Alright everyone thank you so much for
joining us today. As a quick note, we're
recording this session.
A copy of the event will be shared in
your Waterloo Ready LEARN course within
the next week.
Just a reminder for everyone that's
participating,
particularly for our panelists, if you
can just make sure your microphone is on
mute-for now that would be great.
Alright, also we think it's important
before we start today by
acknowledging that University of
Waterloo is on lands that are deeply
connected to the Indigenous peoples who
have historically lived, and who
currently live, in this territory.
These groups and groups include the
Neutral
Anishinaabe and
the Haudenosaunee peoples. The university of
waterloo is
located on the Haldimand Tract, the land
promised to the Six Nations that
includes 10 kilometers on each side of
the Grand River. My name is Michael Wood
and  I’m the associate director of
undergrad
in the School of Environment Enterprise
and Development and so
I am the de facto director of the
Environment and Business program
and I'll be your host today.
For today, what we'll be doing is we're going to go
through a slide presentation which some
of you may 
have seen on our web page.
Once we're done with the slide
presentation, we'll then
proceed with a panel Q and A discussion with
some of our esteemed guests who I'll
introduce in just one moment. We're
certainly looking forward to connecting
with all of our new Environment and
Business students.
If there are any parents or supporters
joining us today, we want to point out
there are a few resources that are
available specifically for you.
And it is my great pleasure to introduce
our esteemed group of panelists, so
as you will see as I mentioned before i
am
Michael Wood associate director
undergrad studies for the School of
Environment Enterprise and Development.
We also have joining us today you'll see
here at the top of your screen,
maybe each of our panelists can wave
once we uh
you know-once I introduce them. Cheri
Oestreich is the
Environment and Business academic
Advisor, so she is the go-to person for
all
questions related to your program, course
Selection, or any issues you may
have in terms of navigating your way
through the program.
We're also fortunate to have Bennett 
join us today who's a
2B ENBUS student and also the
co-president of the Waterloo
Environment and Business Society, so he's
excited to
be participating today and bring his
energy that
I've known that he brings to the
class and
back to when he started as a first year
sometime ago.
We're also fortunate to have two of our
senior Environment and Business
students with so Sam Kanemy.
Sam is also one of our superstar
students and uh
someone who has lots to contribute not
only to the program but also
to our community. And then also Lauren
Petropoulos.
She's also a fourth year Environment and
Business student
and the neat thing about both Sam and
Lauren is that they're just finishing up
their co-op right now-
they've been on an eight-month co-op, so
if you have any co-op specific questions,
you might want to ask them or direct
them direct those questions to them
specifically. Alright,
so let's get going. So
here are some of the questions we're
hoping to cover today and ultimately
what we're trying to do is-
by no means are we restricting ourselves
to these questions, but
really what this the spirit of what
we're trying to do is set you up to
succeed.
So it's about highlighting some of those
main differences between high school and
university.
We know that you're all high performers
in high school and we want to help you
in that transition to being high
performers in university.
Not only as students but also in your
growth as individuals.
So also, we're going to talk about what
is what expected of you as a 
Waterloo Warrior student. Also, some of
the important dates
-university is very much scheduled
around a pretty tight timeline
and so we want to give you that
information so that you'll be prepared
for what
is coming in the fall. Also we'll be
talking about
what courses are like, what you can
expect, and how those are
somewhat different than what you've
experienced to date, and then also
general information about navigating the
process.
So in high school your teachers may not
have required you to prepare for class
ahead of time.
That changes in university. What's
expected generally, is that you'll
prepare
before attending class, lecture, or labs,
or tutorials. Okay, so you'll be doing
that work ahead of time
preparing to understand what are some of
the concepts that we'll be covering
by way of readings. some instructors will
post their lectures ahead of time
so that you have a chance to understand
where the conversation is going.
What we typically see is that twenty
percent of the learning that happens,
will happen in the classroom and eighty
percent is independent learning.
Okay that's pretty much a direct flip
from how high school
Was-your high school experience, where 80
percent of that
learning happened in class or even time
within classes devoted to helping
you complete homework assignments and so
on. 
And 20 percent was left on your own to do that
on your own time.
So ultimately what does that mean when
we have this flip in terms of where
you're spending your time? What's
expected is that
there's going to be more independent
learning that's happening okay. This has
a big impact in terms of your time
management
and how you're navigating that work life
balance, and so that's what we want to
talk about today.
In some cases, you'll be on your own to
complete the readings or doing your
assignments.
In other cases, there may be group work
that's required and so
scheduling that and trying to connect
with your groupmates
to complete tasks becomes really
important. And so ultimately, what we want
to do is we want to create some good
habits around time management early on
so that the transition is that much
easier for you.
Okay. What we're going to do is we're
going to cover some of those strategies
Today.
But first off,  I’m going to just turn
this over to a question that I have
prepared for Bennett.
So I wanted to know since you’re closest
to making that transition from high
school to university,
what did you find was the most
significant difference between
high school and university? Well when I first
showed up in my first ENBUS
102 class we kind of- like I
was kind of thinking
the same thing about-you know, what am I
seeing and what I’m what am I going to
see that's different.
I would say the main thing that I really
noticed throughout my first
year was just the difference
in where support can come from.
So in high school it was very much the
teachers
were making the effort to support me and
reach out to me if they saw I was
I was struggling or any other students
Were struggling. They had a lot of the
coordination
responsibilities um you know they gave
you the deadline- they remind you
of the deadlines, whereas in the
university I found that
 relied a lot more on
other students um and
people in residential life uh dons and
stuff like that
um and it's kind of been more on me as
a student to seek out those resources.
