COMMUNITY
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| Wayne D. Gray |
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| Guided by Dr. Michael Shaver, of the UPEI Department of Chemistry (right), Marieke Hutchinson, a third-year chemistry student, works with chemicals in a glove box in the UPEI chemistry department’s synthetics lab |
UPEI grad honorary degrees
UPEI will confer honorary degrees on four outstanding citizens, Wayne D. Gray, Nona Macdonald Heaslip, James Carter and Joe Ng, at two convocations on May 10, in the Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre. Carter and Gray will receive their honorary degrees during the morning ceremony, which will start at 10 am. Macdonald Heaslip and Ng will be awarded their degrees during the afternoon ceremony, which will begin at 2:30 pm. Gray will deliver the convocation address in the morning, and Macdonald Heaslip in the afternoon. About 600 undergraduate and graduate students will receive their degrees during the convocation ceremonies. Wayne D. Gray is the power behind the Vogue Optical chain, with 55 stores in Atlantic Canada, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and over 250 employees. He and his late wife Doreen Gray established Vogue Optical in 1979. In 2000 he created the Doreen Gray Memorial Endowment Fund in memory of his wife. Nona Macdonald Heaslip and her late husband, William Arthur Heaslip, have been generous supporters of health care, the arts and education. They have established ongoing undergraduate scholarships at 10 Canadian universities, including UPEI. A native Islander, James “Jim” Carter, of Fort McMurray, Alberta, attended Prince of Wales College and UPEI, completing his engineering diploma in 1971. He worked for Syncrude Canada Ltd. serving as president and chief operating officer from 1997 to 2007. His work has contributed to improvements in environmental performance, increased workplace safety, and advancements in technical and scientific knowledge. Born in Canton, China, Joe Ng moved to Hong Kong as a teenager and then to Canada in 1968. After studying engineering at UPEI in 1969-70, he went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering at UNB. He then settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where he founded JNE Consulting Ltd. He supports his community through involvement with the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Hamilton Health Sciences Network, research grants at McMaster University, the United Way and children’s sports programs. www.upei.ca/convocation/
New Dean of Education
UPEI has appointed Dr. J. Tim Goddard, from the University of Calgary, to the position of Dean of Education for a six-year term beginning July 1, 2008. Goddard is currently a Professor of Education and Vice-Provost (International) at the University of Calgary. He has a B.Ed. in Native Studies, Indian and Northern Education (1988), and an M.Ed. in Educational Administration (1990) from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1996 he received a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Alberta. He is currently engaged as the lead investigator in a major international study that is examining ways in which policy implementation by principals facilitates or hinders access to schools by children from minority and marginalized cultures. He coordinated the leadership component of the Kosovo Educator Development Project, a six-year regional initiative funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that supported educational reform in southeastern Europe. He was also project leader for a two-year leadership reform project in Lebanon, funded by the World Bank. He has published extensively in various journals, and is a regular presenter at national and international conferences.
Succession planning
A new business succession initiative aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship opportunities for people aged 34 years and younger has been developed by the UPEI School of Business and the PEI Department of Development and Technology. The Adopted Son or Daughter Program encourages youth to consider a career as an entrepreneur by removing such obstacles as financing, lack of experience and the need for ongoing mentoring. PEI Business Development will provide five-year, interest-free loans to enable participants to purchase a minimum of 10 to 25 per cent of the shares in an existing business. The Adopted Son or Daughter Program was developed by local businessperson and UPEI entrepreneurship professor Mike Cassidy. Contact Joan Fleming at the UPEI School of Business, 566-0975, jofleming@upei.ca or Brian Keefe, PEI Business Development, 368-6300, bwkeefe@gov.pe.ca.
