Cloverdale students support fitness centre for their campus

There is solid student support for a proposed fitness centre at the Cloverdale campus, but a final decision by Kwantlen administration probably won’t come anytime soon.

According to the results of a petition drive in September and October, Cloverdale students were overwhelmingly in favour of a fitness centre for their campus, which would be placed in a currently under-used facilities room roughly the size of the Surrey campus gym.

The KSA has had meetings with Kwantlen administration, which were described as positive by KSA External Affairs Director Derek Robertson.

Although the KSA would ideally like to see gyms on all four campuses, Cloverdale was considered for the fitness centre for a number of reasons, according to John O’Brian of the Cloverdale KSA. Cloverdale is primarily a trades campus, and the physical nature of most skilled trades also require students to be physically fit.

The Cloverdale campus also already has enough potential space, unlike Richmond and Langley, the other two campuses lacking a fitness centre. Richmond has “zero space” for expansion, according to O’Brian, while Langley has relatively few students and is currently undergoing a revitalization of its campus.

The KSA is waiting until that is finished before deciding on a fitness centre there.

Although students are strongly behind the proposed fitness centre, talks are continuing with the higher levels of administration. Robertson declined to predict when it might become a reality. “By giving a time frame, it would be complete speculation,” he said.

Students bubbling for business practicum idea

Students at the Richmond campus no longer have to trek to Lansdowne Mall to get their bubble tea fix.

Fourth-year business students Patrick Wong, 23, Seulki Kim and Stephanie Sun, both 25, launched their own bubble tea stand in the rotunda of the Richmond campus in mid-February.

The three-person team was taking part in a project for a practicum class, and planned to run their small business until March 26. “We’ve been through so many years of education,” said Wong. “So, we are trying to put everything that we learned today to try to apply it to a mini-business.”

Wong, Kim and Sun said that they first had to go through several business launch presentations and get approval from their instructors. “We’ve gone through all the health inspections. The inspector came and looked at the sealing, drinks and the fridge,” said Wong.

The students got ingredients and supplies through connections with a vendor at the Richmond Public Market and were offering several popular flavours of the pre-made and sealed beverage, with prices starting at $4.

While bubble tea cafes have become common throughout the Lower Mainland, the first stores only started showing up in the early 2000s Vancouver. The beverage originated in Taiwan, and is distinguished by large tapioca balls, which are mixed with either hot or cold tea.

“Bubble” refers to the way the tapioca is cooked, since they balloon into chewy balls after being boiled. The tapioca is called “pearls” after the cooking process. The pearls are tasteless and colourless until they are soaked in a brown-sugar-and-water solution. Vendors usually offer two types: milk tea and fruit-flavoured tea.

There are also choices between natural tea and fruits or the sweeter, powder-flavoured slush drinks. Wong and his team are offering powdered taro and original flavours as well as a natural mango flavour.

Traditionally, students in Asia consume bubble tea during breaks and after school as a snack or dessert. Half way around the world, students at the Richmond campus will have the opportunity to do the same.

Winner wasn’t expecting multiple scholarships

Although she is just celebrating her 23rd birthday next month, Kristen Lambke, Kwantlen student and scholarship winner, has already changed career directions.

Lambke won four scholarships totalling $5,250 at Kwantlen’s 20th Annual Scholarship and Awards ceremony for her work in the Environmental Protection Program.

Lambke applied for Kwantlen scholarships in general but did not expect the awards she won, which included the Doctor Barry Leech memorial scholarship, the Eclipse Environmental Leader scholarship and scholarships from B.C. Hydro and the HSBC Bank of Canada.

She said she was excited and that it was nice to have her hard work at school rewarded.

It may have been scholarships that helped Lambke join the Environmental Protection program in the first place.

Before joining the program, Lambke was a drafter designing industrial buildings, a job, she said, that involved taking care of the needs of the clients in the industry rather than the protecting the environment or using sustainable practices.

“I wanted to have a career where I could, you know, protect the environment rather than destroy it, so I switched over.”

She had scholarships from the architectural Ddrafting program at the University of the Fraser Valley, something she said pushed her to go back to school.

“It was something just like, okay, I gotta do this.”

Pam Macdonald, who instructed Lambke in her two first-year introduction to biology classes and a second-year ecology course, said Lambke was a strong but quiet student from the beginning, whose work, from small quizzes to long papers, was nearly perfect.

“I’ve had a lot of good students over the years and I think she is right at the top of those,” said Macdonald.

Although Lambke’s work was consistently good throughout the program, she did improve in other ways.

“I think that she gained a greater sense of self-confidence and recognition of what her potential is over her time here,” said Macdonald.

Macdonald described Lambke as calm, cheerful and modest, qualities, she said, that are shared by Lambke’s boyfriend, Jason Beattie, who Macdonald also instructs.

