When I look at my first-year self, I realize that I have changed quite a lot. I am a lot more open and confident with my capabilities and what I want to achieve. As well, I have learned to take…
professors
Professors Don’t Bite (Going to Office Hours)
Walking into a professor’s office hours can feel akin to infiltrating a dragon’s lair. Sometimes, even the friendliest of professors are difficult to approach. But overcoming fear of office hours opens the door to a great resource. Whether I’ve hit…
Oh no, Class Presentations
Sweaty palms. Shaking hands. S-s-stuttering voice. Look up and speak. But nothing comes out of my mouth. That is my worst fear when it comes to class presentations. I dreaddd public speaking. Seriously. I dread it and have spent the…
Openness at TEDxUofT 2017
To me openness is the ability to embrace that which you don’t know. “OPEN” happened to be the theme of this year’s TEDxUofT. Throughout the day, speakers from the U of T community shared with the few hundred of us…
Reflecting on #JoyatUofT
Happy Reading Week, U of T! When considering what my #JoyatUofT is, I had a hard time coming up with just one thing. As U of T is such a large, diverse campus with so many resources, activities, and classes,…
Shout out to Seminar Style Courses
Being in my 3rd year, I’ve realized that my class sizes have gotten significantly smaller. As opposed to first year, when I sat in Con Hall with approximately 1, 500 students, I now have classes that range in size from…
Filling Out Course Evaluations
My inbox is usually flooded with e-mails regarding new course information, scheduling details, and other announcements from various departments at U of T. As I was scrolling through my e-mails looking for anything important, I noticed I received an e-mail…
Jump-start on Prepping for Exams
I know you just read that title and exclaimed, “Exams? Prep? Already?” But I checked my calendar and today is exactly three weeks until my first exam. Initially, I thought that sounded very far away from now as I still have final…
The Case for Course Evaluations
I don’t know about you, but my to-do list right now seems never-ending. With final assignments piling up, I feel like I don’t have a spare minute. That’s why I always feel a twinge of annoyance when I see this e-mail…
Aerobics for the Brain: Research Opportunities in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Ever received a text saying something along the lines of: “smh srsly w/ever idc anywho ttyl g2g $ [insert pizza emoji here] rn”? I have, and let me just say, trying to decode those texts gave my brain a bigger workout than trying to understand my friend’s first-year calc homework.
When I first heard acronyms such as “ROP” and “ICM” tossed around in a couple of upper-years’ conversation about research opportunities, my brain had to work even harder to comprehend what they were saying. So I decided to go to a panel organized by Trinity College on research opportunities in the Humanities and Social Sciences to de-mystify this fog-ridden realm. The event had a wide variety of speakers, including two undergrad students, two Academic Dons, and a U of T rep for the Research Opportunity Program.
