'Building community': How students find home away from home at UTM

Ishan Paul always wanted to mentor a younger sibling in the same way his older sister guided him. 

She’s seven years older and has been a source of knowledge and advice for her little brother for years.

While Paul remains the youngest in the family, he found an opportunity to become a trusted advisor to not just one person, but 28 people when he became a don at a student residence at the University of Toronto Mississauga. 

The role is designed to help students find their footing, with the dons leading the development of a small community on the floor they support. That community can be a key factor in students settling into their home away from home. 

“In many places, residence is just a place to live,” says Paul, who is in his second year as a don. “But here we put a strong focus on building community and supporting academic development.”

Paul, 20, was inspired to become a don after his own experience as a first-year student living in Roy Ivor Hall.

“I was instantly charmed by the don’s role of hosting events and getting students to interact with each other, kind of like a camp counselor,” says Paul, who is in his fourth year of a bachelor of science in biology for health sciences, psychology and chemistry. 

In his second year, Paul lived off campus but missed life in residence, so he applied for a third-year position as a don. 

As a don at Erindale Hall this year, he helps create a safe and supportive environment, and handles administrative tasks such as incident reporting and event facilitation. Paul also has training in First Aid and CPR.

Pru Feeney is one of the students on Paul’s floor in Erindale’s Education Living Learning Community, which groups first-year residence students in programs exploring the relationship between health and education. 

UTM also offers LLCs focused on business, computer science, life science, sustainability, global citizenry and the communication, culture, information and technology program. 

“I recommend it 100 per cent, especially for your first year,” says Feeney of life in residence. 

“I was really nervous at first and outside my comfort zone, but right away you have roommates, so even if you're not someone who goes out and makes friends really easily, you have friends automatically.”

The entire floor quickly becomes a community, she says.

“You smile at people in the hall and they smile back, it's such a homey feeling,” she says.  “We have a group chat, so whenever someone needs something we just text ‘hey, does anyone on the floor have a ziplock bag or a thermometer or something?’”

Being grouped with students in similar programs also means academic help is always close at hand. 

“Especially on Friday nights when my physics labs are due, I can go to people on the floor, or Ishan because he has taken the classes before and he's right there,” Feeney says. “If I wasn't on campus, I wouldn't have that help.”

The community on a residence floor reflects life in the real world, which means dons also play a role in helping mediate conflicts and encouraging engagement between students. 

That sort of assistance is important, says Felipe Gmeiner, a first-year economics and political science student on Paul’s floor. 

“Living with five other guys can sometimes be messy,” he says with a laugh. 

Gmeiner shares his unit with four computer science majors and a fellow political science major. 

“It's really important to be clear on what you expect at the beginning and be open to what other people want, because it's a shared space,” he says. “You have to learn to communicate and enter this new situation with an open mind.”  

Originally from Brazil, Gmeiner was no stranger to relocating, having moved to Japan with his dad at 14 before coming to study in Canada, but this is his first time living away from his family. 

After visa delays meant he arrived two weeks late for his first semester, he was worried he had missed his chance to acclimatize. But living in residence helped him build connections.

“I'm sure that if I lived off campus, it would have been way harder for me to make new friends,” he says. “I'd probably be a little lonely.”

Gmeiner and his floormates meet regularly for sessions with their residence education facilitator, who supports first-year students through the transition to university life with sessions on managing pressure and academic load, time management and preparing for midterms.

“We had a great workshop on how to write emails to professors because most high school students haven’t written professional emails,” Gmeiner says. “Being in the residence, you meet people in a similar situation and find support and make that human connection.”

The dons also remind students to make space for fun. 

“The first time I met Felipe, I couldn’t find him,” Paul jokes. “We were all playing hide-and-seek and I had caught someone in the same spot he was hiding, but I kept missing him.”  

And when things get serious, the dons are there around the clock. Residence dons rotate as the after-hours ‘Don-on-Duty,’ with each taking turns to respond to overnight issues such as lockouts, noise complaints or illness – or just plain old advice.

“That's why the dons are integrated into their living situation,” says Paul. “Because when someone in my community needs a little bit of support in the evening, they can just knock on my door and have a chat.”

Paul says supporting students has improved his own UTM experience, and he hopes he can find a way to continue being a mentor after graduation.

“I'm kind of used to having students who depend on me or call at like 1 a.m. asking ‘hey, is the Health and Counseling Center is open tomorrow?’” he says. 

“Those small moments really helped me feel connected and are so intrinsically rewarding that I feel like I’m also taking care of myself. It’s such a kind and caring environment.”