Volunteer leaders for the Student Life 101 program wear the familiar yellow T-shirts.

New students meet the UW family

a release from the UW media relations office

Students attending the University of Waterloo for the first time this fall, along with their parents, will gather on campus Saturday to explore their new world, far away from home.

They will participate in Student Life 101, an all-day orientation program designed by students for students. Now in its 12th year, it helps families begin the transition to university life before the fast-paced weeks of classes start in the fall. Always a highlight of SL101 is a chance for hundreds of the brand-new students to have mug shots taken and pick up their WatCards.

Cora Dupuis, UW's student life co-ordinator for first-year experience, says the one-day event gives incoming students "a sneak peek" at university life before their arrival on campus. "This summer-time orientation event was created to relieve student and parent anxiety and reassure them that UW is a warm and friendly place," she says. "We want to let them know that there are a lot of people and services here to help them and to make their years here fun." Dupuis organizes the event with the help of more than 200 student volunteers, including four Student Life 101 directors.

A key presentation —- Student Life at UW! — provides students with information about the diverse services and resources available to help them throughout their university career. The morning event will be held from 9 to 10:20 a.m. in the Physical Activities Complex.

Students will also have an opportunity to discover the services available on campus and talk to the people running them. Participating departments include athletics and recreational services, co-operative education and career services, counselling services, distance and continuing education, the student life office, food services, housing and residences, information systems and technology, the library, office for persons with disabilities, retail services (bookstore, Campus TechShop and UW Shop), finance and student awards (loans and scholarships).

Afterward, students and their parents can visit the Student Life Centre and learn about the Federation of Students, the English language proficiency program and the student health plan. Among other presentations at various locations on campus: co-op education, career services, "getting off on the right foot" (advice on how to combine academics and extracurricular activities), "making the transition" (how to ease the move from home to campus life), government loans and student aid, residence life and leadership opportunities, and, for those who need it, how to search for accommodation in the local community, plus tips on being an off-campus student.

As well, each faculty will host a presentation for incoming students on academic support available to them during first year. During the day, students can also visit UW's federated and affiliated institutions: St. Jerome's University, Conrad Grebel UC, St. Paul's United College and Renison UC.

The SL101 website will offer podcasts of many of the sessions for those students and parents who can't get to campus tomorrow, along with information materials used at the sessions throughout the day.

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What science-and-business grads do

It’s about site remediation, public health and poker. For the third year in a row, UW’s science-and-business program has produced an edition of its magazine, Scibus.Ca, that focuses on the program’s mission: “to deliver outstanding highly sought-after graduates to the private and public sector workforce”.

“Our co-op employers indicate that they are exceptional performers in the workplace,” writes the program’s director, Owen Ward of the UW biology department, about scibus students. His letter on the first page of the 2008 “graduate and alumni edition” points out that graduates from the program “pursue a variety of career paths in technical and managerial positions, as entrepreneurs and in the professions”.

Readers of the magazine (its contents are also available online) will hear in detail about seven of them, including Kate Gardiner, who graduated with a biology major this spring. Her resumé also includes such credentials as being named “Student of the Year” by the Canadian Association for Cooperative Education. Gardiner, who is pictured on the magazine’s cover (left), writes about “my most rewarding employment experience”, a co-op work term with the Palliative Care Consult Team at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital.

Another young graduate explains what led him to be entering chiropractic college this fall, and a third is on her way to being a lawyer, probably specializing in environment and health law.

Nora Donald, a science-and-business graduate who majored in earth sciences, writes about her job with environmental assessment firm Jacques Whitford: “It is very important to not only understand the project from a technical perspective but also to be able to liaise and communicate with clients who generally don’t have a similar technical background.”

And then there’s Latif Nanji, a 2007 graduate who discovered during his university career that he was good at online poker — so good that “I was able to put myself through school with my winnings.” He’s now working on “an online community targeted to the specific needs of poker players” as a project for startup company Suited Media Inc.

Nanji and three colleagues began the firm in a basement, then moved into the Accelerator building on UW’s north campus — “the perfect stepping stone for upcoming entrepreneurs,” he writes.

“The incredible part about my job is that there is no such thing as a typical day. It is extremely versatile, fast and exciting but requires you to wear different hats depending on the circumstances. A large portion of my job is focused on managing the finances and human resources of the company — however, I am actively involved in providing specifications for new features on the website and engaged with our users to give them the best experience possible.”

The magazine includes an article by a Petro-Canada vice-president, discussing what his company expects of new employees, and one by Kashif Memon, program advisor in the scibus program, surveying the field of university globalization. It winds up with several pages briefly profiling all the 2008 graduates of scibus, and revealing that nearly all of them have short-term plans for “travel” before starting jobs or further education.

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Other notes in a TGIF mood

A memo to UW departments from Lois Claxton, secretary of the university, and Bob Truman, director of institutional analysis and planning, announces a “university-wide project” on Inactive Records: “Many academic and administrative units on campus are experiencing a serious shortage of space. As one means of addressing this issue, the University will be undertaking an inventory to determine what space is being used to store inactive University records (i.e., records that are no longer needed for current work) and what space is available to students for study. This inventory is a joint project of Institutional Analysis and Planning, which has recently assumed the task of maintaining the space inventory for the University, and the University Records Manager, and will take place between August 2008 and February 2009. Carolyn Dirks, University Records Manager, and Janice Halliday, Administrative Assistant, Institutional Analysis and Planning, will be contacting key staff in all academic and administrative units to collect the required information by means of a questionnaire and an interview.”

A pair of Warrior golfers — team captain Jimmy Latta and Rookie of the Year Adam Wilson — represented UW in the Boyd Quaich Memorial Tournament last week in Scotland. The Boyd Quaich is played over the Old and New courses in St. Andrews. Founded in 1947 in memory of two St. Andrews students, it is an international invitation competition to which universities are invited to send two male competitors. This year’s field consisted of 64 players. In the first round Wilson played the New Course in even par with a score of 72. Latta found the gorse too many times off the tee and settled for an 81. He bounced back with a 74 on the famous old course, but missed the 36 hole cut by 3 strokes. Wilson continued his fine play with a 75. Over the last 36 holes Wilson moved up 8 places and finished 14th.

Fraser Easton (right) is the new chair of UW's department of English language and literature, having taken over that post from Kevin McGuirk as of July 1. • "We're looking for people who wear toric lenses (for astigmatism) for a couple of upcoming studies," writes Alisa Sivak (amsivak@uwaterloo.ca) of the Centre for Contact Lens Research. • The Federation of Students used book store is open 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday, this summer, and will be closed on Saturdays — except for tomorrow, Student Life 101 day, when it'll be open 8:30 to 4:30.

The Canadian Number Theory Association has been meeting at UW this week, with sessions taking place in the Arts Lecture Hall and many of the delegates staying in Ron Eydt Village. Kevin Hare of the department of pure mathematics heads the organizing committee. Highlight of today's closing sessions is a lecture by Adrian Iovita, of Concordia University, who's being presented with the CNTA's Ribenboim Prize, "for distinguished research". The conference centre in REV also has visitors this week from a Hockey Ministries International "Christian athletic hockey camp" and, over the weekend, from a track and field meet sponsored by District C of the Royal Canadian Legion.

CAR

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