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.”

Love, hate on V-day

Rows of free cupcakes and stacks of brownies were plentiful at Kwanlen’s “Love and Hate V-day.”

Reena Bali, 22, the Richmond campus director as of April 1, organized the event held on Feb.12 in the rotunda of the Richmond campus.

The sugar-laden event launched the 30-hour famine, which Bali will be organizing for the first time.

Bali said they chose to have the cupcakes, which were topped with a swirl of icing, pastel confetti and a jelly hearts, because they are very “valentine-y.” As for the two-bite brownies, “everyone loves brownies,” she said.

Although “free” signs sat beside the treats, those satisfying their sweet tooth could make a donation to World Vision.

World Vision is the organization behind the 30-hour famine.

Bali remembers doing the famine in high school. “I’m pretty sure a lot of students had a lot of fun times doing it in high school so I said why not do it here, its for a good cause.”

She said she is in the process of asking Kwantlen to hold the 30-hour famine sleepover at the school, in either the rotunda or the KSA lounge. If not, the famine will be held at one of Richmond’s community centers

Famine participants will drink juice and water, play games and raise money for 30 hours, according to Bali.

She said she doesn’t know how many people will participate, but the number isn’t that important.

“Even if we have 15 people signed up, I’m still going to go for it, because 15 is better than zero.”

Valentine’s Day cards, addressed to B.C. university and college students from the KSA, were also on hand at Love and Hate V-Day.

“I’m thinking of you this Valentine’s Day as I search for a committed partner to ensure my education is affordable and of high-quality,” wrote the KSA in the red folded cards.

As for the love and hate inspired name, Bali said she was just trying to cover all of the bases in naming of the event so no one would be offended, which she said “happens.”

MIllion-dollar gift from credit union

You may have noticed the subtle change to the sign of Kwantlen’s library, which now reads “Coast Capital Savings Library.”

The name is meant to honour Coast Capital Savings for its recent donation of $1 million to Kwantlen, according to Jeff Norris, Kwantlen Foundation executive director.

Norris said the donation, generated from company profits, is the most significant gift Coast Capital Savings has ever given.

He also said the donation is about more than just the money.

“Bringing a gift of this size, a significant gift, really puts us on a higher stage when it comes to philanthropy in general, and I think we’ll start to see others choose Kwantlen as a place to make a donation.”

Norris said the relationship between Kwantlen and Coast Capital Savings began a few years back.

“A lot of the things Kwantlen held as value aligns nicely with Coast Capital and we realized that we could do something quite significant between the two organizations.”

The bank has supported student orientations and alumni, as well as given away free book scholarships, according to Norris.

“Coast Capital has showed an appetite to find other ways to engage in the institution above and beyond this particular gift,” he said.

Coast Capital will also benefit from the relationship.

“Most of our graduates tend to stay in this region. They thought it would be a great idea to be making investments in graduates that could be potentially their workers,” said Norris.

Gen Porcina, 21, who works at Coast Capital as a financial service representative and is also in the Kwantlen Human Resource program, said the biggest significance of the partnership is that both institutions are community driven and have similar goals.

Kwantlen Students could likely get some work experience at Coast Capital, if not an actual position, said Porcina.

“I see them working together and kind of sharing the students and the work force.”

As for the new name of the library?  Porcina, said she doesn’t mind it, but it is “a little bit much.”

“I’m used to seeing Coast Capital branded on a lot of things and when I’m at school I kind of like to see the difference.”

Coast Capital is a part of Imagine Canada, a national registered charity whose mission, according to its website, is “advancing knowledge and relationships to foster effective and sustainable charitable and nonprofit organizations.”

Green Wednesday ponders life without oil

The tiny room, lined with about forty plastic chairs, one movie projector and plenty of tea and coffee buzzed with energy during Kwantlen’s fourth Green Wednesday, held Jan. 14.

The event took place at the Langley Campus and was hosted by the Green Ideas Network and Gary Jones, Kwantlen horticulture instructor and chair of greenhouse and retail production.

Jones began Green Wednesdays a year ago and says he does it “so that we leave our kids something to actually live on.”

Wednesday’s movie, The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil, describes Cuba’s struggle after losing access to oil, “the first country to face the crisis we will all face.”

At first, buses ran only every three to four hours, blackouts to save energy made keeping food in the fridge impossible and people lost as average of 20 pounds as food was scarce.

