Are you scared of presentation?!

Scared of presentations? Don't be, because you are not the only one and everybody generally doesn't like presentations. My quote: "I don't present often. If I do, I mean business!!!"
There are two ways to do that:
    1. blow their mind with your presentation.
    2. bore them with your presentation.
I am not really good at the second way, so I will mainly focus on the first way, blow their mind out with your confidence, skills, slides and ideas.

1. Before the presentation
Start the research early. Some students like to prepare at the last minute and that is really bad. If you are not a genius on presenting, please don't do that.
    -Make sure you have enough time (ideally more than 2 or 3 days) to prepare for it.
    -Once you get your topic, start some research early.
    -Find fun info about your topic.
    You need time to digest the materials and master them, so don't do it at the last minute.


Know the material. No matter how good your presentation, if you can't answer the audience's questions, you will leave a bad impression with your prof.
    -Have a good understanding of the material you are going to present.
    -Connect your interest with the topics.
    Therefore, you can easily understand the materials and use them to answer audience's questions.

Come up with creative a way to present. I don't like when people present topics with tedious slides and no interactions. If you present it miserably, the audience will look miserable.
    -Ask questions before the presentation in order to catch attention.
    -Ask relevant questions during the presentation that help students to remember your materials.
    -Make quiz questions to test students at the end of the presentation.
    -Try PREZI maybe, because PowerPoint is out of date.
    -Simplify your contents on your slides. (make key points)
    -Create some debate with questions.
    -Write some jokes or do funny gestures.
    -Use relevant videos to catch attention.

Practice it with yourself. Practice it in your head again and again.

2. The day of the presentation
Practice it with your friends. 
    -Ask your friends to listen to your presentation.
    -Ask them to give you serious feedback.

Memorize your materials. 
    -Don't read it out from a paper, because it's just not professional. (use cue cards if its necessary.)
    -Find a right tone and adjust your pace. Don't talk like a robot.

3. On stage
    -Be comfortable. Be relaxed. Be confident. Be funny and smile.
    -Walk around and give people eye contact.
    -Don't be afraid of the audience.

My experience:
I was shy and hated public speaking, but not anymore. I love doing presentations.
No one is going to pay attention on the presentation if you read out from papers, talk like a robot or put too much content on the slide. No one has the patience to listen and read them. My tips:
    -Do good research
    -Be creative
    -Be well prepared
    -Act like a boss on the stage
    -If anything goes wrong, just go with it. No one knows the presentation or topic better than you do.

Try them out and let me know how it goes. :)


So, Welcome to York and Good luck.
Leave comments, if you have any.

Thinking of moving off the campus?

Are you first year student? Yes? Then listen up.

No matter if you are living in residence, an international student or commuting from home, you may want to move out and live on your own after first year. I should tell you about some of my experiences.

Here are some of your living options: living at home, renting a place close to the campus or staying in residence.

Why I liked living on the campus?

-Staying on campus forces you to go to school everyday.
-If you live outside of the campus, you don't want to come to school during the snow storms or rainy days.
-You can always receive latest news or information from school. 

-York's campuses and residences are monitored by security 24/7, it has less security incidents and it's safe.

-The price is reasonable

-York provides an excellent living environment.
-York has residence Dons who can assist you whenever you have issues.
-You get the independence of living away from home.
-Lots of cool people live in res.

Why I liked living off campus?
I have been living outside of campus for three years because:

-It's cheap, quiet, clean and comfortable.

-I have a private space where I can do anything I want.

-I don't need to share the washroom with strangers.

-I can cook any time of day and whatever I want.
-I can bring people home whenever I want and whoever I want.

Tips for moving off campus: 

*Look for houses as early as possible. People usually move out or finish contracts around April.

*Look for a house with friends if possible. 

*Find as many phone numbers as possible and inquire about the place.

*Stay away from the houses that have over 10 people!!! (I know it's hard to find a good house, but look for a place as early as possible)

*If you have issues with your landlord or legal questions, you can reach C.L.A.S.P., a free legal aid service.

So, welcome to York and good luck!
Leave comments, if you have any.

Have you set your goals?

Did anyone tell you to plan your life? One month plan, Three month plan, Five month plan, One year plan, Three year plan and Five year plan?

Is the person crazy? No one can figure their lives out in few hours, even geniuses cant! Being a university student, it's important to be impulsive and have fun.

And there are better ways to plan your university career.

I set different goals  for each semester:

1. academic goals

2. involvement goals

3. personal goals

4. and so on

Sometimes, you won't be able to set them until the school year actually starts; so don't rush yourself. If you are worrying about your life, you may actually find out what you want to do while you are discovering yourself at school.

The following are my examples:

-1st year, my goal was to get out of my shell and get into Finance. Therefore, I enrolled in an acting class and maintained my GPA. Even though I didn't come out of my shell completely, I got in to the major I wanted which was beneficial. At the same time I also started volunteering. At the end of semester, I realized I needed involvement to change myself.

