So since you heard from me last, I have started to feel as though I am an extracurricular activity pursuer first, student second. Unfortunately, my class work has constantly been finding itself pushed aside to give me more time for my new job and for the Golden Key Society. Add that in to actually trying to have some sort of social life and you can understand why I actually write "see friends" on my to-do list. Here is a nice little diagram that accurately represents my life:
Now, as busy as I am, I really am enjoying everything about fourth year so far. So I thought instead of giving a day by day recap of the past three weeks, I would write a bit about each of the different activities between which I currently divide (almost) all of my time.
Classes
I am really enjoying my 5 classes this semester, some more than others, but enjoying them nonetheless. My class focused on how to teach the creative arts is fantastic - I never thought I'd get to spend two weeks worth of classes doing a painting! And it actually turned out! I'll include some photos for you below. My professor is fabulous and really good at helping those of us who do not consider ourselves to be artistically endowed actually create different art pieces while learning how we will teach it to students. We went on a field trip to the campus art gallery on Tuesday and learned about how to facilitate a trip to an art gallery. The exhibit on display was actually made by students from the local high school under the direction of a Montreal-based artist team who received a grant to give art instruction at the school. I might have to use the technique of bringing in outside artists to help me because though I specialize in the cut and paste department, there is definitely a lot more my students will want to learn.
For my anti-discrimination class, last Friday, we had a guest lecture from Charlene Bearhead, who is the Education Lead at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba. She was there to talk about an initiative she co-founded called Project of Heart, which is a program to be used in schools to help students learn about residential schools and the history of Aboriginal People in Canada. The workshop was really informative, especially helpful since I have NO education on this topic, which is a real shame. Project of Heart is definitely something I want to use in my classroom, maybe even on my practicum next semester. For any of my teacher friends who are reading, here is the link to the website: http://projectofheart.ca/
In my psychology class, we are still working with our partners from Collegium to plan our carnival open house in November. We have officially applied for a grant to fund the event taking place on Monday, November 9th. We are making real progress in our group of 5 and successfully created posters for the event in class on Monday. As well, this past Wednesday, we had a guest speaker from the Université de Sherbrooke come in and talk about growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's and his experience at school and in his community. The discrimination and disablement from society he has faced was heartbreaking, especially the treatment he received from his teachers. I think what he is doing now as an advocate for people with Asperger's Syndrome is very much needed for all students currently labelled and/or living with this diagnosis.
My other two classes are nothing to write home about, so I'll spare you the details from them.
Golden Key
Outside of classes, myself and the other members of the Golden Key Executive team have been super busy this month as we have started recruiting new members. Each year around this time, students who had an academic average in the top 15% of their program last year are invited to join Golden Key, aka the school's academic honours program. Now as exciting as this sounds, not everyone is always enthused to join right away so we do a membership drive every year to persuade students to join. In the past, we have done our recruiting at club days, but for various reasons, decided to forego that this year and hold an info session instead. So, we personally invited all current and invited members to our first information night which we held last Tuesday. Based on previous interest in Golden Key, I initially expected about 10 people to show up but...WE FILLED THE CLEGHORN ROOM! When I arrived, there was a line out the door to get in which led me to believe I was in the wrong place and/or I had made a mistake in booking the room. For the first time ever, I was wrong. I was in the right place and everyone there was interested n the chapter. The exec team gave a great presentation, we awarded our $100 chapter scholarship and did a draw for a new membership (Update: The winner has recently joined the chapter!). We had a lot of questions and talked with many students about GK so hopefully we get a lot of new members. The success of our info night led us to do open office hours this week and we had more drop by for information. And our email inbox has been a hotspot! Hopefully all this effort will pay off! I can't wait to welcome all our new members at our induction dinner in November!
Social Media Intern
On Wednesday, September 23rd, Bishop's University launched our brand new website. If you haven't seen it yet, head over to www.ubishops.ca and have a look! One cool feature is that even before entering the website, you are asked if you are a student, faculty, parent, etc. and then your homepage is tailored to your profile. On the homepage, there is a social media mosaic, which is what I am in charge of. Every Sunday, I search on Facebook, instagram and Twitter for Bishop's related content and choose the 4 best posts to include in the mosaic. I do this by searching the Bishop's specific hashtags, which are #UBishops, #BleedPurple and #GaiterNation. So for the launch, I had to put together a high-quality mosaic and publicize the launch. As you can imagine, it was a busy time to join the school's communication team.
