 Welcome, welcome to Carlton and welcome to the Faculty of Public Affairs, or FTA as you call it. My name is Dr. Brandonia, I'm the Dean of the faculty and I always like to start letting you know what a dean actually is because I'm not sure everybody really knows what my job is. Basically the Faculty of Public Affairs has a dozen units in it and departments in school, a range of them and I know today we have people joining us from Begin, Papem and Social Work. So those are three of those different kind of some of them are programs, but they're within units and basically my role is to oversee all of those units within the faculty to ensure things are going smoothly. So that's my role. My colleagues and I are thrilled to welcome you and thrilled that you decided to join Carlton. Before we begin today, what I'd like to do is take a moment to acknowledge that Carlton University is located on the unceded and traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation. People might be joining in today from different parts of the country, but nevertheless Carlton is found on that territory and I always say it's important for us to recognize the Indigenous lands on which we reside and secondly I think to do it with intention, not just to make it something that we do flippantly without really thinking about it. It is an important point to make. So you're joining Carlton. You're starting in your programs. You're going to be super busy over the next years. It's going to be crazy busy, but one of the points I want to make for you, I want to kind of point out to you is it's important to remember that you're part of a bigger community. You're certainly joining a program, but you're also joining the community and I think that's one of the strongest things that I would say is true at Carlton is that it has an extremely strong sense of community and it's hard to kind of think about given the circumstances we're finding ourselves in and we have been doing things online for almost 18 months now, but the fall looks like it's going to be a little bit more open and so that's an important thing. So one of the things I want to point out is that we've been working tremendously hard faculty staff and students over the summer to try and make sure that that community, that sense of community is imparted to you when you start here in the fall, whether you have classes online or in person. I think that's an important point. Apart from your classes, the faculty in the university more broadly has a number of events and opportunities for you to take part in and I'm going to say one of the things I learned quickly as a student was that you will always be busy, but it's always important to take time out of it to go take part in some of these activities to sit in on that public lecture that you heard about, you thought that would be really good because every single time you will say to yourself, yeah, but I should be doing that work and I would say you got to stop that work sometimes and actually take in some of that community and those events and make sure that your experience as a Carlton student extends beyond just your program and your classes because there is so much available to you and to learn about those things that I also say it's important to read your emails so make sure you read the emails that come out from us letting you know about these things because that's especially online right now that's the only way we really have to connect with people so take take a moment I know email is not the best communication I have to I have two young adult children and they don't like email but nevertheless I tell them you got to use email because it's a really important communication tool the other thing that's important to remember is as you make your way through your program there are opportunities for you yourself to take part in and to seek out one of them is your meeting ambassadors today you may in a few years think ah this is something I might want to do so there are opportunities of that nature there's also what we call CURA the Carlton University research opportunity program which actually pays you to do research over the summer with a faculty member so again read your emails see about all these opportunities and think hard about how to how to take advantage of them to make your university experience the best that it can be so I'm I know I seem excited it's because I am excited I'm always excited I'm thrilled that you're joining us I hope you have a wonderful wonderful experience at Carlton we encourage you to get involved take take advantage of the opportunity and the experiences that are here so now what I'm going to say I'm going to hand you over back to Stephanie the host who's the FPA's event and ambassador assistant and I want to also thank Stephanie for having organized all these events this week so thank you again Stephanie so hope you have a great session everybody thank you you know Neil and it's my pleasure these are my favorite events of the year so hi everybody welcome I just remind everybody that the session is recorded so that's really important for the Q&A session um so first of all we have four ambassadors here today so uh they're all from Begins Papem or Social Work so Ida Harkness she is from Begins Q Say or Q is from Papem and then we've got Alina and Tina will be joining us shortly and they're both from Social Work so our ambassadors will just see a few words about why they chose the program what they wish they knew coming into first year things like that that will hopefully help you in your transition coming up next month and from there we can open up the question and answer session so because it's recorded if you'd like to stay anonymous please excuse my bird if you can hear her she likes to join my events um so if you'd like to stay anonymous uh please feel free to keep your mic muted and your video off and you can put the questions in the chat and I will read them out to our ambassadors or if uh if you'd like you can also of course unmute your mic and ask the questions directly so from there we will start the session and I will pass it off to Ida. All right hi good morning good afternoon wherever you are in the world my name's Ida um I am a fourth year in Begins which is Bachelor of Global and International Studies within that I'm specializing in global development um so just a quick glimpse into that I suppose there's a lot of words within that um I'm focusing on like poverty alleviation and global economics um all that kind of thing um specifically why I chose Begins and in general I suppose um is all of the specializations and options that are within it and it's always expanding so there's there's something for everyone and you can really like piece your degree together and follow your interests and plant that seed of whatever you want your career trajectory to look like your your life