Awesome so my name is Robbie Allen and I'm actually I was an international student from a country called Bangladesh and if you know where that is it's right by India so five and a half years ago when I was choosing where to go to I had a million options so, first of all, I was wondering which country do you go to I could have gone to US Australia but then I ended up deciding to come to Canada and for all the great reasons I'm not even gonna tell you because you're already here and you know how awesome Canada is but when it came to choosing a university one of the things that stood out for me was the ranking and the reputation and that's where the universe of Alberta scored a lot of points the University of Alberta is one of the top five institutions in Canada and the top institution in Alberta and it's also one of the top 100 institutions in the world so what that means is you can expect to come and learn from the world-class researchers and professors and not just learn from them but even be mentored by them along your journey at the University.
So what this experience can look like is for you to come try and solve now we know that your traits and skills are different from somebody else's that's why we'll give you the tools and resources so that you can discover what your true passion and what your true calling is so if your passion lies in robotics or just artificial intelligence computer science and things like that you can actually learn about that in our robotics laboratory or you and your fellow actors or sorry there's the other side or you could actually just learn about your midterm or your research and do things like that at Canada's second largest research library the Rutherford library now if any of you have watched Harry Potter or are a fan of hi Potter you'll know why this library is also called the hypotenuse of this close resemblance with it and if you and your fellow actors friends have a you know interest in acting you can actually practice that at the Tim Center for the Arts or if you do not like acting like myself you can always come here for free shows as well and that's some of the ways that I like being involved in that like seeing what the drama world looked like at the University or you could actually practicing in this laboratory that uses state-of-the-art technology to emulate clinical environments for things like Cancer Research so you could definitely be participating in groundbreaking research work by using by taking advantage of these laboratories that use the state-of-the-art technology but what we really encourage you to do is to challenge the conventional use what you learn inside of your classroom to participate in groundbreaking research work so I take a lot of pride in showcasing this because this eco-car project was done by a lot of my friends from the Faculty of engineering and they had a lot of funding to actually showcase this eco-car all across North America so what this card essentially did is it challenged conventional sources of fuel and it used things like water or solar energy to run so that's some of the cool groundbreaking things that you can definitely participate in or if you just have a interest in healthcare side of things you can work alongside world-famous researcher dr. Shapiro and as diabetes research lab the fellow right here she actually won the prestigious Roth scholarship and is currently on her way to study at the University of Oxford that's where the University of Alberta I really helps you we give you that strong foundation to really go explore the world and eventually have a chance to even change the world speaking of exploring the world one thing we really encourage you to do is to use what you learned inside of your classroom and apply it outside of your classroom through work experience opportunities and internship opportunities that's where the University of Alberta stands out because all of our programs and whatever faculty you go into there is a work experience opportunity for myself I was actually part of the international student work experience program through the international student work experience program we have job postings that are actually restricted only for international students that's one of the ways that you can get your first experience here in Canada because oftentimes what happens is you're competing with other students domestic students who may have more experience than you so with the international student work program that's how you can definitely get that first experience that you're looking for so for myself after I was done my first year I got a really nice job in the middle of downtown and a super nice building and that's actually what get helped me get other jobs down the road too and work experience they not only give you skills and experiences they also help you pay off for your degree as well so for myself I had a chance to pay off over 60 to 70 my degree through my work experience savings and even through scholarships and awards which I'll eventually be talking about as well but it is for all these great reasons that the University of Alberta ranks number one in Canada when it comes to employability like our graduates get jobs and that's because of all the resources and the experiences that we have to provide for them so that's one thing I'll tell you everyone that when you're deciding on a post-secondary think of the next steps think of where you're going to study think of what what did what does it mean to graduate from there will I have a job will I go to grad school these are the different things you can definitely think about when it comes to choosing a post-secondary because your future is definitely important right one thing I'll definitely tell you which is going beyond academics and the serious side of working it's really important to have fun your four years will be probably the best time of your life so I'd really encourage you to use these different student group opportunities to transform yourself so quick question do any of you have snapchat over here I see you not okay so you'll know why I stashed that question in this short video [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] so students what you saw is just a glimpse of what the student experience can look like we have over 450 student groups that you can join so whatever your interests are if your interests are cultural we definitely have a Chinese Students Association and a Vietnamese Students Association if your interests lie in sports there's sports clubs if it's an entrepreneurship there's an entrepreneurship club whatever it is there's a very good chance we have that for you or if there's something that doesn't interest you you can definitely start your own Club as well so very recently like people were actually card of the hide-and-seek Club and that actually won an award for the best student group so whatever your interests are you can definitely start your club and only takes about seven people to start a student group also part of transforming yourself is to have the ability to study abroad now I know what you're all thinking you're already here studying abroad which is great but that's something I definitely encourage you to and take advantage of because we have tons of funding opportunities and about 300 plus partnerships with universities all across the world so wherever it is that you want to go we can give you funding to actually go there learn a different language studying and university that's different from here and even learn more about their culture as well and honestly every person I've spoken to when it comes to studying abroad they told me that it was just like vacation for them because they were traveling working learning something different and just enjoying their time as a university student so after your first second first or second year really looking to study abroad opportunities as that's also another way that you can transform yourself at the University but one thing I'll also tell you is that your degree is for you to create now I know you can come to the University and just graduate at the end of your four or five years but you can basically customize that degree or experience with so many different things you can become an entrepreneur you can become a leader you can become anything you want and that's what we encourage you to do we encourage you to take advantage of these different opportunities and customize that experience for yourself so that the end of it you have a story to tell not just a degree in your hand right and all of that experience definitely starts with choosing a campus so I'll actually tell you a fun we have a campus in Italy and you can actually take University of Alberta courses in Italy and the best thing is that classes happen four days a week so you have three days to actually go and explore all of Italy and Europe if you want so that's something really fun fact about the university and definitely there are campuses within Alberta its up and I will be talking about them so our first campus is our North Campus which is located in the City of Edmonton which is the capital city of Alberta this campus is truly a city within a city because it covers 50 massive city blocks it's also located at by Edmonton's River Valley which for context is 22 times the size of New York Central Park so it's a huge River Valley and I always loved going there for bike rides or walks for just different things or even for cool Instagram photos so if you're ever bored in between classes I'd really encourage you here to go and check out our North Campus and the River Valley there's definitely something you can do also I'm a huge foodie and I love eating and there's a lot of different restaurants and food places on campus and even 10 to 15 minutes away from campus so you can have a great time you can enjoy great food when you're in the North Campus in the City of Edmonton the second campus I will talk about is a campus new on campus which is actually a French campus so if any of you speak French or know someone who speaks French definitely encourage them or yourself to go join our campus angel campus a lot of students studying here take degrees in bilingual or degrees in French as well so if you ever see any students in the North Campus speaking in French that's because they're students from our campus angel faculty if you're looking for a little bit of the small classroom size experience where the class sizes are about 24 and the professors know you on a first-name basis you can definitely check out our Augustana campus now one thing to note is that Augustana campus is located in the city called Camrose which is an hour 15 minutes south of Edmonton so it's a different city with a much smaller population but if you're looking for that tight knit community experience Augustana campus is something you can definitely check out and there are a lot of international students who actually study at the Augustana campus as well now let's talk a little bit about programs well I shouldn't say a little bit because we have over 200 plus program so I can all day when it comes to talking about them so I will save you the time and what I'll tell you is to go to ume dot CA slash programs and check out all the programs the view books that that have been given to you in the middle of the view books you'll notice in page 2021 there are all the different programs that are listed so do check them out if you don't know what you want to study that's fine I was in that same boat and I always spoke to my guidance counselor my peers my friends and my guardians there were really great resources for me to decide what I really wanted to pursue what when I'd uh when I came to Canada so check out these programs and if you're also interested in knowing what the requirements are there are on the green side of the book and you'll see the requirements are for Alberta students but don't worry on page 13 and 14 of the green side of the book all the equivalencies are listed so for example English 30 - one with mean English for you or English studies I believe and maths 30 - one would mean advanced functions or something like that so all the equivalencies are also mentioned so if you're confused