to give a specific
daily allotment. They are a high calorie and consolidated
prepper food worth considering since they are extremely
compact, don't require cooking, and they can last five years.

Food bars. Food bars are excellent to stock in a dorm. You'll
likely have to send your college student a care package as
they are tempting to eat, particularly at exam time. Skip
granola bars, which crack teeth.

Emergency Food Bucket. If you also supply your college kid
with a way to cook food indoors, then it makes sense to get
a food bucket. The Augason Farms one-month food bucket,
pictured immediate right, includes a 30-day and a 45-day
meal planner to give you options in crisis depending on how
much you need to ration your food supply. This is something
you won’t find in any other emergency food kit.

#5: Water.
Water will be a challenge to store in a small dorm room, but it's
necessary to make room.

Travel Berkey. The Travel Berkey is the ultimate way to
ensure your college kid has water in an emergency; however
there are less expensive gravity water filters on the market.
This one is sized perfectly for one person!

Bottled water. Having bottled water on hand is essential no
matter what the water filtration system you have. Encourage
your college student to replenish what's stockpiled.

Water pouches. Water pouches are a good way to
supplement the water bottles you store. Chances are your
kid will break into the water and then not have any for an
emergency.

#6: Bugout bag.
This Wise Foods survival kit contains

1 Backpack
5 Water Pouches
42 Piece Bandage Kit
1 Squeeze Flashlight
5-in-1 Survival Whistle
Water Proof Matches
Mylar Blanket
Emergency Poncho
Playing Cards
N95 Dust Mask Portable Stove
Stainless Steel Cup
Pocket Tissues
Wet Naps, Waste Bag
Wise Foods ~

32 Servings of Wise Food-Southwest

Beans and Rice (4 Serve)

Creamy Pasta and Vege Rotini (4 Serve)

Brown Sugar Multi Grain (4 Serve)

Apple Cinnamon Cereal (4 Serve)

Hearty Tortilla (4 Serve)

Whey Milk (12 Serve)

#7: Campus safety.
Keep preparedness in mind for your college kid and have
discussions about campus safety beyond getting to the dorms
safely. Ensure your young adult has some basic knowledge of the
kinds of disasters he or she could face alone in the dorms.
Discuss a plan and have some basic survival items handy.

Natural Disasters: Disasters can strike at any time.
Thankfully colleges and universities generally serve as key
emergency management partners to federal, state, local
authorities, which should provide some assurance to having
your college kid live on campus in the dorms.

Shelter in place. Read our guide on sheltering in place.

FEMA app: Load your kid up with the FEMA app to receive
real-time alerts from the national weather service. You'll also
learn emergency safety tips for 20 types of disasters
(earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and more). The
app has information on emergency shelters; however, this is
one area that preppers do everything to avoid.

Pepper spray. As of this writing, Pepper spray is legal in all
50 states. Pepper spray is something every prepper kid
should have in hand when on campus in the evening hours.

Will your college kid live in the dorms? In case of fire, you
can arm your college kid with a FireMax escape respirator,
pictured right.

Happy endings...
Thankfully there are campus police to help ensure safety at night,
as well as resident assistants who respond to lockouts,
emergency situations, and policy violations. Best of all your
college kid is a prepper.

Related articles...

Prepare to live happily ever after with us at happypreppers.com - the Web site of
emergency preparedness, prepping, survival, homesteading and self-sufficiency.

College Emergency Preparedness
How a prepper sends a kid off to college

Emergency gear for your college kid
Have you thought much about emergency preparedness for your
college kid beyond sending a care package of snacks? All college
students should have a real emergency plan. A prepper's college
survival kit is the ultimate care package because it contains your
wisdom and love. Here's how to send your kids off to college the
prepper way...

Emergency Preparedness for College Kids
Sending your kid off to college is an emotional experience akin to
the day you sent the off to day-care and headed off to work.
You've taught your college student everything you can about
prepping and now you're handing the torch of preparedness.

