School's In

By Emily Milic

Heading back to class in September can sometimes feel like coming home. Whether it's returning to old friends, familiar hallways, or favourite professors, when it's time to go back to school, anticipation is often running high.

Orientation days are the perfect opportunity to learn the ins and outs of your new school. Seneca College orientation activities include workshops, academic overviews and campus tours. Held at all Seneca campuses, the workshops available for students include presentations on financial aid, the Student Internet Registration Information System (SIRIS), My.Seneca web portal, student services, counselling services and athletics and recreation.

Academic orientations, which are scheduled individually for specific days, provide students with the chance to ask questions about their specific program and find out what it takes to succeed. Orientation at Seneca takes place August 30 to September 1. For more information on Seneca Orientation, visit www.senecac.on.ca/student/orientation/index.html.

Seneca's Student Federation (SSF) will be on hand at each campus orientation to provide information about the services they offer.

"We advocate for students, facilitate student health benefits, and provide discounted TTC monthly passes," said Samir Abdi, President of the SSF. "We also put on events of every kind from job fairs and networking events to frosh week."

The SSF frosh week will run from September 6 to 9 in conjunction with residence and recreation services and will kick-off with a carnival on September 7 at each of the four main campuses. "We want students to know about the ways they can get involved right from the beginning," said Abdi.

"We want to add value to their college experience."

If you want to stay informed on what is happening at your college throughout the year, there are a number of electronic and social media outlets that can help. For example, most post-secondary institutions now have official Facebook and Twitter pages that include pertinent information for students. On Seneca's Facebook and Twitter pages, you can get important news about programs, events, announcements, closures and/or openings, opportunities and contests.