Page status: CURRENT

First-year flailing

Motivations

A month in: Bright enough, but didn't have much direction coming out of school. Made some bad course planning decisions and is really struggling with his university workload. First assignment results are a shock. Knows he needs to get some help from someone but is a bit embarrassed. Lecturers don't care, right? Needs to find out who to talk to and where to get help.

Start of Trimester 2: Has dropped/changed some courses and connected to the Awhina programme. Doing better academically and feeling more at home at uni - considering getting into some extracurriculars. Will see what opportunities pop up. Likes hearing about big Victoria 'wins' as this reinforces his decision to come here. Getting interested in student politics. Having vague thoughts about careers - but that's still years off. Next hurdle: re-enrollment. Wishes course information was better - especially after last time.

Persona based on

Current student interviews: So, T and R.

SAS persona: Tim.

Gen Y tribe: Solitary saver

Scenario

Male
17 years old
1st year, studying Bachelor of Science, with a double major in physics and philosophy
From Nelson
Halls
Shy and quite earnest
Working part-time, not a party animal
Self-development aspect of university life important to him
Mainly influenced by his family and really wants to make them proud.

"My dad knows me better than anyone, he can tell me what things are best for me and give advice."

"I expected that university would be hard. That everything would be hard - meeting people, learning how the city worked. Everyone told me that lecturers don't care about you. I was a bit worried about the workload."

"The first semester was a nightmare."

Challenges:

Course planning. Found the points system really hard to understand.
Is intimidated by lecturers so seeks help from his peer group or, if he can find the right person, school/faculty staff.
Stressed about not achieving as well as he thinks he should.

Technology and internet

Communications preferences:

Enjoys finding out about things through word of mouth or at lectures.
Emails are fine too.
Checks Blackboard but is nervous about participating in conversations.
Signed up to a course FB page but only reads the discussions - he's too shy to post anything. Follows another page - might be the main Victoria one? Or might be the facutly one. Not sure.

Social media: Browses Facebook but is not a heavy user. Watches YouTube a lot. Also goes on Vimeo.

Technology: Laptop, Android smartphone.

Tertiary education and career goals

Aims to do the best he can with his study and his degree. At this stage, not really considering postgrad study.

Tim has started thinking about his future career, but not that much. There's three years to go before that's going to be a problem!

Information needs from Victoria

New student - getting into the swing of timetables, study, assignments.

Key dates - wants to plan trips home.

Staff - who to talk to about what. Is also a little curious about some of his lecturers and what else they do.

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