Current Students

Being happy affects both your brain and your body in positive ways. Cultivating personal happiness is something you can do every day. There are many actions we can take to improve our mood, build our resilience and our sense of well-being.

Here are 7 practices toward living a happier life to try:

Vancouver Island University’s ‘su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins Aboriginal student mentorship program is celebrating its 10^th anniversary in September 2021. In honour of this important milestone, we are sharing the stories of 12 people closely connected with the program – one per month – leading up to the anniversary.

The ‘su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins program builds capacity for mentors to gain leadership and employability skills through outreach and mentoring activities. Students hone skills in self-awareness, communication, leadership, self-care and an exploration of personal values, with an emphasis on “telling one’s story” as a path to self-empowerment through outreach to others.

We know this time of year can get overwhelming, with the semester in full swing, lots of assignments coming up and the added stress of adjusting to online learning during a pandemic.

We are all aware that it isn’t business as usual these days and as BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says, “This isn’t forever, it’s just for now.” So, although we don’t know how long we will be adapting through the pandemic, there are jobs that need to be done during this time and although it may be a bit more challenging to find good jobs, be resilient, adaptable and open. As non-essential businesses and services continue to re-open, more and more opportunities will emerge. Here are a few actions to take to help you work toward your employment goals.

Wow, we’re now in October, which means we’re a few weeks into classes for many programs. What a September it has been! I imagine that for much of the VIU Community, if not all, this September has presented some new challenges and has involved some pretty major adjustments. The shift to this hybrid education model, with so much being online, has meant that we’ve all had to learn new things on top of our usual day-to-day requirements.

As you may have read already, VIU will continue in the hybrid learning model for much of our programming this Spring term (beginning in January). This decision was made to support the safety of our community. Read more about it on our COVID-19 information and updates webpage and, as always, if you have a question that is not answered there, simply reply to this email.

Do you find yourself constantly fighting a massive to-do list that never gets smaller or struggling with completing assignments on time? Sharon Kelly, VIU’s Success Coach, says conquering the to-do list starts with first knowing your priorities.

This post is excerpted from Lessons for Decolonizing Post-Secondary Institutions. You can find the full article on The Ripple Effect Project, the Office of Aboriginal Education and Engagement’s blog.

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Student Pulse – your guide to everything you need to know about VIU. Did you know that all editions are stored on the VIU Blog? If you missed a past edition, just look there to see if your questions are answered.

Starting university creates a lot of new. New school, new friends, new classes, and along with all that there’s new lingo to learn! University lingo can be hard to navigate at first, but our fourth-year veterans, Kass and Dayna, have compiled a list of commonly used terms to help get you through!

Alumni

Graduates/former students of the university. They often provide support to current students. Singular: alumnus (male) or alumna (female).

Bachelor’s Degree

A degree given to a student after studying at University for four-years.