Virtual library
The virtual library is a collection of resources relating to a variety of important topics with a goal to help students through their Top 200 journey. Resources are available in a range of lengths and an assortment of formats, including video, podcast, and article.
The Nice Guys on Business Podcast - Becoming a Confident Connector
Podcast Episode 1092 with Christy Conner, 26 mins
This podcast is hosted by Doug Sandler, the author of Nice Guys Finish First. Guest speaker Christy Conner, a business coach, speaker and author of The Confident Connector, and organizer of Friday Coffee Meetups, the largest active entrepreneur and tech innovation group in Los Angeles with around 7000 members. Conner’s advice when networking is to listen actively and follow up to develop connections.
The 3 Bones of Networking for Student Success - Isaac Serwanga
Isaac Serwanga is a Princeton University graduate who started Profound Icy, a career mentorship program for Princeton students. Serwanga’s theory on networking for success is based on the “3 bones”: the wishbone (state what you want), the jawbone (ask with competency and humility), and the backbone (be persistent). Serwanga encourages students to do deep research into a person when networking before reaching out. ~ 9 min. video
How to Have a Good Conversation - Celeste Headlee
Celeste Headlee is an interview host who believes learning to have a good conversation can be important especially for jobs that rely on how well you talk to people. According to Headlee, having a good conversation involves creating a balance between talking and listening, being present, and setting aside your opinions to be ready to learn. ~ 12 min. video
The One Question to Become a Master Networker During Covid-19
This article discusses how we create social connections in a socially distant era. Start by asking “how can I best support you”. When we are deciding who to give to, we prioritize people who have given to us. ~ Article, 5 min. read
4 Ways to Uncover the Power of 2nd and 3rd Degree Connections in Your Network
This article explains how people can navigate their social network to reach success by leveraging their network. ~ Forbes article. 5 min. read
How to Use LinkedIn: 5 Smart Steps to Career Success
This article teaches you how to use LinkedIn as an online resume by highlighting your best work publicly. ~ Article, 7 min. read
How Great Leaders Inspire Action – Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek uses the golden circle to show how leaders think from the inside out by starting with “why”. Sinek explains how being driven by a purpose is what allows great leaders to inspire action. ~ 18.5 min. video
The Skill of Self Confidence – Dr. Ivan Joseph
Dr. Ivan Joseph explains how the skill of self-confidence is the most important in our lives. Practice or persistence can build self-confidence when we don’t accept no. When you re-affirm yourself first, then others will see yourself as confident. ~ 13 min. video
Stop Managing, Start Leading – Hamza Khan
Humza Khan shares his experience as both an employee and a manager to explain how managing millennials and knowledge workers through the same methods used to manage factory workers can be disastrous. As a leader, Humza guides his employees and creates a culture of community. ~ 18 min. video
How Successful People Deal with Setbacks – Scott Galloway
Scott Galloway says the ability to move on from setbacks and grudges is a key component of success. The key to success is the ability to mourn and move on. ~ 2.5 min. video
How to Work Your Way to the Top with Anna Brozek, CEO of Big Cartel
Sophia Amoruso talks with Anna Brozek, the CEO of Big Cartel about how Brozek has gone from community coordinator, to operations director, to CEO over the 9 years she has been at Big Cartel. Brozek discusses leadership during the pandemic, how she worked her way up from a marketing role to CEO, and how she uses candour to be a transparent leader. ~ 48 min. podcast episode
5 Inspiring Lessons in Leadership From Simon Sinek
In 2005, Simon Sinek discovered a pattern in which all great leaders think. Sinek released his book “Start with why” in 2011, which explains how leaders inspire everyone to take action. ~ 7 min. article
What if Money Was No Object? – Alan Watts
Alan Watts urges people to think about what they would like to do if money was no object. ~ 3 min. video
How to Know Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes – Adam Leipzig
Adam Leipzig has been a producer, executive and distributor of over 25 movies, and produced over 300 stage plays and life events. The happier people he encounters learn their life purpose by knowing who they were, what they did, who they did it for, what those people wanted/needed, and how they change as a result. Leipzig says you can learn your life purpose in under five minutes by answering these five outward facing questions about yourself. ~ 10.5 min. video
Career Homecoming with Laura Simms – Pivot with Jenny Blake
Laura Simms is an expert in meaningful work and is the creator of Your Career Homecoming, a career change program that helps people discover the right work that is meaningful for them. Simms joins Jenny Blake to discuss the concept of career homecoming, a career that is a natural extension and the best of who you are, and working through insecurities when navigating career pivots. ~ 149.45 min. podcast episode
2 Questions to Uncover Your Passion – and Turn it Into a Career – Noeline Kirabo
Noeline Kirabo is a social entrepreneur whose work helped young people in Uganda turn their passions into profitable businesses. Kirabo shares two questions to ask yourself to begin doing the same – if you had all the time and money in the world what would you spend your time doing and what gives you a sense of fulfillment? ~ 12 min. podcast episode
How to Find and Do Work You Love – Scott Dinsmore
