Local Wellness Advisors (LWAs) are an important campus resource. Introduced last year, LWAs aim to support students by connecting them to the resources they’re looking for. They work to understand a student’s unique situation and then recommend health and wellness support on campus and outside of it. (more…)
During a seminar discussion recently, I had a professor tell me that university is a luxury. His comment baffled me: how had I never considered it that way? Maybe it’s hard to consider something that is so time-consuming and at times incredibly frustrating and difficult as the epitome of comfort. But it got me thinking: why are we as students so consistently eager to escape? Whether it’s our craving for the weekend or our next break or even graduation – what is it that contributes to our overwhelming sense of urgency to distance ourselves from university? (more…)
Building relationships within university circles can be endlessly useful. These relationships could open doors for various opportunities inside and outside of campus, allow you to gain valuable work, volunteer or research experience and provide you with solid references for your post-graduation plans, whether that be straight to work, grad school, volunteering etc. Close ties with a professor is arguably the most coveted asset one could have; professors offer years of advice and experience to students as well as proving a gateway to significant new opportunities. Many students find internship or research opportunities through their professors, get a chance to work with them or just generally develop closer ties, and thus gain more knowledge from their supervisors. (more…)
Academic advisors are an integral part of university life. They welcome students, usher us through our degrees, and help prepare us for post grad life. Kanella Voudouris, or Nellie, as she’s known to most students, has worked in Dawson Hall since working on her master’s degree. At Arts OASIS, Nellie runs the peer advising program where she selects, trains, and mentors students; manages the arts interdisciplinary program; organizes student outreach events: such as, Open House, Parents’ Tent, Discover McGill, and so on and so forth; as well as has her regular advising responsibilities. She is also always present at arts convocation. Her many roles allow her to see the student life cycle—first meeting students from admissions and working with them until they graduate. Her favorite time of the year is the first week June. She begins the week with the graduating class of that year and ends it with orientation for the incoming class. (more…)
Job hunting can be a really long and difficult process, and then when you finally get an interview, the process can feel daunting. I’ve had many, many interviews during my undergrad. Some of them went great, and I got the job. Others not so much. That’s ok–it’s all part of the process. You can’t go from success to success, and there are great learning opportunities in job interview missteps. (more…)
At some point in your life, whether for your job or a volunteer activity, you might find yourself responsible of a group that is working under you. This can be intimidating if you do not have management experience as you are in charge of the group’s success and any failure that cannot be traced to a specific person will be put on you. In addition, if you have ever worked on a group project, which most of us have, then you know exactly how difficult and infuriating it can be to get everyone to cooperate and do their tasks on time. However, management can also be empowering if done correctly. I’ve learned quite a few things from my management positions which I hope you can learn from as well. (more…)
This will be my last blog post for CaPS (at least for now :), so I thought I would leave with a short list of the best things I did while completing my master’s and doctoral degrees at McGill.
As the job market landscape for PhDs continues to shift, with more and more PhDs opting for non-academic career paths, there is much work to do in supporting PhDs in honing “core competencies” in a way that makes them employable and competitive for industry positions. I’ve spent the past few years working to identify and translate the skills developed during a PhD in the context of industry and government needs, and found that I have the skills, I just needed to work on communicating them to potential employers. (more…)
For anyone sticking around this summer, whether it be for a course, an internship, or an employment opportunity, below you will find my favorite summertime activities:
~xoxo~
PS: Blogging for CaPS was an honor, and I hope readers learned as much as I did from my posts. 🙂
During the month of May, I immersed myself into the world of three very different, but equally pertinent concepts: physical education, animal welfare, and energy conservation.
The 2019 PHE National Conference
As a volunteer at Physical and Health Education Canada’s event held right here at the Currie Gym, I mainly helped with the registration of attendees. Meaning, I got to see many faces, and finally got to experience what career and academic advisors have been telling me for the past two years — that career paths are certainly based on your grades, on your interests, and on how well you respond to that “tell me about yourself” interview question, but nowhere near as much as they are based on your personality.