Come one, come all!

Concordia opens its doors to prospective students from far and wide on Saturday, October 22 for its annual Open House. The event is a chance for the university to highlight its diverse facilities, programs and activities, and the people who make it all happen.

“It’s Concordia’s show day,” says Candace Jacobs from the Office of Recruitment. “It’s an opportunity to talk to faculty, learn about our programs, visit our facilities and attend lectures and presentations.” 

Jacobs points to the four Faculty showcase presentations as key events not to be missed:

• Music Therapy for Health and Wellness: A Diversity of Research and Practice with Sandra Curtis, professor and coordinator of the Graduate Music Therapy Program.
• The Constant Challenge of Digital Security with professor Mourad Debbabi, director of the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering.
• Buying Less, Consuming More: Collaborative Redistribution for Sustainable Consumption with Zeynep Arsel, assistant professor of marketing.
• Doing Masculinity Differently: Kanye West and Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Hip-Hop Culture with Marc Lafrance, assistant professor of sociology.

Concordia is also offering up a dizzying number of Faculty-specific presentations. The Faculty of Arts and Science is inviting prospective students to experience one of 13 lectures, on everything from the birth of politics in ancient Greece to nanophysics, so they can get a feel for learning at the university level.

The Faculty of Fine Arts will provide presentations of each of its different degree programs, as well as contemporary dance workshops and music performances. The Faculty also provides a unique opportunity for young artists hoping to study at the university: Portfolio Day, which runs in conjunction with Open House.

“This is a chance for them to bring their work and get one-on-one feedback from professors in the Faculty,” Jacobs says. “It’s great because it gives them an idea of how to prepare for the upcoming application process.”

The John Molson School of Business also has a full day of presentations for visitors who want to learn more about the business school’s different graduate and undergraduate programs.

Visitors can sign up for campus, residence, and Faculty tours, attend a football game, and visit one of dozens of information tables that will be set up all over the two campuses. “You can just walk up and talk to someone, and get to know what’s happening in a specific department,” Jacobs says.

New this year
New for this year’s edition of Open House at Concordia is a program that allows visitors to create their own Open House experience, in order to learn the most about the areas that are most interesting to them.

The pilot project, called Build Your Open House, involves 10 volunteers who will be trained to suggest an itinerary for visitors based on their interests. “We’re sort of customizing their experience, or suggesting ways they can customize it,” say Jacobs.

In all, Open House relies on the efforts of over 35 student volunteers, and this year, organizers expect to welcome over 4,000 visitors to Concordia. “We’re really happy to have all these students come out and help, because it’s a big day with a lot going on,” Jacobs says.

Related links:
•  Open House site
•  Faculty Showcase: Excellence in Research