Prospective post-secondary students had a chance to dip their feet into university life as Vancouver Island University held the Rock the VIU orientation event Thursday.
With classes starting today, it was a chance for local and foreign students alike to meet with other students in their respective faculties and tour the Nanaimo campus prior to the start of the semester.
Dover Bay Secondary School graduates Ashley Ellint and Robert Cahill will both be pursuing bachelor of arts degrees and know changes are in store. When asked about differences from high school to university, Ellint said there won’t be as many constraints.
“[There] definitely will be more freedom. With high school, the the teachers are on you a lot more. It’s probably going to be more up to you (to study and work),” she said. “You’re a lot more independent.”
Cahill and Ellint both will reside at home for their first year and both will commute to school – they are aware that parking is one thing university students have to contend with.
“I’ll be taking the bus, just because all my classes start mid-morning, so I won’t be able to find parking,” Ellint said.
“I will have to buy a parking pass. I have no idea how much it costs but it will be quite a bit I think,” Cahill said. “I might just park far away and walk to class.”
Daniel Lin arrived from Taiwan about three days prior to Rock the VIU and was slowly becoming accustomed to life as a foreign student – he will be taking English as a second language courses.
“I’m here for ESL because I don’t have good enough grammar,” Lin said. “I live on Jingle Pot Road and it was pretty easy [to find a place to stay].”
Joanna Hesketh, VIU co-ordinator in the office of enrolment management, said the first year of university can be overwhelming and Rock the VIU is intended to make new students feel more comfortable.
“Becoming a new student is a huge transition so we really try to focus on easing that anxiety and make it nice and easy for students to make that transition to university,” Hesketh said.