Staff News highlights April 1 to 5 Feel the excitement: Preview 2013 takes place this Saturday A reminder to all staff that Preview 2013 takes place this weekend at all our campuses. Preview gives prospective students the chance to find out what life at Georgian College is really like and to ask any questions they may have about our programs, campuses, services and anything else. Please note that Barrie and Orillia campuses invite accepted students to Preview. Midland, Muskoka, Orangeville, Owen Sound and South Georgian Bay have adopted an Open House format, i.e., anyone can attend. For staff who may still be receiving inquiries about Preview, here are the campus schedules: Barrie Campus: Sessions at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The afternoon session at the Barrie Campus is full so if you receive inquiries, please direct people to the morning session. Orillia Campus: Sessions at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Midland, Muskoka, Orangeville, Owen Sound and South Georgian Bay: Open House format all are welcome, drop by anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thanks to the many staff in various departments across the college for your help in making this what we hope will be the best Preview ever! Student to attend Preview via web technology Amanda Vena is unable to attend this Saturday s Preview, but the Calgary resident will be doing the next best thing she will be joining in thanks to technology provided by professors in her chosen program. Amanda will be coming to the Barrie Campus in the fall to take the Research Analyst (RAP) graduate certificate program. Instructors have made it possible for her to see and hear everything going on during the RAP information session and even see the slides other students attending will be viewing. This is a unique way in which the Research Analyst program is accommodating students, explains professor Jeff Cole. Amanda cannot make the day in person, so we will be accommodating her via a simultaneous WebEx session. Amanda received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Victoria and did plenty of research to find a postgraduate program that interested her.
Georgian has a great reputation and a lot of contacts. It s perfect for me, said Amanda. Seeing Preview this way will help me experience more about the program. I ll be able to hear what other students are asking, which is always a good way of learning more. And being able to see the slides is helpful, because visuals are so important. This is very helpful, she added. I didn t think attending Preview was going to be possible. Amanda, 22, was inspired by her aunt, who works in marketing at a Toronto firm. She also hopes to work in the field of marketing, perhaps specializing in the qualitative side of focus group research, such as presenting findings to companies. She has applied to live in residence and expects to determine her career focus as she progresses through the RAP program. Preview is really important for us, said Cole. We definitely want to make sure that students who are considering us have the full picture of all that we offer to them not just classes and courses, but projects, opportunities, networks and of course a whole lot of fun. Top secret: Collecting for Aran Kovacs Many of you know Aran always hard at work cleaning at the Barrie Campus. She is always ready with a smile and a kind word, and always patient as people pass by while she is trying to do her job. A group of Georgian employees would like to recognize Aran s dedication and perseverance and are asking for help from the rest of the college community. Aran left her native homeland of Hungary over 40 years ago to move to Canada. She still has family in Debrecen, Hungary, but has only been able to return once to visit. Donations are being requested to help Aran and her husband return home for a two-week holiday during the summer months. The funds will be used to purchase two return flights to Budapest, to cover transfer costs and provide additional expenses that might be incurred. If any money is collected over and above the trip expenses, it will be donated to another Georgian College fundraising initiative. The goal is to raise the money during the month of April, and to present the trip to her at the opening ceremonies of Georgian Week April 29. Please click on the following link to electronically donate to a secure bank account. Please remember, this is a surprise so do not mention it to Aran. Thank you for your generosity and support. For more information, please email Sara Barnes, Terry Heittola or Jacqui WoodsPowell.
