Kwantlen all dressed up for Halloween

The annual Halloween costume contest, a project of Kwantlen’s Design & Communications division, took over the rotunda of the Richmond campus three days before Halloween officially hit, filling the space with explorers in canoes, Pantone swatches, debonair blondes and a litre or two of fake blood.

We have two looks at the proceedings: a video by Abby Wiseman and a slideshow by Kyle Vinoly.

Kwantlen receives donation from Sikhism foundation to expand library

The B.C. Foundation for the Study of Sikhism donated more than 3100 books and online resources to Kwantlen’s Library in mid-October.

The donation, along with a pledge of $20,000 from the society, was made in honour of Teja Singh, a Khalsha Diwan Sikh who pioneered Sikhism in North America.

With the new Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies being introduced at Kwantlen, Simon Le Blanc, development officer of the Kwantlen Foundation, felt that it was “important to have the resources to back [that] up.”

Jas Sandhu, who is involved with the B.C. Foundation for the Study of Sikhism and a Kwantlen alumnus, was involved in making the donation.

“The foundation created this collection in honour of Teja Singh because of his important role in the status of early Indian immigrants to Canada and the establishment of the Khalsha Diwan Society,” said Sandhu.

Le Blanc said that the books aren’t just helpful for those pursuing Asian or Indian Studies.

“It’s quite interdisciplinary, too,” she said. “There are books in architecture, history and fine arts.”

Kwantlen women’s soccer comes home bearing national bronze

The Kwantlen Eagles women’s soccer team arrived home Sunday from the Canadian Colleges’ Athletic Association National tournament in Toronto, with bronze medals around their necks.

Along with the bronze, they hold the title of being Kwantlen’s first-ever team to win a national medal.

Starting goaltender Amelia Ng, who was earlier named MVP at the provincial tournament that sent the Eagles to the nationals, was proud of the way her team turned things around after starting their season 1-4.

“We grew at the right time,” she said. “We just started working hard and played well together. There was not one individual who worked harder than anyone else to get to where we are now. We worked as a team.”

Coach Vladimir Samozvanov was equally as proud of his team.

“I didn’t change anything from the beginning of the season. I knew the girls could play better, I had confidence [in them]. Luckily, things turned out well. It felt great to accomplish what we did,” he said.

Kwantlen’s only loss in the national tournament was to the eventual national champs, Concordia University College of Alberta.

The Eagles had a slow start to their season, losing four of their first five games, but finished strong with two big wins over Thompson Rivers University, their first ever, and UBC-Okanagan, a team who beat them in September, 2-1. Those wins propelled them to a berth in the Provincial tournament.

The Eagles charged through the B.C’s, winning gold, and moved on to the national championships.

The 2009 National Champion Kwantlen Eagles are: Amelia Ng, Rosemary Kelly, Samantha Lewis, Tara Makrigiannis, Marissa Dionne, Meghan Springford, Colette Coulter, Jaqueline Rempel, Brittany McNeill, Shanay Sangha, Christine Walker, Courtney McCulloch, Christina Henderson, Jacqueline Buchler, Taylor Sarchet, Kelsey Doherty, Thoralea Pilton, Sarah Davies and Meghan Nilsson. Coaches are: Vladimir Samozvanov, Joan McEachern and Kim Bull.

 

Late rally not enough for an Eagles hoops win

As UBCO huddled and cheered, the Eagles stood on the floor, dumbstruck, unable to believe what had just happened.

The Kwantlen Eagles men’s basketball team fought hard Saturday night against the UBC-Okanagan (UBCO) Heat, but lost 65-63 when UBCO’s Alex Roth scored a buzzer-beating lay-up.

The teams were evenly matched, as they swapped leads throughout the game, and the Eagles led by one at the half. But after half time, it’s as if a different team had come out on the floor. Kwantlen’s field goal shooting stalled in the third quarter and missed foul shots began to add up.

Down by double-digits late in the fourth, Kwantlen’s Dustin Egelstad led Kwantlen to within three points of the Heat and Varinder Singh tied the game with three foul shots after being fouled beyond the arc.

Fourth-quarter Heat rally leads to tough loss for Lady Eagles

Despite a strong effort, the Kwantlen women’s basketball team dropped their second game in two nights to the UBC-Okanagan (UBCO) Heat 60-52 Saturday.

UBCO scored the first basket of the game, but after that, Kwantlen didn’t fall behind until the fourth quarter, when UBCO came storming back and took control of the game.

Both teams had an aggressive outing, but early on, everything went Kwantlen’s way. The Eagles led by as many as eight at one point, and when the two teams were tied in the first half, UBCO couldn’t get a single basket to fall.

At half-time, the score was 29-28, but the Eagles had control of the game. Kwantlen’s Jessica Williams and Emily Wright drove the tempo in the first half, each scoring seven points, and fourth-year veteran Taminder Dhaliwal had six.

Kwantlen’s dominance continued through the third, but when the fourth quarter started, a couple of baskets by the Heat shifted the momentum. UBCO scored 19 points in the fourth, compared to Kwantlen’s eight. Jenna Kantz and Audrey Siebert-Timmer were the Heat’s top scorers in the game, scoring 11 and 10 points.