however you want it to unfold um and it's an amazing way to like blend your passion with academics um and often it doesn't make it feel like work so that's amazing so that's definitely like my favorite um always something I have to share about Begins when I started there was 17 specializations and I don't I don't know the new number off the top of my head but there's more than that now I know that we're definitely up into the 20s um and we're also still quite new and quite small so there's Carlton has an amazing community FPA has amazing community but even like within my unit within Begins because we're so small you really get to know everybody you really build those deep relationships um that are going to take you through all four years you get to connect with professors because those are going to be your professors for the next four years you're going to run into them again um I can definitely go on and on and on about Begins and why I love it so much um but just quick those are definitely my top top kind of tier points that um I'm always trying to sell Begins for um my first year experience I'll just speak to that a little bit I was in red um I spent my first year in red which was amazing um and such a great way to meet such diverse groups of people and really be a part of that amazing Carlton community um I quite enjoyed it and there were lots of opportunities on campus and lots of events um so lots to keep you busy with both like schoolwork but those events that um the dean was speaking about that you could go to um I quite enjoyed it and quite liked it and it was it I thought is like a good bridge set between everything um and then I suppose just on the back end of that a tip I wish I knew in first year is everyone's in the same boat nobody has it figured out and that is perfectly okay um fake it till you make it kind of thing act confident you've got this but you don't need it planned out you can shift what in my case what specialization you're doing you can shift what program you're in you can shift how many courses you're going to have in a semester and do some summer stuff you really can make it work for you and nobody has it figured out and don't put that pressure on yourself because you've really got to slow down and also enjoy the process um that's honestly I think the biggest tip I wish I knew going into university is it's okay that I have no idea what I want to do I'm going into fourth year now and I'm already kind of like I don't know I don't know what's next but yeah don't push that pressure on yourself and enjoy it um I'm going to pass it off to Alina to speak about her unit thanks Ida um so yeah I welcome guys good morning good afternoon and I am going into my fourth year in the social work program the school of social work uh reason why I chose that program is basically what Ida said as well there are so many different opportunities and areas to help to be involved in to work in there's um things like to work in a hospital work within the criminal justice system work within the education board work with counseling so many different options and it just blows my mind and every single course I learned more and more about every single opportunity same again same as Ida I still don't know what I'm doing I'm going into my fourth year and knowing how many options there I really just thought there was counseling I honest to God I just thought there was counseling I had no idea anything about addictions and mental health and and whatnot but it's really really awesome and I'm really happy that I um got to be in this program um it is also really really small we are a really small group of us there's about 45 to 50 of us each year um so we're really really small as well and that's really awesome as well because we get to learn um and be really close during our classes with so many of us uh in a small group um and also what I really like about the program is not only are we small and get to know a lot about um the students in the program but also with the professors we get to be with them while we're doing classes during office hours get to hear a lot about their experiences their how they work where they work get to learn more about that kind of behind the scenes sort of thing after graduation so I really enjoy that um some stuff about my first year and my first year I was also in REZ so it was a great kind of balance between the academics and the social um so as usual um many many programs many events that were happening within Carlton as the Dean has said it's a very very big community and an amazing community at best but other than that it's pretty much the same um and something that I would also like to I would have liked to know in coming into my first year is not only is that again just like Ida said everyone is in the exact same boat but another thing that I would like to add is if I would have I would have liked to know that there are so many people who have the exact same questions as you and it's not only about the class questions like when you're in class with a professor or academic type of questions if you're wondering about a club there's a club going to be there for you there's if you're wondering about an event someone's going to know about that about that event if you're wondering about what type of textbook to get or how to get it someone's going to know how to get that for you and I didn't know that I didn't know that there were so many availabilities and different Facebook group chats different clubs on campus um different people sorry different people who knew about these clubs or anything like that um that could help you out with that so that was something that I've learned throughout my years and I'm probably still learning so always always always a great time here and so yeah so I'm going to pass it over to Q. Thank you. Hi everyone my name is Kasai but I go by Q studying in the bachelor of public affairs and policy management program at Carleton University so one of the biggest things of why I chose to go into the B-PAPROM program was because it's better than PolySci it's like it's it's Carleton has a unique advantage where it's like you're not only studying politics you're studying the administrative side behind it and you're studying how policy comes to be and how it changes our political landscape um the biggest thing of why I love B-PAPROM and Carleton so much is the capital advantage um and you probably hear that being thrown around left and right but what I mean by that is the opportunity to you know actually physically see the things that you're studying so it's like we're in class we're learning about parliament and legislator we then go to parliament and the legislator and you can go there and you can see what's happening I've had many different opportunities to be part of model senate model parliament um it was part of the Carleton United Nations