-2nd year, I got involved in York is U, met tons of people and had lots of leadership experience. I also decided to apply for an exchange in my third year. Although I didn't get the offer from York International, I decided to mentor people with my leadership experience instead. (I still think I should have gotten that exchange I because I was the bomb!!! )

-3rd year, I was continuously mentoring first year international students and very involved with York is U. It turned out that York International invited me to attend Emerging Global Leaders Program due to my outstanding involvement at York. And now I am one of the execs from York is U and a RED Zone ambassador. I would have never thought that all these things would have happen when I was in first year.

-4th year, I don't know what is going to happen yet, but I am looking forward to doing something new.

My goals for my 4th year are:

- becoming a university EGLP mentor

- continuously helping students

- providing leadership opportunities to students

- boost up my GPA

- looking for a job after graduation

My advice to you is don't rush yourself on goal setting, because you will figure out what you need to do eventually. If you want to pursue in higher education, you should be aware of your GPA.

So, Welcome to York and Good luck.

Leave comments, if you have any.

Tips for ADMS students

Are you studying Administrative Studies at York?
Do you have questions about what to take?
Then You need to read this!!!

I am studying Finance at York and going to Fourth year. Our majors are very different from other majors at York. If you are doing Finance, Accounting, Management, Market or any other streams, they are even more different and restricted.

My tips for you:
1) You need to make yourself a plan of what to take in each semester.
-You need 120 credits and 5.5 major GPA to graduate.
-If you are doing 90 credits, you only need 5.0 major GPA.
-If you don't make a plan, you will easily get lost and don't know what to take.
-If by the time you finish 120 credits and don't have 5.5 GPA, the faculty will ask you to take extra credits.
 (MBA and Graduate school require 120 credits)

My experience (only includes ADMS courses):
2009-2010: 1000 (do mostly general educational courses at first year)
2010-2011: 2200, 2500, 2320, 2510, 2610, 2400, 3330, 1010 and 3530
2011-2012: 4540, 3531, 3300, 4900, 3541, 4502, 2610, 2600, 3660 and 4501
2012-2013: and so on.

2. Get all the general education courses out off the way.
-They are easy, but really time consuming.
-Those course are very interesting, but they will not be counted in your major GPA.
-ECON 1000&1010 are also counted as outside major, you don't have to spend too much time on them.
-Once the semester starts, ADMS courses will take most of your time.

3. Keep the elective courses for the rainy day.
-Some people may have low GPA specially for Accounting and Finance students.
-You need to take elective courses in order to boost up your GPA.
-You also can take some languages or musics courses in order to cultivate your personality.
-If you want to go on exchange, you need some elective courses too. (its hard to find schools that provide similar business courses as York)


So, Welcome to York and Good luck.
Leave comments, if you have any.

Hello, first year ADMS students.

My first month at the RED Zone, many students asked me "how can I get in to Schulich after my first year?" "is Atkinson business bad?" "what is the differences between Atkinson and Schulich?" I knew you were worried because you didn't receive the offer from Schulich. Instead of choosing other offers or schools, you chose to come to Administrative study at York.

To be honest, they were totally different. Even thought we used the same materials, the professors and the way of teaching made the differences. You must be thinking how could we compete with them? because only their school title is already better than us.

I would not say you were completely right. I am being one of the Atkinson students, and I said we would have lots of opportunities which Schulish students would not be able to have. Here are my suggestions:  


1. You will have more time to get involved at school, have better school experience and have more fun. At the same time, you can take the advantage of meeting diverse people from different aspects of the campus.


2. York University provides so many opportunities to students who want to get involved. For example:
- Your affiliation colleges
- The school has over 300 organizations which includes Cultural clubs, Hobby clubs and sports clubs
- Colleges' intramural
- York is U
- e.t.c (You could always find things that could interest you)


3. Career Centre at York could help you to convert those experience into professional skills meanwhile you could use those skills on your resume which would help you compete with the students from Schulich. 


4. You could also use YUConnect to create your reference letter for your future use.


5. York International has some very awesome exchange program and international intern-ship which can enhance your skills and enrich your experience. 


6. Schulich School of Business is good at Graduate Degree but not Undergraduate Degree. It is because the school title makes the Undergraduate Degree sound prestigious. Therefore, you can maintain your undergraduate GPA and use it to apply for a Schulich MBA.


7. If you really want to change no matter what, you have to talk to the people at Schulich School. They will provide you specific courses to take in order to let you to apply to Schulich in your second year.

Anyway, don't worry about your degree and focus on your school work as well as get involved. 

So, Welcome to York and Good luck.

Leave comments, if you have any.

