Through UMVP, students can volunteer at major campus events and initiatives, earning Experience Record recognition for their involvement. Volunteers also develop transferable skills such as communication and teamwork and leadership, while also enjoying perks like free food, social engagement, and the chance to meet new friends.

Open House: be a tour guide and campus ambassador

One of the UMVP’s current areas of focus is recruiting volunteers for the Winter Open House, one of the University’s largest recruitment and community events. The open house welcomes prospective students and their families to campus, giving them the opportunity to explore programs, services and student life at the UM.

As an Open House tour guide, volunteers act as campus ambassadors for leading tours, answering questions and sharing their own experiences as UM students. Volunteering is a great opportunity to practice public speaking, build confidence, and connect with students who are just beginning their university journey.

Career Fair: support students and build professional skills

UMVP is also in search of volunteers for the upcoming Career Fair, where students connect with employers and explore career paths to gain insight into the job market. Career Fair volunteers support event logistics, assist employers, and help ensure the day runs smoothly.

Volunteering at a Career Fair gives students behind-the-scenes exposure to professional events, and as volunteers, you are there to support and develop facilitator skills that aren’t as accessible to others.

Leadership Opportunities: Orientation Team Leaders

For students looking to build on their volunteer experience, UMVP also offers leadership opportunities through the Orientation Team Leader (OTL) stream, which allows for returning student volunteers to take on greater responsibilities. Students selected as OTLs gain in-depth experience in team leadership, communication, volunteer coordination, and event planning. It’s a great opportunity to develop your skills and make a lasting impact on the student community.

 To find out more about the program and apply, visit: UM Volunteer Program | University of Manitoba

Beale didn’t exactly hate her job in the tech industry, but she didn’t feel as passionately about selling specialized IT services as she did about contemporary Canadian art, the legacy of female dealers and the cat she named after pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Rossetti.

Just before moving to Winnipeg in 2020, the erstwhile student at the U.K.’s Exeter University determined it was worth investing more time and energy into a career in the art world.

“I decided that I just didn’t want to spend another day not being close to art,” says Beale, an art history student at the University of Manitoba who describes herself as a ballsy go-getter. “I wanted to try to make it work, so I gave myself a year, and then really quickly after I made that decision, the ball just really got rolling.”

To read the entire story, please follow the link to The Free Press.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is Tara Christianson; I was born and raised in Treaty 1 territory and have lived in Winnipeg for the past 18 years. I am Red River Métis, citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation and a member of the Bison Local. I also have Scottish, Irish, and English settler ancestry. I’m a mom, a partner, sister, daughter and auntie. I’m also a registered social worker that works in the mainstream health care system.

What is your research about and why did you choose this particular topic for your thesis?

My MSW thesis explored the impact of COVID-19 on services for Indigenous people living with HIV who use substances. As someone working on the front line of health care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I witnessed the rapid changes to service and the detrimental impact it had on many individuals already marginalized by a colonial system designed to oppress, such as Indigenous people and people who use substances. Research, particularly highly medicalized HIV research, tends to be rooted in westernized concepts that do not acknowledge the vast Indigenous knowledge systems that exist. The community-based research design of my thesis provided me the opportunity to engage directly with community to learn their experiences and perspectives in relation to accessing and providing services during that time. I believe that community knowledge is the key to addressing many of the harms experienced within systems by rejecting deficit-based models of care and centering the wisdom, practices, and relationships within Indigenous communities. Utilizing Indigenous Storywork helped me to remain grounded within that understanding throughout the entirety of my thesis.

What program are you graduating from and can you tell me a little about your experience in the program?

I graduated from the Faculty of Social Work Master’s program. I started the program in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when all classes were still online, coming to in person classes during the last semester of my program. I was fortunate enough to have connection with the Village Lab and developed relationship with other students, faculty, and community throughout that time.

