It's fantastic: That's how the airplane toss looked at last year's Fantastic Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Retiree Day, and the same promotion is planned this year, at halftime of one of Saturday afternoon's Warrior games. "One free airplane will be given to each registered guest, and extra airplanes can be purchased for $2 each," explains Jenny Mackay of the athletics department. Other promotions include "Alumni vs. Staff Monster Hoops", and there are prizes including "Lion King" tickets, an iPad and a Nintendo console. Proceeds go to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The main attraction, of course, is basketball, with Waterloo facing Western in a women's game at 1 p.m. and a men's game at 3:00 tomorrow. Registration for free admission is online.

Back to top

Student and alumni job fair next week

Students and graduates of local post-secondary institutions can look for employment opportunities by meeting with employers face to face at next week’s University/College Job Fair — the largest event of its kind in Canada.

The annual Job Fair is for students and alumni of Conestoga College and the three local universities — Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier and Waterloo — who by participating have an exclusive opportunity to present themselves as outstanding candidates for employment to representatives of firms who now have or soon will have job openings. This year’s event, the 17th annual, is on Wednesday at RIM Park in Waterloo. Job Fair hours are 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The success of the Job Fair “is the result of the co-operation among the four higher education institutions and their commitment to providing a high level of service to students and alumni,” organizers say. “Expected attendance will be in the thousands. The timing of the event is especially meaningful for students now in their final semester of studies, or those seeking summer employment.” As of yesterday, 166 employers had registered for the event, with more invited.

Admission to the event is open to anyone with a current student or alumni ID from one of the four participating post-secondary institutions. For those eligible to attend, full details, including employer profiles, can be found at the event website. The site also includes a page of “Preparing for the Fair” tips for students: pick up a fair guidebook ahead of time in the Tatham Centre; “exude enthusiasm and self-confidence”; know some open-ended questions to ask employer representatives. The Centre for Career Action will hold a workshop on “Making Job Fair Work for You” at noon on Monday in Tatham.

And there’s an explanation of the difference between the Job Fair and last fall’s Career Fair: “Career Fair 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.”

Among the many employers represented will be Unitron, ConAgra Foods, RBC Insurance, Chrysler Canada, Dalsa, Syncrude, David Schaeffer Engineering, QuickPlay Media, Aecon, African Lion Safari, Edward Jones, Honeywell and Scotiabank.

Buses to RIM Park will leave the main Waterloo campus every half-hour from 9:30 to 2:30 on Wednesday, returning between 11:00 and 4:00.

Back to top

Counsellor's novel is a look at depression

A novel by a staff member in Waterloo’s counselling services will be in the spotlight tomorrow as the Chapters bookstore on Weber Street hosts a book-signing event starting at 1:00.

A Subtle Thing by Alicia Hendley (right) was published late last year by Five Rivers Chapmanry, a family business in the tiny town of Neustadt in Grey  County. One bookselling web site describes it as “a heartbreaking and uplifting journey into one woman's battle with clinical depression . . . a compelling portrait of what life looks like through the eyes of someone whose actions may otherwise appear inexplicable.”

In an interview on the publisher’s web site, she is asked about her work in counselling, and how it serves as the background to her novel. “For any student,” she says, “university is a time of major transitions. Many are away from home for the first time and are attempting to make day-to-day decisions without frequent parental input. Some have the added pressure of being in a new country or having to speak a new language. For many students, university life can feel quite pressured and demanding, particularly with regard to certain academic programs, which have very high expectations for their students. That said, I think that in general university communities are becoming more aware of the stresses students may be under and are offering more services and support than ever before.

“I also think that many students are quite resilient, if given the time, space, and support they may need to adapt. To be honest, I think the transition to university life is often at least as challenging for parents, who might not realize how resilient their children truly are, if given the opportunity to experience things on their own.

“In my past work as a psychologist I’ve seen clients present with an extremely wide range of problems, from temporary stresses to actual psychosis (e.g., schizophrenia). In terms of my work at the university clinic, the majority of clients I have worked with are struggling with a mood (e.g., depression) or anxiety concern.

“For some individuals, such a concern might be temporary and related to stresses (e.g., academic, relational) in their lives. For others, they may be struggling with a clinically significant problem that might require more in-depth treatment. My master’s and PhD theses were in the area of eating disorders, so I have also worked with a number of clients experiencing anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.”

