LAURENTIAN ALUMNI FALL 2017

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act,2005 AN AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION Greetings fellow alumni,

This is my first official message as the of many dedicated volunteers and newly elected Laurentian University university staff that work hard to serve Alumni Association (LUAA) President our members to the best of our ability. and I am honored to have the We have implemented two of three opportunity to represent our 59,000+ initiatives associated with our goals Voyageurs. 2017 has been an exciting within the strategic plan. One of these year for the LUAA and I am proud to exciting initiatives is One Million Hours inform you that our magazine recently of Volunteerism, which I encourage you received the silver award for best online to register for, and track your volunteer alumni publication in the country by the hours. Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). Months of work The LUAA has another ambitious year in go into the creation of the semi-annual store, and we hope you take advantage Laurentian Alumni Magazine and its of everything we’re doing to ensure you success is attributed to the joint efforts continue to have a positive experience of our alumni relations team, LUAA with your alma mater. communications committee, designers, writers and university colleagues, in We can all benefit from being Laurentian addition to the incredible alumni whose alumni, and we all have something stories we have the pleasure of telling. that we can contribute to. Whether it’s logging your volunteer hours with What has been equally thrilling for us and making a difference in your the alumni association this year is community, providing mentorship to a our progress as we continue to work current student in need, or making a gift through our 2016 to 2019 Strategic to support the leaders of tomorrow, your Plan: Strengthened. This three-year involvement, big or small, goes a long plan outlines our mission statement way. and vision for the transformation of the association and I encourage you to So come back to visit, attend our events, review the plan and provide feedback to or join a board or committee. Take the Board of Directors. advantage of preferred rates from our affinity partners such as TD Meloche Your alumni board is comprised Monnex for home and auto insurance,

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Canada Life for health, dental and life insurance, or the MBNA alumni credit card. Make use of the exclusive discounts offered to you by various businesses just for being a Laurentian graduate.

Over time, some of you may have lost touch with your alma mater, and if you have, that’s okay. There’s never been a better time to reconnect. I hope that you will make your way back and remember that you always have a home at Laurentian.

ADAM CECCHETTO, B.Sc. ’03 Senior Environmental Scientist, Denison Environmental

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Ryan Lafraniere B.Sc. ‘09 CURLER TURNS COACH AND CHAMPION Laurentian’s Ryan Lafraniere inspires Voyageurs to victory

By Suzanne Bowness

Earlier this year, for the first time ever, as part of Curling Canada’s Long-Term Laurentian University claimed a national Athlete Development model. curling championship title. Laurentian grad Ryan Lafraniere was responsible To say it’s been a good year would be for leading the women’s team to victory, an understatement. not once, but twice. THE RIGHT PLAYERS In addition to taking the 2017 U Lafraniere, who has been coaching at SPORTS/Curling Canada University Laurentian for seven years (he also Championships in Thunder Bay, Ontario, coaches the men’s team), calls this they also earned the Ontario University women’s team extremely resilient. Athletics (OUA) Championship in “Team cohesion is certainly a strong Oshawa, Ontario. point with this particular team. They work very well together. The team The two banners that proudly hang in dynamics are unbelievable, which is Laurentian’s Ben Avery Building are incredible for teams. They’re able to particularly significant. They represent park things mentally, put that aside, the first provincial championship for the regroup, reassess, which is an extremely Voyageurs since the University’s Nordic important thing to have, especially in skiers won the OUA title in 2002- this sport,” he says. 03 and the first national university championship since a 1990-91 win by He had already worked with all of these the women’s basketball team. girls in the past, coaching Smith in high school, and Burns and Masters in The Voyageurs curling team, composed university, plus he’s worked with all the of Skip Krysta Burns, Third Megan girls at Bantam and Junior camps. Smith, Second Sara Guy and Lead Laura Masters, is also a U21 team that Besides a hectic tournament season won a bronze medal at the Canadian that lasts from October to March, the Junior Women’s Championship this practice schedule is fairly gruelling, with year. USPORT or U25 (under 25) is a practices on Saturday and/or Sunday university division that overlaps with (games are played on Tuesday nights). the junior classification (U21 – under 21), The girls also curl in a competitive

