7 Ways to Make the Most of Your First Weeks at Briercrest
1. Join in with your hall.
A student’s life can be overwhelming! New people, new place, new pressures… Everything will be much easier with a stable core of community. RAs are in the dorm to help lead that. Your hall can save you from being alone in a crowd and be a natural space to make new friends.
It also puts freshmen in contact with upperclassmen who can help ease the transition. Are you new to Briercrest? Ask the returning students in your hall how the experience has been for them. Are you a second, third, or fourth year? Seek out the freshmen! Community is critical to education that disciples, and it starts in your hall.
2. Leave your door open.
Everyone needs a little privacy. Praise God for doors that close!
That said, leaving your door open can be both literal and metaphorical. People passing in the hallway can glance and see who lives around them. It also creates opportunities for spontaneous connection and life-giving conversation.
You might consider leaving your door open more often than not.
3. Put your clothes away.
Your external surroundings affect your internal state.
With so many things happening around you – assignments, communal living, service experience, etc. – your brain might sometimes spin! That can also intensify any personal concerns that already exist.
Getting the clutter in your room put away can surprisingly positively affect any inner chaos.
4. Pop into the library.
Let’s get real. Some of you aren’t big readers.
But the Archibald Library can still help you succeed in your time at Briercrest. Swing by and try typing a topic into one of the search computers. Walk through the stacks of books and see what’s available. Glance through the online databases on the library website. Find a spot to read in the natural light and among the plants.
If a tactile learning experience would help, ask one of the library staff to show you. The team is here to help empower your learning!
5. Eat in the dining hall.
It might be a high school movie trope, but have you ever eaten next to the dumpster?
It’s awful!
But it can be less intimidating than searching for tablemates.
The real tea is that eating in the dining hall is the best way to beat that fear and find a sense of belonging. Jesus’s disciples have been breaking bread together for millennia to deepen their connection. Eating with your campus community is one of the choices you can make to find your sense of belonging.
6. Mark syllabus items on a calendar.
Syllabi are overwhelming!
Cut through the homework fog by copying all your assignments onto a calendar or a list with the dates in order. Some students find it really helpful to copy them by hand, but Canvas has a calendar tab that will list all you assignments in one place. Having it all in one place and in order can help it all seem smaller and let you think realistically about what to do next.
Don’t let the syllabi bury you. Pull out the necessary information and then go back to read them for the details.
Click here for more organizing tips.
7. Pray with people.
This community is designed to be Christ-centred, Bible-anchored, and ministry-focused. It is meant to help you be formed spiritually and intellectually for lives of service.
When you’re talking with people about anything, offer to pray right there. Or if that feels like a lot, ask them if they would pray for you.
God has something in mind for you and your year at Briercrest. He has put you and the people around you in the same circle with a purpose. Come to Him together! Watch and see how He works in you through it.
You can make a lot of choices to help kick off your year well. Don’t make them alone! Talk with the people around you about how they are approaching 2020-21. You never know what might strike a chord and open up the year’s potential!