they're definitely there but the best resource would probably be if you go online and you can always mention that you're an Ontario or a BC student and there they can definitely tell you what the requirements are also on that note what I will tell you is if you have done any kind of High schooling back home wherever you're from if you've done grade 11 and 12 please record them we can actually use those grades - to give you admissions at the University as well now I will share some I guess good things to note look out for as an international student so when you're applying for the University of Alberta it's very very important that you fulfill your English language proficiency now there are a lot of ways of doing that some of the ways are if you've studied in English for 3 years or more even if your school back home was in English that can count as well but some of the ways I definitely encourage or we encourage is for you to take other tests like IELTS and TOEFL as well in the International Student Handbook that's been given to you all these different ways of fulfilling English has been mentioned but do know that even if you fulfill the requirements in those ways you still have to complete your grade 12 level English because that's a core requirement for all of our programs you apply to another thing I will mention is we have this program called the bridging program which actually allows students to come to the University of Alberta even if they're unable to fulfill their English language proficiency through the bridging program you can take three or four English for academic purposes courses and you can take a few courses that can count towards your future degree and upon successful completion of these courses you can continue your journey as a full-time undergraduate student so what I'll still encourage you to do is to definitely try your best to fulfill the English language proficiency take take advantage of the time you have left one year two years to improve your English language skills to be able to be successful at the University it definitely helps you not just for the University but even for a life in Canada in general right so do work on that and again if you have any questions just raise your hand you either write in or at the very end and I can definitely answer them for you now I'll talk a little bit about ending tin so Edmonton is the home of Edmonton Oilers if any of you watch hockey or there's our pretty Pig back in Edmonton so if you ever do make it to Edmonton do you buy your Jersey and do come out and support them but a few fun facts about the city is that it's one of the fastest growing cities in Canada and one of the youngest cities in Canada which means you'll find a lot of like-minded individuals to start some start a business with or something like that it's also known as the festival city so whatever season it is there's always some festivals or fun things going on and also the downtown is literally a couple stops from the University of Alberta at North Campus and as a student you get a university past that gives you unlimited access to transit so buses and subways and that's just another way for you to explore all of Edmonton and we are also home to North America's largest shopping mall that has an indoor waterpark which is also one of the largest in North America and you can go to that waterpark even when it's negative 20 outside and that's one of the best things about being an Edmonton for sure now let's talk a little bit about money and scholarships I which I know is a very very important factor for international students to consider great news is that the University of Alberta offers over twenty eight million dollars of scholarships to students across different faculties and there is a tons of awards that you can apply for and there's few that you're automatically considered for it so I will go over in those that you can you can actually apply for separately so as an international student you can apply for the maple leaf centenary award you can apply for the International Student Leadership Award and the international student scholastic distinction award all of these awards have been mentioned in the International Student Handbook that's been given to you please please make sure to apply for them before December 18th that is our absolute deadline and I really encourage you to apply for these awards by then when you apply for these awards you can get an award amount anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 or above that's such a significant way of being able to fund your degrees and that's one of the ways and that's actually one of the reasons I came to the University of Alberta fun fact as I got into UBC McGill and U of T and your way obviously but I chose to come to the U of A because of the amount of scholarships I received and also the different opportunities that I knew that I could take advantage of when I came here and honestly that was the best decision as you can see they even employed me so that was a great thing as well so that's one of the reasons I chose to come to the University so when you are thinking of a post-secondary institution do look at things like scholarships opportunities and that's another way that just helps you decide where you eventually want to go okay so now I'll go over the admission steps in brief if I've convinced you enough to apply so the first thing is definitely choosing what program you're interested in one thing I'll mention is we have this pretty awesome tool on our UAB dossier slash programs website that actually get asks you questions about your personality where you're interested in and based on your answers we actually narrow down programs so that means you wouldn't have to look at all the 200-plus programs based on your responses it can actually narrow down some programs that you can look into so that's another way of knowing where you can study but definitely talk to your guidance counselor's Google as much as you want to know what you're interested in and check for their requirements as well so all of our programs have a five core