The Final Countdown

2008-2009 MSVU Representatives (clockwise from centre: Courtney Barnhill, Heidi Tattrie, Melanie LeBlanc, Suzanne Hayes, Karl Turner, Kutay Ulkuer)

The signs of a new school year about to begin - boxes being loaded into the bookstore daily, syllabuses for classes printing off in the print shop, housekeeping staff dusting out the residences, and the new MSVU viewbooks arriving in the Admissions Office. This is my favourite time of year as I get to see all of the students I met during the year arriving on campus in a couple weeks, and then after that I get to hit the road for another year of meeting new students ready to learn about MSVU!

In the Admissions Office we've been busy getting ready for the fall recruitment season - that's when we travel around Canada and the world attending career and education fairs. I, Heidi, will be spending most of my time driving around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and getting to know many of the local potential students. To help me out we also have hired a recruiter named Melanie LeBlanc who was a Public Relations co-op student in the Admissions Office last fall - she organized the Open Campus Day and all of the tours last fall - she also did a bit of recruitment too - and she is graduating this fall. Melanie also travelled around Nova Scotia this summer with Coralee and Nicole attending community events and parades in the newly decorated MSVU car. Melanie will be mostly in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI - but also spending some time in Ontario.

As for the other Admissions staff: Courtney Barnhill will be travelling around several spots in Canada talking to students about transferring to MSVU. We have a lot of articulation agreements with different colleges where students do the first year or two there and then transfer their credits to MSVU - this year she'll be in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland, Quebec and some Caribbean islands (she's got a tough gig, ha ha). Kutay Ulkuer will be doing his Around the World in 80 Days tour (well more like 50 days actually!) and making stops in China, several countries in the Middle East and Turkey. Our Manager, Karl Turner, will be visiting some Maritime stops, as well as Bermuda. Suzanne Hayes is our Graduate Admissions Advisor and will be going around the Maritimes a bit talking to people interested in doing their Masters at MSVU.

So we've got a very busy few months of living out of suitcases, sleeping in hotel rooms, flying and driving to different locales each week, and talking (lots of talking - although luckily we all talk a lot anyway so it's not an issue for us!) ahead of us but we all love getting to meet the prospective MSVU students along the way and see Canada and the rest of the world so we don't really mind at all! I'll be keeping this blog updated with pictures and details of my trips so watch for when I make it to your town!

Melanie LeBlanc and Coralee Malloy on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with our redecorated MSVU vehicle!