{"id":37938,"date":"2019-03-18T10:12:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T14:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=37938"},"modified":"2019-03-18T10:12:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T14:12:01","slug":"overcoming-obstacles-and-finding-community-at-uoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/03\/18\/overcoming-obstacles-and-finding-community-at-uoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Obstacles and Finding Community at UofT"},"content":{"rendered":"Hello everyone! This week I wanted to discuss obstacles students often face when it comes to finding community at UofT and how these can be overcome. I've touched on the importance of community\/campus involvement before, but I wanted to bring in some other voices too and focus more on the actual obstacles to finding community.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0I interviewed multiple students, across various programs.\u00a0<\/span>Sam Lizardo<\/b> (a fellow Life@UofT blogger!), <\/span>Shane Beal<\/b>, <\/span>Anvesh Jain<\/b>,<\/span> and<\/span> Simran Dhir <\/b>shared their insights with me. Here are some answers I wanted to share:<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat does community mean to you?<\/i><\/b>\r\n\r\n\"When I think about community, I think of friendship, inclusivity, and belonging.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n\u201cTo me, community is a supportive network of people that I feel a part of because we share some sort of common ground, such as interests, goals, or values, etc.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\nWhat are some obstacles that you\/other students face at finding community at UofT?<\/i><\/b>\r\n\r\n\u201cPeople at UofT have a tendency of sticking in these small groups of people that they are similar to. So it\u2019s like a bunch of small communities instead of a large sense of unity.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n\u201cThe size of the school makes it extremely difficult to find subsections of the community that you can identify with.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0(<\/span><\/i>a lot of people said this one!)<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cToronto is huge and when you have a campus in the downtown part of a city where things are always happening, a lot of students might not keep their focus on campus things if they can immerse themselves in the city instead.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\nHow can people overcome these obstacles?<\/i><\/b>\r\n\r\n\u201cPut yourself out there, don\u2019t be afraid of rejection. Make small talk with people in your classes, and become a part of a regular weekly activity that keeps you on campus.\"<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n\u201cThink of it as making a \u201cchain\u201d across the school. You make a friend, become friends with your friend\u2019s friend...etc. Then you realize how a lot of people are connected and involved in similar things.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n\u201cEven though community is about comfort, it\u2019s important to still get out of this self-imposed \u201ccomfort zone\u201d that we put ourselves into if it\u2019s restricting us.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n\u201cIn my experience at U of T, I\u2019ve found it hard to find community when I isolate myself and assume that others are doing the same. But I had to change this mindset, from compete to collaborate so that I could find community and contribute more genuinely. I think there\u2019s more than enough room for everyone to grow and succeed when we support each other.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThis is a lot of really good advice and I concur with all of it. One thing that I would like to add is that some students who aren\u2019t in first year anymore feel like it\u2019s too late to find their sense of community here. It\u2019s never too late, I promise.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAlso, always remember that you are not alone in your experience. Everyone is seeking a sense of belonging and that in itself is a communal feeling after all.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 <\/span>\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nHello everyone! This week I wanted to discuss obstacles students often face when it comes to finding community at UofT and how these can be overcome. I've touched on the importance of community\/campus involvement before, but I wanted to bring…\n<\/div>
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Continue reading “Overcoming Obstacles and Finding Community at UofT”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":37941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1008,59,70,69,66,82,67],"tags":[25723,1008,153,25499,617],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37942,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37938\/revisions\/37942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}