Make sure you make the send off filled with the right tools, food
and survival tips. Below is a list of ideas to get you started.

Disaster planning and preparedness for college students:

#1: Create an emergency binder.
One of the things you can do now if your child is nearing college
age is to create an emergency binder. An emergency binder
doesn't need to be fancy. Get yourself a presentation book with
plastic sleeves ~ one with a capacity of 48 pages should suffice.

Your college kid's emergency binder will include many things, but
you don't need to print anything fancy. You need only get copies
or print documents:

Emergency list. Prepare a list of names and addresses of
family and friends, especially those who may live near the
university.
Medical providers. Provide a list of current doctor, dentist
and orthodontist and preferred oral surgeon for wisdom
teeth. Also print out the preferred local clinics and hospitals.
Immunization records (and other medical records). Plan
ahead as some smaller pediatrician offices require advance
notice. With Kaiser you can likely walk in and the
receptionist can print the immunization records when you
present your card.
Insurance: Copies of medical insurance cards, and other
types of insurance, such as car insurance card if applicable.
Identification. Make copies of old and current Student IDs,
passport and driver's license. Order original copies of birth
certificates, adoption records, and citizenship.
Bank records. The ast two statements of his or her financial
accounts is sufficient to encapsulate financial data.
Photos! Have a photo of everyone in the family ~ these can
be invaluable comfort in emergency when phones might not
work.
Cash. It may seem odd to put cash in a binder, but no one
will suspect it's there, which is precisely why it's a good
idea. Be sure to have small bills and not a crisp $100 bill.
Transcripts.
Miscellaneous. If your kid has a talent, like music, you may
include his or her resume useful for local competitions and
scholarships.
Note from mom, dad or other loved ones. Include a
personal note from you. Tell your student keep the following
guidelines in mind during emergency situations:

Be positive yet realistic and always have hope.
Recognize you may be alone during an emergency.
Know your actions can, and will, make a difference!
Help others during an emergency when you feel safe.

It's a good idea to scan these documents electronically as well so
you can transfer them easily to your child by Smartphone.

#2: Turning 18 changes everything!
Moms and dads advise and protect their kids always, but at 18
there's an important legal change. As a young adult, your kid can
vote and serve on a jury, serve in the military, and get married
without your consent. Males must register for selective service.
More importantly, up until this point you've done it all, but at 18,
he or she is an adult responsible for his or her own health and
affairs.

More things to add to the emergency binder...

Healthcare proxy for medical decisions. Even though you
may pay his or her medical bills, you don't have automatic
authority, like you did when your kid was 17, to make
medical decisions. If your kid suffers an accident or is
temporarily disabled, you may need to seek a court order
unless you've set up a healthcare proxy with the following:

HIPAA authorization. So there's the "Privacy Rule of
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,"
or HIPAA for short, which says you don't even have the
right to know what's going on in the Emergency Room.
Medical providers serve the best interest of the patient
and not you. With your kid's consent, a HIPAA
authorization document could help.
Medical power of attorney. A M edical power of
attorney enables you to become your 18-year old kid's
healthcare agent. This will allow you to make medical
decisions when he or she becomes too ill and can no
longer make decisions.

Durable power of attorney. Durable power of attorney can
help put someone your college kid trusts in charge of his or
her financial decisions.

#3: College First Aid Survival Kit
Prepare your kid for college by creating a custom emergency kit
for first aid.

Instead of buying a generic first aid kit, send your college kid
back to school with a first aid tackle box filled with the items you
use at home. If you're lazy you could get a ready made kit, but a
premium college emergency kit could cost $99.95, and it won't be
the best fit for your kid, though it's built by a nurse practitioner.

Your emergency kit is a personal expression of products that your
college kid already uses or that your family uses ~ ointments,
creams, drops, tools, and wound care items and medications.
Below is a video to get you started followed by our list of
suggested items for your college kid's first aid survival kit: