Tag Archives: involvement

Imagine – As a MUG Leader

This year was my first time participating in Imagine Day as a MUG Leader. It was a very different experience from when I was a new student, but I’m definitely very glad I did it!

The training days on Sunday and Monday were really fun, and charged with faculty pride. Music had the best cheer! I really enjoyed the training days because it gave me a chance to get to know the other leaders from my faculty and make some connections; as a harpist, we’re sometimes a bit isolated and in the last couple years I found it difficult to make very many connections within the school. Now I have more people to wave to in the hallways!

Imagine Day itself was fantastic, as always – although we got off to a bit of a confusing start. We were told to go to rain locations, but it was only a little drizzly, and most people were just going to the sun location anyway, but eventually we found most of the people in our MUG groups and people who got mixed up were able to join up with other groups. I had a lot of fun giving the campus tour, and I think my muggies have a good knowledge of the parts of campus they’ll use often. It felt good to be able questions they had about the coming school year, to be that person with experience. I had a lovely group of mostly opera singers, and by the end of the day I felt kind of attached to them. They even gave me hugs at the end of the day! *warm fuzzies*

One thing that felt the most different to me was the pep rally. I remember it being incredibly exhilarating, hugely inspiring, and being excited and cheering as loud as I could. This time around, our faculty was kind of quiet… (come on, guys…) The main difference this time for me was the lack of awe. The speeches were moving, the presenters were great, but it didn’t have that same effect.

I think that probably this is because I knew what was coming, and also because I’ve already experienced what it’s like to be at UBC. I wasn’t the one being newly enveloped in this big magical and promising world. The way I thought of it was like a new student seeing through a straw, and then the pep rally slowly expanding their vision. This time, I already had a panoramic view, so while the pep rally was great, it didn’t feel as though I was getting a new and improved set of eyes.

However, Imagine Day left me feeling energized and excited for my own school year. The speeches given at the pep rally reminded me that UBC is really an amazing place; it’s still as amazing as I thought it was on my own Imagine Day, and that it’s up to me to make the most of my time here.

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A Face in the Crowd

For the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking. (I know, an abnormal occurrence at a university.) On Saturday I attended the March Welcome Event for MUG Leaders, and there were two things that happened that made me reflect on how I’ve been spending my time at UBC. The first was when one of the coordinators said: “Think back to August before you came to UBC. What were you excited about? What were you afraid of?” The second one was re-watching old Imagine Day pep rally videos.

These things reminded me of when I entered UBC: inspired and wanting to pack each day as full as I could with new experiences so I could really make this amazing campus mine, and so that I would be someone who was a part of UBC, not just a face in the crowd. I think I did a pretty good job of that last year; I attended lots of events, got pretty involved, met lots of people, did lots of exploring, and really delved into my studies. It was easier then, though; I lived on campus and everything was right outside my bedroom door.

Now, in my second year, though I practically am still living on campus, not living in residence can make it more of a challenge to be involved and become part of a community on campus. The beginning of the year was new and exciting, with new courses, and living in a new situation and responsibilities to learn to navigate. However, this year I feel like I settled in after a while. I didn’t go to as many events, and though I am involved in a couple of clubs and am continuing to blog, I didn’t take on anything really new and I’ve spent way less time exploring campus. I’ve become a little bit of a commuter student who wants to get home as soon as possible.

I recognize that I am an introverted person and that being the next chair of the SLC is not something that I would enjoy, but next year I resolve to try at least one new thing. Whether it’s a volunteering position or a new club (sailing sounds interesting?) or a work-study position, I want to do something more to be part of my university. After all, I’ve only got two more years left!

I realize that it’s a bit late for me to do much this year, but I have taken the step of running for (and winning) the position of treasurer of the Knitting and Sewing Club. It’s a fairly small club so I don’t think it should take so much time that I can’t get involved in other activities, but it’ll be one more thing I’m actively involved in.

For the remaining month or so before summer, I’ll be heading over to our campus’s lovely gardens – the Nitobe and Botanical Gardens! I’m particularly excited for the Botanical Garden – the rhododendrons are blooming and they’re my favourite flower :) And maybe in between exams I’ll find some time to explore Vancouver, as well. I still haven’t done the Grouse Grind or the Capilano Suspension Bridge! Samantha, time to get your butt in gear!

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I’ll be a MUG Leader Next Year!

I opened my email Friday afternoon, saw the subject line pop up in my inbox and hurriedly scrolled down the message to see

“Congratulations! 

We believe that you would be an excellent addition to our program this year, and we would like to offer you the position of:

Music MUG Leader”

Yay!

In two weeks I’ll get to attend a “March Welcome Event” and meet my fellow MUG Leaders, and I’m sure it’ll be one of those fun and spirited days that become one of your UBC experiences you’ll always remember. I’m looking forward to it!

I’m super pumped for next year’s Imagine Day already. This past year, I wasn’t a MUG Leader, so I kind of wandered around campus, feeling the energy of the day but not directly being a part of it, and I kind of regretted not applying to be a MUG Leader last spring. But next year will be different! I’m already excited to meet new music students and get to know them a bit and be a part of their first year (first day, even) at UBC.

