Wednesday, July 4, 2018

A name change for International Student Advising

As of Wednesday, July 4, International Student Advising in the Student Success Office has changed its title to Immigration Consulting. Service delivery has not been impacted and Immigration Consultants will continue to provide immigration consulting services free-of-charge to students and answer their questions about:

•  Study permits;
• Working on and off campus;
• Co-op work permits;
• Temporary resident visas (TRV);
• Electronic Travel Authorizations (eTA);
• Post-graduation work permits;
• Permits and TRVs for spouse/common-law partner and/or children in Canada; and
• Inviting family to visit.

The consultants can also provide information about students’ health insurance and Government of Canada resources, like how to get a Social Insurance Number.

The new service title better reflects the Immigration Consultants' expertise and their licence with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC). In addition, the title change will help campus partners and international students know whom to consult for assistance on immigration matters pertaining to temporary resident status in Canada.

If you have any questions about the title change or the services provided, please contact immigration.sso@uwaterloo.ca.

Pharmacy celebrates long-time supporter Costco

By Alana Rigby.

Co-op is what makes Waterloo Pharmacy unique: we’re the only co-operative education pharmacy school in Canada. Offering a co-op program is challenging and requires the support of the pharmacist community all across the country. Without employers to consistently hire students and offer invaluable learning opportunities, our program would not be possible.

This June, the School said thank you to one of these employers. Costco has hired Waterloo Pharmacy co-op students since the School first opened in 2008. They also support students on fourth-year patient care rotations, providing sites where students gain direct experience working with patients.

Costco offers approximately 40 co-op work terms each semester. They hire students from Halifax to Vancouver and everywhere in between and provide students with insightful experiences in fast-paced work environments. Today, many Waterloo Pharmacy alumni work in Costco locations and now are able to provide mentorship to current students as preceptors and co-op employers.

Costco has provided support in challenging times for our program. In fall of 2010, the political climate was tense and pharmacies in Ontario experienced many cutbacks. Most Waterloo Pharmacy co-op employers were unable to hire as many students as planned. During this challenging period, Costco stepped in and hired a significant amount, allowing us to ensure all students had instructive co-op experiences. 

A group from the School of Pharmacy which included Hallman Director David Edwards and Director of Experiential Education Nancy Waite visited Costco at their head office in Ottawa this June. They sat down with senior leadership at the company to discuss past successes and future plans for deepened collaboration.

CTE Director spearheads teaching centre reviews

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE).

CTE is excited to share the latest publication in the Educational Development Guide Series, Centre Reviews: Strategies for Success, which is now available on the Educational Developers Caucus website.

CTE’s Director, Donna Ellis, led the development of the Guide, with six co-authors from institutions across Canada. Centre reviews are becoming increasingly common in the field of educational development—they offer an important opportunity for members of a teaching and learning Centre to reflect critically on the direction and work of their Centre and to invite feedback from the communities and clients they serve.

CTE undertook a Centre review in 2017; the Self-Study we developed for that external review distills several years of data as well as feedback solicited from numerous partners and stakeholders, and our Final Assessment Report responds to each of the recommendations made in the external review.  

Writer's latest work explores flamingoes and family

by Susan Fish.

There is, in fact, a flamingo in St. Jerome University creative writing professor Claire Tacon’s sophomore novel, In Search of the Perfect Singing Flamingo, but ultimately, says Tacon, the book is about family.

In this case, the family involves a man who repairs animatronics and who is in search of the perfect singing flamingo for his adult daughter who has a rare chromosomal condition called Williams syndrome. He also has a wife and a second daughter.

There are various ways of dealing with disability as well as parenting—and the parents in this novel take different approaches, a challenge Tacon believes most parents face in one way or another.

Tacon traces the influences of this book back to a variety of sources, from having much older siblings, to working in a university bookstore warehouse to YouTube videos of 1980s Chuck E Cheese animatronic characters. She also recalls reading an article that introduced her to the world of Williams syndrome, and particularly to one young woman and her family who found ways of navigating its challenges with trust and support. Because she has no lived experience with Williams syndrome herself, she expresses gratitude to the Canadian Association for Williams syndrome who put her in touch with some families who were “generous in speaking with me and sharing their expertise.”

While parenting is a central theme to this book that has been described as “Hilarious and humane, uproarious and unpredictable,” Tacon wrote most of it before she had her own children, starting it as she finished her MFA thesis at UBC.

She describes the writing process for this book as much better than the process of her first novel. “My first book took me the whole book to figure out how to write a novel – it was kind of written in a patchwork way, and I hit a number of points where I didn’t even know what stitch could hold it together. This time I had much more of a sense of a narrative trajectory. I didn’t plot it all out, but I made sure I knew where it was going.”

Still, her first novel won the 2010 Metcalf-Rooke Award. Tacon’s fiction has been published in journals and anthologies such as The New Quarterly, SubTerrain and Best Canadian Short Stories, and has been shortlisted for the Bronwen Wallace Award, the CBC Literary Prize and the Playboy College Fiction Contest.

In addition to continuing to write and to raise her children, Tacon cohosts a literary podcast (http://www.oddmentstray.com/) and teaches creative writing at St Jerome’s University in the fall and winter. Of her work at Waterloo, Tacon says, “I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s an elective, so students who take my class have chosen to be there and come with enthusiasm. I get students from all across the university, many of whom don’t have the experience of a lot of creative practice in their field, but who want to write poetry or short stories.”

Native Pollinators and You, and other notes

Want to learn more about the wonderful world of pollinators? Join the Sustainability Office on Wednesday, July 11 for the first talk in their Brown Bag Lunch & Learn Series with Heather Cray, PhD candidate in SERS at Waterloo. From bumblebees to butterflies, you’ll get to know some of our 400+ species of native bees, learn what gives us chocolate (hint: it's not bees), and discover easy things you can do to help save the pollinators in your own yard.

The talk will be held on Wednesday, July 11 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. in EV3-3412. Please note that lunch will not be provided, but you are welcome to bring your own to enjoy during the session. For more information and to register, please visit the registration page.

A Consent Clothesline event will take place on Wednesday, July 11 in the AHS expansion foyer from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Consent Clothesline event brings individuals from the campus community together to express, through arts and crafts, what consent means to them, and provide messages of support to survivors. Snacks will be provided. Check out the event site for more details!

There are no employers on campus this week hosting employer information sessions. Visit the Employer Information Session calendar to stay updated.