Alumni help new students move in

by Alumni Relations.

A group of dedicated Waterloo alumni were back on campus over the Labour Day weekend, helping the Department of Housing and Residences greet the University’s newest students and their families as they moved into residence. Working alongside faculty, staff, and student volunteers, the alumni were welcoming faces that gave directions, helped lift boxes, answered countless questions, and even fixed a bicycle along the way.

“Our young alumni are eager to stay connected and share a little of what it means to be a part of the Waterloo family with students,” says Emily Huxley Osborne, Alumni Officer, Students and Young Alumni. “The Family Welcome offered a great opportunity for them to do just that while showing students that there is a strong community supporting them.” 

2014 marks the first time that alumni have been invited to take part in the Family Welcome event and judging by all of the positive feedback it will quickly become an annual tradition!

alumni, faculty, and staff volunteers alongside residence Dons.

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Mittelstaedt named Director, Campus Wellness

After an extensive search and interview process, Dr. Walter Mittelstaedt has been named Director, Campus Wellness, announced Associate Provost, Students Chris Read in an internal memo circulated last week.

The position of Director, Campus Wellness oversees all aspects of student wellness through direct reports including the University Medical Director, Director, Counselling Services, and Manager, Wellness Administration. The position reports to the Associate Provost, Students. The position was created as the result of a recommendation from the Student Mental Health Review released in 2012.

Mittelstaedt is a Waterloo alumnus and has graduate degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Saskatchewan.

From 1991 to 2008, Mittelstaedt was involved in senior management positions at Lutherwood Children’s Mental Health Services, responsible for a staff of more than 150. Since 2008, he has been the Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR) in the University of Waterloo’s Department of Psychology, and has been an adjunct assistant professor in that department.

As the Director of the CMHR, Mittelstaedt has managed the Centre’s daily operation, collaborating with on-campus and external organizations, as well as training and supervising Ph.D. clinical psychology students.

“In these roles Walter has been able to be an active participant in campus wellness activities and to extend his familiarity with the students and culture of our University,” wrote Read. “Through his experiences, Walter has demonstrated his commitment to effective, research-based and accessible services to our students.”

Mittelstaedt will start in the role full-time on November 3.

“I believe Walter’s background, experiences and track record of successful leadership will be extremely beneficial to all those involved in helping us achieve our stated goal of being a leader in wellness programs and services for our students and campus community,” Read concluded.

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Prof chairs prestigious co-op research group

by Kaitlyn Holbein.

Professor Maureen Drysdale, associate professor of psychology at St. Jerome’s University and research associate with the Waterloo Centre for the Advancement of Cooperative Education (WatCACE) has dedicated a considerable amount of time over the past two years to founding and chairing the World Association for Co-operative Education (WACE)’s International Research Group (IRG). The WACE IRG was created with the aim of advancing research in the field of co-operative and work integrated education (CWIE).

The research that members of this group conduct directly benefits Co-operative Education & Career Action (CECA) at Waterloo by allowing CECA staff to acquire practical insights that can improve the co-op program for the institution, students, and employers.  Increased research in the area of CWIE helps CECA staff to learn more about many relevant topics, such as: the impact of CWIE on students, discerning and managing stakeholder expectations, how to make students more marketable to employers, and how certain co-op processes can be improved.

In 2012, Professor Drysdale was asked to join the WACE Board of Directors and chair this group because of her global reputation as an expert on the topic of CWIE. In the past few years, she has received two prestigious awards for her work, the Co-operative Education and Internship Association (CEIA)’s Ralph Tyler Award (2008) and the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE)’s Graham Branton Award (2010), both for the outstanding research she has contributed to the field.

Professor Drysdale has been involved in numerous impactful studies that explore issues such as the effectiveness of CWIE models on students’ self-concepts and marketable post-education employment skills, and what learning outcomes are achieved through participation in co-operative education programs. More recently, along with her graduate student, Margaret McBeath (SPHHS), Drysdale has been examining the mental health and well-being of co-op and non-co-op students at the post-secondary level.

In addition to her active research work, Professor Drysdale continues to be extremely busy and effective as the chair of the WACE IRG. Although the group was founded only two years ago, it now boasts more than 50 members from across the globe (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Africa) who actively research issues that are essential to advancing co-operative and work-integrated education.

In recent months, the WACE IRG has accomplished an impressive array of activities. Members organized and attended an international research symposium in Sweden (June 2014), created a new grant, and established an award for the best paper presented by a CWIE researcher. The establishment of other awards, grants, and scholarships, as well as organizing and attending other conferences are also on the horizon for members of the IRG. The group is also establishing an online database of all CWIE publications. University of Waterloo IRG members Dr. Rocco Fondacaro and Judene Pretti are leading this ambitious project.

With respect to the IRG Grant, the group is especially interested in proposals that explore: how multiple stakeholder needs interact in a CWIE context; how social and political trends influence both policies and processes at the institutional level, as well as student employability; and the effectiveness of CWIE programs at various institutions.

If you would like to learn more about the group, please visit the WACE IRG web page.

Faculty, staff, and graduate students interested in pursuing CWIE-related research are encouraged to connect with Prof. Drysdale, Rocco Fondacaro, director of student and faculty relations at CECA, or Judene Pretti, director of WatCACE.

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Wednesday's notes

Orientation continues today with several faculty-focused events, including:

• Faculty of Arts aerial photos on St. Paul's Green at 2:30 p.m.
• Faculty of Environment, "ENV Does Waterloo Park," from 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• School of Architecture, "The Galt Space Odyssey" from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Faculty of Mathematics, "Earn Your Tie," a series of events including Single & Sexy, Cipher Hunt, and 'Enter, CTRL-F, ESC'

The main event tonight is "World of Waterloo," which starts at the Davis Centre at 7:00 p.m., and involves embarking upon a "quest from campus to Uptown Waterloo and back" (Perhaps calling it "World of Waterloocraft" was a little too on-the-nose?).

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