Scott Dinsmore is a career change strategist, looking to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work they do best. To define success for yourself, Dinsmore developed a framework that passionate workers have in common: becoming a self-expert by finding your unique strengths, living by your values, and focusing on your experiences. ~ 18 min. video
Three Questions to Unlock your Authentic Career - Ashley Stahl
Ashley Stahl, a career coach to college students and new graduates, explains how you can find work you love that also aligns with who you are. She outlines three key questions to unlock what your authentic career is: what am I good at, what do people tell me I’m good at, and what is holding me back? ~ 10 min. video
Stop Searching for your Passion – Terri Trescpicio
Terri Trescpicio, a successful branding strategist, explains her own experience of getting laid off and changing career paths. She believes it’s unrealistic for people to find one passion to guide your entire career. Terri advises people to not wait for passion to take you somewhere in your career and spend your time and attention on what you know you want to do. ~ 11 min. video
Failure to Find Passion – Cass Phillipps
Cass Phillipps discusses her path to find her passion with failure, and how it came from her fear of failure and her failure to find passion. According to Phillipps, failure is inevitable because people are passionate about things that are difficult and challenging. She advises everyone to learn to love the challenges you face. ~ 15 min. video
Instead of ‘finding your passion,’ try developing it, Stanford Scholars say
A new Stanford study says that advice to follow your passion is likely to cause people to narrow their focus, neglect other areas, and have a fixed mindset. Instead, the author suggests developing your passion – invest in your interests, encounter challenges and build commitment over time. ~ 4 min. read
My 10 Best Pieces of Career Advice for Millennials
In this Forbes article, Dan Schawbel provides career advice for millennials to guide new graduates in building a successful career over the coming years. ~ 7 min. read
Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier: How to Unlock Your Career Potential – Luki Danukarjanto
This practical guidebook is for people who are stuck in their career journey or need help reaching their career goals. This soon-to-be-grad edition includes what you didn’t know you needed to know about your career development and things that would change your career path if you knew them. ~ 153 pages, book
What Mentorship Really Means – Book Club with Simon
Simon Sinek shares his experience as a mentee to explain what mentorship means. Sinek believes that mentorship is just like a friendship because it works two ways. ~ 2.5 min. video
Working Women: Valerie Jarrett and the Importance of Mentorship – the Michelle Obama Podcast
Michelle Obama talks with her friend and former boss, Valerie Jarrett, about the value of mentorship and personal growth in the workplace. As Michelle Obama transitioned her career from corporate law to public service, Valerie was a mentor and role model who helped Michelle use her voice. They advise young people to start your mentorships early by developing meaningful relationships. ~ 45 min. podcast episode
How to Get a Mentor – TEDx Talk from Ellen Ensher
Professor Ellen Ensher is a mentoring and career expert who discusses tips on how to get a mentor and developing a network of mentors as you grow in your career. Her tips to finding a mentor are to know thyself, reflect on who to reach out to, and connect with courage. ~ 14.5 min. video
How to Find the Person Who Can Help You Get Ahead at Work – Carla Harris
Carla Harris is a Wall Street veteran who learned that getting a sponsor can get you ahead in your career. A sponsor who argues for you behind closed doors on your behalf promotes your best interests. In this video, Harris advises how to identify a sponsor and get others to know you, get you noticed, and promoted to get ahead at work. ~ 13.5 min. video
How to Build a Great Relationship with a Mentor
People with mentors have better career performance and work-life satisfaction yet, over 54% of working professionals do not have a mentor relationship. This article outlines eight steps to find a mentor and establish a relationship. ~ 5 min. read
9 Tips to Land a Great Mentor: How to Ask a Stranger for Career Advice
Sabina Nawaz shares her experience with her first mentor and outlines nine steps to ask for a mentor’s guidance and build a lasting relationship. Nawaz outlines how to ask the person for help, how to conduct your meeting professionally, and following up. ~ 7 min. read
Across Generations: Michelle Obama and Her Mentees – The Michelle Obama Podcast
This episode features three of Michelle Obama’s mentees, Kristin Jones, Chynna Clayton and Yene Damtew, who started out working with her in the White House. They all share their experience starting careers, the ups and downs of professional life, and what it’s like to be a black woman right now. ~ 54 min. podcast episode
How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias - Valerie Alexander
Author, speaker and CEO, Valerie Alexander, explains how the human brain instinctively reacts when encountering the unexpected, and proposes that if we have the courage to examine our own behaviour when faced with the unfamiliar, we can take control of our expectations. She suggests ending attacks on allies, and accepting people willing to discuss there is a problem with their own behaviour. Everyone should examine their own behaviour to outsmart their own unconscious bias. ~ 17 min. video
Your Privilege is Showing - Lillian Medville
