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<\/a>\r\n\r\nHey Everyone! My name is Ellora and I am going to be one of your @lifeatUoft bloggers this year, in partnership with the <\/a>\r\n\r\nHey Everyone! My name is Ellora and I am going to be one of your @lifeatUoft bloggers this year, in partnership with the Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation<\/a>. My aim here is to try and bridge the gap between the students and the faculty at the St. George campus. We have this opportunity to interact and engage with exceptional faculty both inside and outside the classroom and it would be a shame to waste it. \u00a0But before I get into that, here\u2019s a small idea of who you\u2019re going to be hearing from.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nI\u2019m a third year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto with a major in English and minors in Psychology and Creative Expression and Society. \u00a0When I\u2019m not in class or at the library, I\u2019m at the gym, with friends, or writing at a cafe nearby. The other day I was cleaning out my backpack and I found a Starbucks napkin with some writing on it from last month. That might speak more about my lack of organizational skills than it does about my love for creative writing, but you see what I mean. I also love learning about the human mind, which is where the Psychology comes in. It is both, fascinating and scary what the human mind is capable of. And it's definitely worth thinking about which direction we\u2019re headed in. I mean, at this point, whether you\u2019re a 1st year or a 6th year, we\u2019re all working towards our degrees. How are we going to use it? How are we applying what we\u2019re learning right now? Does it align with the kinds of people we aim to be? \u00a0If I\u2019m thinking about these questions, I know you are too.\u00a0 What I'm saying is there\u2019s a lot of things I\u2019m trying to figure out. \u00a0We all are. The great part about being in University, and U of T in particular is that we have brilliant learning tools and opportunities to help us with that. \u00a0And as much as that may sound like it\u2019s out of a University pamphlet ask yourself this -- what\u2019s stopping you from starting a conversation with your professor? And is it worth letting that stop you?\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nI know you have a heavy course load and a billion other things to do. We\u2019re all on the same page. My job here is to help make things easier by encouraging you to be more than just a passive listener in class. Even if that involves seemingly tough steps like breaking out of your comfort zone to raise your hand and ask that \u201cstupid\u201d question in class. There\u2019s a reason our courses aren\u2019t all just self study sessions. We\u2019re put in a learning environment that requires us to be actively involved so we can challenge ourselves and grow from it.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nI can\u2019t promise you perfectly structured bullet points on how to go about approaching your courses. I can, however, promise you posts rooted in real thoughts and experiences. And what that means is that I\u2019ll give you a small window into my experiences here at U of T. And hopefully we can learn and grow from them, together. \u00a0My job here is to make sure you don\u2019t deprive yourself of the learning opportunity. Actually, never mind, that\u2019s your job. My job is to make you think about it.\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"