Says Hendley: “I chose to write about clinical depression (known as Major Depressive Disorder) because it is one of the most common mental health diagnoses, particularly for women, and it affects such a significant proportion of the population. In a way, the fact that it’s so prevalent is good news, because it means that a lot of time and money is being put in to develop and research reliable, effective treatments. Unfortunately, for a lot of people depression is a recurrent disorder which impacts them throughout their lives. While there seems to be increased public awareness about depression, for many it remains shrouded in secrecy or shame, as if it were a weakness or failing, rather than a legitimate medical condition.”

And why did she write the book? “I didn’t intentionally plan to write a story about depression, it just kind of unfolded that way. I started hearing the voice of the protagonist in my head and she kind of took it from there. People in my life who have read my stuff will likely tell you that much of what I write has a dark side to it. To me, though, my writing isn’t dark so much as it is about the search for meaning in life, across experiences, including upsetting ones. I think that’s what drew me to psychology in the first place. Having a philosopher as a father certainly helped!” (That would be Brian Hendley, retired from Waterloo’s department of philosophy and a former dean of arts. The author’s mother is Margaret Hendley, now retired from the Dana Porter Library.)

Back to top

Other notes, mostly about networking

The spectacular lobby of Engineering 5 building is a new favourite place for campus events, and it’ll be in use this morning at 11:00 to celebrate a new faculty chair. Says a media advisory issued yesterday: “A $1.5-million investment will be made to investigate sustainable pavement in order to build better and greener roads. Waterloo and its Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology will launch the endowed Norman W. McLeod Chair in Sustainable Pavement Engineering. The main goal of the new chair is to develop roads and highways that are safer for drivers and better for the environment, using green pavement technology. . . . Speakers at the event will include Adel Sedra, dean of Waterloo Engineering, and Gerry Chaput, executive director and chief engineer, provincial highways management division, Ministry of Transportation Ontario.”

Stephanie Johnson, alumni officer in applied health sciences, sends word that 21 AHS alumni returned to campus January 11 "to share their experiences, offer some career insight, and introduce current students to the many options they have upon graduation. Roughly 85 students attended the Speed Networking event to connect with a diverse group of alumni including a Naturopathic Doctor, Public Health Supervisor, Recreation Therapist, and Pedorthist." Pictured: kinesiology student Dave Schembri gets his questions answered by chiropractor Jaclyn Witt, a 2003 graduate from kin. Photo by Michelle Douglas-Mills.

Bruce Campbell, director of network services in the Information Systems and Technology department, provides an update on the state of Waterloo’s Internet connections: “One of our service providers, ORION, has corrected an issue between their Waterloo and London equipment, which was impacting all internet service between UW and the rest of the world. There was 1-5% packet loss, depending on load. This issue started January 18, when ORION had saturation on their Waterloo-Toronto circuit, and they moved our traffic to take the London-Windsor-Toronto path. We observed and reported traffic loss/latency issues at that time. Over the last week ORION made a number of changes. Last night, they dropped and raised two of four links between Waterloo and London, and that resolved the main issue. We are still on the London-Windsor path, and we continue tests to ensure all issues are resolved. The change last night was immediate and noticeable.”

Campbell also notes that the university has issued a “request for proposals” as the contract with one of its Internet providers, Hydro One Telecommunications, is about to expire. The RFP says the university “is considering expansion” of the present backup service “to either a 50/500 burstable service, or a full one gigabit/second symmetric service”. That would supplement the one-gig-per-second service provided by ORION, which connects Waterloo to other Ontario research institutions, and a one-gig-per-second general Internet connection provided by Cogent Communications.

Homa Kheyrollah Pour is a graduate student in geography and environmental management, and active in the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change, conventionally abbreviated IC3 and pronounced “ice cubed”. Says Pour: “We are going to organize our third annual Student Colloquium on March 10-11. Graduate students will organize the colloquium with help from the director, Dr. Claude Duguay. The purpose of the annual colloquium is to promote research of our graduate students to the university community and general public, to create a sense of belonging to the centre, and to expose student members to the interdisciplinary nature of climate change research.” An invitation for papers (either oral presentations or posters) asks for proposals and abstracts by February 14 and notes that there are cash awards. Pour adds: “New this year, we are organizing a Climate Change Awareness Week (March 7-11), which is aimed at educating all faculties about the effects of Climate Change locally and globally.”

CAR

Back to top