Dr. Rusty Souleymanov was my faculty advisor as well as mentor through the Village Lab where he is the director. I am grateful to have been matched with Dr. Souleymanov and am looking forward to continuing my work with him during my PhD. I was fortunate to be able to ground myself in community and Indigenous research methodologies with his guidance and support.

Do you have any advice for students interested in the MSW program?

Consider the thesis route and choose a research topic that you are truly passionate about. I entered the social work profession with the intent of disrupting the systems that perpetuate harm – many of which this profession has had a foundational and ongoing role in. For me, I feel that this academic route is helping me do that. I am grateful to have the pleasure to engage in community-based research and am deeply honoured for the stories that have been shared with me through this work. I have a deep commitment to community and ensuring that those stories are brought forward in ways that work towards lasting change.

Any other information you would like to share? Vision for the future? Other research interests?

This work for me is ongoing. I’ll be starting my PhD in social work in September 2025 and look forward to expanding on some of the findings from my MSW thesis, notably surrounding folx who use substances and are currently unhoused. I’ll be working from a community-based research design and incorporating the Métis Kitchen Table approach. I think that it is absolutely necessary as well to continually be working to decolonize academia and utilizing Indigenous research methods that move beyond western models and concepts.

Lastly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Faculty of Social Work for the nomination. I am humbled and honoured to be one of this year’s recipients. I am very happy to see the recognition for these insightful and meaningful stories gifted by community.

Between the International Centre coordinating funding and Community Engaged Learning helping them prepare as a team, the group of students was ready to take on the week. Regular sessions leading up to their departure helped this group of students – all from different cohorts across the university – prepare socially through icebreakers and team building. Thordarson recalls how Meghan Young, head of the Community Engaged Learning team, set them up for success, guiding them through the purpose of the program and what it would look like. He describes, “Meghan did a really good job at preparing us so that it wasn’t just this jarring experience. We knew we were all going there together, and that really built the trust so that from the second we stepped foot in the airport to getting back, we knew who our team was. We knew what they were like. We knew what worked and how to recognise stress and deal with each other.”

When Thordarson departed for Belize, he was first struck by the newness of it all. He explains, “The entire journey was insane. I had never been on a plane or seen the ocean, never left the province – so every bit of it was new for me.” Once there, speaking to community members and participating in their ways of life, it didn’t take long for the feeling of newness to give way to familiarity. Speaking to the common ground between their cultures, Thordarson describes how they are “so similar that it doesn’t feel like I’m talking with someone not from Canada, that our Indigenous culture is only that of an Indigenous Canadian, but there are some innate beliefs, like spiritual stuff or just relying on that symbiosis with nature that we’ve held and experienced being taken away from.” Through many conversations with community members, Thordarson learned the consequences of colonialism have been similar for their respective peoples, as well. Although the new environment was still jarring, he maintains, connecting with people was not.

The week of activities was led by the community, providing students with the opportunity to engage with Maya culture and the environment and exchange cross-cultural perspectives. “Every day was just jam-packed with stuff,” Thordarson describes, listing a range of activities: free-flowing conversations over home-cooked meals, birdwatching, medicine walks, and even exploring Mayan ruins. With the focus being foodways, the group experienced the production process from farm to table, and it was a far cry from the prairie agriculture Thordarson knew. “We did get to see one of the farms that they maintain,” he recalls, “it was like a hillside, jungle farm. It was nothing similar to what you would expect a farm to be. It was literally a giant trek into the mountains, too.”

Although the environment felt strange and harsh at times, the community was warm and welcoming. To Thordarson, the people seemed to have everything they needed: a loving community and fresh, filling food. He reflects, “That’s something that sticks with me a lot, because I feel like every time I talk about it with someone, they expect to hear me pitying people from a developing nation – but I felt like I would have killed for what they had.” Coming from an Indigenous and low-income background, he explains, he understands that these things cannot be taken for granted.