Business of bioscience
Over the past few months, over 120 third-year marketing students at UPEI’s School of Business have been learning first-hand the business of bioscience. Working with six local bioscience companies, 25 teams of business students have been designing winning marketing strategies for the companies’ products and services, to be used in their national and international promotion and sales activities. Awards were presented for the Best Marketing Strategy for each of the six companies’ products, and to overall winners, at a reception held on the UPEI Campus yesterday. The overall winning team included: Jeremiah Blacquiere, Asher Fredericks, Susan Frizzell, Jessica Gillis and Adelee MacNevin, who won top honours for their marketing strategy for Fortius Pharmedica’s whey protein nutraceutical drink mix. Participating companies for this first annual UPEI School of Business/BioAlliance Marketing Strategy Competition included: BioVectra Inc., Chemaphor Inc., First Venture Technologies, Ark Biomedical, Fortius Pharmedica and Maritime Pulse Drying. For info about the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance: rose@peibioalliance.com or by calling 902-367-4403.
A green chemist at UPEI
A “green” chemist at UPEI who is working to develop vegetation-based plastics to reduce our dependence on petroleum-based products and minimize our impact on the environment has just been recognized by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Dr. Michael Shaver will receive $83,731 towards the cost of essential equipment for his research on the design of homogeneous catalysts for application in green chemical reactions and polymerizations.
Accelerated nursing degree
Starting in January 2009, UPEI’s School of Nursing will offer an accelerated nursing degree program for people who have university degrees and want to enter the nursing profession. Students who are accepted into the 14-seat per year program could earn their bachelor of science degree in nursing in as little as two years. In six months, they will complete the work normally done in the first two years of a four-year degree, and will then merge into the third year of the four-year program. To be admitted to the program, students must have completed an undergraduate degree with a minimum average of 75 per cent, as well as credit courses in human anatomy, physiology, microbiology, developmental psychology, introductory psychology and nutrition, statistics, English and another three electives. Students will be admitted to the program this June and will have the opportunity in the fall to complete the required non-nursing courses they need to begin the program in January 2009. They will get their clinical experience at Island health institutions in the summer months, opposite that of students in the four-year program.
Tourism survey results
The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at UPEI’s School of Business today announced the release of a report profiling Ontario visitors to PEI during the summer of 2007. Results show more visitors from Ontario than from all markets outside of Canada combined. Visitors from Ontario take long vacations and spend a significant portion of this time in PEI. Although they had the lowest per-person per-night spending of any origin market, they spent the most money per trip due to their lengthy stays. Sixty per cent of Ontario visitors had been to PEI before, with approximately 40 per cent of those visitors having visited in the past year. The results are based on 3,173 completed surveys collected from June 27 to September 30, 2007. The report is the third in a series of in-depth studies based on comprehensive data previously released in the report, “Overall Results of the 2007 Exit Survey.” The data is for the main tourism season of June 27 to September 30, 2007 and is collected as visitors depart PEI at the Confederation Bridge, Charlottetown Airport and Wood Islands Ferry (seasonally). This data is being collected for a full year, and the survey is being managed by the TRC on behalf of Tourism PEI. 902-566-6096 or trc@upei.ca.
Women, history, technology
The Canadian Committee on Women’s History (Atlantic Region) invites regional scholars and members of the public to participate in a conference called “Women, History and Technology” at UPEI on May 16 and 17. The conference is organized around the issue of how technology has shaped women’s lives and how historians have addressed this issue in their teaching and research. The conference will feature historians from Canada and the USA, including Joy Parr, Canada Research Chair in Culture, Technology and Risk, University of Western Ontario; Margaret Conrad, Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canadian History, University of New Brunswick; and Wendy Kline, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinnati. Other presenters are drawn from the regional heritage community, government, NGO and academic sectors.
Co-organizers are Sharon Myers, a professor of history at UPEI, and Sasha Mullally, Hannah Post-doctoral Fellow in the History of Medicine at Saint Mary's University, Halifax. The conference will be held in UPEI’s New Residence’s meeting room on the Fri night and in K.C. Irving 104 on Sat. Sharon Myers at shmyers@upei.ca or Sasha Mullally at sasha.mullally@smu.ca.