We all remember our first experiences on campus, but the ones that seem to stick out more in memory are the challenging moments. Whether it’s social, academic, athletic, or any of the other countless student experiences at St. Lawrence, there are a myriad of details to success we each had to learn the hard way.

However, future Laurentians don’t have to struggle and can learn from our experiences through the online document accessible to all: the SLU Survival Guide. This document is a guide written by students for students to share what life is really like as a Laurentian – the good, the bad and everything in between.

This project was born out of Thelmo’s Student Life Committee from Spring 2017. A committee comprised of entirely first-years, reflecting on the first-year experience. The guide was a paper document distributed to the class of 2021 in it’s pilot year, and the feedback we received the following spring overwhelmingly requested the guide to address social life on campus. The challenge then became finding the medium in which a survival guide could represent all students on campus and evolve with the campus climate.

Last spring, two University of Michigan students created a Google doc entitled “How to be ‘not rich’ at U of M.” Initially intended for their immediate circle, the document began to gain momentum and overwhelmingly positive support, written about in articles of the Detroit Free Press and NPR. From current students to alumni, the document continued to grow in awareness and detail. I reached out to these women over the summer, asking for advice regarding maintenance of the document and what challenges they faced with their document.

By having a Google doc that can be accessed by anyone with the link, the challenge thus becomes ensuring the information included does not target any individual or group. The U of M authors solved this with the settings, so anyone can comment, but those comments must then be approved to be officially included. This has never been an issue, as this setting creates accountability for anything added to the survival guide.

Eventually, I hope students in every tiny niche on campus can open this and find one piece of advice that pertains to their experience. This isn’t meant to be a venting document, but a share of experiences and how you got through what was challenging for you. Each and every experience as a Laurentian matters, and this community thrives on supporting one another. This survival guide allows for honest, uncensored reflections and experiences of what life is really like at SLU to help the next generation of Laurentians. There will be a student after you that struggles with something similar to what you went through, so why not make sure they don’t have to learn the hard way?

You can find the   link to the survival guide online at thehillnews.org.   If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at caroon16@stlawu.edu.