The Cuban people adapted in a variety of ways and scenes of people planting lettuce and selling their bounty in local markets of tight-knit communities showed the possibility of living oil free.

Lee Carter, 62, says Cuba changed because they had the motivation “and for us it’s easier to go to the grocery store than it is to grow our own.”

Tom McMath, 65, a physics and engineering instructor at Kwantlen, says the film was really about the triumph of the human spirit. His wife Sharon McMath, 61, an avid gardener saw it as “the way the future should be.”

The second part of the evening featured the movie “Energy Efficiency and Renewables” and was wrapped up with a door prizes and a question-and-answer period with Tim Cooper, an instructor in the physics department a the University of the Fraser Valley.

Kwantlen elves help light up Christmas

The “Elves Wanted” posters were hung on Kwantlen’s Richmond campus bulletin boards with care, in hopes that busy students would have a moment to spare.

And two Kwantlen elves did turn up to help the Richmond Sunset Rotary Club decorate Christmas trees at Richmond City Hall last week for the eighth annual Winter Wonderland put on by the club. Sarah Ramli, 18, who is studying criminology at Kwantlen, was one of them. The other remains anonymous.

Ramli says she is broadening her horizons, as she usually decorates a Christmas tree at the city hall in Delta home, where she lives, because, “I just love to volunteer and it’s Christmas too, so you can’t beat it.”

Last week, Ramli she dragged her boyfriend to Richmond city hall where they decorated a tree of red, green and gold. Ramli said it didn’t take too much time out of their schedules, and she hopes someone will get the benefit of their work. Money raised when the trees are auctioned goes to the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre or the Christmas Fund.

“You just feel good about doing something and it’s like you are actually helping a greater good and there’s just that satisfaction from doing something that you just can’t describe,” she said.

This is the first year only seven of the Christmas trees are up for auction, according to Linda Coyle, president of the Rotary club, because there was a lack of sponsors this year. “I think the economy has a lot to do with it,” said Coyle.

Kwantlen chose not to sponsor a tree this year, but has done so in the past. “I was really disappointed that Kwantlen didn’t sponsor a tree, because I thought it would have been a great profile,” Coyle said.

She says it was the first year Kwantlen students individually came to help, which was fantastic.

Winter Wonderland kicked off at Richmond’s City Hall on Nov. 29, with a lighting of the city’s big Christmas tree by the mayor. Free concerts will be held every Saturday from now until Christmas and those who attend are asked to take and donate a non-perishable food item.

Scenes from a tournament

The Kwantlen eagles men’s basketball team, in anticipation of the latest college season, has been sharpening its skills in tournaments. Reporter/photographer Sandy Buemann was at Douglas College Saturday, Oct. 18, as the Eagles took on Camosun College (they lost, 75-59) and brought back these images.

Eagles outlast Quest in rough, rowdy tournament action

The game was rough and the crowd was rowdy as the Kwantlen men’s basketball team beat Quest University 65-58 at the Blues Classic Basketball Tournament, hosted by Capilano University, on Saturday night.

Eagle Sam Asiedu, a first-year guard called it an ugly game. “There were bodies flying everywhere…it was scrappy, really scrappy,” said Asiedu.

The score was tied 50-50 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, and with three minutes to go and a score of 58-52 for the Eagles, the tension was palpable. 

Nick Lefleur, a guard for the Eagles, was able to bring up the score two points to 62 with 44 seconds left in the game to the delight of the cheering crowd.

Kevin Van Buskirk, one of the Eagles three assistant coaches, said the team “played alright.” The first five minutes were a struggle, but after that the men “picked it up,” according to Van Buskirk. 

Quest scored the first five points of the game but by the end of the first quarter the Eagles were one point up. 

The second quarter saw big gains and the Eagles were up eight points after a series of quick breakaways, but Quest came back, adding five points in a matter of minutes to chants of “defense” from the Kwantlen supporting crowd. Kwantlen then finished the period off with a shot, adding three points in a matter of two seconds. 

The third quarter saw a spectacular fall by Omid Davani, a first-year guard, and ended in a 46-46 tie after Quest added three points in the last 18 seconds. 

Coach Van Buskirk was hoping for three wins in the tournament, but the Eagles lost their game against Columbia Bible College, 71-64, Sunday morning.

The Eagles had won the first game, against Camosun College, by a one-point margin, 62-61.

Next week the men are off to the Douglas College Tournament.