I remember Imagine Day as being incredibly energized and inspiring, and the first day that I really felt as though I belonged on this campus. If I can be part of that again, and also create that experience for someone else, you can count me in!

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The Value of Involvement

This afternoon I had the pleasure of being part of a workshop brainstorming ideas about how UBC should organize its approach to getting more students involved on campus. A lot of great discussion was had, and I really want to comment here on how different kinds of involvement are valued.

First of all, I think it’s important to broaden what we define as “involvement.” Yes, starting your own club or heading a committee is an involvement, a huge one, but sometimes it can feel like if you aren’t doing a BIG thing, it doesn’t count.  Something like going to one of the gardens on campus, seeing a play, attending an event, or just showing up for a recreational club meeting (you don’t have to be on the exec!) all count, in my books.  There is a broad spectrum of depth of involvement, ie. how much time and commitment an activity takes, but all should be counted and valued equally.  For example, someone commuting and taking six courses is probably not going to have the same amount of time to spend doing extracurriculars as someone taking three courses and living on campus. If the six-course commuter gets involved by attending the occasional AMS event or club meeting, there is nothing “less” about that in any way than the three-course rezzie being an SLC co-chair. They’re just different experiences, and both are important.

Secondly, the type of activity one is involved with can sometimes vary in value.  I am going to use myself as an example this time: personally, committees tend to drive me nuts, and while I commend those who love charity work, it’s just not for me. My life can be a hell sometimes, and I want involvement to be an escape from that, just to be fun. To be a place where I make/be with friends. I want to help myself. If that’s selfish, well, quite frankly I think that’s a rude label because all human beings are selfish at some time, so excuse me for being selfish. So I joined knitting club. Now personally, I don’t think that joining a recreational club should be any “less” than say, joining a club that fundraises for cancer research, or being a residence advisor (also not my thing).  Wanting to get involved for the sake of finding your “people” or your “home”, or just purely to have fun, does not make you a worse person, or a less important person, than someone getting involved to give back to the community or hone a skill set.

The main thing I’d like to see more of, I suppose, is all involvement in its myriad forms to be recognized equally.

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Getting Involved

People will always tell you over and over, get involved on campus, get involved on campus, it’s one thing that will make your university life complete!  And while I agree, I find that sometimes there seems to be a sort of cookie-cutter approach when telling people how to be involved: become an RA, join the executive committee for the Student Leadership Conference, join a club. And while these are all valid ways of getting involved, they aren’t necessarily well suited for everyone. I think the poster child for involvement is the outgoing person who seems to know everyone and fills all their hours outside of class with extracurriculars.  For someone like me, an introvert with not a whole lot of time to spare outside of class, this format doesn’t necessarily work.

There are lots of ways to get involved on campus, definitely. Clubs are a good way to start, but maybe there aren’t any that catch your eye (although there are over 300) or maybe you don’t have the time to commit to one. That’s okay, too! If you don’t have the time, a good way of being involved on campus is participating in events: Day of the Longboat, Storm the Wall, the Apple Festival, AMS events, events that clubs put on with a small fee for non-members.

Another good way of getting involved is participating in sports, if that interests you. The REC centre offers many instructional classes at discount prices for students as well as intramurals. Don’t like to play? Show your support at a Thunderbirds game.

An often-overlooked opportunity is Student Directed Seminars.  You get to work with a professor to create a course that you want to take that isn’t currently offered at UBC. Talk about taking charge of your education!

The university also has amazing fine arts programs for you to take advantage of – the School of Music regularly puts on recitals and concerts in both the Barnett Recital Hall and the Chan Centre for Performing Arts (many of which are free), the drama program puts on plays year-round at the Freddy Wood Theatre, and the Belkin Art Gallery has always got art on display (also at no cost).

Getting a job on campus, especially a Work Study/Work Learn position, can get you really involved. You get to work with faculty members (networking, anyone?), often in the field of your choice, for a small amount of hours and pretty good pay, and you learn a lot, too.

Ultimately, what makes your university experience meaningful is up to you.  For me, involvement means blogging, playing in and attending concerts, taking advantage of all the places you can get into with your UBC card, taking part in events like Day of the Long Boat (and I also intend to Storm the Wall this year), knitting club, taking yoga at the REC centre, and above all, having a community of friends who I can share this experience with.

University is this really neat space where you aren’t quite a kid anymore but not quite an adult, so take advantage of that – have some fun. For more information on getting involved on campus, visit the Centre for Student Involvement website, or go to the CSI in Brock Hall for Involvement Coaching.

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Day of the Longboat

A bustling crowd of people, loud music, excitement you can feel in the air, the ocean, and mountains and high rises on the horizon: this is Day of the Longboat.  It is a must-attend event at UBC, and for good reason.  It’s the most fun I’ve had in a while, and it really brought me and my team-and-floor-mates closer together.  It also brings up my number one way to meet and make friends: get involved.  Continue reading

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