to apply for campus residence at the University of Guelph, and I am privileged to be joined by an amazing team of of of staff and students who've joined us for today, and I'll let them introduce themselves. I think, last time we went in alphabetical order, and that went really well. So Aadya, your double a puts you always at the front of the line. Off you go. Aadya Kapoor: Hi, folks! I'm Ada. I'm a second-year psychology major student, and I'm an Ra. And marketing and communications assistant with student housing services. And I'm so excited to tell you all about living on campus Ananya Thukral: everyone. My name is Anania. I am a gulf grad graduated back in 22 I was also an international student lived on campus in the first year and my final year. I'm currently on a work permit and also working at student housing as their marketing communications intern Princess Josephine: everyone. My name is Princess. I am a first-year software engineering major currently living on campus. And I'm really excited to tell you about my experience living on campus and golf. Saadia Shaikh: Hello, everyone. My name is Sadia. I'm a second year biomedical science student, and I also work in student housing as an Ra. And I'm so excited to tell you all about my experience and help you find your way in residence life at 12. Leanne Caron: Thanks, everyone for joining us. I'll start right? Just some numbers. Just to let you know about the size and scale of our residents and our campus. We have about 4,800 resident spaces on campus. So we're considered a residentially intensive university, and that we have a significant portion of our first year population living on campus during their first year. Leanne Caron: Over 2,800 of those rooms are single rooms. In 12 different residence buildings. And we're gonna give you more information about those residence buildings. It's a very compact campus, so you can walk from your residence to your dining hall into your classes all within 5 to 7 min. We have 5 different living learning communities. So we're gonna describe those to you 5 full service dining halls. and one of the things we're really proud of is that we have, peer Leanne Caron: residence, life, staff, or residence assistance. Ra. Is, for short, living in residence with you as well as full time professional staff living in residence with you to help support that transition during the first year, and that a commitment to student support has meant that we are ranked number one in residence, living by our National Magazine. And we're really proud of that, because what we found is that it makes living on campus quite desirable, and over 80% of all first year students, both international and domestic, live in residence Leanne Caron: during their first year at the University of Guelph. Aadya Kapoor: So, before coming to Guelph I had a big question on, why should I live on campus? But as I moved, and I realized that there are some things that you only experience when you're in residence. I am besties with my roommate that I moved in first day of my Aadya Kapoor: first in this country. You get to feel independent while also having supports available to you everywhere, you have resistance, assistance, and a lot of other supports available really close to you. It's very convenient the amount of times I have woken up 15 min before the class, and been to the class with a coffee in my hand. Aadya Kapoor: Always I still do it, cause I'm still in residence. There are so many extracurricular opportunities that I'm talk I'll talk about as we go through the presentation. Academic success is a really important part for us, and we try to achieve that by having clusters. And we'll talk about those as we move on to, and we have 24 h assistance available Aadya Kapoor: on campus. We have 2 24 h functioning desk, 7 days a week, and the east desk, which works, I believe, till midnight, and they're amazing, especially when you're locked out of out of your room at like 3 in the morning. And you're like, Oh, my God! I want my keys. They're there for you. And they will give you the key and you will have great time. Leanne Caron: okay. Leanne Caron: residence priority, I know that one of the questions you all have is, am I going to get a spot in residence? And the answer is, yes. As a University of Guelph international student going into your first year. We have a place in residence for you. Leanne Caron: But you have to do your end of the bargain, and that end of the bargain is, you need to fill out your residence application, and you need to pay your $750 residence deposit by the deadline of June third, so that we know that you're coming, and that you're committed to living in residence. Leanne Caron: We will have more information about how to fill out your application at the end of this presentation. And it's and we've got loads of information on our website as well. Ananya Thukral: Alright perfect. Now we are resident styles universal golf offer different residence styles to cater. Everyone needs everyone's needs. We have traditional suite style and townhouses. So when is when I was applying in my first year was really confused. Between all these 3 styles and