They're not just going to be there for me
to
-or given to me and
no one's really looking after me besides
me and so it's kind of
on the students to
really make sure that they're accessing
those resources and doing everything
they can
to have a successful time for themselves.
Great thanks Bennett. I think that's a
really great
point and you know support services and
support
generally is something we'll cover as we
move through the presentation. Thanks
very much.
Okay, so this table that  I’m presenting
here highlights
some of the main differences between
high school and university.
Certainly it's important for students to
know that generally there is
less class time you'll note in terms of
the time that you're spending in the
Classroom, but it requires much more
time in terms of managing what happens
outside of that-
that structured time. And so what we mean
by this is that
really, there needs to be much like
Bennett was mentioning,
in terms of connecting to support 
through your studies.
It's also having that internal
motivation to keep yourself on track in
terms of completing tasks as required.
If for example, you're going to be a
student who's living on campus-
no one's going to get you up in the
morning, no one's going to
make sure you're getting to class on
time, no one's making sure you're eating
your breakfast, or
you know, engaging in all that self-care
that's so important.
And so routines and
establishing that time management is
critical.
It's typical for one -many of
you will,
certainly are the top performers in your in
your studies in high school
and one of the biggest challenges that
students have in that transition
is seeing their grades drop a
little bit.
So we typically see grades will
shift about 10 percent
from where they were in high school to
university and that's not because
you're not smart, but rather we're
training you in a specific way of
thinking and have different expectations
now. I’m going to pose a question to
Lauren
and so the question I have for you
Lauren, is what did you find was the
hardest adjustment
for you in your transition to university?
So it doesn't necessarily have to be
restricted to these
topics in the table, but if you
could speak to that that'd be great.
Yeah for sure, um I definitely think if
 I’m looking at the
topic in this table first, I would say a
big adjustment for me was
the weighting of different assessments,
especially based on
each different course that you're taking-
you're going to have different
distribution of types of assessments as
Well, so you may have more
assignment based courses or some courses
that will just have
two exams and really managing my time
based on that and figuring out how early
I would have to start studying and
reviewing my course material for
each of those assessments. And then maybe
outside of the classroom
I definitely found a big adjustment was
getting that
work and life balance, especially once
you start getting involved and maybe
extracurriculars,
after class, and also balancing that
social life,
um when you start to meet people through
your program or um
in other different curriculars that you
do at waterloo.
And then also when co-op comes into
Play, that's another thing that you would
have to start balancing, so
yeah definitely readjusting and figuring
out what works best
in terms of your study habits, but then
also balancing
everything else that comes in after that.
Great thanks, Lauren. That's awesome
yeah I think for each of
our
attendees today you'll see that there's
a reoccurring theme and
uh you know again the great uh panelists
that we have joining us today
with Lauren, Bennett, and Sam, 
they've all been heavily engaged and
connected
and are really strong students so we've
included them because
they're really great examples of
how to
structure that time and to be successful,
not only in the classroom, but across
all the different areas of life.
Alright, so when thinking about how
you're planning to use your time
this coming term, it's important to
remember to include some of the
following
tasks in your schedule, or at least keep
them in mind when you're thinking about
how much time you have
available. So it's common for us to
underestimate how
much time seemingly small tasks take and
how important they are to include when
you're estimating how much time you
actually have available.
So if you consider your first year
what you do before during and after
class will greatly impact your success
in the classroom. So how well you balance
your tasks, your academics, your work life
as we call it, will depend on you
and to Bennett's point right no
one's going to manage that for you.
That's something that
requires that you step up and you
you take charge of your own agenda. This
balance is important
and certainly a component to your
success but it's also important in terms of-
and relies on not only yourself, but
again
you're not in isolation, but to draw on
the support that we offer
ourselves as, you know myself, as the
Academic-
the program director, for Cheri as the
academic advisor, and for all of our
upper year students. We really do try and
support you through that process,
but ultimately, at the end of the day we
need to be thinking about
you know, making sure that we're paying
reasonable attention to all of these
different aspects, not just
completing our assignments on time.
Now a question for Sam. Knowing what you
know now,
what would you tell your first year self?
Yeah that's a really good question. I
think for me
looking back on the past you
know, four years of my life
um probably one of my biggest regrets I
would say
Is going into my first year and second
year
would be um you know, not capitalizing
so much on the academic resources that
my
professors and the university provides
Us.
So in high school I remember myself
you know, focusing so much on like oh
the marks like I just need to get this
mark so I can get into this program.
And you know learning was more so
about the marks than it was
actual like knowledge retention.
But then um I kind of carried that
mindset into
my first and second year, so I was
kind of you know just doing
what I needed to do to get the marks
that I wanted.
And I wasn't focusing on you know all
of the
learning potential that's being provided
to you by the university.
So really what I would say is
go into school into university
focusing on learning. Focus on learning
as much as you can because
um really what you're doing here, is
preparing for
real life. It’s this time that is meant to be
preparing you
for the workplace- preparing you for your
career.
And there's so many resources your profs
are going to be providing you with, so
Many, you know, articles- academic articles
that are
circulating. There's so much information
being provided to you,
so really, kind of, take that information
and really try to soak it all in you
know. Read the chapters and the
textbooks that the profs are giving
to you because
that knowledge is really going to
benefit you once you leave university.
