uNivErSity oF WAtErloo MAgAZiNE

« Progressive schools don’t take a sink-or-swim approach
with students, says Sean Van Koughnett, director
of Waterloo’s Student Success Office.
Easier access
Some of the ways
Waterloo supports
student success
» Working with the Federation of Students and
faculties, Student Success helps about 6,700
students flow into first year
» Support services — including SHADOW, now
known as International Peer Mentors — are
offered to about 4,500 international students
» The Writing Centre assisted 2,000 students —
under-graduates and graduates — with
assignments in 2012
» VeloCity enables entrepreneurial students to
live and innovate collectively as they try out
ideas for new products
» Success Coaching, launched in 2011, offers
one-on-one mentoring to help students set
academic, career and life goals
» Connecting with students online or through
group sessions keeps administrators tuned into
state of the student experience at Waterloo
Student well-being is so important at Waterloo
that a number of key services have been brought
together — and new ones developed — under a
recently formed administrative department, the
Student Success Office.
That process began in 2010. By September 2011,
the re-organized office on the second floor of
South Campus Hall was ready to help.
Incoming students at Waterloo are demographically
different than the same group 20 years ago.
They are younger, on average, by a year. The last
Grade 13 class graduated with their Grade 12
schoolmates in 2003.
“That can be huge in terms of maturity,” says
Sean Van Koughnett, director, Student Success
Office. “Maturity can be as important to success
as academic ability.”
Changing demographics in Canada, and Waterloo’s
focus on attracting international students, also
means the cohort is more ethnically diverse.
Many incoming students, meanwhile, try to fit
paying jobs into their schedules, just as they did
in high school. Most bring with them the high
expectations of parents.
It amounts to a lot of pressure, says Van Koughnett,
and progressive schools don’t take a sink-orswim
attitude. Giving students what they need
28