what each style means. So traditional style typically means that there's gonna be a student room. It could be a single Ananya Thukral: double triple depending on which residence you pick and then there's gonna be a shared bathroom, and then common areas like lounge games room music room depends which residents you pick again. Then we have suite style. So in suite style, there's East residence, and there's Lambton Hall. Lambton comes with a a kitchenette. Ananya Thukral: and there's again a shared washroom and shared common area where east residents Ananya Thukral: have a full kitchen. There's proper stove, there's fish microwave like a proper kitchen that you have at your home. Then we have townhouses, and how does again we have East Village, which comes with proper proper kitchen like full kitchen, and all the rooms in East are single. But if you look, if you're looking for something double or triple, then you might look at south or north. Ananya Thukral: Let's talk about. Ananya Thukral: Okay, so this is our campus map. All the south residences are marked in red over here. So we have 4 residence buildings that comes in South out of it's 3 mountain maritime and ferry are interconnected. So suppose if you're living in maritime, and you wanna go to mountain. You don't have to come outside and walk in the snow. You can literally go from inside. This is very convenient. Ananya Thukral: We have Lau laundry rooms in South. We have games, rooms, we have music room, and there is just wanna point out that we have free long laundry in south, and there's also lounge in south as well as there are 2 cafes. One is in prairie, and one is in mountain. Ananya Thukral: Now, looking at not residences which are marked in yellow over here. Ananya Thukral: Johnson Green is Con. Johnson Hall is considered as most iconic building on campus is right opposite to the Johnson Green. Then we have Linux Addington, which has, which has its own Starbucks inside it. And then we have Watson Hall. Watson Hall is all female, only so if you are looking for some a residence building which is all female, then you wanna look at Watson Hall Ananya Thukral: and then we have other residence building, as well as in north and down back here, which is the east residence, where we have our east village which is Swedstyle, and then also the town houses which are located at the back. Ananya Thukral: Every residence building comes with its own unique amenities. So all residence buildings are unique in its own way. Ananya Thukral: This is the SIM typical single room all rooms come furnished. So there's a twin size bed. We have a desk chair and a closet. Some some rooms have walk in closets, some just have like a simple closet but the best part is that they come furnished as international students. You don't have to worry about getting furniture, which is quite expensive and all the residence buildings have a free Wi-fi again. Free laundry room. Ananya Thukral: and this is a typical double room just double everything. So double bed, not double bed, but like 2 twin size beds, and then there is 2 desks, 2 chairs, and once again they we have free laundry and free, unlimited wifi Aadya Kapoor: gonna pass on to Aadya to talk about the residence experience. So when you move into residence, you are not here just to live. You're here to make this place here home and 2 amazing things that we offer so that you can get the amazing and the best residence experience are academic learning communities and living learning communities. Aadya Kapoor: So academic learning communities is where students are enrolled in the same program are living together in the same area. And there is an academic support person who is known as a cluster leader who's usually an Upper year student, who will help you navigate through different questions that you might have for your first year how to get in touch with your counselor and supports like that. Clusters we have clusters available for for Aadya Kapoor: all of our programs and clusters, depending on how big they are vary in location every year. Aadya Kapoor: On the other hand, we have living, learning communities which are for students who share common interests. It can be about anything. So we have 5 main living learning communities. We have International House Arts House, Eco house, Indigenous house and French house. So if you're really passionate about sustainability and living your life in a very eclipse Aadya Kapoor: ecologically balanced way. I would highly recommend Eco House because Eco House has someone called a program facilitator who will facilitate different events. It could. I know they had tote bag making and going shopping and being sustainable while doing that, and they connect with different committees on campus to live a better sustainable life. Aadya Kapoor: So there are different special events, and it's open to any student in any program. You can be a engineering student, and you can still be a part of our tabs if you are interested in the arts Aadya Kapoor: moving on. Let's talk about Aadya Kapoor: our food. So I love university about food. I myself am vegetarian, and the best thing about our food is a it's