Overview: The academic year has started! In this post I welcome new students and provide some simple advice for navigating orientation. Reading time ~ 5 minutes.
Orientation activities have kicked off here at Flinders!
On behalf of the teams at Health, Counselling and Disability Services (HCDS) and Oasis, I’d like to welcome all the new students starting with us this year.
I’d also like to welcome back returning students, some of whom have already returned, others who will return in the coming weeks.
I’ve been working from home since beginning of this year (hermit), so I will not be experiencing the increased numbers on campus.
But given that orientation this year is primarily online, I still get to take part! And I encourage you to do the same.
There are benefits to this online model.
For example, by visiting and signing up to the ‘Finding Your Way at Flinders’ FLO topic, you’ll find links to tonnes of sessions that will help you get to know more about life at Flinders. In the course of just a few hours you can get a feel for your topics, lectures, support services and opportunities.
Oasis (which is a wellbeing/community focused support service here at Flinders) has multiple sessions running over the next few weeks. You can access them here.
I’m even hosting a couple of sessions myself if reading my words makes you wonder how goofy I am in person. A couple of sessions introducing new students to what the teams at Health, Counselling and Disability Services and Oasis actually do, and one session in Wellbeing Week with a ‘Good Vibes Experiment’ theme (spoiler, it talks about our approach to mental health here at Flinders). You’ll find those included in this list.
I’m mindful, having watched a few orientation periods go by, that orientation weeks can be a bit overwhelming. Everyone is throwing information at you, wanting you to take part in something, sign up to something.
My advice is to focus primarily on the topic/course related stuff first. Make sure you know who your course contact people are, where and when lectures are being held etc. Aim to get off to a good start with the learning part first, and then spread your wings and check out other offerings [shameless plug, we have a Getting Off To A Good Start document you might like reading].
That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the other online opportunities and sessions (would love to see you at mine). Just be aware that in your time with us there will be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of the many programs and services and resources that Flinders has to offer. There is no rush.
I would like to take a moment to give a shout out 🗣 to staff across the university who have been working overtime to get everything ready for the year. Staff I’ve been speaking to are excited about the year and ready to get going, even if it has been a rather frantic and unusual start to a year (although, with this COVID thing, we are probably all starting to get a bit used to things being different).
Put simply, people are keen to get going!
Here at HCDS and Oasis we run a lot of programs and offer a lot of services. Watch me try to explain it all in this video.
Don’t worry about remembering it all though.
My main tip is subscribe to this blog. You’ll get news items about our services programs sent to you each week, so that when/if you need us, you’ll know where to find us and what we offer.
Enjoy these weeks. Its a bit of a rollercoaster 🎢, but you’ve started a really cool study journey and we’re excited to be sharing it with you.
Take care
Dr G