Anxiety with starting a post-secondary career is universal for many new college students. To ease new students concerns, current Humber students share their advice for a successful first year.
Fourth year Psychology student Lauren D’Angelo shared that her first year at Humber was a difficult adjustment from highs school.
“It was a weird shift from high school classes to lengthy lectures.” Besides the adjustment period she enjoyed the fact that classes were once a week.
D’Angelo says what was important for her was support. “There are many individuals around you that are going through very similar situations and stressors that you are as well,” said D’Angelo.
She also expressed the positive aspects that come with starting post-secondary. “Connect with people. These next years will go by so fast, and it is amazing to create great long-term relationships with other students,” she said.
For first-year Aesthetician and Spa Management student, Claire Magnus her first year at Humber was a little difficult because of the online factor.
“For me, online learning was tricky for me. Once classes started up in person it became a lot easier for me,” she said.
Magnus advises students to save money. “When you’re in school you don’t realize how much money you need for supplies and other important things like textbooks,” said Magnus.
Another important point to her is to stay focused. “I know that’s very cliché but, when you start going out every weekend and partying, you don’t realize how bad you needed that 80 per cent or that extra few marks,” she said.
Second year Business Management student, Daniel Formuso said his first year was exciting.
“The best part for me was defiantly meeting new people, you make so many friends,” he said.
“Honestly, just pay attention, always go over material that teachers give you. When doing assignments, it’s important to go over the rubric and put your all into each task,” he said.
He also added not to be so hard on yourself. “With that being said, don’t forget to have fun,” said Formuso.
Jim Coyle, professor teaching Fundamentals of Reporting in the Journalism program shared advice exclusively for new j-school students. “The good news is that most of the skills required to succeed for reporting and writing are learnable skills,” said Coyle.
Another point he emphasized about a successful career into journalism is being open minded.
“Try to become capable, to make yourself versatile, capable of handling stories in lots of different areas, so then you can walk into an interview and be like yeah I could cover that,” said Coyle.