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.”

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.

Kwantlen student wins Jack Webster journalism award

Third-year Kwantlen journalism student Christopher Sun was one of the seven winners of Jack Webster Foundation Student Journalism Awards, presented at the foundation’s dinner Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Kwantlen’s journalism program was well-represented by 25 students, who attended the dinner held at the Westin Bayshore downtown.

Other student winners included Trevor Crawley and Leasa Hachey from Langara College, Jenny Fremlin from Thompson Rivers University, Leia Hutchings and Jacob Barker from BCIT and Cecilia Geryson from UBC.

The 25 students from Kwantlen were joined by almost 1,000 others who attended the dinner and saw some of B.C.’s best journalists given credit for their work.

The event, emceed by Global TV’s Chris Gailus, drew big names. CBC sportscaster Brian Williams was the keynote speaker; Bill Good of CTV and CKNW won the Bill Hutchinson Lifetime Achievement Award; and Les Leyne of the Victoria Times-Colonist won the City Mike Award for Commentator of the Year.

CBC was the big winner with five awards, including Best News Reporting of the Year – Television and Best News Reporting of the Year – Radio. The Vancouver Sun took home three awards and the Globe and Mail, CTV, Kamloops This Week and Fairchild TV each won one.

Diwali comes to Kwantlen

Kwantlen’s Richmond campus held the Diwali festival in the rotunda on Thursday, Oct. 15.

Diwali, which is most commonly known as the festival of lights, is celebrated by several Indian religions. It is usually colourful and sometimes incorporates fireworks and gift-giving.

KSA members and Human Resources students Nicole Joe and Rina Bali were just two of several volunteers giving out free samosas and bundi, a dough and sugar based Indian candy at the Richmond celebration.

“For some calendars [Diwali] also starts out a new year,” said Bali.

But why is it important for Kwantlen, specifically, to hold a Diwali celebration? “It’s a good way to increase ethnic diversity on campus,” said Bali, “and it creates awareness [about Diwali].”

School not just for the kids

For Maryanne Rayburn, the Third Age Learning at Kwantlen program (TALK) has become a major part of her life these past eight years.

The 79-year-old retired nurse has made it a regular part of her routine and she looks forward to getting the course calendar.

The program, which is coming up to its 10-year anniversary this Saturday, is geared toward people over the age of 50. It offers seminars on a broad range of topics, such as cultural studies, digital photography and biology.

Rayburn, whose favourite course to date was on human genome research, is living proof that growing older doesn’t mean having to disengage.

“I don’t think we can just sit and vegetate, and the courses give me new ideas,” said Rayburn.

Dr. Andrew Sixsmith, director of the gerontology research centre at SFU, is a firm believer that mental stimulation is essential for good quality of life as people age.

“There’s a lot of emphasis on the staying physically active, but staying mentally and socially engaged as we age is extremely important,” said Sixsmith.

Unlike regular courses at Kwantlen, there are no credits, no homework, and the courses only last for two to four sessions at a fraction of the regular course cost. Membership in TALK costs $10 a year and individual seminars are about $20-$30. Money goes towards scholarships for Kwantlen students.

Kwantlen kicks its smoking habit for a day

Kwantlen students made the air a little cleaner on Thursday by putting out cigarettes at the second annual Campus Smoke-Out event.

Promoted by the Kwantlen Wellness Centre, the event was led by Nursing 4141 students at the Surrey and Richmond campuses as part of their practicum experience. Kwantlen was one of nine Lower Mainland post-secondary institutions participating.

“It’s part of our change project,” said fourth-year nursing student Kim Sahota. “We’re working on the smoke-free campus initiative for Kwantlen.”

Booths were lined with anti-smoking pamphlets and awareness information, as well as a demonstration of the difference between a healthy lung and a smoker’s lung.

Smokers were encouraged to keep from lighting up on school grounds for the day. Smoking is prohibited within 7.5 metres of entrances, so nursing students also drew chalk lines leading from buildings to properly illustrate the distance.

The students took donations and collected cigarettes in a jar. For every cigarette, a $1.50 donation went to the BC Lung Association.