Especially like in co-op jobs and stuff,
if you are knowledgeable on things that
interest you, you'll be able to implement
that into the workplace
and then you'll be able to, you know,
network yourself accordingly.
Um and I think that's really, really
important to do.
So kind of try to take a step back
if you find yourself getting stressed
about marks about assignments and stuff
like that
and just say okay the marks are not
what's important here- what's important
is  I’m learning as much as I can, and you
know, the topics that are interesting
to you, research them. Dive deep into them.
Ask questions. There’s so many 
people um in
the Faculty of Environment that are
there for you that know so much
information,
so take those resources and really use
them to your advantage,
and really try to prepare yourself the
best you can for the workplace.
So it's not so much about you know the
marks that you're receiving. Don't worry
so much about that.
Just try to focus on you know, what
interests you.
Dive deep into those topics and try to
learn as much as you can. Right Sam,
that's awesome.
and uh what awesome advice to have
coming into a first year.
Right, it's you know we- there's a lot of
effort made in terms of
developing that expertise and knowledge
and
coming up with creative ways to share
that knowledge and so that's a
really great point of-
you know, you get out what you put in
Right, and that's I think a
really important takeaway and uh yeah.
Thanks very much.
Alright, so now what we're gonna do
we're gonna just shift and have a look
at some of the expectations around
the Environment and Business program
specifically, so
the first topic that we're going to
cover, is looking at what your
first year suite of courses look like.
And so
for this you will have in the fall
four courses that are predetermined and
so you would have already been
pre-enrolled in those by the university.
You also have the option of one elective
and so, Cheri maybe you could speak to
some of the options that students have
uh you know and what’ popular
options that students have taken. Yeah
sure.
Um hi everybody. Um yeah, as Sam was
mentioning it's really good to tap into
other areas of
that you might be interested in. Some
popular electives that students
tend to take are psychology, French,
History, human resource management.
There's entrepreneurship courses…
This really is an opportunity for you to
dive into some other areas of interest
that you may have and you can get that
by doing that through your electives.
Over the four years you will
have 10 electives um
-like 10 courses that you get to
choose on your own.
Um and those courses are listed in the
undergrad calendar
-or the schedule of classes, so it
really is a broad spectrum of courses
that are out there for you to take it
kind of really depends on your own
Interests.
Great thank you.
Now it's also important I think to note
that
by no means do you do you have to take
an elective.
In fall semester uh some students find
that you know the transition from high
school to university life,
uh there's many different variables that
are changing.
Perhaps living in a new a new city, or a
new country,
living in residence, these are all big
transitions that happen and so
some students elect to just take the
four pre-registered courses and then
leave that
one elective that you can pick up at
many different opportunities along
your journey through the program. So
again, that's something that you could
have a conversation with Cheri about
to figure out what fits best and
you know she can guide you through that.
Great.
Okay, now in terms of the academic
Expectations. So
we have- there are 20 academic units that
are required for you to graduate and so
in the four pre-registered courses that
you'll be taking in the fall,
those each count as half a unit,
so after successful completion of those
four
you would have two academic units
Completed. We also have a minimum of four
work
Terms, so that's four four month work
Terms.
You have the option of a fifth as well.
And that's what both Lauren and Sam
are coming off of, so
they've done a double so two work terms
together which is their eight month work
placement which is 
in their last year before their last
year of courses.
We also have a minimum of uh four
professional development courses.
So these are courses that help you in
terms of preparing for
the job market, so specifically building
skills and knowledge and expertise in
terms of
being able to be successful in the
Workplace.
We also have work term reports which we
require
students to complete and this is really
the opportunity to reflect on your
experience
because the learning that happens is not
restricted as
to Sam's point is not restricted just to
what happens in the classroom.
Right, the learning that you'll have at
Waterloo
Happens- a lot of the learning happens
actually on
placement when you're out in the
workforce, but also
through your extracurriculars as well as
some of the other activities that
students engage in, but
it's- we've set it up deliberately that
work term reports
are a point to reflect on your
Experiences.
Also I wanted to highlight the
differences between what we have- our
cumulative overall average and our
cumulative major average.
So these are the minimum
requirements to stay
in the program um students often see
this and they get worried about it
right, but it's just to say if you find
that you're struggling or
you're close to that um that line,
Cheri and I can support you in trying
to figure out ways to
to shore up your average again. It might
mean reducing one of your courses
but we have an overall minimum
cumulative average of 65, so that's
across all the courses you've taken
and then we have a minimum accumulative
major average of 70, which is just
required courses of the program. Okay,
and everyone is required to take an
English language requirement.
hat's for domestic as well as
international students and that's uh
just so that we’re-
you're taught how to communicate
at a university level.
Get that wrong… There we go. Okay, we now-
as I mentioned at the outset, we have
important dates and course information,
so we'll touch on those right now.
So what you'll see in front of you now
is the slide that talks about some of
the important dates.
Okay, and as I mentioned at the outset, we
have really strict deadlines at the
University. 
If you're a day late and a dollar short,
it usually has a pretty negative
consequence.
In terms of whether you're trying to
for instance, add a class, drop a class
during those given periods, so
what that- and maybe Cheri, I’m going to
turn this over to you in terms of
explaining
what each of these means particularly
around the drops, because I think
students will
understand how to- what adding a
class means, but
if you could speak to that.
Okay um yeah. So the first one, drop no
penalty september 28th,
if you are finding your course work is
too heavy,
if you drop a course by this date, which
is really only three weeks into the
start of class,
the course comes right off your
transcript you get a hundred percent
refund for that particular course and
there's no penalty on your transcript at
all. It's like you've never signed up for
the course.
