20 Tips for first-year students: #7- Adjust from Abroad to Mount Allison University

In the 7th video tip in our 20-part series, third-year religious studies student Oudai (OD) AlTabbaa from Damascus, Syria  gives his advice on how new international students can adjust to life in Canada and at Mount Allison University. 

Speaking as a student who spent his youth growing up mostly in suburban Chicago, I didn’t experience culture shock or have trouble adjusting to Canadian life, but that’s not the same for everyone. I know that the International Centre offers all kinds of help with common issues like off-campus work permit applications, post-graduation work permits, filing taxes, health insurance, and a range of other services. 

Mount Allison also offers a mentorship program to incoming international students to be paired with an upper-year student to help them adjust to Canadian culture and Mount Allison in particular. Before you arrive there is also a 45-page handbook for international students with important information for international students. and there is even a service available for someone to meet you at the airport when you arrive.


Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Vizualize.Me, the future of the résumé?

Last Monday I had a 10-minute Skype chat with Eugene Woo, the founder of start-up tech company Vizualize.Me, a service/app/website that turns your LinkedIn data and turns it into a beautiful infographic.

Vizualize.Me won first prize in Toronto Startup Weekend and has been featured on various tech blogs including Mashable.

I was able to talk to Eugene because I had heard about the service, signed up and invited many friends who signed up and are waiting for the public release. I contacted the company about using the private beta and Eugene responded personally to me with the invite code and then asked me to answer a quick survey and if I had time to discuss any feedback I had.

I agreed to a brief chat and a few days later we talked about what I could eventually see myself using the site for and what additions to the interface and design would be useful.  I know they're working on upgrading a lot of the functionality but it's looking pretty good right now. I'm really looking forward to the upgrades and using it to give people a simplified and colorized version of my information on LinkedIn.

Here's the my LinkedIn Profile the data is pulled from and the resultant Vizualize.Me infographic. LinkedIn is a great service for professional networking, recommendations, and knowledge sharing but it doesn't allow for much color or very much customization for people to stand out in a crowd.


I think that with the death of the paper résumé and the rise of LinkedIn, infographic-style résumés will eventually (5-8 years) become the norm first for creative professionals and then most others as companies look for the next big thing. What do you think?

For more context, here's him discussing the new project.



What do you think?

Feedback on videos for first-year students

As we are rolling out the 20 video tips we'd like to know what you think of them. In order to find out what kind of videos you find most useful, Mount Allison is soliciting feedback on the videos on our Facebook Page. If you have a moment please let us know what your favourite video is so far and any feedback you have on our poll. If you haven't seen all of the videos so far they're all available at YouTube.com/MountAllison. Thank you in advance for your valued feedback.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant

20 Tips for first-year students: #6- Adapt to Academics at Mount Allison University

In this 6th out of 20 video tips for incoming Mount Allison University students, fourth-year environmental studies student Avery Wheeler returns to discuss the academic transition from high school to university.   

As I wrote on my blog back in September of my first year, “The main difference between high school and university is that there is nobody there to hold your hand or spoon feed you. You can come to class or not, you can read the book, or not...the only person it will affect is you.” 

In high school you probably had your parents and teachers reminding you to stay on top of things. In university classes, there’s no hand-holding. Professors at Mount Allison are very supportive and accessible, but you have to put in the work yourself. What you make of this great opportunity is entirely up to you.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Mount Allison University Athletics on Social Media

As more and more people adopt social media use its easier to connect to students, staff, and faculty at Mount Allison.

That is evidenced particularly well when it comes to athletics related accounts at the school.  While the main hub for information on Mounties Athletics and Recreation remains the department website and major mentions are shared on the main page, Facebook and Twitter, and the new Mount Allison Athletics Facebook page, there are a number of other unofficial accounts posting about Mount Allison athletics.

Note: This is not an endorsement of any of the accounts mentioned below by myself or Mount Allison University. It is simply for your reference.

The first account is @Nova_Canuck on Twitter. Run by the Argosy's sports section editor Robert Murray, you'll be sure to find a lot of sports news stories highlighted there throughout the year.

The next is @mtafootball run by Mounties Football Head Coach Kelly Jeffrey.
There's also 5th Quarter Club Executive Colin Tippet's ('97) @MTAUpdates which features similrar content.
Linebacker Coach Pete Miller tweets @petejmiller.
Manager of the Mount Allison Mounties Football Team Wray Perkin can be found @WrayPerkin

Those are the accounts that I'm currently aware of. If you tweet about Mounties athletics mention me @GeoffatMtA and I'll add it to the Mount Allison Sports Twitter List I manage.

In related news, the latest tips video for new students is now available on Mount Allison's YouTube channel. You can watch the video featuring Mount Allison biology student and award-winning cross-country and Varsity Swim team member David Summberby-Murray below.

20 Tips for first-year students: #5- Get involved in Athletics at Mount Allison University

Fifth in this 20-part video series is third year biology student David Summerby-Murray talking about how incoming students can get involved in athletics at Mount Allison University.

Mount Allison has 18 Varsity and Club sports teams, in addition to a variety of intramural teams. Try out for a varsity team, play on a co-ed intramural team with your friends in residence, or even start a league of your own. There are a lot of different ways to get active with athletics at Mount Allison at different skill and commitment levels. Joining a team is a great way to have fun while balance academics and staying in shape.
 

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University