I also have lots to do on a daily basis. I manage the three social media channels, which includes posting about events, publicizing student information, posting photos, etc. I work with the recruitment office to reach out to prospective students and with the advancement team to connect with alumni. I retweet, regram, share, like and.respond to Facebook posts and manage comments. You'd be surprised how much time you can spend just responding to other people's content! As well, Bishop's University is often in the news, so I read articles, summarize them and send them out to our community. I've never been so up-to-date on BU affairs! Finally, I still coordinate the blog channel, which has been really popular so far this year. I am currently recruiting new writers to reach out to an even wider audience!
The last part of my job relates to the social media mosaics I mentioned earlier. I make the mosaics on a program called Storify. On this program, you can create social media stories in a similar fashion to how I create the mosaic. I make these stories after big events and get to sift through all the content that gets posted to make a recap of the event. Here is the link for the story I made about Homecoming Weekend 2015: https://storify.com/ubishops/bishop-s-university-homecoming-2015
Check it out! I'm quite proud of it.
HOMECOMING 2015
So in between all of this, I took part in the Homecoming Weekend celebrations last weekend. I mean, how could I make a social media story without participating, right? I needed field experience. Actually, it was great to go to Homecomong again since I had not been since first year! The weekend was fantastic, with many alumni making the trek back to Lennoxville to celebrate. One cool event that happened this year was the Top 10 After 10 alumni program, for which 10 alumni who graduated a minimum of 10 years ago are recognized for their post-Bishop's successes. This event happens every other year and includes an induction lunch for inductees and a networking event for students. I was fortunate enough to attend both last Friday. The networking event was great; we got to talk at a table in small groups with two alumni at a time and listen to their stories, hear their advice and ask them questions. We rotated to the different tables to talk with the alumni and then had a chance to mingle at the end. Hearing their advice was really valuable. It was especially comforting to hear them all say that when we start applying for jobs after graduation, employers are not looking for us to be experts already, but are looking for someone who is a worthwhile investment. As a bonus, one of the girls at my table was a Disney College Program alumni so I got to reminisce about Disney for a brief moment.
Following the networking event, I went to the induction luncheon in Dewies, my first time back there this year. YUM! As a club head, I was invited to sit at a table with an inductee and other faculty members. Sadly, Principal Goldbloom was supposed to sit at my table, but he never came and sat with us. :( Following lunch, Principal Goldbloom personally inducted each alumni into the Top 10 After 10 and each alumni gave a speech. Even the alumna who could not be there recorded her speech on video. Each person talked about how much of their success was thanks to Bishop's. It was quite special.
That night, my roommmates and I all went to the rugby game. Hannah and Jen were selling snacks as a fundraiser for their trip to New York City in March. The game was great, and the team was victorious! In fact, the men's rugby team was the only team to win their game over Homecoming!
On Saturday, the football team played McGill for the annual homecoming rivalry. Before the game, we had a pre-game brunch at our house. Two of our friends had their parents up for the weekend, so they joined in the festivities too. With about an hour until kickoff, we went to the Coulter Field parking lot to join the tailgate and see Jen and Hannah who were running a photo booth. The local radio station was providing the music on site and held dance contests throughout the tailgate. We joined in the macarena dance-off and both Elizabeth and I won Domino's pizzas! I won a coupon but Elizabeth won a physical pizza! Thanks to 107.7 for lunch!! Once we devoured the pizza, we went into the stadium to watch the football game. We only stayed until halftime but unfortunately the Gaiters were not victorious. I'm not going to say it's because I left, but... We'll never know.
It's incredible that Homecoming was already one week ago and that I am now on my way home for Thanksgiving. I'm staying in Port Hope tonight and then heading back to Ancaster tomorrow for some quality family time. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to sleeping in a warm house as the nights at William-Paige have been chilly but we aren't quite ready to start cranking on the heat. It will also be great to see everyone, including my grandparents flying in from Winnipeg. And in 3 days time I'll be right back where I am now, just driving in the opposite direction back to my happy BU bubble.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your tummies be full of turkey and pie (and PSLs) and your hearts full of love and thanks!
All my love,
Erica
xoxoxoxoxo
P.S. Everyone must watch this video. It's hilarious.
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