After that date, up until November
23rd it counts as a WD,
which stands for withdrawal and
basically that has no impact on your
transcript other than the fact that it
will show up as a WD.
At that point as well you get 50 percent
back of the course.
After the 24th of November becomes a WF
which you don't want to get to this
stage, a withdrawal fail.
A grade of 32 is calculated into
your average.
So it's really important to keep these
dates in mind
if you are experiencing too much volume
or looking at dropping courses, which
I would recommend that you reach out to
me first-
regarding dropping any courses and we
can have a discussion on how that looks.
Like moving forward
and basically like mike said before, you
don't have to take an elective first
term,
and when you do end up dropping some
courses if you need to it's
easy picking up courses later, either on
a co-op term, you can take a course,
your first term off. So you have some
options on picking up courses that
you've missed if you end up dropping
them.
Is that good? Great, great. Thanks Cheri.
Yeah that's excellent and I think
it's important to note that,
again you'll have these reocurring
important dates throughout your time at
university
and you can find that important dates
calendar is available on the Quest
website and it's not within your Quest
account per se, but on the actual Quest
Website.
Also these important dates will be
loaded into the Portal. Again, I'll be
talking about both these a little bit
later.
So what to expect in terms of classes.
So for this fall, given the current
Covid situation,
our classes will be held online so this
is different from
what most of our students have
experienced thus far,
as well as our professors, but anyway
what you can expect is
for the lectures that will be occurring
online,
most of them are being delivered
asynchronously, in other words they'll be
pre-recorded,
so there won't be a live component in
terms of the professor,
you know, you having to log in at a set
time to experience that particular
lecture.
However, if you were in class what you
would expect is that you'd have
anywhere from two to three lectures a
week
that typically will happen when,
you know, generally from an hour and a
half to
an hour. For those two to three we have
three hours of contact time a week.
Classes range from first year of
about 100
in my ENBUS 102 class up to about 300.
And so that can- that's pretty
standard for first year classes and then
as you
move along through the program, the class
size decreases right, to
you, know when you're in a third or
fourth year elective you maybe
have 30 to 40 students in your class.
Alright, and one thing that's going to
be important, again given that we're
going to be working remotely, is finding
a place that's comfortable for you to
Work,
so if that's in your in your dorm room
if you happen to be living on campus,
or if you have an office space or your
bedroom at home,
whatever works best for you, but it's
going to be really important to make
sure that you have that functioning
Workspace.
Okay, so some of the important
information
that you- can you'll receive, and again
this is set around the first day of
Lectures, but really what's going to
happen is it will be the first week of
class
right. Classes, given that they're online
this year, will be
set up in a weekly structure, but what
generally happens for that first
lecture is that you will have- you get
general information about the course so
what happens in the course,
which is
contained within the syllabus, navigating
the online material,
and then also being introduced to your
Instructor, as well as any TAs.
Teaching assistants are those, usually
upper year,
graduate students that are there to
support
the professor in a learning capacity, so
generally they'll be in some cases
tutorials that you'll
be meeting with other students
and the TA to go over questions
and to help you in terms of that
knowledge- Pardon me- content mastery
and building your knowledge around the
concepts covered in the class.
So I mentioned the syllabus, so again, 
this is others- and you may have heard
this before, a course outline, but
basically what this material includes is
all the important information about a
course.
So it will include the instructor's name,
their office contact information, office
Hours.
So in my case, I will be having live
office hours
come this fall, so that will be a time
where you can connect with me
if you have questions related to ENBUS
102 and
we can discuss those. Also what it
will include is a course description,
so this is a very general overview in
terms of what the course covers
and then also discusses some of the
learning objectives or learning outcomes
that we have for that particular course.
It'll also include within
this
all the required materials you'll
need so this would be
perhaps a textbook that's going to be
required or 
readings by week right, so that's
something again, where you can find all
that information in one place
as others have mentioned already in
terms of the assessment.
One of the important things is the
evaluation structure that we'll cover, so
that is
you know, do we have many assignments or
are there big exams that we
are administering, so that's something to
be aware of and
identify what are the expectations, but
also when those assignments are due.
And then also, we have a lot of the
institutional required
statements which relate to policies
around academic integrity
discipline and you know support services
available to students.
So the way to think of a syllabus or
course outline, is that it is really the
contract that you have between
yourself as the student and your
Professor.
You know for doing these particular
Things,
you will receive a grade right, and that
is the relationship that you have with
the professor.
Okay now in terms of some tips for
success.
So as we- you've heard from our 
panelists so far,
there are many things that we can
do in terms of setting up that support
right-
that helps us because you will
experience some lumpy times right; things
are going to get busy
and you know this transition from home
life to university life,
in terms of your geographical location
may not change,
but just in terms of the expectations
and the dynamics
will change. So as we mentioned the
university is different
and so it's going to require a little
bit
you know, different attention to some
of these transition points.
What's interesting is, you know, you may
find that,
you know, as you're going through that
you see that
you're working really hard and, you know,
maybe struggling with some of the
material where some of your friends or
colleagues,
you know, they have more free time than
you right.
And that's okay right. Everybody's
running their own race
Right. This is it's completely normal
that some people are going to,
you know, find certain concepts or
certain aspects easier.
Maybe you're a really good writer right
and one of your friends isn't.
