Why high school shouldn't be the best years of your life

Alright its time to address those 'growing old' concerns that seem to be plaguing everyone in my age bracket. I myself am turning 23 this year and get comments like, 'Oh you getting old girl'. First of all if you're still calling me a 'girl' how old could I really be? Second please stop talking. The early twenties are, thanks to the standard of living in Canada, just a quarter of your life. If I'm supposed to slow down and feel old at 25% of my life cycle I would be near suicidal.

In all seriousness, guys, what the fudge bars? How am I an aunty/grandma/decrepit old coot at 22 or 23? Did a cane just pop out my backside when I went over the hill? Did the pimples I had only a few years ago spontaneously combust into wrinkles?

If this is you after high school...........

..................you might have a serious problem.

You see, I'm not particularly hip. I don't listen to the radio much. The TTC just isn't keeping me up to date with what kids are listening to nowadays. Then again I did catch a song the other day with the chorus 'I look good in your grandpa's clothes' and remembered why I don't care about what the kids are listening to. Back to the point... Since I am unconcerned with the eternal fountain of youth, this descent  into old age (at 22) is not troubling me all that much. Frankly speaking I'm really glad I'm from basically the last generation that grew up listening to some kind of rock (RHCP, Pearl Jam, Nirvana represent!). 

That one year I spent in a Canadian high school drilled it into me that university would be a massive jump. A leap of faith where if you didn't ingest your textbook and generate that work ethic you didn't have in high school you would drop out faster than an anvil in a Looney Tunes cartoon. From my experience this really only applied to the people in high school who worked really hard or the random slacker that got into university and decided not to go to class, ever. I am a product of a different school system though... You think school is your ally. But you merely adopted the education system; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a (wo)man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING!

Last but not least one major complaint is the beating everyone's social life took in this journey from high school to university. Well I can't speak for the GTA but I've noticed a lot of high school friendships didn't really stand the test of time. Pretty much two or three survivors make it out of the mire of time. There are 10,000 people at the Scarborough Campus and twice that at St. George, sorry UTM but you're too distant. Two hundred campus clubs, an SCSU that literally only throws parties and well the other thousands of students in Toronto and people tell me that their social life takes a hit? HOW? You quite literally have to hole up in a corner of the library and maintain an exclusive relationship with your textbook to manage this. 

Dear old chaps, I'm just trying to prod you into opening your eyes to the reality of our situation. If high school was the best years of your life you've basically prematurely curbed the glory of your existence. I know I was a complete idiot for the greater part of my teens. (Why why did I think turquoise bellbottoms were so cool?!) If you just forget for a minute that your biggest concern went from being what to have for lunch to OSAP you gotta take the  good with the bad. The world is just waiting for you to blossom into the creature of marvel you could be. Don't give up hope because that girl/guy you met in high school probably isn't the same as they were back then, there are nice profs and bad profs like teachers, money doesn't grow on tress but you can't live off your parents the rest of your life either. SO BUCK UP and prepare for the ride of your life because you have a life left to live.

I got 99 problems but...

<3 Z

The Internship Scam

Half of working adults in the GTA hold precarious jobs, according to a recent study, and as young adults we know that better than anyone. Our unemployment rate, at 16.5%, is double that of people above age 24. As more university students and recent grads find that entry-level jobs are frustratingly scarce, many turn to the seemingly brutal but necessary unpaid internship.

Canada and the United States are in the midst of an “intern boom,” writes Ross Perlin in Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. Many students see internships as the de facto way to get a foot into the door of the working world, a fact that’s drilled into one’s head from schools and labour agencies and parents. The recent recession, however, has changed the role of the intern in the modern economy. “Internships used to be paid gigs at blue-chip companies that focused on training and recruitment. It was considered a marker of a good internship program that it hired between 50 and 70 percent of its workers to full-time jobs,” says Perlin. “Today, people sometimes have to do five or six internships in order to land the work they’re ultimately looking for. You also have a number of companies that are freezing future hires or simply replacing their paid employees with interns.”

