Strong investment in Access Awards in partnership with the Aid & Awards Office. Increased from 10 award recipients in 2020-2021 to 45 award recipients in 2021-2022, with awards valued at up to $20,000.

The Access Strategy has delivered over 50 workshops, presentations and interventions in partnership with community partners including Empowerment Squared, Pathways2Education and several local high schools between September 2021 and May 2022.

These presentations have served to inform and influence 350 students and applicants. There have been offers of admission to 120 Access eligible students and 45 Access Award recipients.

The Student Success Centre developed a centralized web page and exam readiness campaign to support student success during in-person exams. The initiative resulted in more than 4,700 page views, 521 one-on-one student conversations with peers and staff about exam readiness, and 50,000 combined views on Instagram.

In partnership with residence life in Housing & Conference Services, the first-year transition team developed the first-year curriculum as a curricular framework to support experiential learning beyond the classroom and collaborated to develop an in-depth, inclusive training program for 1,000+ student staff and volunteer student leaders.

To support international students coming to Canada during COVID-19, the Student Success Centre’s international student services team, in partnership with the School of Graduate Studies, rebuilt the international student app, iCent, to collect and share important information. The app has 3,000 active international student users at McMaster.

Promotion of experiential and work opportunities for international students includes the following:

Over $130,000 in funding provided to international students through International Student Work Opportunity (ISWO). This funding was provided as wage subsidies as well as honorariums to reward the efforts of students in volunteer and project positions.

1,222 international students engaged through placements, experiential programs and events, such as through programs like Get Ready, Get Hired and Get Ready, Get Experience, the Canadian Workplace Culture session, and formal mentoring programs.

The Writing and Academic Skills Team has been delivering services to students in Mills Library throughout the 2021-2022 academic year in the Learning Commons. They will officially move to a newly launched Writing and Academic Skills Hub in Mills Library L215 in September 2022.

The Student Success Centre secured Central Virtual Learning Platform (CVLP) funding through eCampusOntario, resulting in an open educational resource (OER) video project. These OERs are available for student, Faculty and staff use, starting Fall 2022.

Watch Navigating University and Critical Thinking.

Spiritual care was also integrated into the Student Success Centre’s website to support a holistic and inclusive approach to student success and community-building at McMaster.

The SCLC introduced twelve SCLC Leaders, who provide guidance, support and community related to spiritual care.

Through the Canada: Theory Meets Practice (CTMP) conference, students engaged in light case studies on issues such as the ethical implications of the Toronto Smart City bid and interprovincial trade barriers.

The Wilson Leadership Scholar Award (WLSA) continues to have a lasting impact. As shared in 2022 by Wilson Leader, Carol Markos, currently working in the Federal Public Service:

“Before the program, leadership was very much defined by who I am, what I do, what I can do. After the program, it became much clearer to me that leadership is about the people that you are leading, what they are capable of, what they can do, how you can harness that, how you can notice that and really cultivate it… It’s changed my life. I really don’t think that I would be able to be where I am today without the support of that program.”

Through the Mac’s Money Centre’s Tax Squad program, 45 student volunteers filed 1,300+ returns, totaling $4 million returned to students and low-income households in the Hamilton and Brantford communities.

The community impact and results of this program includes tax service delivery at 65 clinics, 1,400 volunteers hours among participants, and 11 community agency partnerships.

The Student Success Centre and The Forge partnered with Experience Ventures, powered by the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary.

Experience Ventures facilitates entrepreneurial thinking placements at schools and new companies across Canada. Together, the Student Success Centre and The Forge, with the Faculties of Engineering, Social Sciences, Health Sciences, and Business, secured 285 entrepreneurial thinking placements.

In addition, the experiential learning team facilitated placements for another 322 students. Placement opportunities included participation in online challenges, skills development eLearning courses, and formal mentorship programs.

Career Access Professional Services (CAPS) supported the placements and funding of 161 equity-deserving group participants. Additionally, 139 international students gained employment at McMaster, as part of the International Student Work Opportunity (ISWO).

The Student Success Centre received funding from the eCampusOntario Virtual Learning Strategy to create an open-source, online career exploration course for first-year and second-year students. This asynchronous full-semester course teaches students fundamental skills to effectively navigate their career journey through applied assignments, career counsellor support, and peer mentorship.

The Centre is piloting the course in Fall 2022, intending to launch it more widely in Spring 2023.

“I am so grateful that you went out of your way to help me when I wasn’t feeling the greatest about myself and was always patient. I am so excited about my upcoming role and I feel it is a great fit for me at the right time.”

– Bachelor of Arts, 2021 (Alumni Career Services Client)

The Forge continues to support co-curricular and curricular entrepreneurial activities on campus and has seen a growth, even during COVID-19, in the number of students interested in building the skill set to either pursue their own start-up company or be involved in a start-up.

Of the 298 Experience Ventures opportunities created in partnership with the Experiential and Employment portfolio, 28 students were placed directly with Forge start-up companies. An additional 117 students participated in hackathons.

Start-Up Survivor admitted 10 student-led start-ups, which included 31 students from Faculties of Engineering, Science, Health Sciences, Business and Social Sciences.

The Forge has continued to connect past successful entrepreneurs to speak in classrooms and programs, including: Minor in Innovation, BDC and other courses in School of Business, Faculty of Engineering. These speakers provided educational and inspirational talks to over close to 500 students in the past year.

Collectively, since 2015, over 269 companies have been supported by The Forge. These start-ups have created over 724 jobs, raised $42M in financing (investments, sales revenues, or grants) and brought many new products and services to market in Canada and around the world.

The McMaster Exchange Program had 60 outbound exchange students, with two students participating in virtual exchange. The program also had 74 inbound exchange students, with 27 virtual exchange students.

$57,500 was awarded through the Exchange Ambassador Awards.

The Student Success Centre’s Global Experience Program made global experiential learning more accessible by connecting students with safe and rewarding virtual opportunities. Initiatives included building a new Global Impact at Home web page to promote intercultural learning, global community-building, and options like the WACE Global Challenge and Universitas21 Micro-Internships, which focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Global Experience Program had 71 students participate in virtual experiential learning opportunities, or research and coop experiences abroad. 63 students also participated in virtual experiential learning opportunities.

$17,057 was awarded to students participating in virtual and in-person opportunities through the Global Experience Program.

The Student Success Centre introduced a hybrid model to support students in virtual and in-person environments, coinciding with the university’s Back to Mac initiatives. The Centre’s student-led live chat team transitioned to providing on-campus support at various Student Success Centre locations, answering student questions and providing valuable guidance and direction.

The Centre also launched a new SSC student-led stories team, which features stories by students for students on YouTube and other social media channels and increased social media followers by 34.5% in 2021.

In partnership with Student Affairs divisions and Faculties, the Student Success Centre deliver student-focused engagement campaigns and in-person support through initiatives including the Warm Winter Wishes campaign, Student Affairs Showcase (more than 3,000+ student participation), and the Exam Readiness campaign.