So, what can you expect when you come for a meal at Queen’s dining halls? Well, you will be surrounded with appetizing items like tandoori chicken pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, noodles, stir-fry of your choice, and steamy soups – just to name a few!

To satisfy your cravings further, dining halls also offer nutritious salad bars, grab-and-go sandwiches, daily hot soups, and Ontario’s fruits and vegetables. And oh! Who can forget the welcoming smiles of the hospitality staff, eager to serve you!

If you have alternative dietary needs, Queen’s got you covered! Halal, Kosher, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose free and other special dietary offerings are available especially for you. Check out the mouth-watering menu to see what’s cooking today! Furthermore, for your convenience, each food option is labelled with its ingredients and allergy precautions. Yes, at Queen’s Dining Halls, there is something new daily to surprise your taste buds.

Other than the three residence dining halls, there are numerous retail dinning locations as well. These include Pizza Pizza, Tim Hortons, Booster Juice, Teriyaki, and Ignite Grill all in once convenient location, Queen’s Centre. As a commie, you will find yourself grabbing coffee and snack-to-go from Goodes’ Hall Cafe. For a full list of places to grab a bite from, check out the campus food location map.

Lastly, I cannot help but brag about the friendly service of Queen’s hospitality staff. Their awards speak for themselves, so instead of me bragging about them, I encourage you to read the awards section of hospitality services website.

I encourage you to visit the newly launched hospitality services website to further explore food adventures at Queen’s. If you have any questions regarding the hospitality services, you can skim through the FAQ section or contact them directly.

- Jawwad Siddiqui, COMM’ 15

Last year for March Break I visited Mont Tremblant with some friends, and though it was a lot of fun I missed the opportunity to visit open houses at Queen’s and other universities. I’m sure many of you are in the same boat – whether you were vacationing down south or had trouble finding the right day to drive out to Kingston.

Though I was not able to come to Queen’s for the Open House, I was fortunate enough to visit Kingston twice during my second semester of grade 12. The first time, I got to stay with an older friend at her house in the student village, just 5 minutes north of the campus. The second time, I took a guided tour of the university on a Saturday with my parents. Both of these experiences greatly contributed to my decision to come to Queen’s. Once I had the opportunity to walk around the campus, I got a positive feel for the environment and was able to picture myself as a student at Queen’s.

I definitely encourage all of you to take the time and visit the campus, especially if you didn’t get the chance to during March Break. Here are some easy ways to do so:

1. Prospective students from all faculties can join in a guided campus tour, which gives a brief tour of the business building, Goodes Hall. You can find the information to sign up for one of these tours at http://www.queensu.ca/admission/contacts/campustours.html.

2. If you’re interested in a more in-depth guided tour of Goodes Hall, feel free to email the Commerce office at commerce@business.queensu.ca. Usually, there is a standard meeting time of Fridays at 3:00pm where anyone can drop by for info and a tour. As part of the High School Liaison Committee, I help run the tours, and I find most prospective students learn a lot about the Commerce program that they didn’t know before visiting.

3. If you do not have the opportunity to visit Kingston, you still have the ability to use the Commerce office as a resource for answering any questions you may have. Also, feel free to e-mail me at 9dvl@queensu.ca. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the Commerce program, Queen’s, or Kingston in general!

- Danielle Lucchese, COMM’14

I finished my last midterm of my undergraduate career this week, and my reading week break officially started today! Well, it sort of started. I’m going to Toronto with my APSC 400 TEAM group to speak to a company that will help us with our research, so I guess I am still technically doing work for school. As for my reading week plans, I’m going to Montreal on Monday with a friend of mine for a few days. Most people in my year this year is going to Cancun or Punta Cana or the Dominican Republic to celebrate the last year of undergrad, but I decided to play it safer by going somewhere within driving distance instead.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about my last 2 months of school. On one end I’m super excited about finally finishing my undergraduate degree and going out into the work force, but on the other end I’m also scared and anxious about the future. I am still in the process of looking for a job, but I’m not too worried because I know it will all work out in the end.

