August 24, 2006 Source: :
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/060824-2514.asp FYI program chock full of information Geared toward incoming students
Aug 24/06
by W.D. Lighthall (about) (email) During her first week of classes, incoming student Maria Ionescu found a notice in her orientation package about the First-Year Initiative program (FYI) and she quickly took advantage. "It really helped me because the transition is tough. The university system is really different from the high school system," said Ionescu, now a third-year student studying international relations and political science. Launched four years ago by Student Services, FYI was created to help incoming students with the transition to university life. FYI takes many of the student services offered to the entire undergraduate body and customizes them to specifically address the needs of first-year students. The program has a strong focus on helping incoming students develop their academic skills, but it also offers workshops and seminars on career development and job-search skills, general health and wellness, off-campus housing and international and aboriginal student issues, as well as several types of counselling services. "The main focus is on the educational but there’s also a social component," said Chris Garbutt, FYI program co-ordinator. "It’s programming that’s specifically designed to make life at university a little easier and a little more fun for the new, first-year student." Incoming students are encouraged to register with the program through the FYI link on the Student Services website. Once registered, students receive weekly e-mail notices about upcoming FYI events. One of the program’s most popular events is a mini-course entitled Improve Your Academic Skills, slated for Aug. 29 to 31. Each session is two-and-a-half hours long with the first devoted to time management, the second to reading and note taking and the last to memory and concentration techniques for studying. Garbutt said the seminar is geared towards helping incoming students manage the heavier university workload. "You have to manage your time accordingly. We’re trying to get students to right away develop their time management skills so they’re on top of the things from the beginning," he said. FYI holds approximately 100 events a year and has added two new workshops this year. Cooking on a Budget was developed in response to interest by students in learning how to cook inexpensively. Get Connected on Campus, is set up as a game. Students are divided into teams and answer questions designed to teach them about the range of services available on campus. It has a social purpose, as well as a practical one. "So it’s fun and it serves the goal of getting students to feel connected to the campus, to have some sense of community here," said Garbutt. One challenge FYI faces is visibility on campus. While the number of students registering with FYI has been growing by 40 per cent annually, last year that equalled about 3,000 registrations. Garbutt expects FYI registrations to rise to about 3,500 this year. "Really, every first-year student should be registered," he said. "This program was created to introduce first years to Student Services. We don’t want someone coming into the career centre in their fourth year and saying, ‘Wow, I wish I knew about this in first year.’ Our goal is to get out there so they know about us now."
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