sod   [sod]  noun, verb, sod·ded, sod·ding.
–noun
1. section cut or torn from the surface of grassland, containing the matted roots of grass.
2. the surface of the ground, esp. when covered with grass; turf; sward.
3. an acronym that stands for Summer Orientation Day @ Brescia!

Yesterday I experienced my SOD: Summer Orientation Day. After waking up far too early to make the drive to London, my mom and I arrived at the campus that will be my home in less than 2 months.

We our day started with many presentations with topics ranging from academic success in university to financial aid information to academic planning to a student council presentation. It was a really informative session which got me thinking about finances (yuck!) and how I want to get involved next year (yay!).

But the best part of my SOD experience was the personal academic advising. My mom and I sat down with an advisor who helped me pick my courses. It was really helpful to sit down with someone and discuss my plans before attempting to create my timetable. It even turns out that I needed to fill out some paperwork as many courses for my degree (I’m doing an Honours Specialization in Food Science and Technology) are only offered on Main Campus.

After I was “advised”, I was sent to the library to register for my classes. I’m so glad I went to SOD and had advisors to help me each step of the process because I would have been totally lost if I tried to do registration on my own! In university, not only do you get to pick your courses, but also the times of each of your classes. The choices, in some cases are endless or can be extremely limited, depending on the course. I also discovered that for every class, you have to pick a lecture and then pick a matching tutorial/lab component! Each lecture, lab and/or tutorial has multiple times to choose from so it can get really confusing!

But, after one solid hour of picking lecture times, fitting in tutorials and labs and rearranging my schedule to fit in courses like calculus that only have one section per year- I have a completed, balanced schedule with no morning classes except for Fridays! Hooray!

Thanks to all the advisors that helped me at SOD, I feel very “oriented” to university life- at least registration- and confident that next year, I will be able to pick my courses on my own :)

The day was capped off with a great lunch with my awesome fellow Take the Lead finalists, Dr. Hanycz and Jocelyn Laqerquist! Even though I was late for the lunch due to my marathon course registration process, it was a pretty nice way to end another great day at Brescia!

-Christine xo