amazing. It has been ranked number one in Canada for campus food. We have file 5 full functioning holds, and we have so many cafes on campus. The best thing about the food is, it keeps in mind and asked, keeps in mind dietary restrictions. There isuring food. There's holol food. There's vegan food which is a great Aadya Kapoor: great thing to have. And one thing that people have a have question about meal. Plans are compulsory in all the residences other than East residences, because East residents students do have their own kitchens. So it's not compulsory to have. But in every other residences that is South and north you have to have a new plan. We have various levels which you can check out on our website. Aadya Kapoor: But depending on what suits you the best you can pick which meal plan you'd like, and it's right under your card, and you can just tap it, and you can purchase your food on campus Aadya Kapoor: here for you. So I myself. I'm a resident assistant. Aadya Kapoor: We have lot of various supports available for students within residences when they're living here and residents. Assistants are people who help students transition to university life. You provide them with various supports, like Aadya Kapoor: if they wanna know how to to force how to navigate courses better, or who to get in touch with. We can direct them to the right resource. We have various events on campus. I hosted a paint night and we're gonna have a rock climbing night, which is really fun, and to facilitate our race, we have since, like professionals, resumes life. Managers who help us bring all these amazing programs to the students. Aadya Kapoor: Entra Hall Council is a really great opportunity for students to actually get an exposure to a different residents community where you can host programs and get an exposure to small leadership positions like handling a social media or being a vice president of the hall. Aadya Kapoor: Orientation week is a week long, is a week long event full of fun activities. There are events within residents or happening outside residents. We have Pepperelli, which is really amazing, and we can't wait for you to experience that. Aadya Kapoor: We also do collaborate with various campus partners like student wellness and hospitality, with different programs like Aadya Kapoor: green containers, which is a program where students can take the food to their room either, and not ha have waste like plastic flights. Yeah. Aadya Kapoor: So moving on, I'm gonna pass on to talk and talk more about the application process. Leanne Caron: Really quick, because it's so simple. Once you get your offer of admission from the University of Guelph. You'll go to our website. Your starting journey will be right on the main page will click you to a page all about how to apply housing dot UO. guelf.ca and we'll guide you through the process step by step. We have a video if you need help. One of the first things to do before filling out your application Leanne Caron: is, go through our residence tours and kind of described the various residents options for you, but we do take your preferences into consideration when we assign you a space in residence. So we're gonna ask you to fill that out with one through 6 rank order of your preferences for room type for gender co-ed or single gender or gender inclusive housing. Leanne Caron: We will ask you your building preferences, living, Learning Center academic cluster all of that. So better to have that all in your head when you're filling out your application. And then we'll give you instructions on how to pay the deposit. After you filled out that application, our communication with you will be my email. You'll get a confirmation email when your deposit gets gets here, you'll get an email confirmation when your application is complete. Leanne Caron: and as long as you make that June third deadline you are good to go. Aadya Kapoor: So, roommates and suite mates, once you have submitted your application and the deposit, and you received the email that you're in residence. A new window opens where you can select a roommate if you have someone in mind. If you're coming with friends or or a cousin, and if you want to select roommate. You can already put their name in there, and you will be roomed together. Aadya Kapoor: But if you don't have a roommate in mind, fear not. We have a really great system put together where we can match you with a roommate, because in the application we have questions like, Oh, what kind of person are you? Are you a morning person or night person? Do you like to study new room, or in the library? Are you more of a tidy person or more of a freestyle person. So, depending on that, we try to pay you with the best person, and you will have a roommate if you don't have someone in your mind, we will try our best to match you with one. Aadya Kapoor: So one of the questions that we get asked a lot asked a lot is the best residence Aadya Kapoor: in my personal opinion. I lived in South and East, and I love both of them. But the best residents is the residence that you live in, and that's because each residence caters to different needs. If you're more of a quiet