Engaging students from the start

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/degroote2.jpg” caption=”DeGroote School of Business”]Engage students from day one — do that, and you'll have them for life, feels Nick Bontis, the new director of undergraduate programs in the DeGroote School of Business.
“It is important to provide as engaging an experience as possible for our first-year students,” says Bontis, who has organized a first-year welcome reception on Tuesday, Nov. 2 in Celebration Hall, Kenneth Taylor Hall basement, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. “From our first point of communication with students when we recruit them in high school, to the correspondence we have with them over the summer, to Welcome Week in September, we have found that this whole experience that students have is extremely important. We've learned alumni participation starts from day one.”
Called “A Degree of Difference Class of 2008”, the reception will feature information booths from across campus, including the Academic Programs Office, Career Services, World Congress, Centre for Student Development, the First-Year Experience Office and Commerce Society.
In addition to food, refreshments and door prizes, attendees will be given a free DeGroote key chain. Students will also have an opportunity to network with staff, faculty, peers alumni, the new dean of business Paul Bates and Bontis. Both Bates and Bontis will provide a speech at the event.
A reception luncheon for the top 22 business students is another way the school hopes to engage undergraduates. These are students who have achieved a 90 per cent average or greater in their last year of high school. The luncheon will take place at the Faculty Club on Nov. 11.
“We want to thank these students for selecting McMaster,” Bontis says, “because when you have 90 per cent or higher you can basically choose any school you want. These are our brightest students and we want to make sure they continue to succeed.”