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University can be a transformative experience for
a lot of students. Students don't always expect that, they think
that they're coming here to learn about a specific program
that they're studying, whether that's health science or business,
but then they find that they're changing in a lot of ways beyond that,
things they're doing outside the classroom new relationships they're making
new ideas they're starting have about life in general
can really change them from when they start to when they finish, so it's really exciting
as a staff member to be a part of that and help them through that experience
so through orientation we get a chance to welcome people into a community
that's accepting of that. That encourages people to growing and develop
as people, and encourage them to be a part in this community and really engage with it
and take everything they can from it, not just lectures and
quizzes, and assignments but a whole life experience
The other side of orientation that's great is for the orientation leaders
which are upper year students that get involved and volunteer
to help create this welcoming environment working with them a bit closer
providing them with with training and further skills that they can use
obviously as part of orientation but moving forward within their life
leadership skills that will be with them beyond their graduation and into their careers
in the future. The biggest purpose to those events is to
welcome people into the community, and teach them about this community and
make them feel comfortable here make them feel like this is their home
for the time they're here, being a UOIT student is going to be a part of who they are
I very much went to university with the idea that
I was essentially buying a piece of paper that was going to help me make more money in the end
but it was the experiences that I had
during my undergrad that opened my eyes up to all the
different opportunities I had in my life to what I wanted to do with that
students tend to think sometimes that they can show up
and that they're buying the experience,
they're paying their tuition so their education is going to be provided to them
but your experience is going to be what you make of it
we get a mixture of students, some students will
arrive at Orientation with a list of questions and they know that they won't be happy unless
they get everything on that list answered other students will show up
not knowing what's gonna happen not knowing what to expect but just knowing
this is one of the first steps in their new chapter
at first glance some orientation activities can seem like they're just a party
and that there's no value behind them but generally everything is
designed quite intentionally and we make sure that
we're creating opportunities for students to interact with one another
because we know that throughout their experience at UOIT
one of their primary supports is going to be their peers so if we can develop those relationships early
and develop them in a healthy way
by mixing in some some peer support of their orientation leaders that have demonstrated success
as students then we are able to create those relationships that will be
supporting of one another throughout their time at UOIT
It's interesting when you talk to current and
previous orientation leaders because quite often
they'll get involved as an orientation leader because they had so much fun
playing dodgeball
or ultimate frisbee. Often though, when you talk to them
and they start reflecting back on their experience of orientation
they realize what they really want to provide for those incoming students
is that support and that role modeling because when they think back to realize
that that is what they actually
got out of orientation that it's such a great
experience to be a student here and I've seen that
in students that have graduated since I started working here that have really taken
this experience and made it a part of who they are
and grown from that so we try and make sure that that opportunity is provided
to every student that starts here.
Ideally I'd like to see students looking at developing a complete and balanced
experience.The university experience
is like a book orientation is just the first chapter
problem is if you pick up a book and you hate the first chapter
you're probably not going to enjoy the book, it taints your whole perspective and you'll take that back to the library.
But if that first chapter is great you just want to keep reading,
even if you get to a chapter you don't like, you'll want to keep going
because you want to connect back to what you liked in the first chapter.
Really we all recognize the potential of the university experience can have on somebody
and what they can accomplish based on that experience
But we see it as our job to give every student
an equal opportunity to achieve that experience and to have
a successful empowering, engaging, experience
while they're in university whether they're a first-generation students
a transfer student, a mature student, or a student coming straight out of high school
we want to make sure all of those students can engage with this community
and have experience that's going to be transformative
it's going to set them up for success beyond their time here at UOIT.