At the beginning of this New Year students can make improving their academic performance part of their 2015 resolutions. On Saturday, January 17, 2015, the Student Success Centre will host its annual Academic Boot Camp, open to all undergraduate students in all faculties.

This full day program includes twelve workshops. Students attending the boot camp pre-select four workshops from the areas of academic skills, leadership development, and employment preparation.

The workshops are meant to help students achieve new personal goals for their academic success. “Same genesis as New Year’s resolutions,” says Jennifer Meister, academic skills coordinator for the SSC. “The Boot Camp came from the realization that students are not always available to attend multiple workshops throughout the year. This one day intensive program provides students with the opportunity to concentrate on their academic and career success”.

Every year students are surveyed for feedback about the Boot Camp. One student said, “To me, a successful student is one who tries to change their grades by attending these boot camps.” Students who have attended in previous years said they would recommend this boot camp to others.

Academic skills sessions include:

• Time management and avoiding procrastination
• Effective and efficient reading strategies
• How to study for exams
• Writing university-level essays

Leadership workshops include:

• Facilitating group meetings
• Event planning
• Marketing and event promotion
• Budgeting

Additional sessions include:

• Introduction to the Learning Portfolio
• Creating an effective resume

Registration for this one-day event is currently open on OSCARplus. It’s free to attend, students are asked to bring their own lunch as the event runs the whole day. More information about this event is on the Student Success website.