The first students in the new Master of Public Health program have arrived on campus — and left again. They spent two weeks in late August on a block course, PHS 601, "Foundations of Public Health". Says Christina Mills, who heads the program in UW's department of health studies and gerontology: "They will now disperse to their homes in four Canadian provinces and overseas to continue their training by distance education," and will return for a final block course at the end of their degree program. They're seen posing by David Butler-Jones, chief public health officer of Canada (back right).

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Faculty, too, get their orientation

While new students get to know their university in a whirlwind of orientation events this week, there are things — and people — for new professors to get to know too.

They don't get a toga party or a scavenger hunt, but new faculty (with their partners) did get an invitation to dinner last night at the home of UW president David Johnston, an annual gathering co-sponsored by UW and the faculty association. They'll follow that up today with an "e-orientation" in the Flex Lab in the Dana Porter Library, followed by lunch with academic administrators — department chairs, directors and deans — in the Festival Room of South Campus Hall.

Then the afternoon brings the traditional panel discussion on balancing teaching, research, service, and life outside the university, this year concisely titled "How to Succeed at UW". Panelists will include four people who have arguably succeeded: Roydon Fraser of systems design engineering (the faculty association president), Christine McWebb of the department of French studies, Terry McMahon, chair of the chemistry department, and Romy Shioda of combinatorics and optimization. It starts at 1:45, still in the Festival Room.

Orientation for new first-year students, meanwhile, is focused today on such rowdy events as Junkyard Wars, starting at 9 a.m. on the Village green for those in engineering (including architecture). Later, engineering-type engineers will Meet the Tool, the chrome-plated mascot of their faculty, while math students have an encounter with the Pink Tie, the mascot of theirs. Newcomers to science, arts and environmental studies have most of the day free to sleep, catch up on paperwork or do laundry (at least until it's time for ES students to celebrate Big Banana Day at 6:00). Tonight brings a social gathering in the Student Life Centre and, for architecture students who took the bus back to Cambridge in late afternoon, a movie night in the Architecture building.

Sittings of the English Language Proficiency Exam begin today in the Physical Activities Complex. Students in arts who come to UW with marks under 80 in high school English will write the exam today at 11 a.m.; science students with marks under 80 in high school English, today at 1 p.m.; all architecture students, today at 1 p.m. Tomorrow, ELPE faces engineering, mathematics and software engineering students. All applied health sciences, computing and financial management, and ES students, as well as arts and science students with marks 80 and over, will take the test in December.

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Job in Uganda 'changed my life'

by architecture student Erica Moore

This past July, I returned from a six-month co-op work term in Kampala, the capital city in the central region of Uganda. I was an architectural intern with Engineering Ministries International East Africa (eMiEA), a non-profit Christian organization of volunteer architects and engineers who offer free design work for other non-profit organizations, completing projects that include hospitals, churches, schools, orphanages, and water systems.

Because this was a volunteer position, I requested support from family members and my family’s church community. Without the two scholarships I received through UW —John McCall MacBain International Undergraduate Scholarship and the J. R. Coutts “Students Without Borders” Award — I would not have been able to cover the travel costs and my tuition fees for the coming semester.

In March, I traveled from Kampala to Moshi, Tanzania, with a team of eight for a two-week project trip with New Life Foundation. Seventy percent of the 200 children in their primary and nursery schools are orphans, boarding at the school and receiving sponsorship from foreign supporters. Children in the primary school are reaching their P7 level and the organization wanted to continue providing for them at the secondary school level. Getting to know the people and learn their culture, building materials, and different building methods, was pertinent to our being able to provide an adequate design. Our team spent a lot of time working closely with school staff and students to design the new school on an 8–acre plot of land, doing a survey, soil studies and hand drawings for presentation.

Spending time with the local people in my community, sharing their traditional food with them, learning their language, and listening to their hurts as well as their hopes and dreams, were invaluable experiences that literally changed my life.

