STLHE 2016 SAPES

Post-secondary education has been identified as a major component to an individual’s successful career, security and productive contribution to society (Baum, Kurose, & McPherson, 2013). Students often face difficulties transitioning into post-secondary, most reporting not feeling prepared academically, which can contribute to the development of stress, anxiety, and/or depression (Waters, 1992). These issues can be devastating for students and affect their performance in post-secondary education, which may lead to their withdrawal from the institution (McMillan, 2013). It is important to educate incoming students of the potential issues they may face, such as poor time management, development of poor health behaviours, and psychosocial changes relating to the increase in autonomy and self-directed learning; and equip them with the tools and skills necessary to overcome these issues should they arise. This past year, the School of Health Studies within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University offered a pre-university course, Leg Up, to its incoming students to complete the summer before they began their university studies. This course exposed students to a variety of different factors that would ease their transition to university life and introduced them to important health-related issues they would learn in their first year Health Science courses. The modules in Leg Up are formatted in a way to help students develop solid study habits, offer career trajectories vignettes with “day in the life” segments on different health professions, and introduce tips on how to maintain healthy physical and mental wellness throughout their years at Western. This session will explore the components of Leg Up, an overview of the results from the first set of data collection, and where we see broader applications of Leg Up in the future.