The group consisted of students from a range of subject areas at UM, and Thordarson was the only student from the Asper School of Business. “We were all students with different backgrounds and perspectives, so we all experienced the same thing but took different lessons from it,” he explains. Letting his own academic background and interests guide him helped him connect the experience to his studies and his future aspirations, such as addressing structural inequalities in Manitoba and contributing his own scholarship to economic theory. As Thordarson describes his position, “I approached this through the lens of someone who was genuinely interested in economic development and sustainable business.” That lens brought certain elements of the experience into focus, particularly the ways colonial economic systems change or threaten the Maya communities.

He connected what he learned directly in conversation with Maya people there to what he has learned from the scholarly theorists he studies: “I think it relates to economic theory, gives me more insight, and helps me understand why these old academic guys wanted to write about their observations.” Since returning home, Thordarson has invoked his experiences abroad to illustrate concepts to his peers. Explaining systemic problems Indigenous Peoples are subject to, he says, is much more effective when he is “able to guide them through a story” rather than “finding a citation in a textbook.” That kind of experiential learning, taking concepts from community engagement rather than solely from the classroom, is exactly what international mobility experiences are designed to provide.

The International Centre is here to help you enhance your learning by bringing your academic journey outside the classroom. They aim to make these experiences accessible to everyone in the UM community by connecting you with the resources to make it happen and supporting you at every stage of the process. You can also begin exploring other global mobility possibilities at UM’s International Centre homepage or reach out to international[at]umanitoba[dot]ca.

The experience was part of the Pathway to Indigenous Nursing Education (PINE) program at the UM, collaborating with researcher Dr. Wanda Phillips-Beck and the International Centre (IC), which oversees all international mobility experiences for students. The IC was instrumental in arranging the program, particularly with regards to funding.

At Whitireia, Braun and his peers joined nursing classes, engaged in group discussions, and participated in activities where they could learn from Māori community members. One activity that stands out for Braun was going out on the water in wakas ¬– a type of Māori boat – where they received teachings about traditional ways of navigation and the environment around them. According to Braun, their hosts reciprocated their eagerness to learn:

“Everyone was super nice and welcoming and wanted us there, you know? And very happy to share space and excited to learn from us as much as we were from them, because it’s like new people are pulling up from the other side of the world, like, ‘what are you guys up to?’”

The experience also exposed Braun to new innovations in nursing that resonated with his values in community-based healthcare. In particular, he recalls how their use of take-home medical testing alternatives to in-clinic care responded to some community members’ distrust of the mainstream healthcare system. “That was one important day for me,” he remembers, elaborating that this kind of practise supports are a “way of fighting for health equity” that he is passionate about.

However, community health and equity were not always Braun’s focus. Rather, he attributes his interest to his education at UM and the broadened perspective he has gained thought it over the past few years. Before university, he was unsure of what to pursue but followed his people-oriented nature and desire to help. Braun recalls learning through his practicum:

“… You work with the public, and you’re like, ‘oh, these are all of the different lives that are possible,’ and I am now aware of it, and I’m now working with these people, and I am now part of and privy to their pain … It changed my values a lot throughout three years of nursing school, for sure.”

Now, he is invested in working on upstream change in community health, mitigating risk factors and responding to community needs before they turn into crises. Travelling to New Zealand to discover a new world of possibilities in community health approaches was the perfect cap to those years of learning. Since completing the nursing program, he is taking those insights with him into his career. Looking to the future, Braun sees himself “continue to be driven by that want for health equity and working with other people that have the same vision and passion for it.”

Braun also learned a bit about himself along the way. Embarking on such a major excursion made him realise how much he values the company of others and sharing experiences like this with them. He recalls, “my values had kind of shifted,” as he replaced a more individualistic outlook by realizing “people are kind of my main priority.” Furthermore, this experience spurred him to begin considering new potential directions for his career:

“One other thing that came from the trip is I had never considered a masters [degree] before, and after working and seeing what a nursing researcher does … it seems like if I want to work for bigger systemic changes, then that’s a route I would have to go down … and that’s something that was like 100% off the table prior to the trip.”

