Thursday, August 6, 2020

Nominations open for President's Community Impact Awards

Nominations for the fourth annual President’s Community Impact Awards are now open. Launched in 2017, the President’s Community Impact Awards celebrate great community leaders and the impact they create through volunteerism, philanthropy, or engagement.

Award winners may be distinguished through such community service activities as volunteer work, public speaking, school outreach, or other outstanding community service.

The awards will:

• Reward and recognize community excellence
• Inspire us to engage in activities that develop leadership, foster social responsibility and contribute to the well-being of our community
• Promote community pride and participation
• Engage with, serve, and draw strength from the diversity of our external communities.

Up to four awards will be handed out in two categories each year:

Community Leader awards - A Community Leader is a current University of Waterloo student, faculty or staff member who "impacts their community through voluntarism, philanthropy, or other community engagement."

University Champion awards - A University Champion is an individual or organization from Waterloo Region or Stratford who has "demonstrated a commitment to championing the impact of the University in our community either through partnership with the institution or in working with individual students, faculty or staff of the University."

Check out the list of past PCIA recipients.

Terms of reference and nomination guidelines can be found on the Office of the President's website. The guidelines for collecting supporting documentation are also available.

Nominations close on October 5.

United Way Campaign: Call for volunteers and campaign update

A message from the University of Waterloo United Way Campaign Committee.

As we approach Fall term we’re usually getting ready to handout decorations amongst departmental ambassadors, fill up our calendars with bake sales, therapy dog sessions, auctions, and social events, and prepare our campus to “go red” for our annual United Way campaign kickoff.  

This year, however, campus will be more quiet than usual. That hasn’t stopped us. We’ve been virtually bustling over the last few months to ensure we can still bring our community an exciting campaign for 2020!

We’ve already made several adjustments to our lives and we’re confident that our university community will continue to contribute and participate under these unprecedented circumstances. As stated by campaign co-chair, Alice Raynard:  

“I am confident that UW will be able to answer the call of our community, because this is who we are: we respond to challenges with compassion and engagement. Every gesture will count and will shine through.”  

This year we’ll still be launching on October 1 and we encourage our departments to continue our ‘go red’ tradition by dressing in red! We’ll have more details to follow soon on how you can participate. Now, more than ever, it’s essential for Ambassadors to show their support with creative, fun and innovative fundraising methods to help the University of Waterloo’s United Way campaign.

Do you want to get involved?! We’re always looking for more volunteers to spread the United Way cheer and show what an amazing community we have here at the University. If you’re interested in joining our team as a committee member or as a volunteer ambassador, reach out to united.way@uwaterloo.ca to learn more. 

Are you the one who will help our community prosper past this pandemic?

Concept $5K winners named

The winners of the Spring 2020 Concept $5K pitch competition have been announced.

"The Spring 2020 term at the University of Waterloo was definitely a unique one," says a post on Concept's blog. "With classes, resources, programs, and student interactions moving online, we were unsure what kind of engagement Concept and the $5K pitch competition would receive. Ever the entrepreneurs, UWaterloo students were not discouraged by these changes and participated in nearly record numbers! The Spring 2020 Concept $5K received only 3 fewer than our personal best of 87 applications set last semester."

"The Finalists selected took feedback from our judges and spent the next week perfecting their pitches and creating some seriously impressive pitch videos. It is never an easy choice to pick winners from this group of high potential students, and this term was no exception."

The winners are:

Aqua-Cell Energy

Aqua-Cell Energy is developing large scale batteries to store renewable energy for continuous solar and wind power to help power a greener and cleaner world. 

Team members:

• Keith Cleland, Chemical Engineering Masters, University of Waterloo;
• Jeff Gostick, Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo; and
• Anne Benneker, Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Calgary.

Eight Stories of Modesty

Eight Stories of Modesty is a Hijab brand that aims to create a meaningful journey for its customers by bringing to light the experiences of women that wear the headscarf through a concept known as fashion storytelling.

Team:

• Tamania Majeed, Accounting and Financial Management, University of Waterloo

Lumos

Lumos is developing light therapy glasses that combine blue blocking effects with the active light therapy of a light lamp. 

Team:

• Lucas Tang, Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo;
• Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, Neurobiology, Harvard;
• Dr. Kasey Li, Medical School, Harvard;
• James Ro, Physics and Electronics, University of Waterloo; and
• Lingfeng Tao, Industrial Design, University of Notre Dame.

Mox Health

Mox Health is developing a convenient and easy to use transdermal patch to detect female ovulation. 

Team: 

• Lawrentina D’Souza, Science & Business, Biotechnology, University of Waterloo; and
• Kamran Maksimov, Materials & Nano Science, University of Waterloo

The People’s Champ

"In addition to these winning teams chosen by our judges, we also relied on our virtual audience to help pick their representative as the People’s Champ," says Concept's blog post. "We had over 6,000 views of the pitch videos this semester. The support and encouragement from the virtual audience was incredible! The winning team will take home $500 in grant funding and the pride that they were the fan favourite."

"The people have spoken, and this semester your People’s Champ is Scribble! Scribble is developing a web-based platform for remote software development teams to collaborate on technical diagrams in real time. Congratulations on an impressive pitch and on winning the hearts of our virtual audience."

Read the full story of this term's Concept $5K competition on the Concept blog. 

What's new at the Centre for Career Action

A message from the Centre for Career Action (CCA).

Last week we hosted a one-hour ‘Co-op and Career Readiness Virtual Live Chat.’ Close to 300 (future and existing) engaged students were in attendance asking a total of 173 questions to our Q&A panel.  The presentation was recorded and is now posted on the co-operative education website for all to view.

• Centre for Career Action virtual drop-in advising hours for August: 
  • Online résumé, cover letter, interview and work search drop-ins and Career Consults for UG and Masters students are running 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. PhD student and postdoc drop-ins are running 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students can book these virtual drop-ins through WaterlooWorks. 
  • From August 4 to August 7, Career Leaders will be facilitating over one hundred pre-scheduled virtual mock interview drop-ins with students who are currently participating in the Intensive Bridge to Academic Success in English program (iBASE).