Although Kwantlen didn’t come away with a win, Eagles coach Gary Pawluk had a positive view of the game.

“The girls battled tonight. We played tough. That’s a very good team, UBCO. They’re big and they’re very good in transition,” said Pawluk. “There was some intense play and we battled very well. Unfortunately, we didn’t shoot the ball well and the end result was the score.”

Pawluk said that when Kwantlen is shooting well, they are tough to match and that will be one of the team’s strengths this season.

“Basketball is all about rhthym and when you get in rhythm, you become a very good shooter. It’s tougher to get in rhythm in games. That’s the challenge we face,” he said.

Kwantlen’s next game is Friday, Nov. 13, the first of two games that weekend, in Victoria against the Camosun Chargers. The Eagles don’t play at home again until Jan. 29, 2010.

Warrior Boyz comes home

It wasn’t a traditional homecoming, but the community of Surrey still welcomed it with open arms.

On Nov. 3, nearly 200 people gathered in the conference centre at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus for an evening screening and panel discussion of Warrior Boyz, a documentary about the affect that gang culture has had on Metro Vancouver’s South-Asian-Canadian community.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, to show this film here in Surrey, at Kwantlen,” director Baljit Sangra proudly told the crowd. “Much of this was filmed right across the street from here at Princess Margaret [High School].”

Moments later, the lights were dimmed and those in attendance were drawn into an intimate look at one of the Lower Mainland’s most notorious social epidemics, one that has claimed the lives of over 100 Indo-Canadian youth.

The forum, organized by faculty members of Kwantlen’s criminology department, offered students and residents of the community a chance to see Sangra’s take on the violence that has plagued the youth of Surrey.

Created in partnership with Canwest Global and the National Film Board of Canada, Sangra’s film follows the lives of Tanvir and Vicky, two young Punjabi teens who struggle to stay in school and on good terms with their family while spending their spare time embroiled in crime and gang fighting.

Through their stories, Sangra shows that alienation, unprecedented peer pressure and a desire for the status glamorized by depictions of gang life in pop culture have led many Indo-Canadian youth to chase empowerment through drug and violence-fuelled criminal lifestyles.

In an interview, Sangra said she decided to make the film when she realized that violence wasn’t letting up in Metro Vancouver’s large yet close-knit South-Asian community.

“It’s an issue that’s impacted me personally,” said Sangra. “I know people who have fallen into [gang culture] from the neighborhood; friends of friends, friends of cousins, that sort of thing. Even my parents are going to funerals of their friends who have lost a grandchild to gang violence.”

Sangra sought to understand what she saw as an overwhelming contradiction: youth from good families living in seeming suburban comfort who were becoming foot soldiers and chiefs for gangs involved in Metro Vancouver’s drug trade. With this in mind, she began talking to people in the community.

Sangra said that building enough trust with her subjects to the point of being able to film them during vulnerable moments was the most difficult process of filming the documentary. The South-Asian community, she said, has a tendency to denial, and often prefers not to open up about sensitive social issues.

However, her persistence and dedication to the story paid off. Eventually, she gained an understanding of what was behind the headlines.

“For a lot of kids, it’s more about acceptance and belonging than money, “ said Sangra.

“I believe that all kids want to fit and also stand out in some way. And I think for some of the kids who are perhaps not the best student or athlete but come from a pretty solid family, that option of hanging out with the wrong crew or getting into trouble is pretty easy to fall into. Peer group pressure is huge.”

Since debuting the film last spring and screening it at festivals across North America, Sangra has learned that teachers in schools and communities all across Canada have been showing it to students to show them the dangers involved in gangs as opposed to the glamour that they see on TV.

At the end of the screening, Sangra sat down with a panel of key players to discuss the factors that have led to the development of deadly gang culture in Metro Vancouver and the ways that communities can prevent youth from getting involved in the future.

The opinions of the panel members were diverse and informed by careers spent dealing with gangs from many perspectives. The panel, composed of law enforcement officials and educators, also included gang-member-turned-social-activist Jagdeep Singh Mangat, a former drug dealer and gang member who eventually left his life of crime to pursue education and community activism.

If there was one thing that the delegation agreed on, it was Mangat’s declaration that if people in Surrey and Metro Vancouver want to reduce youth gang involvement and the violence that results from it, they need to get involved in the problem.

“Don’t leave it to somebody else. You guys can seize initiative and do it yourself. Each and every single one of you can be an example to a lot of these young people. When we put our collective effort together, then it’s us that’s providing the support for people that might be falling through the cracks.”

Selections from the Panel

(Photos by Katie Lawrence, Audio by Justin Langille)

[audio:http://www.kwantlenchronicle.ca/audio/sangra.mp3]

Sangra discusses her hopes for the film

[audio:http://www.kwantlenchronicle.ca/audio/dawson.mp3]
Dawson addresses the legal roadblocks that are preventing her prosecution team from moving forward in the Surrey Six trials

[audio:http://www.kwantlenchronicle.ca/audio/mangat.mp3]
Mangat talks about the consumer culture roots of youth gang involvement

[audio:http://www.kwantlenchronicle.ca/audio/prahst.mp3]

Prahst addresses the attractions and trapping of the gang ruled drug trade

Cheap stuff!

