Thursday, April 14, 2016

Human Resources is on the move this month

Human Resources will be relocating from its longtime home in the General Services Complex (GSC) to the East Campus 1 (EC1) building as of Friday, April 29. HR is aiming to keep disruption to services as minimal as possible, but does ask for your patience from Thursday, April 28 through to Tuesday, May 3 as they settle into their new space.

Alumni volunteers share Waterloo pride around the world

by Alex Farley

This story is part of the #UWCommunity National Volunteer Week 2016 series, profiling volunteer-driven University of Waterloo initiatives that help make a difference in our community.

There are hundreds of UWaterloo alumni who engage and foster a myriad of connections every day. In fact, around the world, Alumni Relations has over six hundred alumni volunteers supporting the University of Waterloo!

Our volunteers come from all faculties, schools and colleges associated with the University, ranging in graduation year and dispersed across eighteen different countries and counting. They are an instrumental part of our global strategy to become recognized as one of the world’s most innovative universities, and continuously support the Office of Advancement in the many different programs we offer to alumni, students and friends of the University.

Alumni volunteers have a constant impact on our growing global community, and connect with countless UWaterloo students and alumni in their own communities. They donate their time by mentoring students one-on-one, present as keynote speakers, or avidly partake in speed networking events to offer advice on their careers and share personal experiences. They welcome students abroad or fellow alumni who are starting new lives in foreign cities, helping them fit in as locals and to make new connections. Additionally, some alumni volunteers have a direct effect on UWaterloo by acting as representatives on advisory boards and panels within the University to contribute to important decisions. Around the world, alumni volunteers act as our ambassadors who share and draw attention to the University and its accomplishments.

We want every alumnus to share their experience with students, to connect with each other around the globe, and to be ambassadors for us; however, our alumni volunteers are special in the sense that they are going above and beyond helping their alma mater.

These are the individuals who host private dinners in Israel for groups of visiting Arts students wanting to learn more about the economic situation of the country, and connecting them with alumni who live and work there. These are the people who coordinate welcome events every term for students on co-op placements or studying abroad in Singapore, and create a guide to living in the city. These volunteers host brilliant galas in Hong Kong, with an auction showcasing the innovative products that UWaterloo alumni have created and shared with the world. Without them, we wouldn’t continuously have a strong, annual team in the New York Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research, or loud cheering sections when the Warriors’ make the playoffs in other Canadian cities!

The University of Waterloo would not be here, as it stands today, if we did not have alumni volunteers contributing their time to helping us advance the University’s goals. With their support, the UWaterloo community is constantly expanding beyond the City of Waterloo and is frequently being recognized on the global stage.

They are our global community, our mentors, our ambassadors, and are always exuberantly sharing our Warrior pride throughout all corners of the world. We are very grateful for the time and talent they share with us, and on this National Volunteer Week, we want to thank them for their dedication to the University of Waterloo.

Looking to volunteer with The University of Waterloo as an alumnus? If you are interested in any position please connect with us and we will be happy to discuss how you hope to get involved with potential opportunities in your area.

From April 10 to 16, 2016, we invite you to join in the conversation by celebrating and recognizing individuals, groups, committees and clubs at Waterloo who actively make a difference through volunteering. Share your photos, comments, or words of thanks on Twitter and Instagram using #UWCommunity and #NVW2016.

Library's Robert Southey collection is just right

The Library's Special Collections & Archives is pleased to announce the launch of an exhibit honouring English Poet Laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843) in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room.

Southey was a poet of the Romantic School, one of the “Lake Poets” along with William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, and was Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Southey was also a prolific letter writer, literary scholar, essay writer, historian, and biographer, and is credited with the first narrative recording of The Story of the Three Bears, which over time became Goldilocks.

Another example on display is Mary, the Maid of the Inn; "an affecting narrative detailing, her unfortunate and ill-requited attachment; Her singular Courage, and the miraculous manner in which she becomes an instrument in the discovery of a murder, and Bringing one of the Perpetrators to condign Punishment. Describing, also, the wanderings of the unfortunate Mary, who becomes a wretched maniac." (apparently concise titles were not a feature of Romantic literature) Published by Dean and Munday, it was sold for six-pence.

The exhibit is drawn from the Bertram R. Davis “Robert Southey” Collection and is housed in the Special Collections & Archives department in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room.

Social Impact Award winners named

Left to Right: Tina Chan, Laura Morrison, Zied Etleb, Ashwin Vadivelu, Alexandra Wong

Five St. Paul’s GreenHouse ventures received grants to develop their socially minded products and services at the most recent GreenHouse Social Impact Showcase.

Every term, the live-in social impact incubator awards promising applicants seed money to develop prototypes or launch their ventures. The awards are presented at the Social Impact Showcase, which includes community members from the social innovation and tech startup community, as well as students, staff, and faculty. 

At the April 5 event, Dialogue Xchange, an ‘engaged dialogue’ startup founded by GreenHouse innovator Trishala Pillai, also hosted two panels on celebrating diversity in social entrepreneurship; one of them was facilitated by Elle Crevits, GreenHouse alumna and current social entrepreneur-in-residence.

Congratulations to the Winter 2016 Social Impact Fund recipients:

• Zied Etleb, founder of Curiato, aims to help patients, practitioners, and caretakers better understand bedsores through the creation of a patient information web portal, and will eventually design a smart mattress to prevent bedsores.
• Laura Morrison, founder of GameChanger Sports, will use sports and recreation to recode traditional ideas of masculinity, a context in which many important relationships occur and ideals are adopted.
• Tina Chan’s venture, PASS Kit, aims to assist mental wellbeing and stress for students and employees in the public and private sectors. PASS Kit will develop further as Tina explores a business-to-business sales and fulfillment strategy.
• Ashwin Vadivelu is planning to replicate The Childrens10 Foundation model in at least seven Ontario universities by August 2017, with a goal of raising $16,000 per year for children in Sri Lanka. 
• Alexandra Wong, founder of CUE Parties, will help plan birthday parties that encourage youth to think beyond their current consumer mindsets to enact positive social impact as citizens.