person, you would probably like North, because that's where we have our study intensive regions. But if you're more of I want to be best used with my neighbor. I wanna Aadya Kapoor: meet and talk with everyone. South might be more of your choice and type of residence, and if you're like, I love to cook my own food. East might be your more more of your type. So the best residence is the one that you live in. Aadya Kapoor: Every year we have this amazing competition where we ask our students to send in pictures of the rooms that they have decorated beautifully. So I would say, bring small lake next, bring pictures, decorate your rooms, and maybe win that competition, you know. Aadya Kapoor: And moving from here, residence movement dates for 2024, our September first to threerd Aadya Kapoor: and we have a small video to show you about the energy that we have on campus during moved in. And then we'll take some questions. Leanne Caron: We know that there was no sound sorry about that. But rest assured what you would have heard with the sound is high energy, upbeat music to kind of give you a flavor of how exciting our move in is international students will actually get an invitation to move in early for a program called Start International. And you'll get lots more information about that, but it is, has additional sessions to help international students when they arrive on campus, and between this session and your offer of admission all the way through the application pro process right up until you arrive. You can contact us in numerous ways. Leanne Caron: And Anya, do you wanna summarize how people can get in touch with us. Ananya Thukral: Yes, there are tons of ways to reach out to us. But the best way the first things first follow us on Instagram, or handle this Ufg housing. We post it regularly, and we handle that social media account regularly. So you get an idea of what is it to like Ananya Thukral: to live on campus? And what kind of events we run on a regular basis? What kinds of resources we offer, and what is like to live at golf? But if you have application, related questions, or very specific questions that I encourage you to email us at housing@uogolf.ca, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible Ananya Thukral: the other way. To reach out to us is not reaching out to us and checking out our website because there's a lot of information already available on our website. We have our 3 60 degree room tools available literally, every residence building tools are available on our website. So you can check all the information there. All the information of amenities and facilities that we offer on campus. So we have a good description of that as well on our website. Then you can call us. But please don't call us because it will cost you money, especially if you're living outside Canada Ananya Thukral: and Instagram. Now, I'm gonna pass on to Aadya to open the stage for QA. Aadya Kapoor: So we have a very first question, our emotional support. Animals are therapy animals allowed in student housing. Leanne, would you like to take that question. Leanne Caron: Sure. Yes, if you have an accommodation where you need to bring a service animal or therapy animal you will fill out a separate form for that. We only allow the animals, for the for animal health reasons, to live in our townhouses, our East village townhouses. It gives you access to an outdoor space and a single room with a door to the outside. Leanne Caron: And you would fill out an accommodation form that. And the only thing we would ask you to do is provide information about the animal and make sure their vaccines are up to date. That kind of thing. So there is more information on our website for that. So we have had as well some questions about food. So I wanna give Princess an opportunity to answer a question, because I know that food is often a question we get a lot about from our international applicant pool. And I wanna put those any of those questions at ease, Princess, can you talk about your experience? On the diversity of food in our dining halls for international students specifically. Princess Josephine: okay, thank you. Leanne. Food on University of the University of Gulf. As previously mentioned, it's really, really good. Princess Josephine: It's like, really, really good. And it's really inclusive. Princess Josephine: If you go to the Food Court at the University Center, there are lots of different options from different places all over the world where you can have international cuisine. And also I live in a living, learning community as an international house. And it comes with a full kitchen. So international students that aren't really used to food outside their country. So have the opportunity to cook food that's familiar to them. And I think that's just a really great aspect to make you feel more at home. Princess Josephine: But if you like, you can also have food from different parts of the world Princess Josephine: different food centers on campus crewman or the university center. Leanne Caron: Great thanks, Princess. I wanna get Sadia an opportunity to answer a question as well. And so this one's gonna be about you