model United Nations club which actually sent me to Washington to compete against Harvard and Georgetown and I've been to McGill for that competitions as well so what I mean overall by the capital advantage is the ability to actually secure a career in the in the political landscape um in my first year experience I also lived on res and res really taught me different things I was really part of raw which is the Rideau River Residence Association um and through raw I was able to actually land an internship for the summer which I worked for a member of parliament during an election year which was really cool I'm currently now in my third year going to my fourth year and I secured another internship at National Research Council of Canada which is a government agency but all these different opportunities and all these different jobs only came with the aspect of being in Papam and studying at Carleton because of the capital advantage which is one thing I highly look favorable upon my biggest advice uh socially and academically for first year students is to never say no when I got the opportunity to get traveled to Washington I was really hesitant I was really scared I was like I don't know many people on the team do I really want to go there like am I scared to do it um but then I took my own advice and never said no and that led to countless number of opportunities and opened up doorways left and right um so that's my biggest advice is just to never say no um and along with begins and social work Papam is very generally very small as well it's a very small cohort so it's really nice to be in a small community of students that are you know within your program taking the same courses you um I mean the communications specialization and I'm currently pursuing currently finished my minor in law um so it's another really good thing about Carleton it's just the minors that you can take with the programs I was first studying a minor in English and then I had a minor in Phil and now I finally did my minor in law but it's very multidisciplinary meaning that you can switch around and see which interests that really apply to you um yeah that's my two cents on Papam and why I love Carleton thank you thank you and thank you Leena and I does well uh very good advice I wish I had these sessions when I was going into university uh so I just want to let everybody know that the Q&A is now open so uh feel free to either chime in or write in the chat I know it will take a few moments for you guys to write your questions and so on so I know our Associate Dean of Students in Enrollment Paul Wilson would like to say a few words oh thanks Stephanie um I'm always happy to say a few words so uh I'm I'm Paul Wilson the Associate Dean for Students in Enrollment for the last uh six weeks so I'm just learning and it's great to hear the ambassadors talk about their programs because some of them I know and some of them I don't know as well um welcome to Carleton um you're hearing the enthusiasm from from the Dean and from the ambassadors because people really are enthusiastic there's some great opportunities what what these folks have been saying is is absolutely true the capital advantage you're in Ottawa there's a lot of things that are here that you can't get elsewhere including hey ambassadors go go figure we can do that um I would I would emphasize that um people are here to help you including professors um uh they most of them really like students and really like working with students okay they're human beings too so you know you get them on a bad day occasionally um but they really do want to help so uh you know take the opportunity to introduce yourself to to your professor um uh you know go up to them after class what's harder nowadays but you know in some respects but it's easy to email or to have a zoom conversation even if that seems intimidating don't be afraid to ask questions or clarification because they owe you clarification on what they're doing you're entitled to an explanation for your marks and stuff like that so um so the people are friendly there are answers if you if you need them so don't uh don't be afraid to ask for help or to introduce yourself um yeah I hope you have a really great year thank you Paul so we have no questions as of yet unless someone wants to unmute their mic didn't think so um so there are no questions in chat however we do have some common questions that are asked in all of these sessions so I'm going to start off and any of the ambassadors feel free to chime in my first question is should I buy the textbook okay I can start um textbooks that's a good question um I feel like there's always an advantage in buying the textbook I think especially in first year because you get that experience and you understand how it's like and and whatnot and seeing how an actual textbook looks like um but if you already have that experience and you already went through that in high school or before coming into Carlton and there's always those opportunities like I've mentioned in the Facebook group chats they send or they sell used or bought textbooks sometimes for like $50 cheaper so it's a it's a blessing and a half and also coming into your first your first class during um the one school year starts the professors also mentioned that their textbooks are some more available at other textbook stores that aren't necessarily on campus which are again maybe not $50 cheaper but maybe $10 $20 cheaper and also available as a PDF online so those ways also always always help um my tip oh Hugh do you want to go you can go ahead okay share I was just gonna say my tip quick about textbooks is find what works for you and stick to that so it might be a little bumpy at the start in your first year do I like online textbooks do I like printing textbooks do I like buying used textbooks um but just find what works for you and use that and that's okay if it's not the same as the person sitting next to you in lecture hall or the study group that you found and it's okay that yours might be a little different because at the end of the day you need to do what works for you and what pushes you and drives you forward to achieving your goals so that's my biggest thing and I think throughout pivoting online I think that again kind of really shone a light on you've got to find the ways that work for you and you've just got to stick to them if you can make using the free PDF copy of a textbook online work fantastic if you need the paper copy fantastic if you want to highlight it or put flags in it awesome if you're not that kind of person awesome um but just also be okay with not knowing right now it's okay take the time figure it out try different things for different classes try different things throughout both semesters um that'd be one tip I have um I don't know if you have any follow-up Q but I'll pass it off to you