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 league in Sudbury at the Idylwylde has completed his certifications to Golf and Country Club. Practices focus become a Level III coach and instructor. on drills and technical work to refine He’s also trained as a master learning sweeping and delivery, but equally on facilitator and master evaluator. off-ice mental preparation including goal setting, season planning and Besides training coaches, Lafraniere strategy/tactics. After each game, is also the Director of the Amethyst Lafraniere spends time debriefing with Curling Camp in Sudbury, and travels the team to work on the next. Games in the summer to do other week-long typically last two to three hours. curling camps in Edmonton, Alberta and Waterloo, Ontario. In July, he As their coach, Laurentian’s Lafraniere is travelled to Germany to work for the with his teams all the way, but he’s not World Curling Federation training high always allowed to be physically present. performance athletes at their curling Unlike many sports where coaches are a camp. familiar sight at the sideline, curling only allows them to counsel players for five If you think this all sounds like a full- minutes at the game’s midpoint, and time job, it will surprise you that an even shorter ninety seconds during Lafraniere also works as a teacher. each of two time-outs. After graduating from Laurentian in 2009 with his Bachelor of Science in That means a lot of focus on the pre- Chemistry and Biochemistry, he did a game, debrief, and developing routines bachelor’s and then a master’s degree during practices. in Education at Nipissing University, and is now head of the science department “As a coach, it’s my job to give them and teacher of biology and chemistry all the tools that they need in order to at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School in be successful, and hope that they draw Sudbury. He also teaches in the faculty from their tool box somewhere down of Education at Laurentian, training new the line during the game, because I teachers to teach science. can’t prompt re-focus. They have to work as a unit in order to do that,” says While teaching and curling keep him Lafraniere. busy, Lafraniere also makes time to volunteer, and was involved with Whatever he is advising his team, it’s Laurentian’s Alumni Association, where working. he served as Vice-President. He first joined the group as a student member THE RIGHT COACH of Laurentian Student Alumni. In addition to his coaching career, Lafraniere was a competitive curler in A CURLER FOR LIFE his own right. He curled in the national Lafraniere calls curling “a sport for life”, Junior championships in 2004 for and say he loves it for the camaraderie. Northern Ontario, and curled at two He adds that being a curler himself national championships for Laurentian. inspired him to become a coach. “I like He got into coaching 15 years ago, and to give back to the sport that has really

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 given a lot to me. Working with the athletes is always enjoyable, and to try and empower them to become the best athlete, the best student, and the best person they can be is really rewarding.”

He says curling rewards the athlete beyond the ice because it teaches players about everything from mental toughness to problem solving to good sportsmanship. “Everyone likes winning, but it’s not really about winning or losing, it’s about having the competitive spirit and enjoying yourself and having fun out on the ice,” he says.

Now that the season is over, Lafraniere says he’s looking forward to doing it all again. “The team is back next year. I’m hoping that we’ll have a good season like we had last year,” he says.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Alisha Gauvreau BA ‘09 14,000 YEARS IN THE MAKING Laurentian grad’s discovery on Canada’s west coast could change the way we think about human settlement in North America.

