With the school year starting at the beginning of September, first-year students were welcomed with various First-Year Experience Events held by Ignite. The events prepared for first-years include but are not limited to Frosh 2022, speed friending and a carnival.
A few first-years have shared their opinions and recommendations on the events they went to and their personal experiences attending the events.
Patricia Baylon, a first-year student in the Behavioural Sciences program, attended the speed friending event where she met friends who went to Frosh with her.
“Going to Frosh wasn’t too bad. I went with my friend and I think it took us about an hour or so to get there. And then going back home was a little stressful it was like, 1 a.m. already. It was really cold as well, I didn’t bring a proper jacket for the nighttime,” she says.
Frosh 2022 took place on Sept. 13, at Universal EventSpace in Vaughan from 7 p.m. to midnight. The event offered performances from different artists, such as Killy, Cochise, and Roy Wood$ and DJs, such as DJ Ritz, DJ RattaBass, and Celebrity Dru to entertain the students with music.
Baylon says that if she was able to propose another event for the first-year students, it would’ve been another carnival as she couldn’t attend the event. She didn’t find the long commute to be worth it for an event which only lasted an hour.
Marlon Peters, the manager of student engagement at the North Campus where his role oversees the events and promotions of all Ignite-related events and services.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard but because of COVID, getting dates at venues is extremely difficult because of the wedding backlogs that they have. So, the venue is booked a year in advance. After that, let’s say at the end of April, this is when we start our planning for the event,” Peters says.
He says the student turnout for the Frosh event was 2,500 students out of the 2,900 students who registered. He says they also do “activations” which help them promote their programs and services to students, an example of this would be the churro company that came to campus on the first week.
Eric Alberto Geraldino Morillo, a first-year student studying Bachelor of Social Science in Addictions and Mental Health who also attended the carnival
“It was behind the L Building and there were some tattoos and games and all that. I was with my peer mentor enjoying the activities, having a little tour around,” he says.
He says he met Carl, who was in the same program as him at the carnival but didn’t spend too much time talking to him as he toured around with his peer mentor. He also added, he learns about events on campus with the help of posters on the wall. He says he would check those out to plan out which event he’s going to attend next.