thank you so great advice overall I agree with everything being said my only additional tip would be for courses like economics I would say definitely by the textbook there's some courses where you just can't really avoid not having the textbook so I took grammar course and I also took an a bunch of economics courses and with those classes if you don't have the textbook you're not going to be able to complete work for the tutorial that's mandatory so you just have to give or take and understand what your professor is suggesting um and you know someone else mentioned earlier about the off-campus bookstores uh there's a lot of cool small businesses in Ottawa that sell really good textbooks like octopus bookstore or black squirrel cafe um they're both in the glee just a few minutes away from Carlton and those are awesome resources to check for you know friendly price textbooks and use textbooks and things like that thank you all and uh something too I'd like to mention if you're buying a used book pay attention to the edition of the book so your professor will say use this edition or this or have several editions but that's really important because the page numbers and the questions and answers in the textbook can change per edition so some I a lot of my professors back in the day would say which edition on what pages and what questions and so on and so forth uh so that will be on the course outline slash syllabus something you'll also be it no losing my words you'll also hear it be called there we go and uh that just includes all of your course for the breakdown of the course and so on if we have time later we will go into more about the syllabus this is very important but for right now we have two questions in the chat so I'll start with the first one for my first week of class I have a discussion group before my first semester in one or first seminar in one of my courses do I go to the discussion group even though I haven't been to the lecture of the course yet so in my day that was a no but I'm not sure if that's changed I think it's a no I'm going to say a no um usually yeah so usually it's a no um typically what you do is you go to your first big lecture with the prof and all the other classes uh students as well and then you go to your discussion group um that's divided within the groups of the students hope that helps yeah you can't have a discussion about something that hasn't happened yet perfect okay and I've got a question for Q in the chat for Papam could you talk about the various co-op opportunities available please what jobs are available to students more than NGO or government etc uh for sure yeah so I'm actually in the co-op stream of Papam right now so my job is like I said earlier National Research Council of Canada so it's the government agency that focuses on science technology research and policy but speaking for NGO I have another friend in Papam who also did co-op with me and she's currently working at United Nations Association of Canada so that is an NGO type of scenario where she works to connect in humanitarian causes and things like that um for more government co-op positions there's there's endless opportunities I would say once again because we are the capital city um I've interviewed for like environment Canada infrastructure Canada um when I was going through the co-op process this year and last year there's just a lot of different types of things um it's it's more or less there's some that are targeted towards Papam students which will be the government departments but you can also apply for NGOs and things like that but there also are other opportunities to work with like banks and the finance and finance industry or you can also work with technology companies like Blackberry was actually hiring a bunch of co-op students so there's a lot of different wiggle room when it comes to co-op jobs whether you're looking for an NGO finance or government but there are countless number endless number of opportunities and I would say I really highly recommend going into the co-op process at Carleton because the faculty are great the staff are great everyone's always there to help you and you gain a lot of valuable skills. Stephanie can I just add a comment so I ran the practicum program for my uh for for my program it's a master's of political management they call it um so what Q has said is uh is absolutely right but although I would say that these opportunities aren't necessarily for Papam students uh like the government doesn't care if you're in Papam though I think Papam's great preparation so uh you know there is a Carleton actual a Carleton co-op office so you can check with them um and they can they can help you out um your department I'm not sure about these departments whether you've got a practicum or a co-op kind of within your own units but you could explore that and the government does have what's called F SWEP which is the federal student work experience I think is the acronym and there's a website you could check that out and a lot of students in who are in Ottawa you know apply for that and get end up getting jobs with the federal government and you don't have to be in Papam or in politics you know there's jobs for the public services a big place so you know if you have any interest that's worth checking out and finally I'd say there are if you are interested in politics there's lots of political opportunities you may never have been involved with a party but if you feel there's a party that you support getting out and volunteering you know on a weekend or two if there's a federal election coming up everyone thinks there is you could just go and volunteer and make some connections Q worked for a member of parliament there are lots of opportunities to either volunteer or work with MPs in some situations so there's a lot of stuff around here if you're interested in that sort of thing thank you Paul so I did put a link in chat from Lena thank you very much so that's the co-op link for the co-op office so feel free to check that out we do have a few more questions in chat however one just popped in based on this conversation so I'm going to go to that and then go back to the other questions so Serena says what's the difference between a co-op and a practicum and I'm pretty sure that's for Paul look you could use the word internship and have a third one I used internship and practicum interchangeably for 10 years and I still don't really know the difference co-op tends to be a formal kind of placement through an organization like you know the Carleton co-op office sometimes there's credit involved sometimes there's not academic credit but it's just kind of a notation on your transcript a practicum is maybe a I mean sometimes again it's an actual for credit thing sometimes it's not so these are used these are used kind of interchangeably if anyone has a firm