4,000 expected at job fair today

A record number of employers — and 4,000 students and alumni — are expected at the winter 2007 University/College Job Fair to be held at RIM Park in Waterloo today, organizers say. The annual event is the largest post-secondary job fair in Canada and is sponsored by Partnerships for Employment, a collaborative effort involving Conestoga College, University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University and UW.

"Career Fair," says a publicity release, "is an opportunity for you to network with employers and learn about career opportunities that may be available to you upon graduation. In addition, many of the employers in attendance are currently recruiting for co-op and internships and permanent or contract positions either immediate or after graduation. At Job Fair, organizations have job opportunities available at the time of the Fair or within six months following the Fair. This Fair can encompass employers hiring for summer, co-op, full-time, part-time, permanent or contract positions."

The same quartet of institutions sponsor a Career Fair each September, aimed at students at an earlier stage of planning their future. The Career Fair is a chance to talk to employers about long-term prospects; the Job Fair gets down to specific posts for which the employers are hiring.

This year’s Job Fair, the sponsors say, has attracted more than 230 employers, the largest number since the event was first held in 1994, and a 26 per cent increase over last year. The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is open to students and alumni from the four post-secondary institutions. Shuttle buses will run from all four institutions throughout the day.

“The fair has become a major recruiting event for organizations seeking to hire students and alumni for full-time, contract, part-time, summer, and co-op positions,” says Jan Basso, director of co-operative education and career services at WLU, which this year is in charge of publicity for the event. “Over the past two years, we have seen a 43 per cent increase in the number of employers registering. Employers clearly view the students and alumni from this region’s post-secondary institutions as top talent to meet their recruiting needs.”

The fair, she said, has attracted a diverse group of employers from across North America and as far away as Korea, representing sectors ranging from financial services, technology and manufacturing to retail, social services, government and agriculture. Organizations registered include Royal Bank Financial, Open Text, Toyota, the RCMP, Camp Trillium, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Manulife, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Abercrombie and Fitch.

Advice to participants: "Job search preparation is key for students, and the Employer Guidebook is a great resource when researching employers. Print copies will be available for pickup from Career Services. You can also download a PDF version of the Employer Guidebook."

Back to top

Award for UW preschool teacher

from the UW media relations office

A University of Waterloo veteran preschool teacher has received a top honour from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Dawn Roussel, who has been teaching at UW's Early Childhood Education Centre for 23 years, has been awarded one of 15 national certificates of achievement in early childhood education as part of the prime minister's annual awards for teaching excellence across the country.

"This is a tremendous honour for our centre, and we are delighted that Dawn has received this prestigious award," says Valerie Rozon, director of the ECEC, located in the psychology department. "Over the many years, she has performed admirably in fostering the early development and socialization of the children in her care and help build the foundation they need to meet life's challenges."

She adds that Roussel is noted for her ability to ease children and families into their first-school experience, her support of individual needs of children, and her mentoring skills with university, college and high-school students interning in the ECEC.

"This well deserved award sheds light on the stellar contributions of Dawn Roussel, as well as the entire staff of the Centre for Early Childhood Education," says Mike Dixon, chair of the psychology department. "Our centre not only contributes to the education of preschool children, but also to the psychology department's faculty, undergraduate and graduate students who use the ECEC to conduct research in developmental psychology."

Dixon notes that UW was the only university-based preschool honoured with one of the prime minister's certificates of achievement for teaching excellence.

An ECEC parent, Patricia Shaw, led the nomination process for the national certificate, with help from other preschool parents and teaching staff. Roussel's award includes $1,000 to be used to fund professional development, equipment, resource materials or other tools to improve developmental programming and children's experiences.

"Teaching is a special vocation," said Harper, in announcing the teaching excellence awards last month. "By imparting their knowledge and experience to the next generation, teachers are helping chart the destiny of our great country. These awards recognize the efforts of those teachers who are playing such an important role in the intellectual and social development of our children."

Rozon says the centre, which serves children aged two-and-a-half to five, provides a positive, warm and nurturing climate where meaningful learning takes place. "The ECEC is a child-centred, family-focused community where the strengths and uniqueness of individuals are valued and respected."

Back to top

Cancer Society profiles grad student

From the Canadian Cancer Society web site, reprinted by permission

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Canada. It’s estimated that 85% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking. Bringing those numbers down is the goal of a young cancer researcher at the University of Waterloo. “I’ve always highly valued health, particularly in terms of leading a healthy lifestyle,” says Sarah Viehbeck, who’s working toward her PhD in health studies and gerontology.

When Viehbeck (right) was a child in Thunder Bay, she suffered from childhood asthma and noticed how much tobacco smoke aggravated her condition. As a teenager, she got involved in a program helping young women make healthy choices, including avoiding smoking. She also brought a youth voice to the successful campaign for a smoke-free bylaw in Thunder Bay. "Those years really laid the foundation for what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Now, at university, she receives funding from the Canadian Cancer Society through a National Cancer Institute of Canada research studentship. It supports students who are pursuing a career in cancer research.

She is part of a team headed by Paul McDonald, co-director of the Population Health Research Group. Under his guidance, Viehbeck is studying how researchers and decision makers can work together to more effectively and rapidly use research to help develop and implement population-based approaches to quitting smoking, such as the Canadian Cancer Society’s Smokers’ Helpline. "There are estimates that it takes up to 17 years from the time research starts to the time it’s actually used in practice. We have a responsibility to shorten the journey from evidence to impact.”

Health Canada’s latest survey shows that approximately 1 in 5 Canadians over 15 years of age continues to smoke. That’s part of the motivation for Viehbeck. “We need to better apply our knowledge gained from research to improve existing approaches to help these Canadians quit smoking.”

Back to top

Prof's cello sonata heard today

A cello sonata by Leonard Enns of the music department at Conrad Grebel University College will have its premiere today at Grebel's noon-hour free concert (12:30 in the college chapel). The performer is Ben Bolt-Martin, who will also play a sonata by Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky. Kathryn Tremills is the accompanist.

Says Enns about his new work: "Much of the Cello Sonata was drafted in October 2005 during my most recent sabbatical year. I had been thinking of the road from pain and suffering to hope and celebration. My goal for that sabbatical had been to begin sketching an oratorio on the plight of the 'Russian Mennonites', reflecting the violence of the revolutionary times, the agony of relocation, and the challenge and joy of establishing new communities in a foreign land. In the end, I postponed this large plan, and rather set out to write a number of smaller works influenced by the dynamic of that narrative, one of them being the Cello Sonata.

"Two months earlier that summer I had visited Tiegenhagen in the Ukraine, my mother's childhood village. Though there was no remaining trace of the house and yard at the site, here was the home of her story, beginning with childhood years in revolutionary Russia, before her family fled for refuge to a new homeland in North America in 1924. None of that history is explicitly part of the Sonata, but I hear reflections of it in the work: in the intensity and pain of the first movement; in the hope and almost giddy excitement of the second movement, which I called 'Hymn and Variations'; and in the rustic Rondo theme of the third movement, with its contrasting episodes recalling, in turn, the intensity of the first movement, and the hymn-like confidence of the second.

"The work is unapologetically melodic, relative to the huge body of material for solo cello that has appeared in recent decades, In this, perhaps, the Sonata reflects my personal history of choral and congregational singing-of music as a voice of lament, healing, and celebration. I have always loved the cello; in my imagination it is a human voice.

"The Sonata is dedicated to cellist Ben Bolt-Martin, who will premiere it."

CAR

Back to top