Galled by apathy, instructor pushes voting

Paul Richard, the chair of the environmental protection program at Kwantlen, was appalled when he read that Kwantlen students weren’t planning to vote in Tuesday’s federal election, so he decided to do something about it.

Richard wrote an email to members of the Kwantlen faculty, urging them to encourage their students to vote.

“It really galled me,” he said of students’ responses when the Kwantlen Chronicle asked whether they were voting. Five of the eight students polled said they were not.

The students seemed to be saying “I’m ignorant and proud of it,” said Richard. He says the ignorance in North American society is dangerous. If it is culturally acceptable to dumb things down, the government could have a “large mass of people that are easy to manipulate.” 

Students need to learn not just the facts and the figures through their education, said Richard, but learn about their role in society as a whole. The excuses for not voting were not good enough and “it shows that something is wrong with all of us.” The first step is to engage students in discussion so they are “simply thinking about it,” said Richard.

Sunday draw ‘almost like loss’ for women’s soccer team

Nobody scored on Sunday Oct.5, as the Kwantlen women’s soccer team played the Douglas Royals to a 0-0 draw on their home turf at the Tamanawis field in Surrey.

The Eagles may have been tired after a big win the day before against the Langara Falcons, during which Head Coach Vladimir Samozvanov said the team was more alive.

Still, Samozvanov said the result of the Sunday’s game was positive. The women had a few chances during both the first and second half and continued to try their best.

The teams battled back and forth on the sunny fall afternoon with plenty of action in the middle of the field as each side played tug-o-war for control. What ground was gained for either side did not seem to kept for long.

In the second half of the game, Kwantlen used more of the field. Near the end of the second half, shouts of encouragement mingled with groans of disappointment could be heard as Reem Knyfatty, a first-year forward took a shot that drew the Douglas keeper out of the net. Jennifer Starheim, a Douglas forward, then took the play back to the Kwantlen end with a powerful kick.

“There were more passing sequences in the second half,” said Natalie Therrien who is playing her first year of defense, but “collectively the work ethic wasn’t there.”

She said the team was getting way better and “beat the best” when they played the Falcons Saturday. The game Sunday felt like a lose because the teams in the league are neck-in-neck and, “If we don’t get the points from the easy teams than taking points from the hard teams doesn’t really matter,” Therrien said.

The Royals and the Eagles each earned one point for the tie. The teams played two regular games last season, with one tie and one 2-0 loss for the Eagles

Next weekend, the women play the Vancouver Island University Mariners in Nanaimo.

Women drop tough first exhibition hoop game

The Kwantlen Eagles women’s basketball team didn’t go down without a fight as they lost 51-44 to the Douglas Royals in their first exhibition game of the season at the Kwantlen Surrey campus Friday night.

Emotions were running high at the end of the fourth quarter, as the Royals added 12 points to their score and the Eagle’s Head Coach Gary Pawluk was asked to leave the gym after asking the referee for “a moment of your time.” Assistant Coach Ivan Adrian said that “we liked the intensity that they showed in the fourth quarter” and the “fact that they weren’t giving up.”

The game began with a bang as the Royals scored a two-point basket in the first minute and Kwantlen’s up-and-coming guard Jessica Williams scored within the first two minutes, bringing the score to 2-1 for the Royals.

The back-and-forth action continued with strong passing from the Eagles. The fast-paced offense and defense by both teams resulted in an even match for most of the quarter, which was ending with a two-point lead for the Eagles until the Royals tied the score to 9-9 with 38 seconds left. The Royal’s Cynthia Lawson scored again with one second left in the period, putting Douglas in the lead 11-9.

The Royals took their lead into the second period but the quick passes by the Eagles resulted in a one-point lead of 22-21 going into the third quarter. The score went back and forth, and the third ended 37-34 for the Royals, after Koral Fraser scored three for the Eagles with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.

Assistant coach Adrian said the team had set a goal to work on their rebounding, “especially on our own boards,” but that they didn’t meet their expectations.

“Our rebounding needs to improve in order for us to be a successful team.”

Guard Taminder Dhaliwal, returning for her third year on the team, agrees. She also said the team was slow to start but they did a good job “hustling back.”

Also returning player forward Michela Fiorido says the team is “definitely improving.”

The next game for the Eagles will be against the Langara Falcons on Saturday, Oct. 4, at 6 p.m. in Vancouver.

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