C/O Mohammad Shahhosseini (Unsplash)
When looking to the future, it’s crucial to reflect on what we’ve overcome thus far
By: Ardena Bašić, Contributor
This past school year brought a lot of hope for many. With mandates and restrictions to keep us safe, we could finally return to in-person learning.
Of course, this did not go as smoothly as expected. An increasing amount of rules and an abrupt switch back to online learning was a bit of a shock — especially as we were finally beginning to adjust to our “new normal.”
Yet, with that in the past, we can now enjoy the most freedom we have had in a while and use the skills we have fostered for these past two years to our advantage.
Yet, with that in the past, we can now enjoy the most freedom we have had in a while and use the skills we have fostered for these past two years to our advantage.
Students are used a lot of volatility as we learn and grow through different experiences. Yet, it can certainly be argued that COVID-19 was the most potent influencing factor that most of us have ever experienced.
The things we could look to as our "rocks” in times of uncertainty — such as playing team sports or spending time with friends — were no longer available to us. Of course, the virtual world of Zoom gave us somewhere to pivot, but the novelty of our surroundings and new behaviors were a constant reminder of the state of the world.
Our education, normally one of the most routine things in our young lives, also changed dramatically. Looking back at the 2020-2021 school year, we were still hopeful to return to in-person. However, the disappointment in hearing announcements about both the fall and winter terms was yet another unexpected announcement for all of us.
Now that we have returned to at least a semblance of normality in this regard, with most educational institutions now offering fully in-person learning, we can begin to more deeply reflect on what all this volatility has taught us.
For one, we often talk about resiliency after working harder due to getting a bad grade or returning to a sport after an injury or loss. Yet, this is a skill that can be developed through major life events as well.
For one, we often talk about resiliency after working harder due to getting a bad grade or returning to a sport after an injury or loss. Yet, this is a skill that can be developed through major life events as well.
Despite our classrooms turning into our bedrooms or living rooms at home, we still stayed engaged with our education, albeit to varying degrees due to a myriad of psychological and socioeconomical factors.
Although most of our hobbies and other pastimes had to change as well, we still found ways to stay in tune with our passions. Consider the unique home workouts, new pastimes in art or make-shift home renovations. Even while the world was in turmoil, we still found ways to exercise our uniquely human traits of wonder and imagination.
The other major thing to consider is the overall adaptability of human beings. Of course, we all have preferences regarding our surroundings.
Some of us prefer crowds and people, whereas others enjoy the quiet and a more tranquil way of life. Regardless, we all found a way to stay true to ourselves. Ideas such as online coffee chats or endless books to go through allowed us to stay true to ourselves, even though our favourite things were not necessarily available to us.
When it comes to school, this is a bit more controversial. The majority of individuals would say that they do thrive much better in an in-person learning setting. Though, again, we found ways to adapt.
Study sessions over FaceTime, turning on our cameras to make our virtual classrooms seem slightly more humane and understanding that this is a time to build our technical skills allowed us to progress through these difficult times. With schools pondering on maintaining both online and in-person options, we will be able to continually foster both our interpersonal and technological abilities.
However, it is understandable that not everyone was able to find some solace in the chaos of what the world has been during the pandemic.
The most important thing to remember here is our imperfection as human beings. There are going to be obstacles that we cannot face on our own and those that intertwine with the foundation of our lives without ever leaving.
The most important thing to remember here is our imperfection as human beings. There are going to be obstacles that we cannot face on our own and those that intertwine with the foundation of our lives without ever leaving.
Yet, just as our body can adapt to exercise or learning, we can adapt into our surroundings as well. Every single event or process we encounter is meant to teach us our change us. Although it may not seem as though it is immediately for the better, our mindset is what can remind us to stay positive on any road ahead.
Overall, this may not be the last time we find ourselves in a completely novel situation with nary an idea of how to progress. Yet, looking at how the world has changed, we can see that we are capable of so much — no matter our environment or the barriers we face.
Looking ahead to the future, we should always keep in mind the mountains that we have climbed when looking to the ones that we will be able to conquer again.