Internship programs exist in a sort of legal grey area. “It’s an industry term,” says David Doorey, professor of employment law at York. “There seems to be a widely held belief that an employer avoids our basic employment law rules simply by labelling someone an intern. That’s wrong.” The Employment Standards Act lists several rules that govern unpaid internships, but these rules are frequently ignored. “One of the most frequently violated conditions states that the trainee should provide no immediate advantage to his or her employer,” says Perlin. “Whether it means making Xeroxes or writing speeches for senators, interns are always expected to contribute to the bottom line.” Interns lack the employment standards given to paid workers, and there are no rules against exploiting interns. Statistics Canada doesn’t even keep track of unpaid workers, so we have no data about interns in this country. Many interns find themselves sucked into the implicit idea that an internship will lead to a paid position, but this is frequently not the case.

The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail recount some internship horror stories in recent articles. “My experience has been really frustrating,” says Toronto’s Anya Oberdorf, who spent over a year working two unpaid internships, neither of which led to a job. “I can’t afford a third internship, but I don’t want to sit around at home, either.” Dan Dolan had to live at home with his parents after graduation to afford an unpaid internship at an advertising firm, but the experience was 5% working with clients and 95% custodial work, like cleaning the kitchen and taking out the trash.

Then there’s the problem that unpaid internships are only viable for students whose parents can support them. “Unpaid internships may make the fortress accessible, sometimes, sure,” writes journalism student Bethany Horne, about the difficult path to employment in media companies. “But they only make it accessible to some people, the kind of people who are already over-represented inside. Those who can afford to work for free. So the young people who don’t come from the city, and who don’t come from money, are shit-out-of-luck.” She adds, “I am boycotting the system. It’s not that I won’t work for free exclusively on ethical grounds. Practically, I can’t afford it.”

It is the unique desperation of university students and new graduates that employers exploit. Even after paying thousands of dollars for a university education, we are herded into unpaid internships that guarantee no jobs or even relevant experience. Writes Carol Goar, columnist for the Star, “No Canadian politician has taken up their cause. No corporate leader has said it is wrong to take advantage of debt-burdened graduates. No university president has gone to bat for young people trained at his or her institution.” 

The intern nation may be great for companies, who are essentially getting free labour, but it’s a stressful, precarious precedent for young university students like us.

The Debate (1) - Art vs Science

It’s the age old question every university student hears/asks/ignores at some point during this long journey we call education. The battle between art and science, if we never thought about it before Frosh cheers and the various –isms of solidarity coerced us into picking a side. Is science the most irrefutably logical system of study, one that is based on a logical progression of ideas and theories? It is easy to think so, until that charismatic sculpture major walks in and passionately rants about all the reasons why Michelangelo was the father of modern socialism or something.

I’m not saying that’s true -- I mean who really understands the hyperbole that is political theory -- but the arts have this way of bringing life into everything and convincing many that a well-paying job is less important than fulfillment or self-actualization or some crap like that. BUT IS IT CRAP?

It’s important to note at this point that while all we artsy/scientist students are fighting over the carcass of our argument, the Management/business students of the world are putting their suits on and going to their next job interview at Johnson & Johnson or something. Accounting seems so much more fun once you've graduated and aren’t living in your old bedroom in the parents’ house. They probably laugh at us all day everyday for worrying about cells and molecules and movies and the expressions of paintings, as they calculate those risk ratios or GDPs or whatever it is they do in bo-rrrinngg seeming courses of theirs. Thus, they do not really factor into this questioning.

So coming back to the original questions of what is ‘better’, ‘more useful’, ‘better paying’, it’s easy to get reeled into examples of the big names in each field. Stephen Hawking vs. Andy Warhol, Siddhartha Mukherjee (guy’s a world-renowned oncologist) vs. Quentin Tarantino. It’s a shame their contributions to civilization are brought down to comparison, especially since both Art and Science are meant to coexist such that they contribute to each others, progress and work together to further our understanding of the universe.

Ultimately, all we want to do is influence the environment around us in whatever capacity we choose to. How is Art or Science better than the other in doing so? Neither this blog, nor a million others will actually answer that question. The only opinions that matter are of students like us, people taking the first steps towards life and productivity; we can defend and understand our choices in programs, and should be able to do so for so many others.

Science – Based on fact and the discovery of significance

Art – Based on argument and giving things importance based on how they affect another.

Science – The largest department at UTSC (very dependent upon whether you categorize Psychology as a science or not). We are constantly finding out the most fascinating facts about the world around us, and being taught the mechanisms behind the way everything (literally everything) works.