“If we can get people to actually empty out their pockets and put their cigarettes in [the jar], that could be a good start to stop them from smoking,” said Dr. Balbir Gurm, a nursing teacher at Kwantlen for 18 years.

“For students, you’ve got up to $500 worth [of smoking cessation products] in your health care package. That’s a great incentive which people don’t know about.”

By midday, the students had collected about 30 cigarettes at Surrey, with a goal of 100. The students at Richmond had a jar filled to the top by the end of the event at 3 p.m.

“I don’t know if it’s because all our health programs are here,” said Gurm, “but [the Surrey campus] seems to be the campus that has the least smokers to start with.”

Campuses puts focus on fitness and recreation

New fitness and recreation classes are springing up across Kwantlen campuses this year as part of an initiative to get more students physically fit.

Faculty and the Kwantlen Student Association are trying to get the word out about yoga, belly dancing and hip-hop classes beginning this fall, while they brainstorm ideas for intramural sports, other classes and clubs.

Classes already introduced are hatha yoga (a gentle posture and breathing exercise class), power yoga (a cardio- and strength-intensive exercise class), belly dancing and hip-hop dancing.

Hatha yoga was offered last year and saw a moderate response from students. But small registration numbers are complicating the introduction of the new classes. Though hatha yoga and power yoga had enough registration to start as scheduled in September, the dance classes were delayed for several weeks.

Recreation coordinator John Stewart said getting students interested has been difficult, something he attributes to the lack of awareness about recreation opportunities at Kwantlen.

“You have to build a reputation, and once you get that, you get people coming to you to look for recreation programs. It’ll take some time.”

The classes, coming intramurals and clubs are being pushed by the faculty and the KSA to promote mind-and-body health.

“If they’re healthy and they’re exercising, their mind is healthy and they’ll do better in school,” Stewart said. “It’s really important to keep yourself active. You think better and you think more clearly.”

Elmo Lara, a KSA coordinator for the Student Health Improvement Program, is trying to raise awareness about a new running club that is being formed. He works to develop programs that will help students understand the connection between fitness and study success.

“If they’re not physically fit, their brain won’t be working as it should,” he said.

When asked about the relevance of the dance and yoga classes to Kwantlen students, Stewart laughed and said “they were just trying to offer something different. With the hip-hop, they were really trying to focus on something students might be interested in because it’s typically a younger style of [dance].”

The classes also reflect a gender discrepancy, which Stewart attributed to registration. Females register more frequently than males, he said, but intramural sports are generally male-driven.

Stewart is organizing several recreation classes and intramurals for introduction next semester. Ideas so far include a boot camp, kettlebells and a morning yoga session. Suggestions are welcome; contact John Stewart at (604) 599-2307.

First poetic readings of semester show lively creative writing scene

There’s much ado about the creative writing program at Kwantlen.

Though the first live poetry reading of the semester was attended by a modest group of 20-some students, the small crowd was lively and inquisitive on Monday, Sept. 28.

The reading featured noted B.C. poets Marguerite Pigeon and Chris Hutchinson, who came to speak with the students about the nature of writing.

Each read from their latest published works, featuring vastly different poetic styles, yet both agreed on the writing process as natural and instinctual.

Hutchinson, wearing a mustard-yellow sweater and wool cap, read from his poetry anthology “other people’s lives,” with a Ginsberg-esque drone and ‘60s-‘70s beat tonality.

“My process is very intuitive, I never know where a poem is going to take me,” he said.

Pigeon’s book “Inventory,” on the other hand, explored her relationships with inanimate objects, personifying, beautifully, their attributes.

The students had much to ask the established writers about the writing process, including their inspirations and their roadblocks.

“Resist!” Hutchinson laughed, addressing situations when being told the correct way to formulate poems.

But can creative writing really be taught? Kwantlen students wanted to know.

“It’s a funny thing to have writing in school because it puts two things that are at odds together,” Pigeon said. “It’s built like that [because] it pushes people through learning whether they like it or not and they come out a little more structured. But at the same time writing is not about following any structure, it’s very intuitive.”

