Mental Health Awareness Day approaches

On October 25, the campus will be a sea of orange t-shirts to mark uWaterloo’s Mental Health Wellness Day. Faculty, staff and student leaders will be encouraged to wear orange t-shirts to demonstrate to our students that Waterloo is a caring community that encourages people to feel comfortable discussing their mental health.

“As one in five Canadians will be affected by mental illness in their lifetime, we want to our campus community to know they can ask for help and reach out for support,” says Campus Wellness Director Mark Beadle. “And that Waterloo has the resources to help.”

Several students groups are involved in this campaign including Stand Up to Stigma, who spent last week engaging the campus community in a conversation about mental illness and received almost 500 pledges to increase awareness of mental health. Other student groups, including Burst Your Bubble, Healthy Minds and Feds One Waterloo, will have booths in the SLC, workshops, and other media outreach in the week leading up to Mental Health Wellness Day (October 22 to 24).

All month long, TV spots will be running on screens across campus, highlighting celebrities who struggle with mental illness to help encourage a campus-wide dialogue about mental health and direct students to the resources available on campus.

As well, MHWD will be profiled at the uWaterloo Men’s Hockey Game on October 19^th with promotion of student groups, on-campus resources, and t-shirt giveaways, followed by a special guest speaker in the SLC on October 25^th.

An on-line ordering link for t-shirts will be sent to faculties and departments this week.

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Group exercise program celebrates 10 years

with material from a media relations new release.

Instead of connecting at the gym, a group of work-out buddies traded their workout gear for evening wear as they gathered at the Charcoal Steak House this week to commemorate a very special anniversary.

UW WELL-FIT, a group exercise program that operates on campus out of Applied Health Sciences, is commemorating 10 years of helping people with cancer cope with the side effects of treatment.

The program, which has served over 900 clients since its inception, is for adults of all ages who are undergoing chemotherapy, radiation or other treatment for various cancers. The 12-week program is part of a comprehensive recovery strategy, and helps participants reduce the severity of treatment side effects, such as fatigue and muscle weakness. The program is free to clients, who must have a referral from an oncologist through the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre.

"Research suggests that exercise reduces the negative side effects of cancer and its treatment," says Caryl Russell, an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and director of UW Fitness, which offers the UW WELL-FIT program. "Our certified staff members give clients individual attention and take into account any physical limitations they have resulting from their treatment when designing their exercise program."

After 12 weeks, clients have the option of joining the graduate program on a fee-for-service basis. The program's first-ever client still comes to the fitness classes.

"I was weak and nauseated when I started chemotherapy. With the support and encouragement of my oncologist, I decided to try this," said Beth Brown. "As time went on, I became stronger and it was easier to deal with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Ten years later, the physical benefit and emotional support I receive there make a significant difference in my life."

Fundraising efforts help cover costs. To commemorate the special anniversary, the Charcoal Group of Restaurants has just created a UW WELL-FIT feature menu, with proceeds going directly to the program. The UW WELL-FIT feature menu is available at The Bauer Kitchen, Wildcraft, Charcoal Steak House, Martini's, del Dente and Beertown now through October 28.

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Integrity in the workplace: an employer's view

by Karina Graf, Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA)

With more than 230,000 employees across the globe serving organizations in 42 countries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) knows about integrity in the workplace. It’s one of their core values. Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA) interviewed Vivek Kawley, HR Head, Tata Consultancy Services Canada, to learn more. His perspective centred on three main principles of workplace integrity. 

 Confidentiality

“Confidentiality and respecting intellectual property is part of day to day business for us; it’s part of the culture of our organization. We make every customer feel confident that we are protecting their intellectual property and their data and keeping their information private and secure. Their ideas can be worth billions of dollars. It is important for us to respect that.

“We will not share the data from one customer with anyone. Our security policy is very strict. For example if I’m at work I cannot check my personal email. I can only access my TCS email. That’s one way we ensure security isn’t being breached.”

Professionalism

“Every year close to 40,000 employees around the world join TCS. With this phenomenal level of hiring, we spend a lot of time training our employees so we retain the TCS culture and way of doing business. Our code of conduct, confidentiality agreement, and rigorous training focus on our values, laws, integrity, ethics, and acceptable behaviour. People expect a global organization to ensure a certain level of professionalism, including how we properly present ourselves in public as a TCS employee.

“How you communicate to your customers is important; you must always speak and act professionally. Our customers experience certainty with our work, and also with our employees. That means customers will expect a certain kind of behavior from everyone who works for TCS. Anytime anyone is in contact with TCS, every employee should act in the same manner.

Trust and Ethics

“We define ethics very simply; ethics is doing the right thing. Is something good to do or bad to do? Is it legal? Is it fair? Does it abide by the laws of the country we’re working in and the company we’re working for?

“We communicate our ethics values to our employees on a weekly basis. We focus on how we should do business because trust is essential in our industry. If we earn the trust of our customers we will continue to do good business. This year at TCS, 95% of our customers are repeat business. That shows the kind of trust people give us.

That’s the perspective of TCS. What do you think? Take the quick poll on our website to share your opinion. We’ll select five people at random to win a CECA mug.

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Pebble founder to speak on campus Friday

Eric Migicovsky, Waterloo alumnus and founder of Pebble Technology, is presenting a Tech Talk to connect with students and recent grads who are looking for internships and jobs with an entrepreneurial startup.

Migicovsky knows a thing or two about the startup scene - his VeloCity project, the InPulse "smartwatch" for BlackBerry, was the forerunner to the Pebble e-paper watch for Android and iPhone, which set crowdfunding records on Kickstarter and became a $10 million success story. Migicovsky, a systems design engineering grad, is now based in Palo Alto, CA, but has stayed in touch with Waterloo through talks and visits with VeloCity students.

The event, co-hosted by Co-operative Education and Career Action, takes place on Friday, October 12 inside the William M. Tatham Centre at 11:30 a.m. Event registration details are online.

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