One interesting thing about my job search right now is that I’m participating in a program offered by the on-site Business Career Centre called Direct Connect. Basically what this program does is that it matches each participant with your own career advisor and through bi-weekly meetings with him/her, you develop your soft skills related to job searching, including learning how to network and build connections within your industry of choice. The purpose of Direct Connect is to help you develop skills that can enable you to tap into the other 80% of the job market that is hidden.

I’m currently in the process of meeting with my advisor and I’ve found the sessions very useful because in trying to get to know more about me, she asks me things that I’ve never really thought about on my own. Not only is it a great way to develop my networking skills, it has helped me learn more about myself. In addition to the skills-building, the program also helps me connect with people who work in my field of interest through informational interviews, and build upon my existing network. Of course we also do things such as go through my resume and cover letter to get me ready for the job application process.

This is probably a little bit farther down the road than many of you are in the process of considering, but I don’t think I’ve heard of any other school offering a program like Direct Connect. It is definitely an advantage that the Queen’s Commerce program offers, and something extra to consider when you decide on where you want to be for your undergraduate degree.

- Sheila Pan, COMM 2011

After working past the jetlag and the culture shock, it’s time to jump right back in to campus life at Queen’s. After living in Norway for the past 5 months and studying at the BI School of Management, I’m excited to be back in Kingston.

This semester, I have a bit of an awkward timetable due to the electives I chose for my third year. 9 hours of lectures on Mondays, with an hour of class on Tuesdays to Fridays. I have 5 courses, including Production and Operations Management (mandatory for all 3rd year Commerce students), Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behaviour, and my electives.

Even though it’s only been two days into the second semester, things are just as busy as always! Job recruitment, company info sessions, catching up with old friends, buying supplies from the Campus Bookstore, and a lot of executive team meetings. As the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition (http://theqec.com/) weekend quickly approaches, there are a lot of little things that still need to be finished before we welcome our international competitors to Goodes Hall. Packing swag bags, printing itineraries, reviewing schedules, confirming attendees, replacing last-minute cancellations…the list goes on. As part of the executive and acting as supporting co-chair, a large part of our year-long planning process is trying to anticipate the unexpected–which is always tough to do. In addition to all of this, I’ve signed on as a freelance writer with two firms so there are quite a few writing deadlines that I’m trying to keep on top of. Tomorrow, I’ll also be going back to my part-time position at Alumni Relations for the Queen’s School of Business. January is going to be an exciting month!

Speaking of deadlines, Ontario high school students have an important deadline to meet–tomorrow, at 11:59 PM EST applications to Ontario universities are due! If you’re looking to find out more information about life at Queen’s, please join me in an online-chat session hosted by the Queen’s School of Business. The chat session goes live at 7:00 PM EST tomorrow night. For more information, visit http://business.queensu.ca/bcom/chat_sessions.php. Hope to see you online!

Katherine Wong Too Yen, BCom’12

Practically everyone on campus is wearing green today; I love the Queen’s spirit!  Today is like an unofficial university students’ holiday.  I’m really happy that the profs take everything in stride though, case in point: I went to my regular Tuesday afternoon finance class yesterday and there was barely a single empty seat to be found.  Why?  The kids who have finance class on Wednesdays had migrated sections so they could have a happy St. Patrick’s Day AND still not miss any class.  Now that’s what I call forward thinking!  Another professor of mine told the class that she would go easy on us the day after St. Patrick’s Day, to give us time to recover…

Last Friday, I tidied up my resume and submitted it to be published in the Queen’s Commerce 2012 Online Resume Book for recruiters.  This is the first year that the Queen’s School of Business is releasing an online resume book for third year students, which is a great opportunity for the class of 2012.  Many thanks to the hard working Business Careers Centre staff for organizing this!

And now, the schedule of a second year Commerce student…
I’m heading off to a Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition executive meeting tonight, and then a St. Patty’s Day QEC social to meet other past and present QEC exec members and volunteers.  Tomorrow night I’ll be representing QEC at the Commerce Society Appreciation Dinner in the BMO Financial Group Atrium in Goodes Hall.   I have a Geography essay due on Friday, and later that day I’ll also be sitting in on the Commerce panel discussion for the March Break Open House event in the Policy Studies building at 3:00 PM.  On Saturday, I’m registered to participate in the Queen’s School of Business 1st Annual Innovation Summit…it’s going to a jam-packed week!

Until next time,

Kat