A Message from Rachel!
Posted under: Hi everybody,
I’m Rachel, one of the Orientation Co-Chairs this year! There are two of us: myself, and Kristina Minnella, who is our Campus Life Coordinator at Vic. Together, Kristina and I have the wonderful opportunity to lead an amazing group of students – the Orientation Executive – to plan Orientation for all of you. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my last summer as a student here at Vic and UofT and I’m so looking forward to meeting all of you and welcoming you to Vic, to UofT, and to Toronto!
Kim, our Orientation Exec in charge of the website, asked me to write a blog entry about what Vic means to me. Some of you were able to make it to Open Vic on May 25 (a welcome event for incoming students) and heard me give a speech on “The Student Perspective” here at Victoria College. Giving that speech was an incredible experience for me because it allowed me to really reflect on why I love Vic so much, and although it was challenging at first to figure out how to put it into words, it was a great feeling when it all came together!
So for those of you who weren’t able to be at Open Vic, (or for those of you who were and are interested!) here’s an excerpt from the speech I gave that morning that is really the best way I know how to describe what Vic means to me.
“What Vic means to you is something you’ll discover for yourself as you spend time here. But you’ll also discover so much about yourself – whether you’re commuting, staying in residence, joining clubs, playing sports, running for student council, hanging out in the Quad, studying in the library, doing research, sitting on a committee, attending social events, becoming an Orientation Leader, or spending time with friends, you’ll have so many amazing opportunities to learn things you never knew about yourself, to find your passion, and to discover who you are and who you want to be. One of my most favourite things about this college is that it is a place where you really and truly can be whoever you want to be.
This campus is beautiful as many of you know already and will discover on your tours this afternoon. The resources available to us here are remarkable. The staff are dedicated and supportive. Your courses will be challenging and hopefully inspire a curiousness and creativity you’ve never experienced before. There are countless opportunities to get involved in the community. But behind all of these shining opportunities lies something more. It’s why Vic has changed my life, and it’s what makes us the best college at UofT.
Here at Vic we have the most wonderful, caring, supportive, hilarious, interesting, diverse, passionate, curious, dedicated, friendly, delightful people. It’s the people that make this community so special – that get you through those all-nighters writing the paper you should really have started sooner or studying for the three hour exam that makes you queasy to think about. It’s the people here that make you happy to come home to Vic at the end of a tough day of classes, that make you miss your home and family less. It’s the people here who will support you and also challenge you in new ways. And right now, all of you are becoming the people of Victoria College – you will make this college a special place, and you will be the people who will make differences in each others’ lives and in the lives of future students.
I’m so proud to welcome all of you to my college, my community, and my home, and I’m excited for all of you to discover that it is your college, your community, and your home too. Welcome to Victoria College.”