Maybe you're really good at working
in teams when other people
may find that a real challenge working
with others right, so it's okay that
that be different, but what's interesting
to note is that
you know, in contrast to high school
you are all bright, smart, talented
students
because you wouldn't have been accepted
into university
had you not been. Okay and so what's
different is that
in contrast to high school where you
were surrounded with students
who may have put in effort may not have
put an effort in terms of their studies,
but now you're surrounded by peers who
have all put effort in
right, and so you're all bright, you're
all talented, but that's
you know, that's why we come
Together. We're able to push each other
in that learning
environment and it's just to
say that, you know, we're there to support
each other through this process. Not only
across, you know, the cohorts, so from
upper year students to
first-year students, but then also in
terms of professors and
our support staff as well. So
as Bennett had mentioned, some of the
important
-uh you know having to seek out support
is really an important part of 
University.
So you've met Cheri, uh she is the
person to go to in terms of questions
related to program requirements, your
course planning,
your course load if you feel it's too
Much, as well as academic
support in general. Are you requiring uh
perhaps some guidance
related to test taking or time
management right. We've heard that's a
really important topic
that we all would benefit from.
Also in terms of the academic and life
Skills, so we have a great resource on
campus called the student success office
and they provide all kinds of great
support whether it's through uh
you know helping us with working through
teams or
being able to through the writing and
communication center helping us
communicate or work on papers that we
might have for our courses.
Also from a social perspective, we have
environmental
-the faculty environment has peer mentors
and what the peer mentors do are there
to help
support you through this transition. Ae
also have, as I mentioned at the outset,
Bennett is
representing the Waterloo Environment
and Business Society, so WEBS, you'll hear
a lot about them and  I’m sure
Bennett will give a plug a little bit
later in terms of the exciting things
they have planned for the fall.
And then also more generally across the
University, we have the Waterloo
Undergraduate Student Association, WUSA,
and so this is the
the body that represents all undergrad
students across all six of our faculties.
We also, as we mentioned, work-life
balance is a really important part right.
So this relates to
wellness and so we have counseling
services that are there helping you in
terms of,
you know, should you provide- should you
need support or you know as times get
Tough,
this is one of the great resources that
we communicate with regularly.
Also, in terms of health services, if you
happen to get sick
should you be living on campus and then
also in terms of our athletics
programs that we have available in clubs.
As well, all important. Uou can see the a
very well-rounded
approach to your university experience.
Okay, so again, as I mentioned, uh one of
the big challenges that we're trying to
instill in you at this point, is the
importance of finding
balance so when we think about this,
you know simply working harder doesn't
always equal better results,
right. We know, and research supports this,
that creativity
actually is enhanced if we take breaks
Right, and those breaks could be oh i
want to go to the gym, or I’m going to go
for a run, or I’m going to go
for a walk or, I’m going to get, you know,
Play,
you know if you're a gamer right, get
back into your character
whatever it is for you, um but it's
important to take those breaks.
It's also important to schedule in time
for fun, right. This isn't just about-
we don't- we're not training robots to go
out and
just you know, work, work, work all the
Time; it's about making sure
and getting the most out of your
university experience. So as Sam
mentioned
Right, it's you know, not only embracing
like the knowledge and information
that you have at your disposal,
but you know, taking advantage of getting
to know your peers
and you know, we come from all different
walks of life all- different parts of the
globe
and you know being able to learn from
each other and
have time to share together and have
some fun is really, really
Important. This is the only time, believe
it or not, that you'll be surrounded by
people who
of your own age, with similar interests,
who are on the same schedule,
so if there was ever a time to you know
find an opportunity to
to build those connections, to build
those relationships.
I still have friends of mine that I had
from when I was in first year university
and it's because of this parallel in
terms of interest,
scheduling, and age.
And also finally, you know, how do we find
that balance? And one of the things I was
going to turn this over to
our panelists just for a quick
Comment,
so maybe just in one or two words 
we'll go through each of you, so Bennett
if you could go first. How do you find
Balance?
For myself, you know it's very,
very individual, but for me, I like to
structure my work day in terms of a nine
to five job,
so I will plan out my week with all the
Assignments,
Readings, meetings within my nine to five
Schedule,
so that after five pm, computer goes away
and those things that I need to do to
keep myself
healthy and my mental health up and
the physical health-
all those things happen after, so it's
like a typical work thing
Right. Great thanks Bennett. That's
awesome and sets you up really well
for
co-op right, because that is going to be
typically your work day right, so
it's not only what happens in the club
while you're on campus but also when
you're in the workplace.
Okay Lauren.
Yeah I would say to find balance, I've
definitely had to learn
how to prioritize myself and what that
means for me. So
I do like my alone time. For example,
getting to
sit down and just read a book I enjoy or
watch a movie, but then also, I've really
found that
being around friends and having 
those social experiences really do
benefit me and
really leave me energized for the next
Day. So
even in the pandemic, doing like,
scheduling
virtual game nights or just scheduling a
chat or a Netflix party with friends-
we've- I've actually been doing that with
the co-op students
from this summer, so that's been really
nice to just kind of keep 
those social interactions going. Even if
they have to be virtual or
in a distanced situation.
Great. Thank you. Sam?
Yeah for me, much the same as
Bennett
and Lauren, but I think it's
really beneficial to me to
schedule in things that I enjoy.
So usually during school, you know,
I'll have a set
you know, workout routine that I'll do
during the week and I'll have set times
that I,
you know, do things other than school, so
have set times for
you know prayer, I'll have set times for
working out,
and i'll have, much like Bennett, I won't
allow myself to kind of do work on-
like a Saturday night. That will kind
of be like my one night where it's like,
Okay, I’m off.