definition then I'd let me know because I'd love to hear it thank you I can add to that I don't know anything about a definition or anything like that but in terms of the social work program for us we have practicums we have practicums third and fourth year third year is just two credits and so it's one full credit and fourth year is you either choose you either do a full year of practicums or you do half a year and like a thesis or anything like that so yeah it's basically just credits and just really great opportunities and experiences and once you've done your full year or your term in the practicum there's always opportunities at least I've heard within the social program from past students to actually continue working in that same job space and think like that so it's really amazing opportunity and there's also practicum opportunities not only within the campus but also outside as well so lots of opportunities thank you so we'll go on to our next question so this is for all ambassadors from Serena for fall term I have all my classes online and I'm staying in res where's a more private place to attend online classes just so she doesn't get in the way of her roommate who might have classes at the same time I guess I'll start I would say well mostly all the restrooms have study rooms on the floor essentially so I lived in Russell and there would be there was two study rooms on every like both sides of the floors essentially you can book the study rooms to go in and reserve it for a space to do an individual class or something like that along with that you can always go to res commons so res commons is where the dining hall is and where some classrooms are as well and you can reserve classrooms on Carleton space just for you to do a class in it and res commons also has individual desks that are pretty great and far apart from each other where you can easily do a class there as well but since the weather is nice I would suggest go to right outside river building and just sit outside near the water and enjoy the views that would definitely be my recommendation it's still quite nice in the fall so get outside online provide that very unique flexibility to be able to do that and it's quite nice to be out in nature and engaging with material you really like so that may be my recommendation not the best because winter winter does happen in Ottawa and stuff like that but that would be mine just add to what Hugh was saying so those are all also very good options and some of my favorite buddy study spaces for sure thank you both I totally agree and wish winter didn't happen but take advantage of the good weather while it's here 100% right so this is again for all ambassadors Matthew is asking what did you find was the most challenging adjustment in your first year and how did you deal with it um I can start this one off I think a big adjustment for me was just like the shift and differences in routine and it really just threw a curveball to me like in high school and elementary school you're quite used to being at school from 8 a.m. till 3 or whatever it be but now maybe you only have one class in a day and it's for two hours they be right in the middle so it's really important to recognize um certain little routines and certain um traditions if you will that that you thrive with and that really set your day up and continue those and implement those um to to make something new and to make a new routine something that works for you um that was a really big adjustment for me because I quite like the structure and I liked knowing like I show up at high school at 8 a.m. I have this class this class lunch this class this class then I do sports or hang out with friends or whatever and then I'm home kind of thing um so that was quite different um and a great opportunity to learn boundaries and stuff um and to be able to like respect what you need in your face and your kind of like downtime and your recovery time and when am I going to build that in so that was a really big adjustment for me and I'm not going to lie I didn't have it figured out for a while it was it was bumpy for sure um and that's okay because you don't have it figured out don't put that pressure on yourself and we're all in the same boat um I'll pass it off if anyone else has anything to add um speak to their their fluctuating periods of adjustments yeah actually I would love to add um not only is it routine a hundred percent it's just like to add a hundred percent routine totally totally all of that um but it's also within the class schedules itself um just like Ida said there's sometimes where you have days where it's just a one class it could even be a discussion class and it's like 45 minutes or an hour and a half or something like that and that's all you have and it's smack right in the middle of the day or 8 a.m or a 9 p.m 8 p.m class um those days trust me are the worst but they they kind of help give that balance I think personally um there's days where you have those classes where it's just one day one class a day and then there's the next day later it's you have five classes three classes something like that so there's always there's always a reason for it it always gives a balance but I think that I would also add is within within that routine you gotta find um another hard thing was the class times I was not used to three-hour lectures um I was not expecting three-hour lectures even um I know that a lot of the time is a lot of my older friends who were in university have been done doing university um saying that there are three-hour lectures and I wouldn't I didn't believe it at all I honest to god I didn't believe it um because I just never was used to it um but yeah it's something that is really worth getting used to and um something that does kind of I don't know I guess I I got used to it at least um it is something that you would get used to it I think so um but yeah I think it's a routine and just really learning about um the different times of classes and things like that thank you both those are great great advice uh so we do have a question in the chat and I'm going to direct it towards Q and that is from Sean saying what options will students have to participate in the fall election on campus thank you uh well to start off partisanship aside I am a vice president for CUIL which is the Carleton Young Liberals um I can just talk about a little bit of what we're doing and what the Carleton Conservatives are doing and the Carleton NDPs but essentially on a typical typical lecture and we would have our in-person debate where we invite the candidates of Ottawa Center where Carleton's writing is to come in and you know debate about the important topics that affect students um we are unsure if that you know in-person debate is still going to be happening but there will be some capacity of a debate where the candidates talk