C/O Travis Nguyen
A closer look at the elected first-year representatives for the MES and their hopes for the future
By: Kirsten Espe, Contributor
On Sept. 27, 2021, the results for the 2021-2022 McMaster Engineering Society elections were announced. After a year and a half of online learning, all candidates, especially the first-year representatives, were excited and optimistic about an in-person university experience.
Following a week-long campaign, six first-year Engineering students were elected by their peers to represent the biotechnology, computer science, engineering 1 and integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences programs.
Halima Banuso, one of the three level one engineering representatives, spoke about her early interest in becoming involved at McMaster.
“[The] MES were basically the ones who ran the Red Suits for Welcome Week . . . I just really loved all the activities and the Red Suits are super cool. I remember me and my friend asked ‘Oh, how do you become a Red Suit because I wanna do that [in my] second year too’,” said Banuso.
Aside from the excitement of returning to a somewhat in-person experience, Banuso was also enthusiastic to get back to doing something that she loved.
“I was that person who just really liked going to every event and planning every event and I was on my high school student council . . . Obviously school’s important, but that’s not necessarily what you’re going to remember and in a few years you’re going to remember the memories, the friends you made, the cool events you got to go to, so I really like being a part of that stuff,” said Banuso.
The first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences representative, Dhanya Koshti, said that one of his main motivators in applying to the position was his desire for community.
“Everyone knows what they’re doing but they are way more for working towards collaboration over competition,” said Koshti.
Koshti made an astute connection between the distinctiveness of his program and the McMaster “Fireball Family” by comparing the bridge of engineering and health sciences.
“We’re sort of that hybrid in-between . . . We have this really unique relationship dynamic with each other and I really wanted to build on that connection,” explained Koshti.
Hetanshu Pandya, the first-year computer science representative, also spoke about the importance of his position in relation to the community at McMaster.
“[Students] can share their thoughts, their experiences, their opinions, whether it be negative or positive . . . and you can share it [with] me and I can communicate that with the council,” said Pandya.
“[Students] can share their thoughts, their experiences, their opinions, whether it be negative or positive . . . and you can share it [with] me and I can communicate that with the council.”
Hetanshu Pandya, first-year computer science representative
Pandya said his main goal is to represent first-year computer science students fairly and effectively, with hopes of exceeding both his and his fellow peers’ expectations for the year.
Due to the partial online environment currently established at McMaster University, candidates found themselves honing their technological skills to campaign, particularly through social media.
Matthew Arias, the biotechnology first-year representative, commented on his campaign that was done on Instagram.
“[The] first thing I did was make an Instagram account because everybody’s on Instagram and it’s kind of the easiest way to reach out. I’d make Instagram posts on another website with graphic designing and I posted on there,” explained Arias.
Arias also highlighted that some of his fellow students would repost his posts without him ever asking, further driving home the sense of community the other representatives spoke about.
All four engineering representatives echoed similar sentiments to their fellow first-year students of the MES prior to the start of their official term.
“To the same extent that you all supported me, I really want to be there to help you guys. That is what this position, really, is all about,” said Koshti.
“To the same extent that you all supported me, I really want to be there to help you guys. That is what this position, really, is all about.”
Dhanya Koshti, FIRST-YEAR INTEGRATED BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING AND HEALTH SCieNCES REPRESENTATIVE
“Whether things are virtual, or in-person, someone’s on-residence, or off-residence, [I hope that] we can all come together and really feel a part of the McMaster engineering community,” said Banuso.
“Whether things are virtual, or in-person, someone’s on-residence, or off-residence, [I hope that] we can all come together and really feel a part of the McMaster engineering community.”
Halima Banuso, first-year engineering 1 reps
Despite the different circumstances students may be in due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these four representatives look forward to building a strong community for first-year engineering students.
How McMaster’s first-year students attended a welcome week amid a global pandemic
Welcome Week is a week dedicated to incoming freshmen, allowing them to participate in activities that encourage forming connections with their classmates. Though it is such a well known event amongst university students, only one year of students can attest to attending such an event in the midst of a global pandemic.
The freshman entering McMaster University in the year of 2021 have found themselves trying to adjust to university life in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the pandemic, they began their year with a welcome week with socially distancing guidelines.
