Humber College students and faculty are sharing their advice for upcoming first-year students as the winter semester comes to an end.
For those who have never experienced post-secondary the thought of spending thousands of dollars on top of a mountain of textbooks and hours of studying can easily provoke stress and anxiety.
For first-year students specifically Humber has the First Year Experience Centre (FYEC) which specializes in supporting new students.
Roma Shaw, a fourth-year Nursing student who is also a senior peer mentor at the FYEC, said that they offer programs to assist first-year students such as peer-mentoring.
“We also offer a lot of destressing first-year workshops for students that need coping mechanisms or any kind of help,” she said.
“I would definitely recommend going into those, as well,” Shaw said.
Shaw said that a personal stress reliever is organization.
“Just writing down and planning out my day I would say is a big thing, like scheduling my day, making a checklist of things I need to get done and check it off,
“I think personally that helps me, but each person’s different,” she said.
The FYEC is located beside the LGBTQ+ Resource Centre at the North campus. Information on upcoming events and other information can be found on their Instagram @humbernorthfye.
Joshua Cushnie, a first-year student in Broadcast Radio also said that each person experiences stress differently and finding the unique method is the key to overcoming it.
“It’s really important that you find exactly what works for you in terms of de-stressing,” Cushnie said.
“That also might look different in certain scenarios, for me it’s very silly, but it is just stupid YouTube videos helps me destress in almost any situation,” he said.
Cushnie also spoke of the importance of recognizing procrastination which can be a challenge for all students but is especially important for first-years to overcome to prevent future problems.
“Everyone will procrastinate everything to the end of it and that’s what’s really gonna stress you out,” he said.
“If you pace yourself out, jump on your assignments ahead of time.”
Christian Farfan, a fourth-year in the Computer Systems and Technician program, touched on the importance of technology for modern learning.
“Be prepared with your laptop that you will need to do your homework, there’s a lot of homework to do,” Farfan said.
Despite the workload Farfan also says it’s important to simply have fun.
Humber faculty also shared some tips for upcoming first-years. Having post-secondary education already and work experience, they know the hustle in post-secondary life arguably more than anyone else.
Brian Hastings, a Media and Communications faculty member at Humber, highlighted how important it is to be a part of your community.
“Understand that you have a supreme impact in your community,” Hastings said.
Humber has a number of resources for students to use at their disposal.
The Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre (SWAC), for example, is available to currently enrolled students and promotes success through mental and physical health.
The centre is located on the third floor of the Learning Resource Commons which can be accessed via the main entrance of the North Campus.
A couple of the services it offers include counselling and vaccines which includes shots for Measles, Tetanus and Hepatitis B.