By Jason Hagerman, BA’07

Driftwood litters pristine sand and Ancient Landscapes Archaeology pebble beaches. Gentle waves roll along Project led by Dr. Duncan McLaren,” the shoreline of the protected bay says Gauvreau. McLaren, an Assistant where a dig site waits, while prehistoric Professor in anthropology at the forest breathes and holds the damp air University of Victoria, launched long- still across the island. running and wide-ranging study of antiquity sites along the coast in 2011. Here, under the fir and hemlock and Gauvreau joined in 2013. spruce, on a British Columbia beach where the shoreline has stayed mostly “[Professor McLaren] wanted to find stable, is where Alisha Gauvreau, a evidence of the first occupation on graduate of Laurentian’s Anthropology the coast through the investigation of program and a PhD student at the multiple sites. The one I kind of took University of Victoria, unearthed over just happened to be the one where remnants of a 14,000-year-old village. we really nailed it with the old, old age,” says Gauvreau. It is the oldest settlement ever discovered on the northwest coast of UNIQUE DISCOVERIES North America. It’s common to find bone tools and stone tools in dig sites, but less so to Triquet Island, where the antique site find wood and similarly degrading rests, is a remote, outer coastal island artifacts like the ones at Gauvreau’s site. in a dense north Pacific archipelago. It’s Finds there include wooden bipoints part of the Hakai Protected Area, where (carved fishing tools) and an atlatl many similar archaeological sites exist. (spear thrower). Sites like these raise questions about how humans first settled and survived And unlike in the movies, where Indiana on the ancestral Heiltsuk land and Jones can identify the Ark of the reaffirms the oral history of the First Covenant just by the swarm of ancient Nation. monsters emerging from it, radiocarbon dating is needed to determine the age “My research is part of a larger program of artifacts in the real world. That’s a across the coast called the Hakai process that takes weeks.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 informs the efforts of the Hakai Ancient “Five days in the field might be followed Landscapes Archaeology Project. by five months in the lab evaluating everything we found,” says Gauvreau. “These historical records being “The big results don’t often come in the transferred orally aren’t fables or field.” folklore,” says Gauvreau. “These are regionally-specific and family-specific Fortunately, lab discoveries are just as narratives meticulously passed through thrilling for archaeologists. “To most generations as a system of hereditary people I’m sure it seems more boring rights for land.” to be in the lab, but that’s actually where the exciting stuff comes from. It’s breathtaking to think that this The samples we pulled that turned out could be the original site where people 14,000 years old, we didn’t know until made landfall in North America, from months later. So, there was no bloom which communities may have spread of excitement in the field, but when we in all directions. “We should always were in the lab, over the phone,” she re-evaluate what we think we know,” says. says Gauvreau. “There are many more sites out there too, and we will SIGNIFICANT IMPLICATIONS continue finding things that refine our Besides the treasure trove of artifacts, understanding of that time.” the excitement of a 14,000-year-old settlement on the B.C. coast presents interesting food for thought about how early inhabitants navigated the region.

“The only way people could get to this island at that time was via watercraft,” Gauvreau says. “Not just little watercraft. It’s big choppy water, so they had sophisticated sea transport. They hunted on the sea too, according to the wooden tools we found, so they were sophisticated in that way too.”

The common theory centres on an ice corridor from the Asian continent, as early research indicated a coast solidly encased in ice. “That doesn’t seem the case any longer,” says Gauvreau.

Research published in the journal Nature supports Gauvreau’s theory. So, does the oral history of nearby First Nations, which regularly

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Aaron Langille B.Sc. ’98 (Hons.) ’05 PROF PAYS IT FORWARD Computer Science student Aaron Langille returns to Laurentian as staff then as award-winning professor

By Suzanne Bowness

When Master Lecturer Dr. Aaron came right away. Back in 1998, he cut Langille looks out at the cluster of short his planned honours degree in faces that fill the lecture halls where Math and Computer Science to escape he teaches in Laurentian’s Math and with a bachelor’s degree and move to Computer Science department, he Grand Rapids, Michigan for a job at knows what it’s like to be the shy, a software company called Haushan frustrated student in that crowd. He Systems and Engineers. After four should know - he once sat in the same years and the scare of 9/11, he, his wife seat, an empathy that drives him to Stephanie and their son (the couple engage students in his own class. now has two children) decided to come back to Canada. Fortunately, Laurentian Today, those efforts have led to was hiring. recognition not only from his peers in the form of a Teaching Excellence So Langille came back to the university Award in 2016-17, but from his students as a technologist in 2002, helping in the form of a 2015-16 Students’ to maintain the computers from the Choice Teaching Award. Mathematics and Computer Science department and support faculty and So what’s his teaching philosophy? students. He also returned to the “To echo the late American philosophy classroom, volunteering in 2005 to professor Bob Solomon, you have to be teach a Unix programming course for part stand-up comic, part door-to-door a colleague on sabbatical. From there, salesman, part expert, part counselor,” Langille made the transition from says Langille. “I teach the way I would technologist to teacher, becoming want to be taught. So that means a permanent sessional in 2011. Now engaging with my students through he teaches eight courses per year, funny tweets or being that person they including that original Unix course can turn to when they’re going through along with introductory computer a rough time.” science courses and more recently the department’s new game design courses. LEAVING AND RETURNING While his love of teaching was a Langille also built up his academic revelation to Langille, it’s not one that credentials. Tuition exempt as an