Ultimately, whether looking internally or externally, to the past or to the future, going to New Zealand as part of the PINE program was hugely impactful for Braun. In his words, the experience made him “reflect on a lot about my Indigenous identity, where I come from, where I see myself going, and my place in nursing as an Indigenous nurse.”

If you are interested in incorporating this kind of immersive learning experience into your degree, look no further than the International Centre. Their mobility team is singularly focused on connecting students with global experiences, supporting them along the way, and ensuring they are accessible to all.

Originally led by Professor Grace Nickel, the project challenged students to explore the creative and technical complexities of working with raw materials, resulting in a collection of unique and innovative ceramic pieces.

Watch the full segment here: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/le-telejournal-manitoba/site/segments/reportage/2017158/fin-de-lexposition-de-ceramique-a-luniversite-du

February Graduation

There is no convocation ceremony in February, however, February 2025 graduates are invited to participate in the Spring 2025 Convocation. More information will follow this spring.

36^th Annual Traditional Graduation Pow Wow

Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) students graduating in February 2025 are invited to participate in the 36^th Annual Traditional Graduation Pow Wow on May 3, 2025.

Learn more about the Annual Traditional Graduation Pow Wow, including FAQ’s.

Questions? Email mailto:isc@umanitoba.ca.

Parchment Delivery

Parchments will be sent through regular mail (Canada Post) to the graduates’ addresses as listed in Aurora. Parchments are sent two weeks after the graduation date, which is February 5, 2024.

For instructions on how to update contact information in Aurora, please visit our page on Updating Personal Information.

Other ways to receive your Parchment

1. Parchment pick-up:
   • Students have the option to pick up their parchment or have someone else collect it on their behalf, please submit a completed Parchment Delivery Request Form to   Convocation@umanitoba.ca.
   • The deadline to submit the Parchment Delivery form is Tuesday, January 21, 2025.
   • Parchments will be available for pick-up approximately 2 weeks after your graduation date, which is February 5^th.
2. Pre-arranged request for courier or express mail:
   • Students are welcome to provide us with a pre-paid courier or express mail envelope along with detailed mailing instructions using the Parchment Delivery Request Form.
   • The University of Manitoba will hold unclaimed parchments for a maximum of 12 months after graduation, including those returned to us as undeliverable. We will destroy any unclaimed parchments after 12 months.
   • If a student does not receive their parchment, it is their responsibility to follow up with the Registrar’s Office within 12 months. Any requests for a parchment after this time will be processed as a Request for Replacement Parchment, at the cost of $81.25 (subject to change).

Eligibility to Graduate Letters

A Confirmation of Eligibility to Graduate letter can be ordered for students who have declared their intent to graduate but have not yet graduated.

This document includes the student’s full name, the degree they are expecting to receive and the date of their expected graduation.

This document is $13.00 and may take a minimum of two weeks to process. The fee is subject to change.

How to request Eligibility to Graduate Letters.

Confirmation of Degree Awarded Letters

Confirmation of Degree Awarded letters can only be ordered for graduates of the University of Manitoba. This document can be used for visa permits, post-docs, and convocation invitation letters, for February graduates. This document includes the student’s full name, the degree conferred, and the date of graduation.

This document is $13.00 and may take up to ten business days. The fee is subject to change.

Students who have declared graduation but have not yet graduated will need an Eligibility to Graduate letter.

How to request Confirmation of Degree Awarded.

Accounts and AURORA ACCESS

Even after graduation, students will always have access to their Aurora account. If locked out of Aurora, please contact the Registrar’s Office to regain access.

Most document orders need to be made through Aurora.

Email account:

As a graduate of the University of Manitoba, Microsoft Office 365 (M365) OneDrive access will be discontinued 120 days after the end of the last class you were registered in. Email accounts will transition to an email-only alumni account. All other tools such as Office and OneDrive access will be discontinued.

Students will have 120 days to access and download any files and folders they want to save. Once OneDrive access has been deactivated, the remaining data within OneDrive will be removed, and UM will not be able to recover it.

