McMaster Out of Province Students (MOOPS)
BY ASHLEY GALLANT WITH BEN CATTO, MOOPS CO-PRESIDENTS
Are you coming to Mac from outside the province of Ontario? If so, this article might be for you.
Being an out of province student isn’t easy. I can still remember the summer going into first year and the accumulating anxieties that kept nagging me the closer it got to Welcome Week. Unlike most students from within the province, out of province students tend to do the move to
university on their own, without mom and dad. We leave behind our families, friends, and familiarities for the unknown in Ontario. Some of us know a handful of classmates from high school that are going to university in Ontario but rarely to our own. Not only do we have to adjust to a new environment and university life, we go months (sometimes the whole term) without going home. It’s a lot to handle first year.
Coming from a small city on the east cost, it took a while for me to adjust to living in a city and having to adjust to a different lifestyle than what I had grown up in. Fortunately at the time McMaster had an Out of Province liaison representative that we could go to for help. However, the following year the position was rescinded. Realizing that there was still need for support for Out of Province students, a group of us came together to form a society in which we could assume the role of for the lost of our representative.
Thus, the
McMaster Out of Province Society (MOOPS) was formed in April 2007.
Out of Province students make up about 2% of the overall McMaster student populous. We are a unique group of students with different needs than inter-province or international students. The MOOPS gives this group of students a voice on campus. We strive to create an environment where out of province students can help each other cope with the challenges of being far from home and create a sense of togetherness in order to properly address issues that we face. From trips to the CN Tower, hockey games, and Thanksgiving dinners, we discover Ontario together.
If you’re interested in joining or have any questions or concerns, you can email us at
[email protected] . As well, you can find our table at
Clubsfest on September 3rd, 2008 to find out some of our events for this year. You can also find us on Facebook:
McMaster Out of Province Society.
Hope to see you this year!
*note* Ashley is from Moncton, NB and Ben is from Sooke, BC