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 employee, he completed his honours challenged learners to earn badges for undergraduate year, then earned a everything from improving on tests to master’s degree in Biophysics and getting 100 percent on all assignments. doctorate in Environmental Sciences They even competed against each at Guelph. His academic research other on a leaderboard. “All of these combines his interest in computer things are just designed to nudge them modelling with a personal passion for into doing better than they might have the environment to look at simulation done otherwise,” says Langille. Because models for invasive species and the project was a pilot, students were disturbed ecosystems. allowed to opt out, but few did. “It went really well. The student feedback was GAMING THE CURRICULUM extremely positive,” he says. He plans Gaming is his latest focus in the to repeat and expand the experiment department, both as a curriculum next year, more formally quantifying the focus and as a technique to motivate results in a study, with the long-term students. goal to possibly expand the effort to other courses. In terms of curriculum, Langille is helping to lead the charge on the But while he loves gaming, Langille department’s popular new Game equally loves engaging his students. Design specialization. “Because I was not a very good student my first go around, there were certain “I co-wrote and published a mobile profs that if it hadn’t been for their (phone) game, so that I would be able encouragement and engagement, I’m to better instruct my Game Design not sure I would have made it through students on the ins and outs of game the program. So I like being there for development from start to finish,” he students to pass that along, to pay it says. forward,” he says.

Langille believes the program option gives students yet another differentiator in today’s competitive job market. The move into gaming as an educator is an extension of a longstanding passion as a volunteer with the community, as a coach and now head judge for the robotics competition First Lego League held at Dynamic Earth, a technical program for kids aged 10 to 15 to build robots.

Langille has also brought gamification to his teaching. This year, he piloted an experiment with the 180 students in his first year computer science course that

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 TRIP OF A LIFETIME Outdoor Adventure Leadership students volunteer and mountaineer in Mongolia

By Suzanne Bowness

This past May, 22-year-old Outdoor Then came the mountaineering part of Adventure Leadership student Nicholas the expedition. That adventure started Rivais went from no mountaineering with a six-hour drive in old Russian experience to summiting Mount Khüiten jeeps to the Altai mountain range, in Mongolia, a peak 4,374 metres high. which borders China, Kazakhstan and His one-word evaluation? “Amazing.” Russia. The group hiked in even further to a national park, walking 26 kilometres The climb was part of a month-long with camels and horses to carry their trip to Mongolia taken by 29 Laurentian gear. Here, they made base camp at the students and faculty, from the Outdoor foot of a glacier. From there they began Adventure Leadership program and to start their climbing adventures in the Health Promotion programs. With a Tavan Bogd mountains, with everyone dual goal to volunteer in a remote summiting at least one 4,000 metre community establishing clean drinking peak. water and medical clinics, and try mountaineering in the Altai mountains, All students climbed from base camp to the trip was led by Outdoor Adventure the Malchin peak, which Little describes Leadership Program Coordinator Jim as “spectacular” with 360-degree views Little, and Professors Sébastien Nault of mountain ranges into Russia and and Dr. Stephen Ritchie. China. The climb involved challenging moutain terrain that reached steep, THE ADVENTURE BEGINS snow and ice covered slopes. It took 10 After months of planning, the trip to 12-hours ascending at inclines of 50 began on May 20 with a flight from to 70 degrees, with climbers typically Toronto to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, via starting up the mountain at 3:00 am Seoul, South Korea. The group then and returning to base camp around took a regional flight west to Olgii, 5:00 pm. Temperatures were in the 12 where they stayed in town of Sogog to 20-degree range, although wind chill and visited some local herder families. and sun glare often made this span They stayed in a yurt (a tent-like even greater. structure, called a ger in Mongolia) donated by a local family. GOING EVEN HIGHER Although the group was challenged