Art – The liberating, tantalizing quirks of UTSC’s most ‘free spirited’ students. I still remember those guys from the Annual UTSC  Rainbow tie Gala (LGBTQ event) , who kept changing their clothes with each other...I THINK as a symbolization of the ideologies we have regarding transphobia/transgendered and what not. Anyhoo, I just thought it was cool that they randomly dropped their clothes in the middle of the meeting place because the bathroom just wasn’t as interesting an option.

Science – Get’s more challenging over time

Art – Get’s more challenging over time.

Still don’t understand where to start, do you? There is no way of reconciling their differences with their similarities, and I highly doubt the drama between the two departments is going to leave the Frosh monologue anytime soon. BUT, this is the first of a three-part blog about the way Art and Science have been shaped over the centuries, and the perceptions students have about them. Stay tuned for next week, where you’ll hear from someone OTHER THAN ME, about the same issue. If it is an issue, I definitely cannot think of an appropriate word and maybe if I were a poetry specialist this would not be happening.

G’day UTSC. Winter is over, the new pope might be an African Cardinal and not our usual Italiano/German. March is one month before April. April is the month the semester ends. There is so much to look forward to, but mostly just the pope thing.

Cheers

Misadventures of Jakub at UTSC

So I made some comics for y'all this week, I also found out that scanning them on the computer is a terrible idea. The drawings will all be destroyed and you'll have to redo most of the lines again by hand. :D Enjoy.

Making headlines

Hello all!

I realise that my blog is usually the satirical, mildly offensive ode to my innermost musing but not this week. My Facebook news feed is overrun with news update that I feel the need to share with you all.

Who-go Chavez?

This week saw the death of Hugo Chavez. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mr.Chavez he was the President of Venezuela. He had been in power from 1999 till 2013, democratically elected. Chavez was a character -- he partnered up with the premier villiain of world politics, Iranian president Ahmadinejad. Bonding over their mutual distaste for the USA they had numerous trade agreements, all of which qualified Chavez as the rebel of international politics. If that wasn't bad enough he was also an outspoken Socialist. With his nationalization of oil production and other key industries he attempted to make Venezuela an economically independent state.

Painted as a the hero of a nation, Hugo Chavez will most likely be remembered as the caped crusader of Socialist Latin American.

In other news we have my homeland, Pakistan. A superficial understanding of Pakistan will dictate that it is country plagued by political turmoil, a society in constant threat of 'Islamization' by fundamentalists and, and with income disparity of proportions comparable to those before the French Revolution. Then again an in depth understanding of the state of the nation may afford you that very same conclusion.

Recently there have been a string of bombings in a tirade of sectarian violence. Karachi, the Toronto of Pakistan, is slipping into a state akin to that of anarchy. I woke up this morning to a mass bbm message saying that the army was going to march through the streets, cell phone service was to be cut off soon and that children are especially being targeted by kidnappers.

I went on Facebook and this is the sort of thing I read:

"Girls being kidnapped in large numbers all over the city and the only thing your family can say to you is 'if anything happens to our reputation it's your fault'. Wow."

                        

                      The Karachi I know

The Karachi I did not know

If you ask me what the link is between these two happenings I can not give you a straight answer. All I can say is that Pakistan needs a hero and Venezuela lost theirs.

Last but not least is the University of Toronto's recent string of awards and nominations. We also got ranked as the 16th best university in the world! Ah UofT you grant me intelligence bonus points in the world of academia. Not to detract from this great achievement but the fact of the matter is U of T is Canada's researching powerhouse. If the awards didn't go to us, let's be honest, who would they go to? We're big fish in a small pond considering those were national awards and if we took on MIT or Yale competition would be far stiffer. 

The world ranking is a far more interesting predicament. Bearing in mind the variable used to determine this kind of statistic are in accordance with principles the researcher emphasizes. That being said McGill slipped into the 30s as well as UBC. Thus U of T must be doing something right? Either way lets not get too fat headed about this. My grades are definitely not a good enough reflection of this great university's creme de la creme. 

Here's to hoping for the best! 

Over and out.

<3 Z

Extern job shadowing and you

One day you’re reading the Intranet and you spy this entry about a U of T job shadowing program, and, intrigued, you open it. You fill out a few forms about your vocational interests and sign up for an orientation meeting, and just like that you’re in.