about like topics that matter to students um along with that uh I can talk about the Carleton Young Liberals we're doing a bunch of different canvassing events so we connect students who join the club to um you know candidates that are running in the Ottawa writings and we connect to you guys so you're able to go into the campaign office and um help campaign in different capacities whether it's phone banks or in-person door knocking and things like that um yeah so that's just kind of how you can you know leverage ways to participate in the fall election personally I remember when I was first year and the elections were happening in 2018 um I was able to connect with MP Catherine McKenna while she was running and then she invited all the volunteers from Carleton to this rally with Justin Trudeau which was really cool um and it was downtown and there was like free food and it was a good time so I would definitely recommend you know if you can whether your partisan beliefs are but you know get involved in some sort of capacity because um they really look at the Carleton students because we have you know Ottawa Center which is one of the most important writings um so we definitely have a lot of votes and things like that so they're always trying to leverage ways for students to get involved so I highly recommend if you're interested to participate in the fall election in some sort oh it's secondary um because of the snap election happening soon very soon you can also register or apply to be a poll worker um and Carleton does set up their own poll station so with the mail-in ballots I'm sure they'll be hiring many more students this year so it's a great you know work experience to be a poll worker and a returning officer and helping around with the with the counting the ballots and things like that thank you thank you Q very much appreciated um so we have another question from Sean and uh he asks I am taking both journalism 1001 and political science 1200 this fall journalism 1001 is part of my major and I'm taking political science 1200 just to see if I'm interested in it is this advisable thing to do so I'll start just really quickly on this one saying um something about advisable uh you have active advisors in your unit so these advisors you should see really once a semester but once a year at the minimum and they will go through something called an audit which is like a really in-depth report card and it shows what you did take with what grades and what you're taking now and they'll just go through to make sure that you're meeting the requirements for your graduation which is why we're all here in the first place so definitely um always sort of then to ask about the course or adding a minor or applying for co-op if you're not already in it so I'll leave it there and pass off to my ambassadors I personally would say definitely like see what's out there see what you're interested in you can always do a major and a minor you might want to pivot you might want to shift um I don't necessarily know the nuances of every program but usually there's some built-in capacity to have elective courses so even if you take some other random course just because you were like let's see if I'm interested and it's not for you and it's not it that can still count on your audit and on your transcripts when it's all said and done as elective um so personally totally what I I would do and I yeah I say go for it it's great definitely advisable um maybe the one thing I'd say is keep keep in mind is always prioritize like your major or your minor like the ones you're actually taking and not the interest courses um but definitely and definitely definitely um go get an audit go see your academic advisors they'll definitely be your best friend and like you're guiding light through all of them um I would like to add as well um so for me I for my program specifically like I was saying before it there's a lot of different opportunities in terms of where you want to go work after school um and surprisingly to my surprise there's a lot of classes either electives or within the program that are specifically regarding those different types of workplaces um I know in my first year I only had one um one mandatory course and then in my second year I had five uh so it was a big jump but it was the best jump I probably have ever been so far in this program um especially because of the of how specific the courses were um I remember two of my two out of the five were so far my favorite about the um families in Canada and also children's in Canada um so it was all related to children which I'm kind of working towards so it was a really great opportunity and knowing that I that there was that jump that needed to be done I knew that if I wanted to take a minor if I wanted to take elective courses that speak uh that piqued my interest or something that was cool or that I wanted to be with friends because I knew them and I was more comfortable with and they were taking a course that you know I didn't really need to take but I could have taken I would have been doing that in my first year because I had that wiggle room um compared to in my second year and so again yeah I highly highly recommend it if you have that space of course um because I just learned so much I remember taking an ASL American Sign Language course and now it's my minor and I don't regret it I love it so it's it's an amazing opportunity I really do I really do recommend that's great um I also did ASL American Sign Language um and it was very you know intriguing I never thought I would be taking American Sign Language and um part there's a question coming up and part of that is how professors act and how they can accommodate you better and things like that during my American Sign Language I broke my arm little difficult to sign with a cast on your arm and the professor was very forgiving very helpful and I actually learned how to sign both left and right handed so that's a cool thing that a lot of people don't know about so we'll get more into that question a little bit but we did have a question that I answered in the chat and Patrick asked if you get breaks during your three-hour lectures yes you get at least one break um if the lecture happens to be a little bit shorter that day the prof could just say hey everybody is okay if I just keep going and I'll let you out 30 minutes early or an hour early whatever and you'll take a boat so you'll always have a voice you'll always have a chance you'll get that break and I always use that break for food so keep that in mind um so Patrick also had another question and it's a two-parter so I'm just going to read it all and then pass off the ambassadors when I was registering for my classes for Pathum I noticed a lot of the mandatory first-year classes were second-year classes uh for example political science 2002 political science 