U of G’s Student Experience team were featured in a Toronto Star special article that looked at how Ontario universities adjusted their Orientation Weeks to meet the challenge of needing virtual programming for remote learning first-year students.

Rosanna Beattie, coordinator of U of G’s orientation programs, told the paper that she and her team designed and refined new virtual activities using their own experiences and ongoing feedback of students. This past fall, they hosted daily Just Ask Me sessions, inviting students to engage in informal one-to-one virtual chats with upper-year students.

She said they are also moving some of the community connection events that normally occur during in-person Orientation Week to earlier in the summer so new students can focus on relationship-building and connecting with others in the first weeks of school.

Read more about this past fall’s orientation week, as well as the Guelph O-Week boxes new students also received filled with items to help them feel part of the Gryphon family.