You show up for the orientation meeting with a sort of mild social anxiety because you’re not sure what it’s going to be about, or whether you’ll have to do much talking. You’re not even 100% sure you’re going to the right room at the right time, because the instructions were a little like, information overload; there were so many numbers and dates and there’s the possibility that you might have gotten confused. But you end up showing up to the right room anyway, and are lured into comfort by the nice solid wooden surroundings of the room and the cherubic program leader. This is the part where you discuss which kind of vocation you’re going to job shadow in, and your overall attitudes/knowledge/stage of self-actualization in regard to your career choice. There's this sinking feeling when the program leader makes you talk to the person next to you about afore-mentioned attitudes/knowledge/stage of self-actualization but you strike up a comfortable rapport and it’s OK.

The next stage is to apply via the Career Centre website to various employers, filtering by field (e.g. journalism, medicine, finance) and then choosing a specific company. You get to  apply to three or four locations, ranking them in order of preference. And then in the application you have to write several 250-word essays about various topics, e.g. what you know about the vocational field, what makes you interested in it (incld. relevant experiences and skills you might possess), and then you have to repeat this process for every position you apply to (the cherubic program leader was not lying, you come to find out, when he said that you should not leave this stuff to the last minute)--and if you're like me you probably end up applying to positions within only one field so you can copy-paste some of your application answers to other positions.

If you come up with some fantastically deep and philosophical answers to these questions, and/or at least show some rudimentary mental engagement while writing them, you’re accepted into the University of Toronto’s Extern Job Shadowing program! Next up is a second meeting, this time to discuss logistics of contacting your host and what to wear/how to act, planning questions to ask them, and generally how to represent U of T flatteringly and not appear like a slobbering York neanderthal. Rules: no begging for employment, no inappropriate dress, no bluntly asking how big someone's salary is, etc etc. You have to again talk to the person beside you, this time preparing questions to ask your host, a lot more painful than last meeting because it’s like, unless you’re actually really on top of things you’re thinking about this for the first time and a lot of the conversation is umms and ahhs and blank stares. After this meeting you have a month before your job shadowing starts.

And so like if you’re as bad as I am you left all the preparation to the last minute, and so on the morning that you’re supposed to first meet your host you’re scrambling to think of questions to ask and picking clothes, and the pants you were vaguely planning to wear end up being too tight (because of course you only try them on right before having to leave, pants  which the last time you wore them was in 2011) and the zipper won’t go all the way up so that pretty much eliminates wearing a tucked-in dress shirt, and all your nice sweaters are in the wash or lost somewhere, adding to the stress of a blizzard outside and the fact that you’ve gained weight seeing as your pants no longer fit. And so by the time you’re out of the house you’re completely out of your mind with confusion and general social anxiety and a lack of sleep because of said social anxiety the night before, and of course there’s a huge accident on the DVP so that you arrive half an hour late (something you should emphatically do everything that is humanly possible to avoid doing to your host) to the office of Canada’s #1 News Station with traffic updates on the 1s of each hour so that your host has already finished the whole tour with the other job shadowing students. Basically, don’t be like me.

But then things go pretty smoothly. Your frazzle and anxiety appear outwardly like flushed interest and you get to meet all the employees and they’re all friendly and nice and give you some valuable tips on how to approach your career, and you leave the offices feeling much better than you did when you entered and it’s OK.

The final steps are to write a physical thank-you letter to your host and to fill out an online reflection form from the U of T Career Centre, and once all that is done you can request a certificate of participation. The experience is truly valuable, in my opinion: there’s no better way to see what a job is actually like than to visit the workplace and talk to the workers. If you’re on the fence about your career path, as many people probably are, this is the thing for you. It’s completely free, and runs twice a year, and is easier than I make it sound here. Go for it.

Your guide to UTSC government 2: getting meaningfully involved as a student

So last week I wrote about the structure of UTSC’s government, the various roles that people have within it, and how it functions. Today I thought it would be good to explore how to get involved within your school, what you can do as a student to participate in this government or inside the various functioning bodies of the school in general.

1. Work and Volunteering
Probably the most practical thing that you can do while you study at UTSC is get a job while you’re there! The work study program allows any full time student at UTSC to apply apply for a medley of jobs that will pay you for the entire summer semester, or fall/spring term.