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 by the effects of thin air at the high altitude, many forged even further Little says that volunteering had an to the higher peak of Mount Khüiten, impact on the students. “I think it was which they accessed from a higher an eye opener for a lot of them. They camp in the middle of a glacier. The saw that these communities were team travelled in groups of 12 and were underserviced, specifically the western led by faculty plus a local mountain part of Mongolia which we were guide. To access the higher peak, they traveling.” first had to first walk along the glacier for six kilometres, a trek that required Rivais adds that he was struck by the the travellers to be harnessed to others helpfulness of the Mongolians he met. on their team so they could be hauled “They were all very kind, very nice up if they fell into a crevasse, something people. Although the language barrier that happened frequently. The second was there, you could still tell that they ascent to Khüiten took about 10 hours were very approachable,” he says. round trip and was a more technical climb involving ice screws and safety After a week in the town, the group anchors. flew back to Ulaanbaatar, where they met the Canadian ambassador to Rivais says he appreciated how Mongolia, Ed Jager. From there, a different the climbing was from other handful of students returned to Canada, adventuring. “I’m somebody who’s while others went on to further travels been canoeing and kayaking a lot, I’ve in Mongolia, Thailand, Australia, New done hikes, but glacier travel is just Zealand and Japan. something that’s so unique. It was a big trip to learn a lot of things on,” he says. REFLECTIONS IN RETROSPECT He adds that despite his professor’s On the flipside of the trip, Little echoes enthusiastic depiction of the landscape, Rivais’s word, and perspective, on the seeing it for himself really made an trip: “amazing.” While he admits it was impact. “Once I got there, I really a challenge to mobilize so many people, understood what he meant and I was it really provided great experiential really blown away by the scenery.” learning. “Academically, you can sit in a classroom and go on a PowerPoint A CHANCE TO GIVE BACK presentation or a chalkboard and say, After about 10 days of trekking, the ‘this is going to happen, or this is how team returned for a week or so of you’re going to feel.’ Nothing replaces volunteering in the town of Sogog. The getting right in deep into the cultural students helped with projects such nuances of a different country with so as greenhouses and gardening. They many different people,” he says. also distributed the supplies that they had shipped, including toothbrushes For Little, the trip also represented a and toothpaste, eyewear, bandages, new direction for the program, which splints, gurneys, wheelchairs, and even had a history of international travel to automated external defibrillator (AED) places like France and Germany when machines. it started in the 1980s, but had moved

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 in recent years towards doing more regional trips to places like northern Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba. He says he was also pleased by Laurentian’s support, particularly the efforts to help send messages via Facebook and Twitter.

Rivais, who says he bonded incredibly with his classmates, is grateful for the opportunity, not only for the international experience, but for the chance to be so involved in the planning. A year and a half in the making, the trip’s organizational command centre was established in a course called Expedition Planning, where students met weekly to work on trip preparation from the perspective of core working groups: fundraising, food, logistics, travel, humanitarian, expedition.

For the fundraising group, the effort included planning events from partnerships with Laurentian University’s Giving Tuesday campaign, the Banff Mountain Film Festival and the local Bingo hall, to bake sales, pub nights, and pizza sales. For the logistics group, it meant figuring out currency issues and documentation for the trip, or how to ship the large cargo container (donated by Redpath Mining) of medical supplies that the group would bring from Ontario to Mongolia.

“I don’t think that anybody my age is doing anything like this. Yes, we had guidance from our profs, but overall we did plan a lot of it ourselves. It’s a very unique experience to have. I could take this experience and implement it in any aspect of my life now,” he says.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 POLITICALLY ACTIVE AND PROUD OF IT Teacher’s college graduate creates organization to support women in politics

By Suzanne Bowness

Amanda Kingsley Malo has been example, only one of nine councillors in keen about politics for as long as she North Bay is female. can remember. But as she got more involved as a political volunteer in her Reaction was swift. The day after she teens, she became more baffled by the launched the organization online, demographics. the CBC called, wanting to interview Kingsley Malo. She also heard from There just weren’t that many female women across the region. Momentum candidates. And that bothered her. grew even more when Kingsley Malo won a CBC video contest called We So, this 30-year-old Chelmsford native Are The Change, aimed at “challenging decided to do something about it. young change makers to explain the She put a call out on Twitter, and a impact they were making on their mentor answered. Cheri McLeod, an communities.” experienced organizer in her former city of London, Ontario, had just moved to PRACTICAL TACTICS the North. She would help. Beyond simply raising awareness, PoliticsNOW organizes concrete LAUNCHING A MOVEMENT events to engage in political activities. On March 8, 2017, PoliticsNOW.org, an For example, Kingsley Malo gathers a non-partisan organization to support contingent—typically between six and women in northern Ontario to run for 10 people each time—to attend city political office, was born. The Founders council meetings together. “We get chose the launch date symbolically, as together before, we talk about what’s March 8 is International Women’s Day. on the docket, we go through the agenda. Then, we go to the city council While similar organizations exist to meeting, we watch everything as it’s engage women in politics in southern happening,” says Kingsley Malo. The Ontario, notably a group called Equal group often debriefs afterward. Voice, this was the first in northern Ontario. Which is unfortunate because In August, they held their first women’s the northern political scene could use it: speaker series titled InspireNOW where only Elliot Lake has gender parity. As an Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas gave the

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 inaugral speech. long volunteering political mother. “I’m pretty sure she was more proud of that Other PoliticsNOW activities include than when I got married,” jokes Kingsley letter writing campaigns to support Malo. Following the 12 weeks of training, women on council, and a “campaign she went to work with the Nickel Belt boot camp” that will kick off in October riding, then as a volunteer and then to help demystify the campaign community team organizer with MP process, with seminars on campaigning, Marc Serré’s campaign, managing fundraising, cold calling, and website the online presence of the Nickel design. The group also plans to run an Belt Federal Liberals, Marc Serré’s all-female candidates’ debate in the volunteers, and, in partnership, ran his next election. “get out the vote” campaign.