2003 etc were these more difficult to work through and manage than the other first-year specific classes or were they generally similar and to that are the expectations from professors different or do they keep the same second-year expectations for first-year students for these classes uh I guess I'll start for this um yeah I had almost the same concern when I was looking in registering for Pathum classes is that the instead of taking first-year polyside we jump in straight to second-year polysides um so for polyside 202 and 203 they fully know and are aware that there are first-year Pathum students within the class so they're it's not like they're changing up the curriculum or changing up the levels but something I did that really helped me is I talked to my TA and my person in charge of my tutorial group and I let her know that hey I'm a first-year Pathum student taking this class um you know this is my first polyside class like is there anything I should do on the side to catch up and you know um I think the biggest thing is that the reason why the Pathum program makes you take uh makes you skip a polyside and go straight to second-year polyside because if you're applying to Pathum you're generally you know interested in politics and you have some sort of background whether it be socially, academically uh or anything like that so it's like we're just kind of going over the things that we already know and jumping to the things that we don't know so I wouldn't be too scared at all I know I was very confused and concerned at whether or not I was going to be performing to the expectations of the professors but they keep the expectations the same and you'll be able to strive through that class and you know the good thing is that you're with other Pathum students it's all the all the Pathum students have to take that together so you're with your cohort and I remember we created a group chat on Facebook and you know we were able to help each other navigate through the difficulties of that class and like I said the teacher assistants know that you know the you guys are first-years they they tend to ask us on our first class who are the Pathum first-years taking this polyside second-class so they know who to look out for to help additionally um so don't be don't be too concerned um you know just make it till you make it you'll do fine um if I can add also I've never taken those courses but in terms for my program specifically um when we jumped made that course made that course jump from one year uh one course mandatory to five courses mandatory um the two classes that I enjoyed most were the only ones to me personally that I had the best experience with um going into the semester I was a little more rough for the other few courses um but I realized I took that initiative and I realized that you know it was rough and I wasn't having that same um experience and I just I really just talked to my professors and when you talk to them they're a lot more understanding than you think they are and it was the same thing for me I didn't think that they would be understanding because they weren't understanding in the beginning I talked to them and they were understanding so it was it's hard and it's scary for sure I still am scared I'm going to my fourth year first semester and I'm still scared I'm meeting new professors I'm very scared but that's just the joy of it so don't worry about it you're not the only one I think another thing between um this kind of this isn't answering that question directly but kind of bridges that like when you're jumping between like first to second or second to third yeah it's a transition it might be nasty and it might be difficult but a lot of it's the pressure we're putting on ourselves and um like are we going to be good enough can we meet the standard but yes you can you've got to believe in yourself and you've got to show up you it's going to be work for sure and you've got to do it but don't take yourself out especially not before you're there yet like you're not don't worry don't stress don't worry about it until you're on campus until you're there because you don't want it to rob your summer it's it's not going to be that bad and you can do it a lot of it's coming from that pressure within and give yourself grace it is a transition it's going to be difficult some days you're just not going to have it it's just not going to be great and other days you're going to rock it but that's kind of and that's going to hold true always i'm going from third to fourth right now and i'm like oh my gosh fourth you're like uh but it's just another transition and we'll get through it you've got it be confident in yourself show up rock it fake it till you'll make it i'll use q saying can i can i make make a comment from a professor's point of view um one of my favorite movies is monsters ink do you ever ever watch that one you know the kids are scared of the monsters well the monsters are scared of the kids well it's kind of like that the professors are you know a little nervous too right being a professor is a performance art you're getting up in front of a class um uh you know so they're nervous they're nervous too it's a relationship thing um but i did want to say um we use the word professor but professors are it's a very very big category some of the professors you get are you know old uh people like me you know who are kind of getting slow and they may or may not be you know some are friendly some aren't maybe some are you know kind and everybody's different uh some professors are like full-time like they've been faculty they're tenured they're here for life some are younger they're hoping they're going to be around they're it's called tenure track but they're not quite permanent yet some are instructors they're not officially professors they might be phd students who are studying themselves they might be a contract instructor who actually has like a full-time day job uh maybe as an expert in the field and comes in and teaches because they enjoy teaching um they all have different standards and unlike in high school where you know there's a there's a provincial curriculum and they have to teach the curriculum every professor pretty much decides what they want to do and how they want to do it so um you know you might have second or third year courses that are you know really hard and some that are actually pretty easy it or a first year professor who's just like really hardcore you have to figure it out and again that means getting to know them um and understanding what their expectations are and if you have any questions about expectations or if you get a mark and you're not sure why then you're entitled to an answer you know do it in a friendly way but go in and and and ask and if you're not satisfied you can ask again and if you're really not satisfied you can write to me