Blog

For the last time, hi and hello! Happy Asian and Jewish Heritage Month! 

I cannot believe that we are here at the very end of my term. Before I indulge in my sentimentality, here is what OUSA has been up to this month.

We recently partnered with the Ontario Legislative Internship Program (OLIP), where graduates get an opportunity to work closely with MPPs and support them with their legislative affairs. Our ED, Malika, met with the interns to give a presentation about OUSA and answer any questions they had about the organization, as well as our approach to student advocacy. We are excited to maintain our partnership with this dedicated group of young leaders!

I had the opportunity to attend the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH) conference on improving international students’ experience in the Canadian post-secondary space. This was an incredibly enriching opportunity that sparked many reflections on my own experience, both when I first came to Canada as a new international student, and my experience now as a student leader. 

Hi folks, we meet again!

April has come and gone, and I am feeling bittersweet reflecting on such an important month.

Firstly, we got to celebrate the work that the post-secondary education sector has done and continues to do at our 17th annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner (PiHED) in Toronto! It was so lovely to see everyone across the sector dress up in their best gear for a night of fun. We were pleased to welcome Minister Dunlop to the event, who provided opening remarks (and took over our 0.5 tradition with her selfie) as well as Dr. Laura Mae Lindo who gave a very impactful and empowering keynote address for our guests. The night was a huge success and we’re excited to continue working with our partners to prioritize student issues. A massive shoutout to Tiffany, OUSA’s rockstar Ops and Comms Coordinator who planned and executed PiHED!

Hey everyone! My name is Khoi, and I’m really excited to be OUSA’s Research Intern this summer!!!

I just finished my 2nd year at Huron (one of Western’s affiliated colleges) double-majoring in Psychology and Business. 

I was fortunate to work as the Wellness Peer Educator for Huron in the 2023-2024 school year, and this role allowed me to connect deeply with people from all walks of life on campus. Since the beginning of my time in undergrad, I have always found great fulfillment through empathizing and supporting others around me. Joining OUSA as the Research Intern is an incredible opportunity that will allow me to use my research skills to make further positive differences in the lives of those around me.

Hello! My name is Bianca Giacoboni (she/her) and I am very excited to say that I am the 2024 Communications and Advocacy intern for the summer at OUSA! 

I recently wrapped up my undergraduate degree this past semester at McMaster University, majoring in Honours Political Science! It has been an amazing time at McMaster to explore my aspirations and interests in so many different fields and be introduced to OUSA along the way through classes and extracurriculars. I was previously involved with OUSA as a blog writer earlier in the year with a piece titled “Does Every Political Science Student Go Down the “Pre-Law” Drain?”, and I am so grateful to be back in my summer position! 

Stuck to the keyboard pad of my laptop is a floral sticker with a message reminding me that I “have what it takes.” Even now that I am wrapping up my term as Vice President, External Affairs for the Brock University Students’ Union, this sticker continues to serve as a much-needed reminder that although I still have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow, I am heading in the right direction. This sticker is the first thing I see when I open my laptop in the morning, and the last thing I look at before closing my laptop for the night. I have what it takes, and I am writing to let you know that you do too. 

Wednesday, April 10th marked OUSA’s 17th Partners in Higher Education Dinner (PiHED) and our second time hosting the event since returning from the pandemic. We are so grateful to The Honourable Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities for providing opening remarks and to Dr. Laura Mae Lindo, professor at the University of Waterloo and former MPP, for providing an impactful and poignant keynote. The event celebrated the hard work of our students, educators, sector partners, and elected officials in the higher education sector this year. We also celebrated Matthew Gerrtis as our Honoured Alumni Award recipient and Carleigh Charlton as our first-ever Excellence in Student Advocacy Award recipient in honour of Stephanie Ye-Mowe.

Spring has sprung! Welcome back to my March update.

To kick this season off, we headed to McMaster for our Spring General Assembly. After four days of discussions, we passed three papers: Addressing Racism and Religious Discrimination, Gender-based & Sexual Violence Prevention and Response, and International Students and International Education. It was amazing to be a part of an authoring team for the first and final time, shoutout to the ARRD paper! Thank you to MSU for hosting us and making sure we stayed hydrated with the cool water bottle merch. We also want to thank Shemar Hackett, our Chair for Plenary, for being a steadfast facilitator and for taking time out of his weekend to support our discussions!

What a great General Assembly we just had at McMaster University in Hamilton! Student leaders once again gathered for four days to discuss and approve student-written policy papers- this time with a big water bottle in hand, courtesy of our host, McMaster Students Union. This was a refreshing GA with some changes to the itinerary to give delegates more time to submit amendments, authors more time to conduct rewrites, and a plenary session that ended at 5:13 pm with all papers passed (if you know, you know). 

When you hear the word “radical”, what kind of images appear in your mind? Many different things perhaps, but it’s probably accompanied by a great deal of apprehension or even fear. It’s no wonder why, since many people today use it as a synonym for, or coupled with, “extreme.” Combining this “extreme” connotation with its usage in political contexts makes for a very scary word indeed. Turning on the news or listening to public discourse, you will regularly hear it used as a pejorative for factions or political actors that are opposed to the talking head you’re watching. “We simply can’t support these radical positions; they’re completely outrageous!” and so on and so forth. Well, I’m here to tell you that “radical” has been treated quite unfairly by our modern discourse and that radical solutions to the many critical problems we face today may not be so “radical” after all.