Lillian Medville is the creator and facilitator of Your Privilege is Showing. She developed this unique experience-based card game that allows for conversations about privilege and social justice through her own personal evolution with understanding culture and power. Race, gender, class, and privilege are part of our daily lives, and it’s important to have difficult conversations about systems of oppression. ~ 13.5 min. video
The Other Diversity Dividend - Harvard Business Review
Gompers and Kovvali describe the research about the improvements on financial performance of the venture capital industry as a result of diversity and provide recommendations for businesses to benefit from diversity. Overall, diversity significantly improves financial performance and to address diversity concerns early, recognize the effects of talent, and diversify beyond the workplace to reap the benefits of diversity. ~ 8 min. read
Diverse Representation on Boards - Diversity Institute
This report looks at the representation of women and racialized people on the boards of directions of organizations. Overall, both women and racialized people are underrepresented, with racialized people having the lowest representation rates, in board of directors and leadership roles. Diverse representation can increase talent pools, skills, and employee satisfaction, foster innovation and creativity, and respond to increasingly diverse markets. ~ 30 slides, PowerPoint
How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed Right Now - Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins uses a water pitcher, mason jar, pieces of paper, and a highlighter to teach you how to make your feelings of being overwhelmed disappear. After a “brain dump,” or clearing your mind, make a list of everything you need to do then, highlight the top three things you need to do. ~ 3.5 min. video
My Secret to Staying Focused Under Pressure - Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson is a Super Bowl winning quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks who learned to turn around negativity through the difficult circumstances in his life to cultivate a calm mind. He calls this method neutral thinking which allows him to overcome the pressures of painful times. ~ 7 min. podcast episode
Vulnerability as a One-Way Ticket to Trust with Billy Anderson
Billy Anderson, founder of the Courage Crusade shares how finding the courage to move past other’s expectations toward greater authenticity, transparency, vulnerability, and self-expression. Although it is not always easy, people are happier as we are more authentic. Vulnerability is a one-way ticket to trust - it helps you be more honest which lets others trust you. ~ 34 min. podcast episode
What Do Top Students Do Differently? - Douglas Barton
Douglas is the founder and Global Chairman of Elevate Education who discusses research on top students' learning habits across the world. To become a top student: don’t worry about IQ because it's out of your control, don’t aim to just work hard but instead work hard doing the right things, and aim to model the skills and practices of top students. ~ 14.5 min. video
Want to Learn Better? Start Mind Mapping - Hazel Wagner
Hazel Wagner is a lifelong learner with 4 degrees and a Ph.D. in mathematics who spent her life learning how to learn. She shares how effective mind mapping is, explaining how it can help with understanding, memorization, and retention. Mind mapping allows learners to capture information according to their personal learning preferences by noting what is important to them. ~ 15.5 min. video
Pomodoro Technique - My Favourite Tool to Improve Studying and Productivity
The Pomodoro Technique can be used as a study method to beat procrastination and maintain productivity and focus. This technique uses alternating study intervals of 25 minutes and break intervals of 5 minutes. Each 25 minute study interval is a burst of productivity called a pomodoro. Follow along with this video to try out this pomodoro technique (external link, opens in new window) yourself. ~ 5.5 min. video
Psychologists Explain Why You Procrastinate - And How to Stop
Procrastination is something we all do but, it is important to realize why it strikes and what to do about it. First, identify your habits so you can have a better chance at fixing them. This article provides solutions to combating some of the most common causes of procrastination like timing, feeling overwhelmed, and distractions. ~ 6 min. read
How Volunteerism Can Change Your World – Joyce Bertram
Joyce Bertram has a passion for volunteerism and its culture and has been involved with various organizations to organize and manage hundreds of volunteers. Bertram is an advocate of applying volunteerism to our everyday lives by sharing our ideas, projects, and passion with others, and passing on knowledge by sharing our experiences. ~ 9.5 min. video
Search for Volunteer Opportunities
Charity Village
Charity Village is a career and volunteer resource for charitable and non-profit organizations across Canada. It is the most popular and largest online resource in Canada for recruiting, news, and how-to information for the nonprofit sector.
Volunteer Toronto
Volunteer Toronto connects volunteers to organizations that need them. Their services empower local volunteers to make a positive difference in their community by connecting them to opportunities.
Toronto Met VolunteerLink
Volunteer Link provides Toronto Met students with volunteer opportunities to grow leadership skills and get involved at Toronto Met and in the community. Register for Volunteer Link on ConnectRU to see upcoming volunteer opportunities. Follow the contact information and next steps on a posting when you find an opportunity you are interested in.
Youth Challenge International
Youth Challenge International focuses on youth and their potential to affect positive change in the world through various programs, known as Youth Solutions, in areas such as climate change and women’s empowerment.