We recommend copying any important information from OneDrive. Visit our Microsoft 365 page for instructions to download OneDrive files.

Even for students who do not plan to continue using a UM email account for email, there are benefits to keeping the account active. Graduates from UM will likely need to order official transcripts for employers, professional organizations, or applications to other educational institutions. The simplest way to order a transcript is through Aurora. Aurora access is also necessary to obtain T2202 tax forms. In order to maintain access to Aurora, it is necessary to maintain access to your UM email account.

To ensure email access continues after graduation, students are required to change their password and reaccept the Computer Accounts – Usage Agreement every 12 months. If this agreement is not reaccepted every 12 months, the email account will also be deleted.

Questions regarding email accounts and OneDrive should be addressed to the IST Service Desk.

In November 2024, registration was moved to New Aurora. This means that students will now have to register for courses using the New Aurora system, since registration is no longer available in Aurora Classic.

This is a big transition that will take getting used to. That’s why the University has produced an array of helpful resources to help with Registration in New Aurora.

For detailed, written instructions about how to register using New Aurora, visit the Registration Steps webpage.

For video demonstrations showing how to register in New Aurora, go to the Aurora How-To webpage.

If you have specific questions about registration, try using asking it in AskUManitoba.

If you are having trouble with the process of registering, you can contact the Registrar’s Office.

If you are having trouble deciding which courses to take, you can speak to an advisor in your faculty.

You can find a short, instructional reel on how to Register using New Aurora on the First Year Centre, the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science’s Instagram pages. Follow the First Year Centre on Instagram for helpful instructional reels related to University timelines and procedures.

Student leadership can help you flourish, both personally and professionally! The range of skills you can develop is as wide as the variety of opportunities for leadership on campus. Here’s just a few examples…

Social connections and communication skills

In a leadership position, you get to meet and develop relationships with a variety of folks at UM! If you get involved with your department’s student group, for instance, you’ll find yourself getting to know your cohort of peers much better. Or, in an interest-based group, you’ll get to forge connections across departments and faculties, with students you might’ve never run into in a classroom setting. More connections means more opportunities to develop communication skills! Over time, you’ll find that you can write email messages or approach people in-person more confidently.

Conflict management and diplomacy

For a student leader, every bump in the road is an opportunity to learn. As club executives, for instance, leaders have to learn how to delegate responsibilities and explain duties in a respectful way. Conflicts can be uncomfortable, but you’ll learn crucial skills like how to de-escalate arguments, or when to seek advice and mediation.

Creativity and problem-solving

Being a student leader often involves coming up with novel ideas to fit specific circumstances! You might find yourself brainstorming ideas for a student event or improvising when plans fall through.

Financial literacy

Many leadership positions involve handling or planning around money. If you were a treasurer, for instance, you would learn how an organisation holds its funds, handle transfers, or design budgets!

Time-management skills

Leaders have to manage their own schedules in different ways – sometimes, they have to manage schedules for others and big groups, too! Whatever kind of position you find yourself in, you’ll learn how to balance your academics with your extracurricular activities and whatever else takes up time in your life. You might also find yourself planning event or meeting times and learning how to balance different peoples’ needs.

Once you get involved, you’ll notice these skillsets enhancing your personal life, academics, and career. Just like you get credit for the skills and knowledge you gain in your classes, you can get credit for your leadership involvement, too! The Experience Record is a digital resource that tracks your involvement in recognised activities outside of the classroom – like an academic transcript, but for all different kinds of opportunities! Instead of just adding new bullet-point to your resume, you can show future employers or admissions offices a verified record of your involvement at UM.

Learn more about accessing and adding to your record on the Experience Record page of the UM website or view your current record through UM Connect. If you’re wondering where to start, check out our recent article about how Student Experience and Development can point you in the right direction [hyperlink when available], or browse the Experience Catalogue for current opportunities. Still have questions? Reach out to ExperienceRecord@umanitoba.ca!

