Tell me about yourself and all the things you do at Western.
Well, my name is Ericka Deakin and I am finishing up my fourth year at the King’s Campus of Western. It’s honestly so hard to believe that I’m nearly finished at this wonderful place. I have spent the last four years double majoring in Criminology and English, and I have loved every minute of it! In terms of my involvement, I have tried to balance between doing things on our campus and in the London community as well. So, in my second year I volunteered with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of London which is a fantastic organization and was a great learning experience. Following this, I got involved with KAMP for my third and fourth years of undergrad and that has allowed me to participate in so much on campus!
What is KAMP?
KAMP stands for the King’s Academic Mentoring Program and is an academic support program here at King’s. The program is student created, student led and operates under the Dean of Students. Essentially, each year KAMP matches upper year university students with incoming first-year, transfer or international students in order to provide them with a mentor who can help make their university experience the best it can possibly be. The program matches students based on a program of study so that mentors can help their students with questions and issues related specifically to academics, but mentors also offer assistance with finding extracurricular/social opportunities, connections to support services on campus, health and wellness supports, and a consistent friend and smiling face on campus. Overall, I think KAMP aims to help students navigate the university experience so that every person can find their place and a sense of belonging in our lovely King’s community and at Western as a whole.
How did KAMP come together?
KAMP was actually created by King’s students in a fourth-year Applications in Psychology course in 2013/2014 and it operated at King’s for the first time in 2014/2015. I think the fact that the program is student created and student run is what makes it extremely special and important. Individuals who were living the student experience saw that there was a need to better support the social and academic success of incoming students to guarantee they have the best undergrad experience possible, and so they created a program to achieve just that.
What are your responsibilities as a KAMP Coordinator?
So the KAMP coordinator position is divided into two positions: the Experience coordinator and the Administration coordinator. I have spent the last year as the KAMP Experience coordinator and have loved it! My responsibilities as the KAMP Experience Coordinator are to organize and host KAMP specific events for our mentors and students in the program, as well as to ensure that our student leaders are involved in supporting as many other initiatives on campus as possible. This means that I organize mentors to volunteer at many events such as KAMP Kick-Off, King’s Hours, Open Houses, O-Week events, the Off-Campus BBQ, ITR sessions, Club’s Week, Bell Let’s Talk Day, Movie Nights and so much more.
I am also responsible for our social media accounts, which has been so interesting! My co-coordinators and I this year have had a lot of fun making boomerangs to showcase/promote events, and getting to document all that goes on at King’s.
What is required of KAMP mentors?
This is a tough question because there are so many different things that KAMP and our mentors do. To summarize it all up with one phrase, KAMP mentors are required to be student leaders. Within the program, they are responsible for communicating and meeting with their assigned students on a regular basis, and ensuring that these students feel supported and know that they have a student resource and a friend at King’s. Within the King’s community as a whole, KAMP mentors are asked to volunteer for various events, support other programs and initiatives, and generally uphold and foster the positive student learning environment that is valued so highly here at King’s. More often than not, the students that are selected to be mentors for KAMP are so eager to be involved at King’s that what is “required” of them usually feels more like an exciting “opportunity” to better the King’s campus rather than a requirement.
How have students responded to KAMP?
Students have responded extremely positively to KAMP. Many students that mentor with the program have said they wished they took advantage of the program in their first year because they see the true value of the program. We are also now seeing that many students who signed up for KAMP in their first year are coming back in their upper years and applying to mentor because they want to give back to a program that was so helpful to them. Students have enjoyed having someone they can go to coffee with on campus and vent about their course load, someone who is ahead of them in the same program who can suggest which courses they should take, and someone to provide general tips and tricks to achieving success in university. Having a mentor is like having a friend and a university expert combined into one person, and who wouldn’t love to have a person like that around?
Here are some of my favourite student feedback quotes:
“My mentor was really cool and was always there when I needed advice or to ask a question”
“From the first meeting with my mentor, I felt comfortable with my transition from high school to university”
“I would greatly recommend KAMP as it enabled me to get through my first year in university with general ease”
What are your plans after you graduate? Will you continue to work with KAMP?
Unfortunately, graduation means my role with KAMP ends, but I plan to stay connected with the students and staff that help maintain the program as I can’t wait to see how it continues to grow. As for myself, after graduation, I am planning to move to Cardiff, Wales in the UK! I am moving there to attend Cardiff Metropolitan University to complete the Post Graduate Certificate of Education to become qualified as Secondary School teacher in both Europe and Canada. While it is very bittersweet to be leaving behind friends and King’s University which has become a place I adore, I am extremely looking forward to another adventure abroad and to fulfilling my dream of being a teacher!
What advice would you give to incoming undergrads?
Hmm, this is a tough one. I guess my best advice would be to be open and to get involved. Your four years of undergrad are full of so many amazing opportunities to meet incredible people, make connections with brilliant professors and to discover so much about yourself, but it requires you to be open to each of these things. Be open-minded to the diversity of people you meet and the possibilities of new friendships, be open-minded in the classroom to new ideas, opinions and ways of thinking that are different than your own, and be open-minded to exploring new interests and opportunities for yourself.
Through this openness to opportunities, my advice would be to get involved on campus as much as possible. Not only does this make your four years more enjoyable, but it will likely help you to build your experiences/references that will aid in securing future opportunities and jobs, and honestly it will help you find friendships that will last a lifetime.
Oh and of course, sign up to have a mentor or get involved in the leadership side of the program—it is an experience you won’t regret!