“Daily screening: all attendees must complete the COVID-19 provincial self-assessment within one hour of their intended arrival on campus. Participants will be asked about the completion of screening upon arrival at the event,” stated the Student Success Centre on their COVID-19 guidelines for on-campus events.
On the Welcome Week website, seven distinct guidelines were set out to align with the City of Hamilton guidelines. This included having only 100 people at each outdoor event, including those hosting the events. Alongside this, students were required to wear masks at events where social distancing was difficult to maintain.
During the week of Sept. 1 to 8, 2021, first-years gathered all over the McMaster campus to meet their peers. The week followed a hybrid format, mixed with online and in-person components. Students were able to schedule their ideal welcome week schedule with the McMaster Welcome Week website.
“Coming out of a year of fully online school basically, Grade 12, it was just really nice to walk outside and see people, just interact with other people. Being in the center of this more social environment after so much isolation,” said Nazifa Tasnim, a first-year engineering student.
This hybrid approach was appreciated by students as it allowed them an opportunity to meet classmates. Tasnim was open to admitting that virtual aspects of the events were often a little harder when it came down to meeting new people.
“There were virtual events that I signed up for but more or less it was only fun sometimes because I would have my friends, who also lived in my residency building, in the room with me doing the games. In terms of meeting new people, the virtual events were really hard when it came down to knowing anyone. The physical interactions were better in terms of getting to know someone for the first time. At least that’s what I think a lot of people feel. Definitely how I feel,” said Tasnim.
All of these events were run by upper-year undergraduate students. The large majority chose to volunteer their first weeks of university to help guide their younger classmates. To prepare these upper-year students for their roles, they had mandatory training and this year, training was marginally different as they had to factor in COVID-19.
“We had a COVD-19 awareness training that was done via Avenue to Learn. We also had an in-person training that also went over COVID guidelines and all the social distancing rules. I found that they were relatively efficient because during the event all the guidelines were enforced,” said Angelina Zhang, a second-year science representative
Despite being older than the first-years, many were second-years, students who had also been new to the physical campus. Zhang shared how her online experience impacted her role as a Sciclone.
“As a second-year representative, during Welcome Week 2021, while not having any in-person events for my first year I feel really rewarded doing this. Because I am helping the first years this year to have a better Welcome Week experience than I did last year,” said Zhang.
Different faculties had a wide variety of events. When speaking with an arts and science representative, they talked about how they adapted to Welcome Week amid COVID-19.
“In terms of the planning specifically, all the faculties got together once a week for two hours with other administrative people throughout the whole summer to go through training, plan the events and get the student input side of things. For us specifically, it was two to three hours every week and we worked together to bounce ideas off each other,” said Nicole Rob, co-planner for arts & science Welcome Week events.
Rob proceeded to explain how COVID-19 guidelines affected each faculty differently.
“Every faculty is different because we have different numbers of students. For example, Arts & Science, as well as [the] Indigenous Studies Program, are the two faculties that have the least amount of students. [The arts & sciences Program] has an incoming cohort this year of 68 students. Whereas there are faculties like Science that have 1,700 coming in this year. So what we can do and what type of events we did plan looks a little different for each faculty because of those numbers,” said Rob.
First-year students were allowed the opportunity to reside in the residence buildings found all over campus. This allowed for events that pertained to helping them meet and bond with their roommates.
“I live in [residence]. I do think it helped improve my Welcome Week experience mostly because there were a lot of [residence-specific] Welcome Week events. In those groupings, I got to meet people who also lived in my building or surrounding buildings, which meant that there were more people that I would get to see often, and would already know their names,” said Tasnim.
As one of the many planners of this week-long event, Rob shared what her favourite part of Welcome Week was.
“I think just seeing all of it come together was really cool. With COVID right now everything is fairly uncertain and it is hard to even envision an in-person event at this point because it has been so long since we’ve seen big gatherings of people. It was nice to be able to give the first-years that experience, as someone who had a fully online Welcome Week. As a second-year it was cool to see the first-years be able to enjoy a bit of the in-person experience,” she said.
Overall, Welcome Week was one that was truly historic. Despite the stresses and inconveniences brought about by COVID-19, Welcome Week this year was a huge success and an appreciated welcome for the incoming class.
