Summer Transition Program

 

Why Should I Attend?

Our annual Summer Transition Program (STP) is a program specifically designed to introduce new students with disabilities to the services and resources available at Nipissing University. We also work with new students to help them develop a deeper understanding of their disabilities, how they learn, how their disabilities affect their learning and how they can use accommodations and study strategies to overcome any barriers to their learning.

  

Some of the benefits of attending STP include:

• Move into residence early, before the rush and with help from our student mentors!
• Meet the staff of Disability Services and successful upper year students with disabilities!
• Gain a better understanding of how you learn!
• Develop learning strategies which are specifically designed to complement your personal learning style and disability!
• Learn about the accommodations and adaptive technologies that are available at Nipissing for students with disabilities!
• Acquire a full understanding of your rights and responsibilities as a student with a disability!
• Develop your positive self advocacy skills!
• Obtain valuable information regarding the guidelines for accessible education and human rights as they apply to students with disabilities in Canada and Ontario universities!
• Receive a  welcome package including tote bag and more!
• Free Food!!

Last year over forty new students and student mentors participated in our Summer Transition Program. These students learned strategies, found resources and made friendships which supported them well throughout the school year.

 

Tentative Schedule

**Note: all presentations are 45 minutes in length with a 15 minute break between each.

Monday, August 25
12:00 Early move in to Residence
  4:30 Welcome Dinner w/Parents & DS Staff

Tuesday, August 26
  9:00 Breakfast / Activity with mentors
  9:30 How We Learn
10:30 Living @ School
11:30 Lunch / Activity w/Mentors
12:30 Learning & Disabilities
  1:30 Learning Tools
  2:30 Activity: Campus Tour
  5:00 Dinner

Wednesday, August 27
  9:00 Breakfast / Activity with mentors
  9:30 How You Learn - Personalized Learning Workshop
10:30 Academic Integrity
11:30 Lunch / Activity w/Mentors
12:30 Accommodations: Rights &Responsibilities
  1:30 Hands-On Technology
  2:30 Activity: Library Tour
  5:00 Dinner

Thursday, August 28
  9:00 Breakfast / Activity with mentors
  9:30 Time: The Key to Success
10:30 Learning & AD/HD
11:30 Lunch / Activity w/Mentors
12:30 Learning & Mental Health
  1:30 Learning Resources
  2:30 Activity: Community Tour
  5:00 Dinner

Friday, August 29
  9:00 Breakfast / Activity
  9:30 Time Management Tools
10:30 Study Skills & The Master Notebook
11:30 Lunch – Program Ends

The deadline to register for the Summer Transition Program is Friday, July 25th 2008.
  

Workshop Descriptions

Welcome Dinner: You and your parents are invited to come to share a meal and meet our staff! You will be introduced to the student mentors and the staff and resources of Disability Services and your parents will have an opportunity to find out more about our program.

University Life Workshops

Living @ School: From preparing your own meals, to getting along with roommates, to dealing with homesickness or your increased personal freedom, university living presents both new opportunities and new challenges. In this interactive workshop, residence staff and student mentors will discuss university life and answer your questions.

 
Academic Integrity: With increased academic freedom and choice comes greater personal responsibility. You need to ensure that your work — from homework to essays to labs — is completed on your own and that resources and sources are properly cited and referenced. Failure to do so results in serious academic censure. Learn how to avoid plagiarism and academic dishonesty.
 

Learning Resources: Unsure how to properly cite the essay? Need to polish your study skills? Need help with your math, psychology or geography courses. Nipissing has the resources to support you; learn where and how get the help you need!
Learning Workshops

 
How We Learn: Let us introduce — your brain! In this seminar we introduce the learning model and demonstrate the various processes involved with learning, such as attention, processing and memory. Understanding how you learn will help you study more effectively.
  

How You Learn: In this personalized learning workshop you will complete several learning style, personality and study strategy inventories which will form the basis of your personal learning profile. Understanding your own personal learning preferences can help you choose which learning approaches and strategies may work best for you.

 
Study Skills & the Master Notebook: Building upon the previous workshops, we will introduce learning skills and fundamental note-taking, reading and study techniques to give you the tools you need to survive university learning. The Master Notebook will be presented as a model for organization, planning and time management.

Disabilities Workshops

 
Learning & Disabilities: Many disabilities can seriously interfere with the most fundamental learning processes. Although we will focus primarily on learning disabilities in this workshop, we will also address the challenges presented by physical, medical, and mental health disabilities and provide you with a better understanding of how to cope with these challenges in the learning environment.

 
Accommodations - Rights & Responsibilities: As a person with a disability you are entitled under the Ontario Human Rights Code to academic accommodation specific to your disability-related needs. However, with these rights also come certain responsibilities to your professors, support staff, and fellow students — you need to know!

 
Learning & AD/HD and Learning & Mental Health: Attentional, anxiety and depressive disorders are becoming more and more commonplace in modern society. In addition, these disorders often accompany learning and other disabilities. We’ve invited two experts from the Northern Ontario Assessment & Resource Centre to explain why and how these disabilities affect learning and provide you with strategies to help you deal with their adverse effects.

 
Managing Time Workshops

 
The Key to Success: Recent research indicates that good time management is the most important demonstrated by academic successful students. This workshop focuses on academic and life organizational skills such as how to set goals and commit to working towards them to help keep you on track.
 

Time Management Tools: Agendas, calendars, electronic schedulers, to-do lists — what are the best time management tools? This workshop will examine many time management strategies and tools including some great free electronic and online resources, such as the Assignment Calculator, which can keep you on track and on time.

 
Technology Workshops:

 
Learning Tools: Over the past two decades new technologies, especially computer technologies, have provided autonomy and access to learning previously denied to persons with disabilities. In this workshop we will introduce a variety of adaptive technologies, demonstrate how they work and explain how they help students with their studies. The workshops include an overview of hardware and software such as Kurzweil 3000, textHELP, Dragon Naturally Speaking and many more!

 
Hands-On Technology: In addition to the technology listed above, there are many technological tools that can assist you in your learning — and many of them are free!! With the help of student mentors, you will get the opportunity to try out electronic readers, agendas, mind mapping programs, digital recorders, spell checkers and scanners. Although many of these tools were originally designed to help persons with disabilities, many non-disabled learners benefit from these powerful tech tools.

  

For more information or to register in Orientation for Students with Disabilities 2008 please contact:

Laura Simkin
Summer Transition Program Co-ordinator 

Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4151 
Email: stp@nipissingu.ca

For more information regarding Disability Services please contact::

Mike Walker

(Learning Strategist: learning disabilities)
Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4333
Email: mikew@nipissingu.ca

Daralynn D’Angelo:

(Learning Strategist: other disabilities)
Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4235
Email: daralynd@nipissingu.ca

Mark Giddens

(Adaptive Technology Technician)
Phone: (705) 474-3450 ext. 4401

Email: markg@nipissingu.ca

When You Register:
To help us ensure that you are fully able to participate in our Summer Transition Program, please let us know, in advance, of any disability related needs you may have (ie. Mobility). Additionally, please inform us if you have any diet restrictions and/or food allergies?

STP Registration Form: (MS Word)

Forum Registration Form: (MS Word)