And if I have like a big midterm on
Monday, I'll still try my best to kind of
Like, you know take that time
Off, just to kind of reset my brain, so
that I can you know go full force the
next morning.
And it's really important for me to you
know kind of wake up early in the
Morning, so that I have
time to do all of these things you know,
make my bed,
something as simple as that so that I
can you know, be focused
and kind of you know motivate myself
through small things like that.
That's great. Thank you very much. Those
are all really great recommendations and
it's not surprising that you are all
successful students as well as
successful colleagues and peers, so
it's- that's great. Okay, so as I mentioned
some of the
resources that you have uh at your
Disposal,
you know one of the other tips for
success is making sure that we're
familiar with all of our- means of
Communication. So Waterloo uses
these four main vectors for
communicating with you.
So Quest is where you can pay your
tuition, enroll in courses,
see final grades, request transcripts, and
all that kind of
information. Your Waterloo email address
is going to be really important, as this
is the main form of communication
between professors and staff
to you. So we generally don't respond to
email if it's from a Gmail account for
example,
because we don't know that it's actually
you, so that's important to- if you
haven't yet
logged into your UWaterloo email,
please do so.
And what many students do is they'll
actually forward email
from their other email sources or
from their UWaterloo account to
their primary email account, just so
that you're not missing any of that
really important information.
Portal is where you'll connect relating
to anything from
where you can volunteer, or
extracurricular activities,
different food options that you have on
campus, bus schedule…
All that type of information that really
relates to living on campus
if you will and experiencing campus.
Whether you live here or
you just- you're living off campus and
then coming to campus.
And then finally, LEARN is where this is
the portal for all of your online
learning
uh whether you're in class or we're in
an online environment.
This is your primary uh mechanism for
submitting assignments,
as well as for completing any online
Course. So again, we've talked about
seeking balance.
Again, I’m going to turn this over to
Cheri because we've touched on most of
these points already,
but Cheri what in 
your experience,
within your role as an academic advisor,
do you think is the most important skill
for students?
Uh in being successful at uni,
um that's a good question um I would say
basically
find out what makes you happy
and time management. Time management is
huge,
as mentioned from all three other
students.
Planning time for your work for your
school for your social life
and just trying to find the right
balance between all of those things.
I know I've written out a lot of time
management schedules for students and
they
actually end up realizing how much time
they actually have in a day
and if not, in a week to be able to you
Know, sleep seven hours,
study for seven hours, and they still
have like seven hours of extra time that,
you know, you can spend doing something
you know, creative getting involved
doing something social. It's all about
kind of,
finding out what makes you happy and
trying to plan that all
in, I guess all together.
Okay, that's great. Thank you. Time
management is for sure one of the most
important things that I see with
students
and you know students that come in with
good
discipline in terms of scheduling their
time
often have a much easier transition to
university life.
Alright and now one of the things that
we wanted to talk about
is around the-
so as I mentioned before, one of the
ways in which you can become more
effective and
you know, each of our panelists has
touched on the importance of time
management to varying degrees,
but one of the ways that we can do
that
and to be successful at that is to break
Down- you heard Bennett for example, talk
about each assignment and
you know readings that he had built into
his nine to five schedule
Right. What he's done is he's breaking-
broken down those big
assignments into smaller manageable
chunks right, so that it's not such a big
task to- oh I have this big paper coming
up and now i-
you know, where do I begin right. Also,
in terms of you know as we think about
that by 
breaking those things down and planning
and having good time management,
what it does, is it decreases that
Procrastination, so what we mean by that
is because the tasks are smaller
and more manageable, it's less
intimidating to start it right.
You're not jumping into writing that
10-page paper straight away.
What you're doing is saying ah what is,
what is the
you know, the topic that I want to write
on, or what's my thesis statement, and  I’m
going to
work on that and think about that. What
are some of the readings that I could
pull in
and start structuring uh you know an
outline for that particular assignment
Right. So breaking those pieces down into
smaller tasks
decreases that procrastination. Also, we
find
what it does is it ultimately will help
increase the motivation because
now you're not just stuck doing those
small tasks what you're doing is you've
now
created space as each of our panels have
mentioned to do all those other
important things
Right, as opposed to just being work work
work all the time. You're able to
balance and manage life as it comes
to you.
What this ultimately does because we're
able to
have a greater hold on our approach
to
our studies as well as our life is that
it ultimately is going to decrease our
Stress.
One of the things that that leads to is
for many of us
you know it's the opportunity to get
some sleep which is something that
you know you hear stories about
students pulling all-nighters.
I've pulled several in my time
before I had good time management skills.
And so one of the things that we want to
do is and to be mindful of is that when
we get busy or when we get stressed,
often our self-care
and those things that actually fill up
our tank
and help us manage stress, fall to the
wayside and so one of those is sleeping
Well,
eating well, getting exercise, taking time
for mental health, or prayer.
Whatever it is for you these are all
important things
that that can that help you in that
regard and important to schedule them in
and to not let them slip off the table.
And you know at the end of the day what
does that mean? You become more
productive you become more efficient in
terms of how you use your time.
Okay so what I want to do now is we're
going to turn to
uh our chat and see some of the
questions that have come in. If you
have any questions now, please feel free
to post those.
We're excited to answer them. We have-
you have our attention; our undivided
attention for the next 12 minutes or so
and we'd be excited to answer
any questions you may have.
Just will we wait for some questions
I just thought I would mention
one more thing. In first year I
was unaware of all the minors that you
could take
and you know certificate options that
are available.
