Thursday, November 17, 2016

Understanding food security from a Roman perspective

Professor Jennifer Clapp and her students travelled halfway across the world to learn about problems surrounding the environment, food security, and the global economy.

By Michelle Pressé. Waterloo is celebrating International Education Week with a variety of on-campus activities, as well as a series of stories showcasing some of the international experiences of our students, faculty, and staff.

Every year, millions of people travel to Italy to enjoy Neapolitan pizza and authentic gelato. Jennifer Clapp also travelled to Italy for the food, but she didn’t go to eat it – she went to educate her students about it.

As the Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at Waterloo, Jennifer is an expert on global governance of problems surrounding the environment, food security, and the global economy.

She travelled to Italy last summer with 16 students for a field course that examined governance frameworks and institutions’ focuses on issues of sustainability, food security, and food policy.

“The experience was life changing,” says Jennifer. “University should be about that. We can do lots of textbook learning, but the experiential stuff is what you remember forever.”

For some students, the course allowed them to travel abroad for the first time, and for one, it meant travelling by plane for the first time. One of the most memorable parts of the trip included a visit to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and other international food policy institutions.

According to the UN, agriculture is the largest employer in the world – 40 per cent of today’s global population depends on it for work, while 45 per cent of deaths in children are caused by poor nutrition every year.

“The opportunity for these students was incredible – truly a vibrant student experience. Within the Strategic Plan, one of the goals is to ensure that students have an engaging, purposeful, and relevant experience,” says Ian Rowlands, Interim Associate Vice-President, International. “Learning from one of the world’s leading researchers about global food security and sustainability in a country where policies are developed and implemented is exactly the kind of experience we want to offer to our students as part of their education at Waterloo.”

The group had the opportunity to meet with policy makers who introduced themselves and answered questions before the students participated in meetings. However, the conversations grew so meaningful that the policy makers stayed longer than planned.

“They were very generous with their time,” says Jennifer. “Both the policy makers and the students were curious about each other’s ideas, and a lot of meaningful conversations came from that.”

This allowed students to not only learn more about the policies they study in their textbooks, but to pick the brains of the people who created them. Jennifer believes gaining a new perspective is the key to collaborating with international partners.

“We live in a global society,” says Jennifer. “Stepping outside of our own culture and learning about different perspectives is invaluable if we want to co-operate on big issues like food security and climate change. If we can’t understand other people’s perspectives, we will never make progress.”

Waterloo hosts national leaders in co-operative education

A message from Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA)

“This is a time of unprecedented attention on co-operative education,” said Anne Fannon, Director of Waterloo’s WatPD program and incoming President of CAFCE, as she kicked off the CAFCE Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday, November 2. This truth resonated throughout the three-day CAFCE national conference which drew over 100 post-secondary leaders in co-operative education from across Canada to the University of Waterloo.

CAFCE, or the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education, represents 80 post-secondary institutions (80,000+ co-op students). Its mission is to foster, advance and promote the highest quality in post-secondary co-op programs on a national scale.

The AGM and related meetings reviewed the best-in-show in co-operative education. Waterloo showcased its remarkable leadership in student professional development (WatPD), co-op and experiential education research (WatCACE), and cutting edge programs like Enterprise Co-op (E co-op).

The reality that current students are now a prime source of talent to meet growing industry needs, means CAFCE has a big job to do to ensure unified, safe and proactive engagement.

A significant and empowering change that passed unanimously at the AGM was an update to the definition of co-operative education in a Canadian post-secondary context. The CAFCE accreditation council, after extensive engagement with member institutions, developed the widely anticipated refreshed definition.

“Experiential education opportunities offered at the post-secondary level are now widely prevalent,” explained Jasminn Berteotti, outgoing CAFCE president. “In the array of choices, we needed to make a clear and distinct designation for co-op.”

The timing couldn’t be better, and industry agrees. “Organizations such as CAFCE are integral to deepening collaboration between companies and post-secondary institutions,” said Val Walker, representing the 2015-formed Business/Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) where Waterloo, represented by President Hamdullahpur, continues to be a thought leader in the conversation. “This will only strengthen Canada’s human capital and economic performance.”  

Waterloo will have two influential voices around the CAFCE board table this year with Fannon at the helm, and Ross Johnston, Director of Employer Relations for CECA, as the representative for Ontario.

Carpe diem, CAFCE.

Fighting hunger in our community on Halloween night

by Jacqueline Martinz

When Waterloo residents heard knocks on their doors this past Halloween, they discovered that one group of trick-or-treaters wasn’t asking for candy. A total of 82 participants from the University of Waterloo joined the Trick-or-Eat initiative organized by the Federation of Students.

This nationwide event enables undergraduates to head out on the scariest night of the year to do good by collecting non-perishable food items for the Feds Student Food Bank and the local Food Bank of Waterloo Region. The group collected a whopping 1,412.85 lbs of food for those in need. In addition, the participants filled five medium-sized boxes of expired food to donate to “Food Not Bombs,” an organization that re-purposes expired food into new, healthy meals. Local restaurant Frat Burger was a sponsor and helped make the event a reality for another year.

The initiative is an example of the many ways University of Waterloo students come together to support each other and the community. Students are invited to give back and get involved with Feds Student Food Bank year-round. More information is available on feds.ca.

Register for next week's Research Talks event

Interested in finding out how research at Waterloo is having an impact on tobacco control efforts around the globe? Join Professor Geoffrey Fong, founder of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), for the next session of Research Talks at noon on Friday, November 25.

Geoffrey will share how his work with the ITC Project uses research evidence to strengthen and defend tobacco control efforts around the world, and support stronger policies where needed.

There are still a few spots available for this event. Please register to attend.