Hello First Years!
We hope you’re settling nicely into college life and Cork city after your first week at MTU.
This week, we’re going to focus on "Belonging". We really encourage you to really make connections here in MTU.
Signing up for third level is one thing, but we encourage you to show up and get involved. This will really help you settle into your community and make connections. We recommend attending all your classes and going along to clubs & societies. Don’t be afraid to say ‘hi’ to people in your class who you haven’t spoken to yet, everyone is in the same boat, and hopefully this will help you make your experience a positive and friendlier one. We’ve put together some tips to help speed up this process.
Belonging Academically
Try interacting with your lecturers and class co-ordinators. Remember to ask them questions about your course, the assessments and the different modules. All your lecturers here at MTU are very approachable and they want you to succeed.
During group projects in class, get connected with your team members and get to know your classmates’ better and learn about their different strengths.
You can take the wonderful opportunity to practise using the library by taking out a book from one of your reading lists. This will also help you to get to know the sections of the library where the books relevant to your course are located, and to get a headstart on your research which will help you reach your full potential. You can also access books easily online, and this may be very useful too. To find out about MTU's Online Catalogue, you can visit https://library.cit.ie/ for further information.
Belonging Personally
You may feel nervous walking into the canteen alone but finding your classmates and friends will hopefully only be a challenge during the first few weeks. Remember you won’t be the only one who is nervous, chances are, everyone might feel the same. In MTU, we are one big community and we study here in an inclusive environment.
There will be social activities organised by your class group, it may be intimidating to attend them on your own but attending will help you get to know your classmates and it will be a great step in building your confidence and good relationships with your classmates. They are wonderful activities to socialise, meet new people and of course, have fun.
Good Start icebreaker sessions are built for this purpose, too. We would love to see you interacting early on, and becoming comfortable with your peers, as this will make your college life easier. Our aim is to create fun activities for everyone to enjoy and to get to know one another better.
Belonging Socially
There are still opportunities to join a society or a club. You can sign up on the society's website or call the Sports Office located upstairs in the Nexus Student Centre.
If you have previously joined a society or club, head along to their meetups, trainings or events. You’ll meet people who are interested in the same thing and you can get to know people outside of your course.
We suggest you attend some SU Freshers Week events during the day and in the evening, all events are listed on the MTU SU website. You can keep up to date by following them on social media.
If you have a question or would like to chat with a member of the Good Start team, don’t be afraid to send us a DM on our Instagram or on Facebook @mtugoodstart. Keep an eye on our social media to keep up to date with our current events, and find more details about our work and events at http://studentengagement.cit.ie/goodstart.
Best of Luck,
Good Start Ambassadors