Diamond award for Waterloo's Optometry Clinic

Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science has been awarded the 2012 Diamond award in the Optometrist category of the Waterloo Region Record's Readers' Select Awards (flip to page 12 for details). The newspaper runs these awards annually, inviting members of the public nominate their top picks in a variety of categories through a structured nomination process. The winner in each category is chosen randomly from the nominations, but the odds of winning improve as the number of nominations for a particular person or institution increases.

As well, the platinum and gold winners in the Optometrist category—Dr. Carol Cressman, Drs. Chhatwal, Wilkinson, and Runstedler as well as the practitioners at Insight Eye Care—are all graduates of the University of Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science.

According to Associate Director, Development and Alumni Affairs Andrea Carthew, the school serves approximately 25,000 patients a year at its clinic on the north campus, at the clinic located in the Kitchener Health Sciences Campus, and through its outreach program. All third and fourth-year students are required to work in the clinic, honing their skills as future optometrists. Complementing the school’s 30 full-time faculty are almost 50 adjunct faculty members, who are optometrists from the community who return to the university to help teach the clinical program.

This is the second time in the last three years that the school has received the award.

 

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Susan Cain and the "power of introverts"

by Renishaki Kamalanathan

Each year, the University of Waterloo’s Arts Student Union (ASU) invites a guest speaker to give a presentation on a subject of interest to the student body, especially those in the Faculty of Arts. Some of the renowned speakers that ASU has brought to the university include Roméo Dallaire, a Canadian senator, humanitarian, former general and author of the award winning book Shake Hands with the Devil, and Neil Pasricha, a TEDx speaker and author of the best-seller The Book of Awesome. 

This year, Susan Cain, the highly regarded TEDx speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, is coming to the university as a guest speaker. She will be talking to undergraduates about “Quiet Innovation” and related materials that many of us can relate to. Even though a third of the population are introverts, the power of introverts and their contribution to society are still being underestimated by many.

That is why for only $25 ($15 for Arts students and staff), you can come out and be inspired by Susan Cain’s informative yet encouraging words about the power of the quiet population.

The event will be held on Tuesday, January 22 at Federation Hall from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. For ticket inquiries, visit the UW Theatre Centre Box Office or visit the event website.

 

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Election nomination season comes to an end

Nominations close today for the vacant undergraduate student senate seats in Applied Health Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, and the at-large constituency. Completed nomination forms (PDF) should be submitted to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:30 p.m. today. Elections, if necessary, will coincide with the annual Federation of Students elections.

And while we're on the subject, the nomination period for the Federation of Students executive and Students' Council elections closes today at 4:00 p.m. Information about nomination forms and available positions, which include the roster of executive positions (President, Vice-President, Administration & Finance, Vice-President, Internal, and Vice-President, Education),  can be found on the federation's elections website.

 

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Friday's furthermores

Frost Week 2013 concludes today with the second installment of Clubs and Societies’ Days from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre Great Hall.

Students from Waterloo were on the receiving end of a shout-out from Paul Graham, founder of the famous Y Combinator start-up accelerator, in a recent Fast Company feature story on Mike Lazaridis and the growing Waterloo tech hub.

"Something is going on in Waterloo," says Graham, "because the applications we get from Waterloo students are better than those we get from students of any other university."

A story about the story appears on the Communitech website.

An information session for the 2013 summer study in China program, hosted by the Confucius Institute at Renison University College, will be held today at 2:30 in room 1303. This program explores Chinese language, culture and society utilizing a “living textbook,” to achieve an insightful understanding of China's history and civilization.

James Jensen, Curator of Exhibits at the Waterloo Region Museum, will be speaking at the latest installment of the Knowledge Integration Seminar Series today at 2:30 p.m. in room 1408 of Environment 3.

The first annual Leadership Starts Here conference, a student-run conference for undergraduate students will take place tomorrow in the J.R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall. The conference promises to bring together 200 of "the university's most engaged student leaders" for a day of activities, workshops and keynote addresses.

In recognition of Alzheimer Awareness Month, the Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program (MAREP) at the University of Waterloo is hosting a public lecture and exhibition on the topic of living well with dementia on Monday, January 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in DC 1302. The lecture will feature three speakers who will share useful information for people living with dementia and their partners in care. The exhibition, in DC 1301, will include visual, digital and video displays by the University of Waterloo, MAREP, the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging, the Alzheimer Society of Kitchener-Waterloo, and the Partnerships in Dementia Care Alliance. Members of the public may register for the event by calling 519-888-4567 ext. 36880 or by emailing Jessica Luh Kim.

The University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) Nominating Committee is seeking applications for staff representation on the university's Pension & Benefits Committee. "We are seeking applications from staff members with the qualifications necessary to exercise care, diligence and skill in the administration of the university's pension and benefits plan," says the message from the committee.

Staff representatives on the committee will also sit on the UWSA Pension, Benefits & Staff Compensation Subcommittee to facilitate communication between the uWaterloo Pension and Benefits Committee and the UWSA Board of Directors.

Applications are encouraged from members with the following qualifications:

• Numeracy skills, including probability and statistics and financial analysis
• Strong analytical skills
• Relationship-building skills
• Public speaking skills
• Previous experience on committees and/or governing boards

The application can be found under "Get Involved" on the UWSA home page and the UWSA committees page. Please submit the application for committee membership either online or fill it out and email it to the chair of UWSA Nominating Committee, Gail Spencer or by using campus mail (DC 3609) by Friday, January 25.

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