“Congratulations and welcome to the University College community! You’ve made a great choice,” reads the first line of UC alumna Jessica Horwitz’s Words of Wisdom note. “You’re at the very beginning of your academic and professional journey. The number of options may seem overwhelming at the moment. That’s completely normal. It’s a feeling we’ve all had.”
This year, University College introduced Words of Wisdom, a program providing an opportunity for alumni to pass along congratulatory notes and advice to incoming students. Through online submissions or handwritten notes, UC alumni are sharing their university experiences with new students experiencing the same jitters and excitement they felt when entering U of T.
The Words of Wisdom program is not new to U of T. The Faculty of Medicine has been running its program since 2013. But it is new to University College.
“We introduced this as way for our alumni, who may otherwise not have the opportunity because of time, distance, etc., to engage with students in a very meaningful, heart-felt way,” says UC Alumni Relations Officer Mike Henry. Henry knew of the Faculty of Medicine program and thought it would thrive at UC.
For the inaugural year, Henry received over 100 submissions. At a UC orientation event run by Student Life Coordinator, Adrian Leckie, the messages, which had been printed on five by seven-inch ‘Words of Wisdom’ cards, were handed out to new students.
During the event, Leckie organized students into two groups. Each student in the first group was given an individual card, which they then read to a student in the second group. He then repeated the exercise with the second group reading new notes to the first. “I wanted students to envision themselves as potential leaders providing advice years from now, and also have a memorable experience and connection with the message,” says Leckie.
The event was an enormous success. “The words of wisdom notes provided students with a memento that showed them that others have gone through what they’re going through,” says Leckie. “Students were able to connect to their peers while having time to reflect on the impact of the words read to them.”
“I’ve had a lot of advice, but this exercise confirmed some of what I’ve been told, which is to participate in extra-curricular activities too,” says UC student Ismail Atadinc.
Expanding on the feeling of being overwhelmed when starting out, UC alumna Jessica Horwitz’s note aptly advises students to “push yourself slightly outside your comfort zone, one step at a time, and you will suddenly find your comfort zone has inexplicably grown larger when you weren’t looking.”
A note of wisdom which will certainly hold true through undergraduate studies, and into professional endeavors.