know, meeting people. I wonder if you could talk about your experience arriving and and meeting people. Meeting your Ra for the first time, and finding activities and things to do, not just in residence, but say campus clubs and that kind of thing. Wh. What was your experience like Sadia. Saadia Shaikh: Yep, thanks for the question. So when I first moved to Canada, I did have a friend with me, but I didn't know anyone else. So it so the first day I moved into my town house I was all alone, and that was like a down, daunting experience. But then I met my Ra. Then, very next day, and she was the kindest person ever. She told me all about like resources on campus. I told her like she asked me about my interest. And one thing about Guv is that Saadia Shaikh: you? Ha! There's a place for everyone, so, no matter what your interests are, you have clubs. You have Saadia Shaikh: you have activities plan. You have events hosted right now. I myself I'm an Ra at the Cordon Hall, the University's newest residence, and I host events for my students, so you can always reach out to your Ra. Tell them what it went to, what you would like to see. What are your interests? What are your hobbies outside of academics as well? So I know Aja spoke about like cluster read cluster leaders which are like Saadia Shaikh: academic, intensive. But then your residence assistants are for everything outside of academics. You can ask them the silliest questions you can have. Make great connections with them, and you can find students on campus Saadia Shaikh: while living on residence Saadia Shaikh: who share the same a hobbies as as you in terms of events. There are like a lot of options. We have Griffin Fridays, which are run every Friday on different parts of rest on campus, so it's not south and east. They all have Griffon Fridays, and they're like different Saadia Shaikh: different events every week, where you can just attend and have fun and unwind all the all that you do during the week. and Saadia Shaikh: Yep, and you can always reach out to your array for assistance, and like events of all kinds, and for myself, I would encourage all of you to attend as many events as you can cause. There are great. They're a great opportunity for you to meet new friends and socialize Leanne Caron: great and building on that theme we've got. We've got just a few minutes left, and again. I want to share the experiences of our our Princess and Sadia, who are here to help answer your question. So keep the questions rolling through the QA. On the bottom of your screen. We'll continue to answer them, and we'll answer some of them online as well. So you know, I talked what in the opening about adjustment to to weather and Princess. I wonder if you can share your experience about navigating around campus? It. We consider it to be. Ca, a very compact campus getting from classes to University and I, and to university dining halls and residences. And I see that your background and my background are both South residents, which are, is our largest residence complex with 1,800 students. Leanne Caron: And so one of the questions we get a lot is is, how easy is it to get from class to residence, to meals, to the library. Can you talk a little bit about the convenience of living on campus and and navigating the campus from a you know, physical point of view. Princess Josephine: Okay, so the first couple of days that I spent on campus, I was actually like, really confused. But I live in a suite. So one of my suite mates and I, we just took, like the first 2 days to walk around campus and get a little more familiar with our surroundings. Princess Josephine: And by the fourth day we didn't have to use Google Maps anymore. We're getting more familiar with where our classes was Princess Josephine: and Princess Josephine: give or take a week by the end of orientation week. You pretty much, you know. You pretty much know how to get round places faster. There are lots of different routes, and a lot of the buildings are connected. Princess Josephine: and everything's just really compact and conveniently placed near each other, like the university center, is really close to the library, so you can leave a class and go to University Center. Get some food there, and Princess Josephine: either the library and the residences are gonna be well placed. So you're not too far from anything. Everything's within walking distance. It just makes living on campus easier. Everything within walking distance really compact and place near each other, so you can do what you need to do in the right order. Leanne Caron: Great thanks for sharing that experience. Believe it or not our our half an hour has passed very, very quickly. So, thanks again to all the participants for joining us today. And if you have any questions after this session or any time through to the time you arrive in Canada. The connect points are still on the screen. Email is probably the the fastest, and that we can get back to you, no matter what time zone you're in. You'll get an answer in writing from us. So again, thank you for joining us today. Enjoy the rest of the virtual open house here at the University of Guelph.