i'm kind of the vice principal and i you know actually deal with great appeals um so there is a process but you know you kind of have to feel it out but most profs are are friendly and helpful and they enjoy dealing with students just remember that professors are people too so i hope it's like to say it's definitely good to introduce yourself and we did have an an acronym pop up somebody mentioned ta that's a teaching assistant so they're upper year students or phd students that help out the professors and a lot of your discussion groups or labs will be with your ta so definitely get to know them they're there to answer your questions don't be scared it is terrifying but don't be us we did have a question come up in chat asking if i i can't remember who asked it i'll have to scroll up here anabelle asked if she should see an academic advisor in the next few weeks or months to kind of introduce herself set goals and then ask me how to set up that appointment so alina and i did put instructions in the chat so go to carlton.ca slash fk find your unit go to contact us or who we are and the staff will be listed and if you have a specific advisor for your unit they'll be listed there so you can email them instead of online appointment alina has also put in the chat the page for the academic advising so definitely look at that link as well get in with an advisor they want to see you they're waiting to see you they're passionate about helping you and you might just end up having a good friend through university to help you with your graduation check and just to make sure you're being successful so we don't have any more chats in the chat or any questions in the chat right now we do have five minutes left and i did want to go back and talk about course outlines in syllabus what's on them why are they so important and when do you get them for sure um the syllabus line whatever title your professor has chosen to use that is your guiding principle that's the blueprint that's where you go to find out what textbooks when stuff is due everything is laid out there so you can really prep and prepare and wrap your brain around it um i remember earlier earlier in our chat we're kind of talking about like you have to get used to the new times and the new timeline of stuff like midterms or like halfway through like two months in um so having it all laid out on your syllabus before write it on a calendar wrap your brain around it all the info there um you get them kind of like they kind of it kind of depends on the professor and how prepared and how ready they are to this content to bright space um but just around the beginning um so i wouldn't really expect them just yet and don't worry they'll they'll be on their way um but just as you're kind of getting settled getting into classes they'll definitely be there before your first class um one big tip i have with it is i always print my syllabus or syllabi i suppose um and i highlight them i write it all in the calendar so i have everything i even sometimes depending on the courses like say those courses that like have a weekly quiz that like is only like two percent that like you've got 12 of them i'll actually start crossing stuff off like we've done this check that off um they're just amazing they're the roadmap for everything then you can make sure you're on the same page as the rest of the class your professor and your ta's everybody's starting from the same position yeah um definitely what you just said um i always always love whenever i get my syllabus from any course i get um i've read away write it all the dates down and everything um but one thing that i'd like to add is that some professors also like to change some dates around so there's always a good idea to maybe near midterms or big assignments or even the exams um right before those big dates come up just double check the syllabus um or even ask you know your students your classmates or even email your professor and just say hey syllabus is still the same yeah okay cool thanks things like that it's just always a good thing to double check i've made that mistake so double check it my only thing to add is also like rubrics and outlines for projects and assignments are always listed in the syllabus so you'll find yourself throughout the year going back into seeing what they're marking for the specific essay and what they're looking for so it's always good to note this thing sound as well thank you yes very important i always print the syllabus highlighted it put all the key dates my calendar um i was old school and didn't even put them in my phone i had like a physical book that i carried with me and it just reminded me always seen that book oh i should check that there could be something coming up and i'm a procrastinator so it was very important for me so we are coming to the end of our session uh we did have a question about where to purchase textbooks in the chat q and i have answered that you can purchase them on campus at the bookstore used bookstores like Blacksboro cafe Hayden books octopus books if you um have to for some reason like self-isolate if they're coming in to the country soon um for attending carleton then amazon is your best friend you can find them new and used on amazon and you won't have to even leave your house for it you can also go on gg or the facebook groups um even friends if you meet some upper your friends or your ta's they could also be selling textbooks um you can also reserve them at the library as well but that's not only so i i definitely went to all these different things to buy my books that's what i preferred and wait until after your first class it's going to be stressful but just wait your professor could provide a free pdf so definitely wait before you buy your books you'll save money uh so thank you everybody um i had our ambassadors superstars over here putting their emails in the chat i've also put my email in there feel free to copy those down and ask us questions if you happen to miss the emails in the chat just feel free the person that sent you the zoom information for this call last night is me so just reply to that and i can either answer your question or link you up with one of our ambassadors from today um we are more than happy to continue answering questions if you think of any um at the end so all three ambassadors have put their emails in thank you guys so much and thank you all for being here today welcome to carlton i'm super excited for you guys to start it's going to be the best years of your life guaranteed um and i just wish you the best on all your journeys um if there's anybody else that wants to say some final closing comments feel free all right we're good well thank you everybody for being here and again feel free to email any of us with any further questions have a wonderful day everybody and have a good weekend good luck guys bye