So where is the creative writing program going?

“The program is going towards integrating with the interdisciplinary arts,” said creative writing professor Matthew Rader. The program, which has already grown by over one-third in enrolment this year, has several possible outcomes.

“[Learning writing is important] because writing to start with is the primary negotiator in all disciplines and [excellence] is achieved by imagination in that skill,” said Rader.

Pigeon assured students that all people are writers, whether it be filling out surveys, chatting on facebook or sitting down to write some fiction.

Still, when it came to serious writing, some students said that they couldn’t help but be defensive about their work.

“The more you write,” Pigeon offered, “the less you care that one thing you wrote was bad.”

Pigeon said she wanted to write her entire life, but didn’t think it would be realistic, so she was “a journalist instead.”

“If you believe in writing,” she said, “it will save you.” That is the sentiment that Rader wanted to get across by having live readings in school.

“[I want] to show aspiring writers that professional writers exist,” he said. “There’s a chance that these people are like us and they’re right here.”

According to Rader, there are five different possible futures for the creative writing students at Kwantlen, but at the moment it’s important for “people in university to be engaged in the community.”

To keep in touch with the writing program at Kwantlen, follow them on Twitter or attend these readings:

• Oct. 22: Jan Conn, 1 p.m., Room D224, Surrey
• Oct. 28: Marilyn Simonds, 6 p.m., Room D144, Surrey
• Nov. 3: Sachiko Murakami, 2 p.m., Room D224, Surrey
• Dec. 29: Elizabeth Bachinsky/Open Mic, Time and location TBA

Cupcake sales support cancer charity

Kwantlen’s annual Cupcakes for Charity event has cooked up a fresh batch of donations for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

A table of sugary treats and origami roses was set up in the Richmond campus rotunda on Tuesday. Human Resources Management student Nicole Joe, who ran the bake sale, noted its success.

“Brownies sold out within an hour,” said Joe. “We didn’t expect them to be gone that fast.”

Joe said there is a history of breast cancer on her mother’s side of the family and also has an uncle battling lung cancer. Because her uncle doesn’t smoke and is generally healthy, she said she thinks that the cancer naturally occurred, which lends to her compassion on the issue.

Jessica Ford of Kwantlen’s START volunteer program was also selling treats.

“My aunt has breast cancer […] she’s in line for a new breast,” said Ford.

With Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, the two women decided to contribute their personal experiences to the cause. They sold a variety of homemade goodies, including origami flowers, brownies and, of course, cupcakes Joe also had a portfolio of her paper plants, which she said sold better than expected.

For a minimum 50-cent donation for the cupcakes and $2 for the origami roses, supporters also received a pink breast cancer ribbon.

After only two hours, the table saw its fair share of support.

“Cupcakes are going really well—people buy trays of six, people buy more than one…,” said Joe.

Though the event took place on the Richmond campus, a charity sale may pop up on the Surrey campus as well.

Article by Kristi Jut and Jacob Zinn.

Belly dance class starts at Kwantlen

Kwantlen’s Surrey campus is getting a little exotic with the addition of a belly dance class.

Starting Oct. 15, the six-week course will teach participants moves such as wrist rolls, snake arms and hip shimmys, as well as the culture of belly dance.

The class is taught by Annyse Rayne, a belly dancer for six-and-a-half years. She got into belly dance when she saw it at a multicultural festival.

“The way they were dancing, the way that they were so confident, they were having so much fun,” said Rayne. “It was just so beautiful to watch the dance.”

After that first glimpse, she joined a local belly dance class and never stopped dancing. Now she is a performer and teacher in the Lower Mainland.

Kwantlen’s Department of Athletics and Recreation approached Rayne with the idea of starting a belly dance class suitable for beginners at the school. Over the next six weeks, she will lead the class to Middle Eastern music and give handouts detailing dance moves and historical information on belly dance.

The class is held every Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the gymnasium and runs until Nov. 23. The cost to join the course is $63, though drop-ins are welcome for individual classes at $8 per class.

Rayne recommends the course to anyone who wants to try a new form of fitness, explore creative expression or improve their self-confidence.

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