As PoliticsNOW grows, Kingsley Malo’s So, would she ever run for office next goal is to expand activities even herself? Kingsley Malo wouldn’t rule further north. “That’s been my huge it out, but for now she’s focused on challenge, trying to figure out how building PoliticsNOW, and boosting to get further north of Sudbury. I can the chances for other women. “Women hustle hard for the city that I live in, getting involved in anything, just adds a but I cannot reach Thunder Bay unless new perspective. I’ve read studies about I get somebody to help me do that,” how adding a woman to a committee she says. Fortunately, volunteers are can change the entire direction the stepping up. committee is going in,” she says.

A TEACHER AT HEART—FOR NOW She adds that politics would also If you think that Kingsley Malo must benefit from more Indigenous voices be a politician herself, she’s actually and people of colour. “Until all those a teacher. Following a Bachelor of voices are represented, you’re just not Arts in History from the University getting the full story.” of Ottawa, she attended teachers’ college at Laurentian, and now teaches French immersion at Valley View Public School in Val Caron. But politics has always been a strong family interest. Kingsley Malo says she and her father watch political debates the way others watch hockey games, and she’s already volunteered with several political campaigns, in many cases being the only female in the upper organizing team.

In 2015, Kingsley Malo won a fellowship with the Liberal Party of Canada, something that she said delighted her

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Everett Morrison BA’10 IN THE SPOTLIGHT Laurentian music grad performs in Canadian Opera Company’s production of Louis Riel

By Suzanne Bowness

Everett Morrison was at home making dinner one night in October when he Morrison, who grew up in Moosonee found out that he had landed the role and is a memberof the Cree of Wandering Spirit, War Chief of the Waskaganish First Nation, says he was Cree in the Canadian Opera Company’s also proud to bring authenticity to the sesquicentennial revival of Louis Riel. “I part as a Cree singer. got an email from the Artistic Director. I thought it was junk mail at first,” says Originally written for Canada’s 1967 Morrison with a laugh. centennial by Harry Somers and Mavor Moore, Louis Riel tells the story of the But that’s about the most mundane nineteenth-century Métis leader who moment in a whirlwind that has advocated self-government for his taken Morrison through sold-out people on the Canadian prairies. This performances at the Four Seasons revival was directed by Peter Hinton, Centre in Toronto from April 20 to May who cast Indigenous performers, 13, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and included a “Land Assembly” of from June 15 and 17, and most recently 15 Indigenous people as a “physical at the Grand Théâtre de Québec in cast” to represent a further Indigenous Quebec City at the end of July. presence on stage. Morrison’s part, the Wandering Spirit, appears in the THE ROAD TO REVIVAL third act, giving a physical presence Recruited to audition for the part, to the war chief. He is also in the land Morrison and the cast had just a assembly and the Métis chorus. month of rehearsals five days a week before the show launched in Toronto BUILDING A SINGING CAREER to enthusiastic crowds, including Morrison, who is a bass-baritone, Morrison’s own two sons, stepson and started singing at the age of 16 after girlfriend. “I think they were pretty his mother bought him a book on proud,” says Morrison, sounding proud voice training. He attended Cambrian himself at his kids’ reactions, particularly College’s music program, taking some that of his youngest. “I was happy for time off to have his first son before him. That he got to see his Dad sing on returning to earn his Music-Performance stage.” diploma in 2005. He sang in his first

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 opera, the role of King Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, at Cambrian in 2000.

In 2007, he continued his training with a Bachelor of Music at Laurentian, where he majored in voice, took weekly voice lessons, and sang with the Laurentian choir. He has also performed solos with Sudbury’s Bel Canto chorus.