I was so interested in the lives of my Ugandan friends that I often took trips with them to visit their family members in other parts of Uganda. One such trip, in June, took me to Soroti, in the Eastern region of Uganda. I traveled there with Richard Otim, our compound night guard, who came to Kampala in June of 2003, when the Lord’s Resistance Army attacked his village. The rebels burned all of the huts, killing his close friend, abducting family members and almost capturing him, as they forced his family to flea to the IDP camp. They have recently returned to rebuild their homes and begin their lives again, although some still live in the camp.

Janet Aipo, our office custodian, has a sister who still lives with her family in an IDP camp near Lira, in the Northern region of Uganda. In July, I slept in one of their mud huts with them for two nights, and spent time sharing stories with the family and making bracelets with the neighbouring girls. Late into one of the nights, I went through the camp, with the women and young girls, to the water pump. I insisted that I pump the water and carry a large jerry can of water on my head, as even the younger family members were doing, back to the family’s dwelling. They all appreciated my efforts to experience their culture and take part in their lifestyle firsthand.

My final co-op work term will be in January 2007, and I hope to return to eMiEA in Kampala. I have appreciated my experience so much that I am making it my long-term goal to contribute my time and efforts to bettering the lives of individuals and their communities in the developing world!

Architecture student Erica Moore with New Life nursery school children in Moshi, Tanzania

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And a little of this and that

The other day I noted the retirement of Jackie Macpherson, most recently secretary in UW's anthropology department, and said she had been working at the university for ten years. Well, 1986 is twenty years ago, not ten, I've been reminded (my, how time flies). And in fact, Macpherson has actually been on campus since 1969, albeit in contract and part-time jobs for the first 17 years. She's had positions in mathematics, the arts faculty, gerontology and English before ending up in the anthro department.

Second-year accounting and financial management students are taking part, today through Friday, in the second annual Professional Futures Conference, sponsored by the School of Accountancy in collaboration with Co-operative Education and Career Services. The event is meant as preparation for the first co-op work term, which looms just ahead for the students. In the course of the three days they'll receive interview coaching and resumé critiquing with specific focus on leadership and professionalism, and will hear from professionals in various branches of accounting. "The conference provides a great opportunity for students to get to know the group of students and faculty with whom they will spend the next four years," a news release from the school adds. "Students will be exposed to a professional environment and treated with individual attention, providing them with the chance to improve their professional presence through job interview scenarios and resume critiquing." It quotes one of last year's participants about the merits of the conference: "I learned what it means to be a professional and a CA."

"If you are interested in seeing the University of Waterloo weather station, we are having a copula of public tours in the next few weeks," says station coordinator Frank Seglenieks. One tour is scheduled for tomorrow, and the other for next Tuesday, both at 6:30 p.m. "There will only be a limited number of people allowed on each tour," he writes, "and of course they are free." To sign up, e-mail weather@civmail.uwaterloo.ca. Meanwhile, the weather station has issued its monthly summary for August, which apparently was "an average month for temperature, breaking a run of 5 consecutive above-average months". Seglenieks adds: "It seems like such a long time ago now, but the warmest day of the year so far was the first of August, when it hit 33.7 C. . . . The humidex reading of 46.5 was the highest we have ever recorded."

The Warrior soccer teams are off to a losing start this season, as the men's team fell 3-1 to McMaster and 2-0 to Brock on the weekend, while the women fell 3-0 to McMaster and 1-0 to Brock. . . . The men's golf squad will play tomorrow in the St. Lawrence Invitational in Canton, New York. . . . With the football Warriors playing at McMaster this weekend, the attraction for Black and Gold Day on Saturday will be a men's rugby competition versus the Toronto Varsity Blues. . . .

And finally, I have another correction to note. Writing about optometry the other day, I waved at the abbreviation TPA and said it referred to a particular drug used in treating glaucoma. Apparently, with anticipated changes in Ontario regulations about optometrists' use of prescription medications, the abbreviation now has a new use, and refers to all "Therapeutic Pharmaceutical Agents".

CAR

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