So Waterloo has a really great web
Page,
I can try to link that, that lists all
the opportunities for minors and
certificates that you can get throughout
the four or five years that you're on
Campus. And I would strongly suggest
doing that because there's so many
interesting things
that you can go into, such as you know,
international development, geography,
legal studies, econ.
The list is pretty big, so if you find
something that interests you in first
Year,
you know really consider doing a
minor and start that early so that
it's not you know pushed back till
fourth year where you have to get all
those courses in.
That's great, Sam. Thank you very much.
Yeah, if you wanted to post that
link to me or to all attendees,
that would be great.
And then we can- they can have
access to that.
We do have a couple questions that are
coming in, so I see one
from Jordyn. Jordyn is interested to
know
do you recommend getting textbooks
prior to classes or after the first
class?
Maybe each of you could- I see Bennett
was shaking his head, so maybe-
did you want to make a comment. Yeah I
would love to.
 I’m a strong proponent of getting the
textbooks after 
the syllabus week.
You know there's- each professor
teaches in their own way and will use
the book to a varying degree,
so getting a feel for what that's going
to look like and what your year might
look like in terms of
you know basically learning straight
from the book like I do for my human
resources class right now
or if it's a class like ENBUS 102
which is
more provided article focused
you know. I even shared a textbook
for INDEV with my buddy
because I knew that we could manage the
readings together and we could save some
money on that, so
 I’m a big proponent of holding off. Okay
that's great.
You'll be excited to know as well for
ENBUS 102
of I mentioned before, I’m the instructor,
there will be no required textbooks.
all of the readings and resources are
Available,
free of charge to you, so that's
something that’s done
deliberately to make sure that you know,
you can-
i think that probably from the
experience I've had with my former
students that you know how to spend your
hundred dollars better than I can, so
yeah. We'll keep the money in your
Pocket.
So we have a couple other questions
here so uh
Meadow asks a question. In what year do
you select a minor or how do you do that?
Cheri did you do that? Yeah I can answer
that I was just turning on my microphone.
I'll send out information in second
year.
It's basically there's a form
you basically fill it out, and it gets
added on to your Quest account.
Again there's so many options and
Minors. The one that Sam
is sending out, is that for just
environment, Sam?
Uh no, I believe it's for all of them
and it also has the certificates as well
for the Faculty of Environment. Yeah it
has the Faculty of Environment ones, but
it also has 
all the minor options available at the
University of Waterloo. Oh wow.
Okay, yeah. Because like- well Sam is
mentioning there's
many to choose from. From biology to
accounting to
history. And they all kind of have
different requirements.
A lot of them require between eight and
ten courses meeting a 65 or 70
average and a lot of students will do at
least
one minor. Some can fit a minor and an
option
in or a minor in a specialization,
so that that'd be a good link to have.
Okay thanks, Cheri. And I think that also
answers Selma's question,
which was how many electives do we
need to make it a minor? And again on
that it will depend
on the specific minor, but that link that
Sam has shared in this in the chat will
provide that information, but again
Cheri is a great resource and can
can talk to you when the time comes
about making that selection.
Many of our students I would say, and by
no means am I encouraging you to go this
route, but
many students decide that they want to
have an econ minor-
economics minor for example, that's
one that's quite common, 
so again that would be something that
Cheri or
other upper-year students can also
provide some guidance on.
Okay yeah, I’m doing right now actually-
Dr wood,
I’m currently filling up that form
myself to do my econ, I’m
taking 206 which is about banking now so.
Cool. Well good choice.
I wish you fun on that journey. I mean I
would just add to that the econ minor is
a little bit easier to get because
you're already taking
three or four courses within the EB
program,
so a lot of students will add that
particular one because they only need
four or five extra econ courses.
Great thanks Cheri for highlighting
that. That's awesome
naheed asks us a question here. As
students registered in co-op programs,
what do you think is the most
we can do to make sure we secure our
first co-op job?
You know and I remember each of
you
in that first period when you're
you're getting lined up for interviews
and the stressful time that comes, but
yeah this is a great question, nikita.
Thank you because it
you know, what can students
do to set themselves up for
a successful first co-op?
I think for co-op for your first
co-op,
never like cut any job out of your
options,
so there's gonna be- you're gonna
think that you have an idea of what you
want to do,
but there's so many options out there.
Try not to limit yourself.
Apply to jobs that you might never have
thought that you would enjoy
because your first co-op that gives
you time- you still have time to
you know, really see what's out
there, what options you have, what you
Like, what you don't like, gain experience,
and network yourself, so really just
don't put any job off the table.
Apply to things that
you know, you might not have expected to
apply to
and take every interview seriously 
because
if you only get matched with one job
then
you know, you don't want to have to like-
you don't want to blow that interview-
kind of thing- that opportunity, so
really
try to do as much as you can, but don't
get stressed about it.
Just don't limit yourself based on 
you know, thinking you know oh I’m too
good for this job or something like that.
Apply to the jobs that you think you can
get and even the ones you think you
can't get because you never know what's
going to happen.
And I'll just add on to that it's
actually good to have jobs that you
take that you actually don't like
because then you know what you don't
like
and what you do like. You might have
thought you wanted to do something and
then you do it and you're like yeah this
is not for me, so it's good to have
you know, experience different jobs um
out there as well.
Yeah, exactly like the job that I’m in
right now is not related to our program
at all really.
