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SJU ARTS STUDENT PROFILE: GABI
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06 Apr, 2018
With the various majors, minors, and specializations that are offered, the potential to take courses in a variety of subjects of interest to you, and the development of skills that will assist you once you graduate, there are numerous reasons to pursue a degree in the Faculty of Arts at UWaterloo. The additional benefits offered to you as a co-registered student with St. Jerome’s University only add value to your university experience and your degree.
Life as an Arts student is different for everyone. With the freedom you are given to study what interests you, you can truly make the experience your own. Find out more about what life is really like as an Arts student, the reasons to pursue an Arts degree, and the options available to you by learning about a current SJU co-registered student!
For Gabi, a first year student who is co-registered in Honours Arts at St. Jerome’s, the ability to customize her degree allows her to combine her multiple interests to help others while doing what she loves!
Media Folder:
Tyler: Although you’ve only just started working towards your degree, are you already planning on doing co-op or anything else to complement the courses you’ve been taking?
Gabi: Yes, I’m planning on doing co-op’s related to Psychology because I have ideas of what I want to do once I’m done school, but I don’t really know what it would look like in the job world yet, so I’m excited to find out and try different things with my co-op to see which direction I really want to take.
Do you have any ideas specifically of what that might entail?
Yeah I do! I think coming in to university, I had decided I wanted to do Art Therapy; that was my goal and the reason why I combined Fine Arts and Psychology. Taking more Psychology classes now, I’ve realized that all the research that they do with children and how children develop, I also find very interesting. So maybe what I end up doing will turn into something along those lines, but that’s what the co-op is going to be for, hopefully to find out exactly what it is I want to do; I’m excited!
You mentioned Psychology and Fine Arts, are you double majoring in those two subjects?
I was originally going to do that, and then when the time came to choose our majors I changed my mind just a little bit. I’m majoring in Psychology, and double minoring in the two aspects of the Fine Arts program; so I have a minor in studio art, and a minor in the visual culture component, which is more the art history side of Fine Art. I wanted the best of both studio and art history, so I’m happy I made that choice.
So what made you decide that that’s what you wanted to pursue; Psychology and Fine Arts?
I was doing an Art-in-the-Park session with someone in my town, and I went, just for fun, and I started asking the person who was running it about what they did, and they did Art Therapy. They were talking all about how you can use the art mediums to help people, and you don’t have to diagnose them, you can just help them express themselves, and I thought that was so cool. I think from then on I saw that as my way to help people and do what I love.
When you were looking at schools, did you know that that was exactly what you wanted to go into? What made you look at the Arts in general?
I was looking for what would give me the best combination of skills to be able to go into Art Therapy, because Art Therapy is more of a graduate degree that you need an undergraduate degree to be able to get into it eventually. So I was looking for places that would let me equally focus on Psychology and Fine Arts, and in the Fine Arts that would let me explore all types of media, so that I could get a sense of how any type of media could help people. Waterloo was one of the places that did that; they don’t make you choose a path in the Arts right away, they let you expand your horizons and take different courses, so I was excited about that.
They don’t make you choose a path in the Arts right away, they let you expand your horizons and take different courses
What made you choose St. Jerome’s? How did you hear about SJU?
I have a friend who is very cheerful and bubbly, and we get along really well, and she told me about St. Jerome’s because she had lived here, and I thought that if she loved it, I’m going to love it too. She really raved about it, she said ‘Oh Gabi, you’re going to love it’, and so she was the reason I checked it out, and she was right, I do love it.
What made you want to co-register with St. Jerome’s?
I think that, visiting St. Jerome’s, I realized that it was a really nice community, and I definitely really wanted to be here, and I thought that, what better way to be here than to also be co-registered? I was also really attracted to the smaller class sizes; especially because I want to go into psychology, and I knew that a lot of universities have really big psychology class sizes. So, knowing that I might be able to scale that down a little bit was really exciting and I definitely wanted to do that. I think that’s why St. Jerome’s was where I decided to go.
What would you say is the most appealing aspect of being a co-registered student?
I think having the best of both worlds because you have access to all of the information and all of the resources on the main campus, as well as all of the resources at St. Jerome’s. For example, I know there’s a section in the St. Jerome’s Library that is specifically for psychology; so I don’t have to walk all the way to a library on main campus because I have all of the resources that I need right here with me. But if I don’t find what I need, I still can go to the main campus; it’s an extra resource that is open to me as a co-registered student.
Do you feel like you made the right choice coming to St. Jerome’s? Do you feel that you’ve made the right choice and everything about St. Jerome’s was what you had expected?
Definitely. St. Jerome’s solidified the fact that Psychology is one of the things that I’m interested in thanks to the class that I got to take here at St. Jerome’s in Psychology. That class specifically got me interested in more areas of Psychology at the University, so I’m really appreciative of that. I knew that SJ was going to become my home, and it really has, so I definitely think that it was the right choice to make, coming here and co-registering.
Why would you recommend St. Jerome’s to prospective students?
It’s just such a great community! Leaving home and coming here, it was so easy to find a new family and a new home and a place that was comfortable. Plus everything is so close, especially as a co-registered student. If you take classes here, they’re very close and you’re going to be in classes with people that you live with. When you walk across the bridge towards St. Jerome’s, it really feels like you’re coming home. I think that the community feeling, as well as the smaller class sizes, and the fact that everything is just smaller and very tight-knit is what I find really appealing about coming here. You’re not just a number, either in residence or in your classes or anywhere; everyone knows each other as people, they actually know your name and who you are.
You’re not just a number, either in residence or in your classes or anywhere; everyone knows each other as people, they actually know your name and who you are
What sold you on St. Jerome’s when you were looking at schools?
I think coming here and seeing just how open and warm the whole environment was made me feel like I could really see this being my home in the future. I got to talk to some Psychology professors who were here when I came for my UWaterloo campus tour, and they made it sound like there were a whole lot of directions I could take if I decided I didn’t want to pursue Art Therapy, there were still other things I could do with Psychology. So I think having that chance to converse with those people who knew about what I was doing, as well as getting to see the atmosphere at St. Jerome’s are what solidified it in my mind. Especially because you can feel the atmosphere at St. Jerome’s right away, it’s not like you have to live here for a while to see how tight-knit it is, you get that sense just by walking onto campus and taking a tour.■
*This interview has been condensed and partially edited for clarity and conciseness*