The SCSU also hires also hires students regularly to work in many positions, both paid and voluntary.

You can also gain valuable experience through the various volunteer roles available on the SCSU employment site.

The Department of Student Life offers a great website to browse through the various student jobs available, as well as matching you with good volunteer opportunities. 

2. Student Organizations - Campus Groups, Student Societies, Departmental Student Associations, and Greek Clubs

Student clubs (or, campus groups as they’re officially called) are the meat and potatoes of student life. It’s probably the most obvious way to get involved at school as a student. If you’ve ever stepped foot on campus you’d have noticed the various banners, fliers, and events in the school thanks to the effort of so many people like yourself who just want to get together with an idea and have fun with it. Campus groups celebrate our diverse religious, ideological, and political affiliations, and also provide a place to discuss and promote various sports and hobbies. Campus groups are approved, supported, and funded by the Department of Student Life, you can apply to make your own as per the instructions on their website. You’re pretty much allowed to make a campus group for anything you want as long as it’s not illegal, some kind of weird money making scheme, or discriminatory (you know, the bad kind of discriminatory).

The benefits of starting up a campus group as opposed to having your own secret club is eligibility for $funding$, access to school resources (your own emails, ability to book rooms, etc.), and street cred (everyone will know the badass non-alcoholic flip cup club was YOUR idea).

If you would like to join an existing campus group, a full list of them, their objectives and contact info, can be found here.

There are also Student Societies that collect levies directly from your school tuition fees, (eg, fusion radio). These are like Campus Groups but they follow much stricter guidelines. Student societies can also have formal relationships with Student Society Affiliates (like the Women’s Centre), and they can recieve funding from their parent Student Society.

Departmental Student Associations (DSAs) are great to get involved in because they allow more formal relationships to form between you and the various faculty and administration. They also make you seem like the cool ‘leader’ of your whole student department. DSAs represent your academic department, and they also advocate on the behalf of those students, so they’re a great channel to air your academic grievances through, and stand up against academic injustices. (Also great for finding that cool nerdy leader guy who can help you with helping yourself do homework).

There are fraternities and sororities that hang around campus, but the University does not officially associate with them, although many of them provide a lot of great charitable and social services too.

3. Student Unions, Public Interest Research Groups, and Community Organizations
The Scarborough Campus Student’s Union represents the undergraduate students on campus. It is a local chapter (99) of the Canadian Federation of Students, a Canada-wide student union that provides student services and lobbies on their behalf. You’ve probably heard of the CFS because of all the ‘Drop Fees’ literature, posters, and campaigns that they produce and organize. They have half a million members (you probably are one), and use their collective power to provide some great student run things like Travel CUTS, the International Student Identity Card (which provides cheap movie tickets and train fares when you’re in Bolivia for example), the Studentsaver Card (which gives you discounts at home), Homes4students.ca, the Student Work Abroad Program (SWAP), and the National Student Health Network.

The SCSU does the same thing but on a more local level. They provide many part time jobs for students, as previously mentioned, and they also provide services like discounts on Metro Passes, Raptor’s tickets, health and dental plans, and more. They lobby local governments and the school administration on our behalf. It’s also probably the most actively political group on campus (lately), which is proven by the very loud hallway dj election campaigns you’re probably familiar with. Love it or hate it, it’s probably really good to get involved with them because they represent you as a student.

There are also Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), that research, act on, and organize around social and environmental justice issues. Scarborough Campus doesn’t have one per se but there is one at the Hart House. PIRGs can have a lot of political clout, for example, in many of the English Universities in Montreal during the Maple Spring protests last year, they were the organizational bases for much of the actions, research and literature that supported the protests. Although they are broadly progressive by definition, they’re good to get involved with if you feel very strongly about social and environmental issues as a student and want to create effective change in those areas.

Finally there are community social and political organisations (like the Toronto Youth Council, and Scarborough Youth Council), that also broadly try to influence the community at large, including the education system. The Toronto Youth Cabinet allows people between the ages of 13-24 to sit in city hall, and work directly with the city counselors, mayor, and community partners. It’s a great place to see the inner workings of politics on the city and how it impacts your day to day life and education, and to feel like you can create a direct impact on that.