Barrie Campus celebrates Earth Day with clean-up More than 50 enthusiastic volunteers collected hundreds of pounds of garbage and recyclables from around the Barrie Campus as part of annual Earth Day celebrations April 4. GEEP (Global Electric Electronic Processing) was also busy collecting used electronic equipment for recycling. The day was a success. Watch the You Tube video here. Coffee drinkers also learned that they will soon be able to participate in a pilot project at the Barrie Campus to collect coffee cups and keep them out of the general waste stream. Georgian s Sustainability Co-ordinator Dianne Corrigan announced plans for trials that will judge the usefulness of coffee cup collection stations. These units allow users to pour out small amounts of old coffee, if necessary, and to then place cups and lids in separate compartments. This has the potential to divert a large amount of coffee cups from the college s waste stream. Waste audits document that the Barrie Campus alone generates about 75 pounds a day of used coffee cups a small mountain of garbage. The recycling stations being used in the pilot project are designed and manufactured by Barrie firm Busch Systems. Watch future issues of Staff News for details of the pilot project. Snow doesn t bury campus clean-up plans in Muskoka Staff and students didn t let a little snow stop them during Earth Day celebrations at the Muskoka Campus on April 2. Thanks to all for their participation in the campus clean-up. Treschak vs. Fennell: Who s going to win the 2013 Rotary Fun Run race? Each year, Georgian College staff, students, alumni and volunteers lace up to support the Rotary Club of Barrie s annual Fun Run. They do it for many reasons: to get fit, to enjoy the great outdoors with their colleagues and to win bragging rights against Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre for entering the largest team in the run s corporate challenge. This year though, the run is getting personal. Staff are challenging their peers to register for this fundraiser and race to the finish line. It s all in good fun of course since Georgian College is the real winner. The Rotary Club of Barrie uses a portion of the run s proceeds to fund its $250,000 donation to the Sadlon Centre for Health and Wellness. The first staff challenge is between Chris Treschak and Stephen Fennell. The stakes are high for these two Student Recruitment Specialists. At last year s race, they placed a friendly bet on who would win and Stephen is still counting the nine seconds as he watched Chris run ahead of him to cross finish line. This year it s double or nothing!
Who s going to win? Register for the Rotary Fun Run and come find out. Better yet, challenge a colleague yourself to walk or run on Team Georgian. If you are issuing a challenge, send an email so you can be part of our Staff News race updates. The race takes place on Wednesday, May 29 at Barrie s South Shore Centre. The registration fee is $30. You can choose to walk or run 5 kilometres or 10 kilometres. Race kit pick-up begins at 4 p.m. and the run starts at 6:30 p.m. To register: 1. Go to the Barrie Fun Run website, click Register Now and create a Race Roster account. All Georgian staff, students, alumni, volunteers and their families can register for Team Georgian. 2. After filling in your information, under Teams choose Join Team, select Corporate Challenge under team type and team name Georgian College. 3. RSVP here so we can do a head count and provide you with a free Georgian t-shirt. Georgian extramural cricket champs The Georgian College Extramural Indoor Cricket team had its final tournament of the season last week, competing at the highest level at the 2013 Challenge Cup at the Sheridan College Davis Campus in Brampton. The Challenge Cup brings together the top Ontario college campus recreation teams to compete for the championship. This year s championship tournament was a first for indoor cricket. The Georgian team was able to defeat U of T Mississauga (41-40), Centennial (27-26) and Sheridan (51-48) to win the championship. For Georgian team captain Abdallah Muhammad, the win was extra special. After five years of coming up short, finally beating Sheridan is a great feeling, said Abdallah. We had such a good group of guys who spent endless hours practicing. We were practising four hours at a time, we had 16 practices in March alone, and we earned this win. Congratulations to the Georgian College Extramural Indoor Cricket team on its win and a great end to the season. Big Brothers and Big Sisters fundraisers raise big money
Thank you to all staff and students who participated in the silent auction for Big Brothers and Big Sisters last month. There was a fantastic display of baskets put together by departments across the college, raising close to $1,500! Congratulations to the School of Health and Wellness for raising the most money with their basket. They are the winner of an after-work social at thetlc. In addition, $1,300 was collected from chocolate bar and bowling ball purchases in the The Last Class (TLC) and The First Class (TFC), and another $1,600 was raised from the Toonie BBQ. Thanks again to the Georgian community for its support with these fundraising activities and helping the TLC and TFC raise in total close to $4,400 for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Welding students inspire at career fair Welding students from the Owen Sound Campus recently participated at the Nawash Annual Career Fair, held at Neyaashiinigmiing on March 27. Aboriginal high school students from Chippewas of Nawash First Nation had an opportunity to meet and speak with Welding students from the Owen Sound Campus who proudly showcased their welding projects and interacted with guests, generating a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm. At a time when Canada is facing severe labour shortages, Aboriginal youth are one of Canada's fastestgrowing demographic. The main goal of the career fair was to encourage and empower young Aboriginal people to advance their educational and career aspirations. Marnie Speck, Aboriginal Student Advisor, organized the Welding student involvement in the fair because she believes there is a need to engage the Aboriginal youth in our community to stay in school and achieve their career goals. It is this type of event that helps reach out, inspire students and demonstrate the possibilities through education.