Helping students find balance

Jodi Szimanski, Student Success Office.

For some students, success can feel like it’s just outside their grasp or that they’re doing well, but they’d like to do better. One of the resources we offer at Waterloo is a success coach in the Student Success Office (SSO).

"Achieving a balanced life where there is a place for academic, career and personal goals isn't easy,” said Sean Van Koughnett, director, Student Success Office. “We wanted to provide a resource that would help students develop strong skills and effective plans, that could refer students to other support services on campus, and that would help students keep focused and motivated on their plans throughout their years here."

The success coaches work with students to regain focus so that they can achieve the grades, career path, and/or life balance they want through:

• Developing better, more efficient study habits
• Setting goals, developing plans and sticking to them
• Managing their time

We started with two success coaches. The demand grew quickly and there are now four full-time coaches and two part-time. The team offers a variety of service options so that students can find the session that best suits their needs and learning styles. For those that learn better in a classroom setting, the workshops provide hands-on learning that applies across faculties (including three new workshops in October.) Students who require more personalized help book 1:1 appointments – more than 100 appointments were booked in September alone. Study sessions work for students with a need for a ‘quiet, but not silent’ drop-in study time where they have access to tools, resources and a coach, if needed. A session is pictured above.

Like most of the SSO programs, partnerships are incredibly important in our efforts. The team developed a study-skills workshop for Living Learning Communities and then held train the trainer sessions for upper year students and staff so they can now lead the workshop across the residences, including the university college residences. The success coaches also work with the faculties to offer a 0.5 unit course for first-year students who are academically at-risk. The course teaches students skills and strategies to help them achieve success in their studies while maintaining life balance. Co-taught with a faculty member, the course applies directly to the students’ areas of study.

“Working in partnership with the associate deans, faculty and advisors has been key to the evolution of the role of the success coaches, especially in preparation for the launch of University 101 during the winter 2012 term,” said Mary Lynn Benninger, director, Learning Services.  “The coaches are also an active part of the network of student service providers on campus, creating a complete circle of care for student success.”

Photograph by Jonathan Bielaski, Light Imaging.

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Awards celebrate performance, excellence

The latest winners of the Waterloo Engineering awards were named at the annual Faculty of Engineering dinner held yesterday at the Waterloo Inn.

Sanjeev Bedi of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, Mark Pritzker of chemical engineering, and Mark Smucker of management sciences received the Faculty's Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and commitment to the enrichment of Waterloo Engineering education.

Vicky Lawrence of systems design engineering was named this year's recipient of the Outstanding Staff Performance Award in the administrative category in recognition of "her professional, courteous approach to her work and exceptional dedication to her department." June Lowe of the engineering undergraduate office won the Outstanding Staff Performance Award in the technical category "in appreciation of her long and distinguished career in the Faculty and the personal connections she forms with students."

The En-Hui Yang Engineering Research Innovation Award, which recognizes an outstanding researcher, was presented to Peter Huck of civil and environmental engineering, and the Engineering Research Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding research accomplishments, innovative ideas, and dedication to the faculty's research, was received by Dayan Ban of electrical and computer engineering, and David Clausi and Alexander Wong, both of systems design engineering.

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Ideas will be shared at TEDxUW

The application deadline is quickly approaching for spots at the next TEDxUW event, which will be held on Saturday, November 17. There are 100 seats available for the main event, to be held at the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre.

Organized by a diverse team of students, faculty, staff, alumni, co-op employers, local entrepreneurs and senior university administrators, TEDxUW is the university community's entry in a series of several hundred independently-organized events being held around the world as part of the global TED movement to create open platforms for riveting ideas to be shared, for free, with the world. This is the second year the event has been held on campus.

The theme of this year's event is "Edge."

In addition to the applications to attend, which must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, October 8, registration is open to the on-campus livestream event, to be held in the Davis Centre parallel with the main event. The registration period closes Monday, October 15 at 11:59 p.m. For those who really want to get involved in the idea-sharing environment of TEDxUW, there is also a Speaker Contest, with the winner earning a speaking spot at the main event. Applications close on Monday, October 8 at 11:59 p.m. Application and registration details are online.

Of course, it wouldn't be a TED-style event without a roster of speakers with ideas to share, and this year's roster includes MuchMusic and CBC Radio veteran (and uWaterloo alumna) Denise Donlon, who will also be hosting the event, NexJ Systems founder and Waterloo grad William Tatham, environment student Andrew Wong, artist-scholar Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae, Waterloo researcher Geoff Fong, and recording artist Heather Dale, with more to be announced, including the winner of the Speaker Contest.

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Notes as the long weekend looms

The 44th annual Oktoberfest is getting underway today, with opening ceremonies set for 11:30 a.m. in Kitchener's Civic Square. The Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day parade will make its annual trek up (or is it down?) King Street starting at 8:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Monday. Oktoberfest honours, among other things, Waterloo Region’s deep German heritage, and offers a number of special events aimed at families. The heart of the festival is the "festhalls" scattered across the city (and open varying days), with German music, German food and a certain German beverage in abundance.

It may interest you to know that Geography and Environmental Management student Lindsay Coulter was crowned Miss Oktoberfest 2012 last week, and will be making many appearances in the course of her official duties. In addition, the winner of last Saturday's "Tour de Hans" 100-kilometre bicycle race was Arts student Timothy Burton, with a time of 2:17:33, just two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Congratulations to both!

While we're on the subject of accolades, Kody Fry, a member of the University of Waterloo's men's golf team, was named the Pioneer Energy OUA Athlete of the Week. In addition, women's golf team member Devon Rizzo has won all three tournaments entered this year.

The first-ever Further Education Boot Camp offered by the Centre for Career Action was a resounding success, reports Kerry Mahoney, with 388 students attending some 18 workshops. The event, held last Saturday, included guest speakers from on and off-campus, providing insight to workshop attendees on how to approach potential careers. Some of the most popular workshops included “Thinking about Med School? Perspectives of a Waterloo Grad”, “Thinking about Law?”, “Thinking about a Health-related career?” and “Thinking about an MBA?” Based on the success of this event, the Centre for Career Action plans to hold another bootcamp in the winter term. "Hats off to Pam Wachter and Shabnam Ivkovic who conceived of, organized, and presented at many sessions this past Saturday," writes Mahoney.

Phishing expedition: IST is reporting that University of Waterloo email accounts have been receiving malicious email this week with the subject "Confirm Your uwaterloo.ca Webmail Identify". Please delete this message if you receive it, as it is part of an attempt to trick you into disclosing your uWaterloo password. Remember, no legitimate organization will ask you to disclose a password.

Finally, the Thanksgiving Weekend is upon us, and that means that Monday is a holiday. University offices and most services will be closed, and classes will not be held. The Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield are open from 11:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and are closed Monday. The Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday, and from noon to 6:00 p.m. on Monday. The bookstore and other retail outlets will be closed both Saturday and Monday. Food services outlet closings can be found online. As always, the university police (519-888-4911) will be at work, the Student Life Centre (519–888-4434) will be open, and the central plant will monitor campus buildings (maintenance emergencies, ext. 33793). Campus-wide, it's back to normal on Tuesday morning.

And one last thing: with the beginning of Oktoberfest, there can be more than the usual number of too-merry drivers on the road; let us celebrate with moderation and drive with care.

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