Today, besides doing lots of auditions, Morrison also facilitates voice workshops and teaches piano and guitar in various northern Quebec communities. “It makes me feel good because I can share my knowledge of my singing with them,” he says.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 A DAY TO CELEBRATE Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre opens as Laurentian’s new gateway

By Suzanne Bowness

It’s 7:00 am on June 21, 2017, National STUDENTS LEAD THE WAY Aboriginal Day. After months and A bit later, the grand entry begins years of planning, the only sounds are with a procession, led by students, the birds overhead and soft praying dancers Brittney Shki-Giizis from in Anishinawbemowin, as elder Julie Dokis Nation near Lake Nipissing Ozawagosh and her husband Frank and Paskwa Lightning from Samson of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Cree Nation in Alberta. The Young First Nation lead a traditional pipe Thunderbird Singers, a young men’s ceremony at the sacred fire to give drumming group from Shkagamik thanks. Overhead, the sun is high in Kwe Health Centre in Sudbury the sky shining down on more than 85 sings in the procession of over 300 participants. The smell of tobacco fills people entering from the eastern the air as Ozawagosh lights the pipe doorway. Also in attendance are and offers it to those around her. seven elders from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, the territory where Laurentian’s Indigenous Sharing and Laurentian is situated. Beyond the Learning Centre (ISLC) is finally open. usual land acknowledgement, today It’s a day to celebrate a new chapter. they will be thanked in person. An Anishishinawbemowin class from St. The molded wood of the roof stretches David Catholic Elementary School up to a skylight, the design inspired by in Sudbury is also invited, because a wigwam. All around, the choices are language retention is imperative. deliberate, beginning with the Centre’s positioning as the new entranceway Students lead the way because they’re to the university. The colour scheme is central to this space, but members of the four colours of the medicine wheel: the community from infants to elders red, black, red, and white. The doors are included because it’s a place for are in the four cardinal directions. If you everyone. As the crowd enters, those walked out the northern door, you’d who wish to smudge do, and tobacco enter a medicine garden with tobacco, is available for those who want to offer sage, and sweetgrass. A living wall of their intentions. plants is in the works. Remarks are made by

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Laurentian Past-President President of people back from the 1970s. I think Dominic Giroux, Indigenous Students about all the people who came before Circle President Gabrielle Pellerin, and us and the changes that they tried to others. Associate Vice-President of make for the better for community and Academic and Indigenous Programs Dr. for Indigenous peoples. That’s what Sheila Cote-Meek, a two-time graduate drives me in my own work, that’s what I (BScN ‘89, MBA ‘92) and long-time keep in mind,” she says. advocate for the Centre, is honoured in a blanket ceremony. Guests from Cote-Meek, also from the Teme-Augama Glencore and Royal Bank of Canada, Anishnabai, is equally inspired. She’s the two major donors that made the another long-time advocate for the space a reality, are honoured. A closing space, which was conceived in 1997 by prayer, a bite to eat, and a symbolic Laurentian’s Native Education Council tree planting completes the ceremony and saw construction start in 2015. by 11:00 am. By the time it finishes, “It was so awesome to see the room the room will see 350 in attendance. A filled with so many people who have proper welcome. supported Indigenous education over the years as well as the development A CELEBRATION YEARS IN THE of the centre. Personally, I think it MAKING represented the growing commitment While many congratulations for the at Laurentian University to enhancing inaugurations likely go to the ISLC’s and building Indigenous programming new Director Shelly Moore-Frappier, and supports as well as ensuring that she’s quick to credit her team for the Indigenous peoples are welcome on work, as well as the people who came campus,” she says. before her. WORK STILL LEFT TO DO “We’ve been planning the event for a Now that the fanfare has subsided, few months now, and it takes a team the work begins. Or rather, continues. to plan. When you have that many Moore-Frappier, who returned to transitions and that many people to Laurentian to take the directorship a entertain, that speaks to the efforts of year and a half ago after eight years the people that put the time and energy overseeing Indigenous education into creating that,” she says. Moore- for the Sudbury Catholic District Frappier is a long-time Indigenous School Board, had first worked for the educator, a Teme-Augama Anishnabai university from 1995 to 2008, helping from Lake Temagami, and a Laurentian to develop the Indigenous Student graduate (‘94) from the Native Human Affairs (ISA) office in its earliest Services Program (now Indigenous stages. This past academic year, the Social Work). She adds that she was ISA has run and/or supported several moved by the sheer number of people events, including an orange shirt day in in the room. September to acknowledge residential school survivors, a red dress campaign “It was very emotional day. We’re here in the form of a haunting art installation today, but this is because of the work across campus in February to raise