It's still environmental science but
it's not really related to the business,
sustainability aspect of it
and I love it, so I never would have
expected myself to be in this job, but I
am and I love it. So the unexpected
things will come,
so just be open to that. Yeah, excellent
just another quick thing to add onto
the already great points that have been
discussed,
something that really helped me in my
first round of co-op applications was
taking advantage of
upper-year students, especially in in the
Environment and Business program, but
also
any other upper year mentors or leaders
that I knew.
Just because they're an amazing
Resource. They've already gone through
maybe multiple
rounds of co-op applications and they
can also help me-
help you to maybe tweak your resume or
give you
a bit of advice for a cover letter that
you're writing, so
I really thought that was a great
resource that helped me 
in my applications. And they can tell you
their experiences about
maybe interviews that they've had or 
different
rounds of applications that they've done,
so I think that's
a really great resource to have. Yeah, for
sure and also another point
um is you don't have to use Waterloo
Works to find a job.
You can look for your own job,
so you can network yourself, you know, if
you have family, friends, or something
that,
you know, are working somewhere that
interests you, you can just contact them.
See if they would like to hire a co-op
and kind of
take it upon yourself to get to the
positions that you want to be in.
I have gotten multiple outside jobs
not using Waterloo Works, so if you have
the time to do that
and look into other options that are not
available in Waterloo Works. I would
strongly suggest
doing that and networking yourself that
Way. Hey, that's great thank you
panelists.
Some great insights there. Maybe
for our last question- we have a couple
minutes left before we're going to be
wrapping up.
The last question that- it was one
from Callista.
And what are some of the examples- so 
Sam 
you mentioned the job that you're
currently in, but maybe we could
hear some- what are some of the other
jobs that students typically
have access to through co-op? So you can
speak about your own experience for
Example, maybe we'll just go through each
of the panelists
and you know just a brief comment each
would be great. Lauren?
Yeah, co-op has been really great for me
just because of the range of experiences
I've gotten to take,
so I've taken a mix of co-op jobs. One
co-op job I did was with
a tech startup company and that was
really a data and analytical role and
although I did like it, I i did kind of
prefer
roles that had more of that
environmental or sustainability
component.
And my last two co-ops have actually
been rated related to government
positions,
related to renewable energy and 
programming and funding for Indigenous
communities
throughout Canada so I've kind of
from-
kind of a chance a switch in my co-op
applications
and an interview that I had for my
second last co-op,
I found something that I was super
interested in that I really didn't know
that much about
and now it's something that I’m really
catering the rest of my
university courses to and maybe possible
masters
options too. So it really can switch your
whole
perspective just from one different
co-op term that you have. Yeah, so I
uh I've just condemned- I’ve just done one
term so far i've been right my 2B
so it's like summer turn between
two co-op terms uh my first term in back
when the winter I was with a
manufacturing company.
Uh they made barbecues and I did
customer service for them like a call
center job.
Pretty, you know, standard first
kind of co-op. Didn't get too much
chance to contribute, but my second co-op
which will be this Fall, I'll be working
with Petro Canada
Lubricants in Mississauga and some 
data work
in their environment, health and safety
department,
so I have like a very, very business type
not very sustainability focused and now I have
one that's more of like the
sustainability within the corporation
focus.
Okay great. Thanks, Bennett. Sam?
Yeah so my first co-op I found
outside of Waterloo Works
at a consulting company doing, you
Know, mostly environmental science stuff
like hydro geology,
you know, kind of assessing um
where like- it's not really related to
our program, but I found it really
challenging and really interesting
because it's,
you know, consulting is very high-paced
environment that you're working in.
So that job, I have now I’m actually
doing it again I returned for my
last co-op and I enjoy it because it has
it has the option of, you know, doing
field work
as well as doing in-office work and,
you know,
data analysis and there's a lot of
chemistry involved in
in the job, you know, water quality
assessment and stuff like that.
Um so even though our program is not
directly 
related to the kind of environmental
science
portion of it, that's still a very 
open possibility that you can get into
those types of things if that's what
interests you.
And there's also a lot of earth
science courses at the faculty
at Waterloo that you can take, so you're
not really restricted to
the courses within the Environment
faculty. You can branch out
and kind of, you know, wherever your
career takes you or these co-ops take
you,
you can take courses that align with the
jobs that you want.
And then also I had a job working at
a pharmaceutical company implementing
their
environmental management system. You guys
will have a course on that.
That was very related to the program
It was
literally exactly what ENBUS is and
I found it fun, but it wasn't challenging
enough for me, so
I decided to stick with the consulting
route, so I’m doing that now. And I
also took one co-op off,
which is an option to all of you.
Would not recommend doing that in your
first or second because
if you can't find a job in the next
term then
you're kind of screwed in that
aspect.
So later on in like your third and
fourth co-ops,
if you want to take a co-op off to
either regroup, or to travel, or to,
you know, get involved in different
things you can-
that option is also available as well.
Thanks, Sam.
Those are all really great. Yeah, great
experiences to share and thanks so much
uh for where we are now. This wraps up
our live chat
and we're so happy that our
attendees, you could join us today. Thank
you so much for the great questions.
I hope that you are feeling excited
and empowered
that we're here to support you
in your journey that you're embarking on
at the University of Waterloo.
A special thank you to our panelists,
to Cheri, to Lauren
Bennett, and Sam, thank you for your
sharing your time expertise and
knowledge
with all of us and special thank you to
both Leslie and Limei for
helping facilitate the discussion so I
wish you all a pleasant day
and we look forward to seeing you in
September. Thanks so much!
Bye!
