Winter Opportunities

It’s the last day of the first week of the rest of the term, which is another way of saying that you’ve got a long road ahead of you. Not to worry, Labyrinth and I are here to celebrate the good and do our best to fix the bad. Today I’ve got a list of some great opportunities coming up this term. Some of them you can do now, and some of them should stay on the back burner of your brain. Go past the jump to learn about just some of the interesting opportunities you have this term.

CMS Wear

Voting on which design goes on this year’s CMS wear closes today, so go and vote now. All of these were designed by students, and any one of them would look great on a t-shirt or hoodie. As you read through this post, click on an image to go straight to its page on the CMS Facebook group so you can vote.

CMS Smiles

A few CMS members are partipating in the Smile Epidemic, a nifty local happiness initiative. They want to see your smiles, and I do too! Join in, and head over to thesmileepidemic.com to see your friends’ smiles. If you also submit them to us, I’ll put them here in our smile gallery, and we’ll make our own 30 Days of Happiness. Lord knows we can use it, especially once midterms start looming. If you want to participate, it’s easy.

1. Draw a smile on a piece of paper.
2. Write down one thing you’re happy about on that paper.
3. Hold it up in front of your face, with your camera at the ready.
4. Smile!
5. Take a photo.
6. Submit that photo to the Smile Epidemic, and send a copy to uwlabyrinth@gmail.com.
7. Share! Let everyone know that you’re happy, over Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc.

Here’s Kyle, one of the consuls, doing one.

And here’s one of mine.

It’s a lot of fun, and it only takes a few minutes. Remember to email it to uwlabyrinth@gmail.com, or tweet it to @UWLabyrinth. I won’t use your pictures without your permission.

Workshops

Finally, a new term means a new set of workshops from Office of Organizational and Human Development and the Centre for Career Action. Despite their jargontastic names, the workshops are actually pretty useful. And, if you complete the OHD program, not only will you learn a bunch of things, you’ll get a Student Leadership Certificate for your CV. The OHD hasn’t posted their deadlines yet, but here’s a link to the Career Action flyer.

Kalamazoo

The International Congress on Medieval Studies isn’t until May, but you should start thinking about whether you want to go now, in order to budget. Costs usually run in the range of $500, including spending a bunch of money on books (which you will). The ICMS is the largest medieval studies conference in the world, and even if you’re not a medievalist, it’ll help you get a good picture of what your professors do when they’re not teaching classes, which is great if you’re considering grad school. Conference presentations go on for four days, and topics range from textiles to weaponry to Tolkien to video games. Check out their site for more information, talk with one of your classmates who’s been there, read the post I wrote about it on my website, or leave a question in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Needless to say, it’s a great experience, and we go every year.

Now, nobody’s saying you should be crazy and do all this stuff. But you should pick two and do them. No, voting on the CMS thing doesn’t count. Yes, I know what I just said. Regardless. Commit to it now, and you’ll have a good head start on it by the time the real class work starts rolling in. Work hard, play harder, and have a good term.

Jim Tigwell wants to see you smile, especially in Kalamazoo. Send smiles straight to his Twitter, why don’t you?