Students connect the dots

Students connect the dots

It All Adds Up, a Queen鈥檚 campaign to help students plan for the future, expands to 17 Ontario universities this fall.

By Anne Craig

November 4, 2015

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It All Adds Up, a career health campaign initially launched at Queen鈥檚 University, kicks off this week at 17 university campuses across Ontario. The initiative gives students confidence that what they鈥檙e doing inside and outside the classroom and the skills and experiences they are developing will form the foundation for their future careers.

Christine Fader of Career Services takes a photo of a student at the "It All Adds Up" booth that was set up Wednesday at the Athletics and Recreation Centre. (University Communications)

鈥淨ueen鈥檚 students responded positively to It All Adds Up, and we are excited to have the opportunity to share this initiative with students across the province,鈥 says Cathy Keates, Director of Queens鈥 Career Services, which partnered with the Alma Mater Society (AMS) last year to create the campaign. 鈥淚n a recent survey, 31 per cent of Canadian university students reported thinking about their careers or futures traumatic or very difficult to handle in the past year.鈥

Created jointly by the Queen鈥檚 Career Services and the Alma Mater Society in 2014, the campaign is designed to help students feel less stressed about their future careers. Using whiteboards located around campus, students write down the activities they participate in and the interests they have and start to see how those things add up to success. They then take a photo of themselves with the whiteboard and post it to Instagram with the hashtag #ItAllAddsUp.

鈥淢any university students feels stressed about their futures and often feel like they should keep piling on more and more activities or else they won鈥檛 be successful,鈥 says Queen鈥檚 career counsellor Christine Fader. 鈥淭his campaign encourages students to stop and add up what they are doing. It鈥檚 eye-opening and a confidence boost.鈥

The campaign uses both Instagram and in-person conversations at the photo locations to help students reflect on their successes and share their stories.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very competitive to get students鈥 attention with so many programs on campus but It All Adds Up definitely worked last year,鈥 says communications assistant Holly Mathias (Artsci鈥16). 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to see the students taking initiative and learning how their unique skills help them. This is also one of the best ways to reach students, through social media. It doesn鈥檛 take a lot of time and the technology for this is right at their fingertips.鈥

For more information and a list of participating schools, follow #ItAllAddsUp on social media or visit the .