Thursday, December 19, 2019

December International Student Stay Program nearly triples enrolment

A message from Housing and Residences.

Slowing down as the holidays approach? Housing & Residences is doing the opposite. After much success with our pilot December International Student Stay Program last year, we once again will keep our doors open this winter break. The program, open to international students on a study permit and living in Waterloo Residences or any University College residence, will allow us to continue to support the needs of our growing international student population. 

The interest from students this year has been overwhelming - there are 112 students confirmed to join us compared to 41 students last year. Students participating can look forward to both formal and informal programming, activities and day trips. The program will be housed in UW Place – Wellesley Court, which is made up of single rooms in three or four bedroom suites. Further, in order to gain feedback for future improvements, a survey will be sent to all participants in the New Year with results shared widely. 

While many areas across campus are working toward the winter break, Housing & Residences continues to gear up for a successful lockdown while simultaneously welcoming these students into a new home for the holiday season. This program takes outstanding dedication and coordination and we are proud to host this program yet again.

Happy holidays from our house to yours!

Accessibility and Health startups awarded $10k in funding

On December 5, GreenHouse, a community for innovators who want to create social or environmental change, celebrated its 19th cohort of social innovators and entrepreneurs at the Social Impact Showcase. As part of this celebration, GreenHouse awarded grants from its Social Impact Fund.  

The Fund is open to current GreenHouse students who demonstrate early-stage customer discovery or idea testing (i.e. prototype, pilot, market research) and a plan for how they will implement their ideas over the coming year.  

The winners of this term’s Social Impact Fund are:

• Essentia Health was awarded $2,500 from the Social Impact Fund, and was the runner up for the People’s Choice Award receiving $500.00. This venture is bridging the communication gap in mental health resources.
• My MentorPlus, a venture dedicated to supporting the transition of youth with disabilities as they become adults, and was awarded $1,000 from the Social Impact Fund. 
• My Restful Mind was awarded $2,000 from the Social Impact Fund, and won the People’s Choice Award of $1,000. This venture is focused on providing online counseling services accessible to students and young adults.
• ODSP and Me, simplifies the complicated application process to provide essential income support to people with long-term disabilities and financial need, and was awarded $2,000 from the Social Impact Fund.  
• VOYHS, a venture giving trans people the resources to train their voice, boosting their confidence and quality of life. VOYHS was awarded $2,500 from the Social Impact Fund.

Congratulations to the students and their inspiring ventures!

Thank-you to Sanofi Genzyme for its generous support in sponsoring this round of funding to support youth-led innovation in health and wellbeing space. Sanofi Genzyme’s financial contributions aim to make a positive impact on patients and communities globally.

Slippery slope of climate change: ski tourism may disappear

This is an excerpt of an article published on the Waterloo news site.

New research from the University of Waterloo has found that higher emission reduction pledges consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement are needed to preserve ski tourism in Eastern Canada and the US.

“The future of our multi-billion-dollar ski industry depends on our climate choices. To preserve it and the thousands of jobs it provides requires us to achieve a low carbon transition,” says Daniel Scott, a professor and executive director of Waterloo’s Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3). “If we do not achieve the Paris Agreement, in the latter half of the century, only high-elevation areas of the Vermont and New Hampshire and select ski areas in Québec will be able to maintain a 100-day season and open regularly over the Christmas-New Year holiday”. 

While a contraction of the ski season and loss of some ski areas is inevitable, Scott’s research, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, and the School of Sports and the Sport University in Beijing, demonstrates the stark realities of low and high emission futures.  

A successful Paris Agreement would limit ski season losses across the region to 12-13 per cent in mid-century and only 13-18 per cent by late century. In stark contrast, in a high emission future, ski seasons are eventually cut in half at most of the 117 ski areas included in the study, with only 6 per cent of Ontario ski areas and 30 per cent in the US Northeast still able to remain economically viable as early as mid-century.

The full study appears in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Thursday's notes

There's still time to check out Robin Peck and Laura Marotta's exhibitions at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery in East Campus Hall this week. The exhibitions close on Saturday, December 21 at 5:00 p.m.

A correction to note: yesterday, the Daily Bulletin published a listing in the positions available for an internal secondment—Job ID# 2019-4970 - Project Portfolio Manager - Centre for Extended Learning, USG 10—that was posted in error and has since been removed from the list.