What could be better than saving money? Finding the entertainment, recreation and clothing options that leave you satisfied and the bank account a little less depleted? The latest issue of the Chronicle, on newsracks now, offers plenty of options for staying entertained on a typical student budget.

Audio slideshow: Kwantlen’s band of brass

The auditorium of Kwantlen’s Langley campus was filled with rich and lively sound of the schools’ brass ensemble yesterday afternoon. The group, comprised of students from the music program, will be preforming mid-week until the second week of December.

Tom Shorthouse, the jazz and brass ensemble instructor,  expects three or four more shows this semester but is hoping the group will be able to preform six or seven shows in the spring semester.

“Getting going in September, no matter how experienced the group, just takes a little bit of time to get the wheels churning,” said  Shorthouse. “By the time we hit January, Febuary things are really moving along.”

Web-based scholarships a Google search away

Kwantlen students looking to avoid post-secondary debt may want to check out some of the many scholarships available through the web.

While most Kwantlen-advertised scholarships and bursaries offer students the chance to earn post-secondary cash, web-based scholarships are often less popular, and the chances of receiving the prize may be much higher.

Websites such as B.C. Student Aid offer a large variety of scholarships, including opportunities such as exchange programs and conferences, with application processes as simple as short essays and submission of grades.

For instance, one scholarship, the Chinese Government Scholarship, will give one student the opportunity to study in the People’s Republic of China. The scholarship will include tuition, accommodations, living expenses and school materials. The Chinese government will also be handing out a small number of partial scholarships.

While most awards tend to be introduced in early summer, in order to give recently graduated high-school students an equal opportunity, many are available year-long. And, they are not always based on GPA.

Opportunities are available to students from specific cultures, students with medical issues and those with backgrounds in different countries. Some students may even come across awards based on their parent’s employment. For example, the All-Nations Trust Company offers 10 awards of $500 each year to aboriginal students, based on community involvement and academic standing. The B.C. Epilepsy Society also awards students, with scholarships of $1,000 available specifically to students with epilepsy.

Using Google to search for “B.C. scholarships” will give you large lists of public and private companies offering scholarships to students.

B.C. Student Aid and other award-posting sites update throughout the year, and most opportunities have cost-free application processes available.

KSA rolling papers a doob-ious affair

The Kwantlen Student Association maintains that selling Zig-Zags (paper used to roll tobacco cigarettes and joints) does not conflict with the university promoting anti-smoking products under the student health plan.

Though selling cigarette paper seems to contradict a recent on-campus anti-smoking event, the KSA said it has to provide items for both smokers and non-smokers.

“If people want to smoke medical marijuana, they can,” said Nathan Griffiths, KSA Director of Operations. “If they want to quit smoking tobacco, we’ve provided products to try and have them stop.”

Griffiths said he doesn’t feel the paper sales are hypocritical in light of the anti-smoking products.

“Currently, we also offer insulin on our health plan, but we still sell Coke, other junk food within the cafe, so I don’t see much of a difference,” said Griffiths.

The concerns of inconsistency on the subject came up during initial KSA talks about supplying Zig-Zag rolling papers.

“We discussed this when we started doing the rolling papers,” said John O’Brian of the Cloverdale KSA. “It was a plebiscite about the legalization of marijuana and it was sort of a close margin.”

O’Brian said he thought the school would never sell rolling papers, but student demand prompted the sale of Zig-Zags. In the October 2003 plebiscite, out of 784 students who voted, 470 supported the decriminalization of marijuana.

The papers were introduced to the Cloverdale campus in March of this year and then at other campuses.

The separation of Zig-Zag papers from anti-smoking products comes from the concept of not using the cigarette paper to roll cigarettes.

“We don’t intend for them to be used to smoke tobacco,” said O’Brian.

The KSA hasn’t taken a stance on the decriminalization of marijuana, but it does support medical marijuana. Those who smoke marijuana recreationally are not restricted from buying Zig-Zags.

Dr. Balbir Gurm of Kwantlen’s nursing program said she understands the KSA has to support services for smokers, but hopes it doesn’t send mixed messages.

“I think what they have to do is keep the message clear that yes, we want to support people who want to quit smoking, but we can’t turn our backs on those of our members to choose to smoke,” said Gurm.

The sales haven’t really caught on; to date, Cloverdale has sold 32 packs and Surrey has sold 25, with 100 papers to a pack. The Richmond campus hasn’t sold many Zig-Zags and sales at the Langley campus have been discontinued after none were sold.

Because sales have been slow, original plans to add the KSA logo to the papers have been scrapped.

“We were testing to see if they were going to be popular enough,” said O’Brian, who added that even if the papers sold well, a local printing company no longer puts logos on cigarette papers.

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