EGLP Reflection

If you had attended the Leadershape, you might have thought that the EGLP was a little childish. I won't say you are wrong, because I had same thought. I finished the Emerging Global Leaders Program in Jan 2012, a year after the Leadershape. Before I attended, people told me it would be an intensive couple of days. However, if you compare the two days to the six days of Leadershape, the EGLP was nothing. 

My EGLP group pic at Jan.

After two weeks, I was impressed. There had no internal circles, was inclusive and international. All students were from all over the world including Domestic, International and Exchange students. I had the opportunity to say anything I wanted to without concerning anyone. We didn't know anything about each other and were all strangers. The EGLP was awesome I admit. Even better than the Leadshape? Who knows? At least I really enjoyed.

May 7th 2012, I successfully became a mentor for the EGLP high school edition. 60 students, 11 mentors and 3 facilitators. We had a sick time together. Click on the link below to see the pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.382792361756203.77617.156987591003349&type=3

May 10 2012, I had my mentees at the EGLP high school edition

My team - team awesome

The mentor team G11

The mentor team

 Group pic 

Group pic 2

Group pic 3

My presentation: Lead like a boss

My aboriginal buddies

After that week, I felt I had finally passed my experience to the participants and had a positive impact on them. It also made me to believe I can do more than I can imagine. 


I hope the concept I taught them have been planted in their head. In the future, they can modify it or improve it based on their experiences and needs.


I also think my presentation skills are definitely one of the big things I have improved. My leading skills have also been improved as well. This EGLP also enhanced my confidence while I was presenting in front of others and speaking in public.


I will highly recommend you to apply for the EGLP. It's opened to all students no matter your school year. If you are a student leader, it would be awesome if you can share your experiences with other students and eventually share your ideas with students who are from high school. I can't really tell you what I learned, because what I learned and saw were indescribable. It was a amazing experience. 

So, Welcome to York and Good luck.

Leave comments, if you have any.

Who are we?

What is York is U and RED Zone? We are a division of Student Community & Leadership Development (SC&LD)

York is U organizes signature events such as the Red & White Day, Terry Fox Run, York's Birthday and the Stress Buster Carnival at York. All the events can not only  boost up the York Spirit, but also enhance students' York experience. We also work closely with commuter students in order to get them involved in the York Community.

At the RED Zone, first year students will receive orientations that are preformed by the peer leaders. Those peer leaders will share their personal experiences with the students and inform them of what to expect in their first year. And eventually help all students have smooth transitions from high school to university.



So, Welcome to York and Good luck.
Leave comments, if you have any.

Who am I?

I am Raymond, studying Finace, going to fourth year and an international student from China.

I am a RED Zone ambassador, a York is U ambassador and a Peer Mentor.

1. I am not afraid of trying.
2. I don't mind people making fun of me.
3. I like to see people laugh.

If you want to know more about me, you can talk to me.
I am a mean person, so I like to make jokes about anything. However, I am not a bad person, I am just being honest.

So, Welcome to York and Good luck.
Leave comments, if you have any.

Stop being cool!

It's the first week of summer school and this are some types of students I have seen.

1. The on the mission type, they rush in and rush out, are always runing between class, library, work and home. They are too busy to get a hold of.
(Your friends want to catch up with you and a cup of coffee only takes less than 20 mins. Sometime, you might be spending that 20 mins on Facebook instead of talking to a real person.) 

2. The cool type, they don't talk to anyone in the class and they don't interact with you even when you ask them questions. They are often looking at their cellphone and seem no interested in anything. Who knows? Maybe they are just too shy to interact.
(If you are too cool to talk, you have issues to solve. If you are just really shy, you know what? you are not alone and you can talk to the person besides you. Cellphone is a good place to hide yourself but I don't recommend it.) 

3. The catching up type, they are always chilling and walking around campus. They like to give out big hugs to their friends. They are probably taking school but are no geniuses, and they always seem chill and have nothing to do.
(You must have a very good time management skill. If you can, please keep doing what you are doing. People need hugs. However, if you are not doing so good at school, the library should be a good place for you.) 

4. The awkward silent type, they are all over the class room. They want interactions, but they are too shy to start a conversation. Even though they can start a conversation, but they have nothing to follow up. And eventually the conversation awkwardly ends.
(I don't know how to help, because I have the same issue. I will recommend you keep trying. The more you practice you get, the less awkward it will be.) 

5. The attention seeking type, they are as loud as a F-bomb. They intend to create a splash no matter where they are. They usually find it hard to pay attention during a single conversation and easily get distracted by others.
(You are pretty much screwed. People like you can't really change much, but way to go man.) 

There are more.....
Everybody can become one of these types during certain occasions, and all you need is just a little push. Understand all the personalities, Get rid off your coolness and Start to mingle. 



So, Welcome to York and Good luck.
Leave comments, if you have any.

What is Ariel's Problem?

Ariel opened the blog with name Blu3B3rrry. So weird!!!

So, Welcome to York and Good luck
Leave comments, if you have any.