Bergman used GSO funds to make the most of her Winter 2024 term at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia! “The GSO definitely assisted in allowing me to take this experience to the fullest and do everything I wanted to do,” she explains. Not only did Bergman study in Adelaide, but, like many exchange students, she used the opportunity to experience a variety of other locations including Perth, Sydney, and Brisbane in Australia, and Vietnam and Bali in Asia! GSO funds can cover from 30–80% of costs associated with the outbound program students are embarking on. For example, Bergman was able to use GSO funds to cover a significant portion of her rent costs.

At the University of Manitoba, Bergman studies Advanced Psychology and is considering a career in the field of social work. She explains how studying abroad brought her a renewed appreciation for her studies. “Academic-wise, it was really good to go to a different university and see how their education is there … it made me feel more confident in my degree; it’s just a different perspective out there.” She also contemplates how her new experience interacting with a variety of cultures might help her in her future career in social work. “You’re gonna have to work with clients who have various different perspectives – like cultural perspectives that affect their lenses on different topics – and so I think that going to some countries that are very different than Canada … I can understand where they’re coming from a bit more.” Those cross-cultural experiences had personal value for Bergman, too. “It made me just feel more exited to connect with my culture, because I hear people talking about their cultures and practices and how excited they are about them.”

Another great benefit of Bergman’s overseas experience is the friendships she forged. She paints a beautiful picture of what her day-to-day looked like through the term: “Often my weeks would look like going to work and maybe meeting up for dinner, meeting up for drinks at a patio – because everything’s walking distance – just to connect and meet new people. But on other days it was often schoolwork, getting coffee, and going a walk down the river with my roommates. We did that a lot, actually. It’s a really nice river!” In addition to her roommates, Bergman made new friends from working at a café near her apartment. She came to describe these new connections as her community out in Australia. Reflecting on the overseas friendships she has maintained since coming home, she calls it “a different type of friendship that’s definitely lifelong.”

Of course, there were also challenges to overcome during her term abroad, but Bergman used them as learning opportunities. When she experienced a bout of homesickness, she reached out to the counselling centre at Flinders University and was met with a surprise. “The counselling was randomly paired, but she actually lived in Winnipeg for like 5 years. It was really funny; we were laughing about it!” In the end, Bergman found that her homesickness was short-lived and grew to appreciate it. “With the whole homesickness thing, it’s like a necessity, I would almost say … I’ve always been an independent person, but this challenged me in the way that I needed, she reflects.”

The UM International Centre (IC) was another invaluable support for Bergman. In the initial stages of planning for her student exchange, she recalls how the IC’S Mobility Team made preparation easier and less stressful by breaking up tasks into “bite-sized” pieces. “You are given so much time to prep and work,” explains Bergman, “…I found with the time given, almost a year of knowing… it’s actually very achievable.”

For Bergman, this exchange was something she wanted to do at the right point in her education. She describes wanting to travel more but not delay her degree and having countries she wanted to visit in her twenties. “It’s honestly a perfect time to chip away at your education but also enjoy things other than Canada.” With the GSO, she was able to accomplish her goals at the time that felt right for her instead of waiting until she could afford everything she wanted to do with this experience. “You can’t just bank on doing it one day,” she advises.

If you are seeking a challenging, skill-building, and friendship-forging experience like Bergman’s, what are you waiting for? The GSO can help you on your way, so don’t be afraid to apply! At the International Centre homepage, you can find information on all kinds of global mobility programs for students. A student exchange is only one of many possibilities! Don’t hesitate to reach out to the International Centre directly to ask questions and discuss your options at international[at]umanitoba[dot]ca. If you find a program that piques your interest, and you belong to one of the eligible categories for GSO funding, be sure to contact GSO[at]umanitoba[dot]ca for an application form!

For Indigenous students interested in learning more about the Global Skills Opportunity and its opportunities abroad, there is an information session on December 6 at 12:30 p.m. at Migizii Agamik in the Circle Room.