Lambke and Beattie met at their Langley high school, and began dating shortly after.

Although her disappointed parents weren’t invited to the award ceremony, Beattie, who also won a scholarship, was able to attend with Lambke.

“He was happy for me, a little jealous because he wants to get lots of scholarships, too. He’s a really good student as well, but he’s happy.”

Lambke is currently in her second work practicum, with the B.C. Ministry of Environment, doing incident inspections and samplings

She said she plans on finishing her degree, something she said Macdonald has pushed her to do, and has applied at UBC and UNBC. She will use the money from the scholarships to pay for tuition.

“I think she’ll go a long way in her education, I hope, and in whatever career she chooses,” said Macdonald.

Lambke said she is not sure if she’s figured out what she wants to do for a career, but
said she would like to incorporate her background of construction and design with her new knowledge of the environment to work towards sustainable building and development.

If Lambke could instantaneously change anything about the environment, she said it would be to change people’s minds about it so they would respect it more.

“It takes a lot to change minds, but it will happen eventually.”

Mature Spirits event postponed

The Mature Spirits event that was to be held on March 6 at the Surrey campus has been postponed to March 27.

The event will be an open forum for the mature students at Kwantlen to share opinions, concerns and recommendations with the Mature Students Commission. Wine and cheese tasting in the GrassRoots Lounge will start the night off and the Kwantlen Jazz Combo will also be present to entertain guests.

The event will be held in the G building conference centre and the KSA will be offering a babysitting area. According to Kwantlen’s general admissions, a mature student is considered to be anyone 19 years and older who is not a secondary school graduate.

Music, dance … and raising funds

Reporters Sandy Buemann and Zoe Tarlow turn their cameras and audio recorders on Dessi Fusion, a special event, sponsored in part by the KSA, that combined music, dance and fund-raising for the B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Coach working to turn Eagles baseball into an event

As the weather warms and the fields dry, the start of baseball season nears for the Kwantlen Eagles. Jessica Rolli provides a words-and-pictures look at this year’s team.

With baseball season approaching, the Kwantlen Eagles are taking steps to ensure a successful season, both on the field and in the stands.

Head coach Rob Webster is hoping to make the games at their home field at Macleod Park in Langley more of an event, and working to create an atmosphere that people will look forward to attending.

“Game days will be a blast. The score board will be up and going, we’ll have an announcer for in between innings, and when the players come up to bat, they’ll have their own music,” said Webster.

Webster is also working with the township of Langley to, one day, have a beer garden at the games, and a game-day events coordinator who is planning different activities for the fans.

“Hopefully, we’ll get to a point where people will say, ‘Hey I got nothing to do, let’s go check out the Kwantlen game,’” said Webster.

The team will put on fundraising events that will also be aimed at engaging the community. A pub night has just been approved and is in the works, as well as a raffle where the first prize will be a trip for two to New York to see a Yankees games.

Although a strong fan base is priceless for any sports team, Webster and the team have been working hard to ensure they play a good game for anyone who does come out to watch.

They practice six times a week and are constantly on the look-out for skilled players.

“There’s a ton of talent that has come out of here that have gone on to the big leagues,” said Webster, motioning to the posters laced around the diamond, printed with names and MLB logos.

One of the names is Brett Lawrie, who became the highest drafted Canadian, at the young age of 18 last year.

Kwantlen’s recent upgrade to a polytechnic university has helped entice some of the local talent to stick around and play for the Eagles.

“Now I can draw from players who want to take a trade and I can offer a solid four-year degree to prospective players,” said Webster.

The team’s first regular season game will be a double-header against Vancouver Island University on March 28. An up-to-date schedule of their pre-season games is available online.

Getting a career boost

Wednesday it was Richmond and Thursday it’s the turn of Surrey as employers ranging from health care centres to Canada’s intelligence agency set up shop for the annual Career Fair. Here’s what it looked like at Richmond, earlier this week.

Slumdog Millionaire screening March 6

The Pakistani Students Association of Kwantlen will be screening the Academy Award-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire” for Kwantlen faculty and students only on Friday, March 6, in the Conference Centre  (Building G) at the Surrey Campus. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with the movie starting at 6:30 p.m.

Taking on the gangs

As the Metro Vancouver area sees a surge in gang activity, including more than a dozen shootings so far this year, residents have started to speak out for action. Reporters Amy Reid and Zoë Tarlow covered a recent anti-gang rally, in Surrey.

Opening the doors

Kwantlen Polytechnic University put its Surrey campus and its programs on shows for two days (Feb. 27 and 28), allowing the community to take a look and potential students to sound our instructors in the full range of the university’s programs. Reporter Nick Major snapped some photos of the event.

Next Page »