requirements and English your grade 12 level English is always a requirement and there's other requirements based on whatever program you go into your second step is to submit your application online which you can do at UAV dot CA slash apply third step is you get a universal Alberta email account and an access to the bear tracks portal please use your bear tracks to stay in touch with us and see what applications you still have to hand in if you've received any scholarship letter or admissions letter this these will all be communicated to you through our bear tracks portal so definitely stay in touch with us through bear tracks as well and number four the most important decision and probably the best one you'll ever make is to accept your offer because it certainly was my best decision so if you'd ever do come to that stage really encourage you to go ahead and click accept and finally when it comes to registering for courses which can be a little stressful don't worry we have tons of online registration workshops to offer so if you do come to that stage don't worry there's resources but you can always reach out to us and we can definitely help you when it comes to registering for the different classes or courses and I will tell you a little bit about how you can find out more about the campus so the University of Alberta open houses over which is pretty sad but don't worry you can always come for virtual tours so if you go to UAB don't see a slash visit you'll see there's a link to a virtual tour and you can always also add us on snapchat to see what goes on in the university as well the other thing I'll mention is resources for international students so we have an International Student Center with professionals who are trained on immigration were trained on providing support for international students I would always go to the counselors for all kinds of reasons firstly they would always help me with the culture shock because when I first came to Canada I had a huge culture shock and I was like oh my god this is so different from back home and they were really there to help me through all my stresses to all my barriers that I faced as an international student so if you're ever on campus do know that there are people to look out for you and to help you navigate through all these challenges at the same time if you have any questions when it to changing your high school study permit to a post-secondary study permit which is very important for you to change over to when you come to the university you can also ask us and we can definitely help you with that as well and I would like to finish off by kind of showing a video that talks about discovering your passion at the University of Melbourne after coming to the U of A one of the things that I knew was that I was interested in a lot of things I didn't know how to channel that into one career and it turns out that you don't have to you can take all of the things that you're interested in and focus on that one area where they all intersect I didn't really figure out what I wanted to do until my think it was halfway through my second or when I really decided I wanted to become a teacher I think I just got the experience a lot more thorough understanding figuring out who I am so I think I've always known that I was interested in physics and math and my high school physics teacher kind of really drew me to this area but at the same time I think I also knew that I've wanted to work on something that would have an impact one of the best classes I ever took was women in politics and it was a great class that really opened my eyes to things that I didn't know about before and that's like I really like about my degree in the Faculty of Arts is that I feel as though what I'm learning really complements what I'm doing outside the classroom the teachers have a huge influence on who I was in terms of other people's education I think I want to have that same influence on youth the University of Alberta has been huge for me in that sense because I have met tons of great teachers there's a lot of young people who are unwilling to say that they want to be you know the president of their students you need because of a fear of losing a fear of rejection and that's totally normal but since I was on council I feel like deep down inside I always knew that this is something I wanted to do at the U of A I found a place where I could mix and merge all of the things that I was passionate about into one thing and I'm confident going forward that this is something that I can do in my career as well I think that being an undergraduate student means that you can afford the chance to explore a lot of really interesting questions with very low risk U of A is incredible place to start something all of the resources all of the mentorship and supports that you need are readily available for you in a safe environment to try things and to try new things awesome well you can definitely stay in touch with us through our social media handles or snapchat handle is at yo Burdette light you can also find us on instagrams and you actually see different students being featured on our Instagram and also on Facebook and fun fact one of your student alumni was actually student at the University and he's a good friend of mine and he's in the middle of this view book right here his name is Amano and he told me to say hi to all of you and trust me he's not a great time and if you go to the University of Alberta Instagram you'll definitely find him as well but that's kind of what I wanted to finish off by saying but thank you so much again for being here I really hope that whichever institution you do end up going to that you chase your dreams and you achieve them and you're successful in life but my hope would be that you do end up coming to the University of Alberta and I do get to see your faces but thank you so much for being with us today if you have any questions just raise your hand you can ask me either now or even talk to me later on but thank you for your time [Applause] Up next
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