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 awareness for murdered and missing anywhere.’” Indigenous women, the Maamwizing Indigenous academic conference, an It’s 7:00 am on June 21, 2017, National Indigenous education week, faculty Aboriginal Day. After months and education events, along with the usual years of planning, the only sounds are orientation and graduation events that the birds overhead and soft praying are more standard student fare. Many of in Anishinawbemowin, as elder Julie these same events are planned for this Ozawagosh and her husband Frank academic year. of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek First Nation lead a traditional pipe The ISLC space, where the ISA office is ceremony at the sacred fire to give now located, is also home to support thanks. Overhead, the sun is high in staff including an Indigenous counsellor the sky shining down on more than 85 and student engagement lead, an participants. The smell of tobacco fills Indigenous learning strategist, a Métis the air as Ozawagosh lights the pipe outreach coordinator, a traditional and offers it to those around her. resource program coordinator, Indigenous community outreach and Laurentian’s Indigenous Sharing and liaison coordinator, and an Indigenous Learning Centre (ISLC) is finally open. Special Projects Officer. There’s also It’s a day to celebrate a new chapter. support space like a kitchen, a private room for students from remote The molded wood of the roof stretches communities who need private space to up to a skylight, the design inspired by communicate with family back home, a wigwam. All around, the choices are counselling room, student work space, deliberate, beginning with the Centre’s seminar room which is a dedicated positioning as the new entranceway space for the Master of Indigenous to the university. The colour scheme is Relations program, student lounge the four colours of the medicine wheel: and traditional resource room. Sewing red, black, red, and white. The doors ribbon skirts and shirts, sweat lodge are in the four cardinal directions. If you ceremonies, full moon ceremonies, and walked out the northern door, you’d beadwork workshops are just some of enter a medicine garden with tobacco, the regular activities that happen here. sage, and sweetgrass. A living wall of plants is in the works. While some of these activities have long been a part of the Laurentian STUDENTS LEAD THE WAY community, the importance of this A bit later, the grand entry begins new space cannot be overstated, says with a procession, led by students, Moore-Frappier. “This is important dancers Brittney Shki-Giizis from for Indigenous students, but it’s also Dokis Nation near Lake Nipissing important for all students. For too and Paskwa Lightning from Samson long, Indigenous people have been Cree Nation in Alberta. The Young oppressed, marginalized and it’s Thunderbird Singers, a young men’s creating a space that gives a sense drumming group from Shkagamik of, ‘Here we are and we’re not going Kwe Health Centre in Sudbury

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 sings in the procession of over 300 she’s quick to credit her team for the people entering from the eastern work, as well as the people who came doorway. Also in attendance are before her. seven elders from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, the territory where “We’ve been planning the event for a Laurentian is situated. Beyond the few months now, and it takes a team usual land acknowledgement, today to plan. When you have that many they will be thanked in person. An transitions and that many people to Anishishinawbemowin class from St. entertain, that speaks to the efforts of David Catholic Elementary School the people that put the time and energy in Sudbury is also invited, because into creating that,” she says. Moore- language retention is imperative. Frappier is a long-time Indigenous educator, a Teme-Augama Anishnabai Students lead the way because they’re from Lake Temagami, and a Laurentian central to this space, but members of graduate (‘94) from the Native Human the community from infants to elders Services Program (now Indigenous are included because it’s a place for Social Work). She adds that she was everyone. As the crowd enters, those moved by the sheer number of people who wish to smudge do, and tobacco in the room. is available for those who want to offer their intentions. “It was very emotional day. We’re here today, but this is because of the work Remarks are made by Laurentian Past- of people back from the 1970s. I think President President Dominic Giroux, about all the people who came before Indigenous Students Circle President us and the changes that they tried to Gabrielle Pellerin, and others. Associate make for the better for community and Vice-President of Academic and for Indigenous peoples. That’s what Indigenous Programs Dr. Sheila Cote- drives me in my own work, that’s what I Meek, a two-time graduate (BScN ‘89, keep in mind,” she says. MBA ‘92) and long-time advocate for the Centre, is honoured in a blanket Cote-Meek, also from the Teme-Augama ceremony. Guests from Glencore and Anishnabai, is equally inspired. She’s Royal Bank of Canada, the two major another long-time advocate for the donors that made the space a reality, space, which was conceived in 1997 by are honoured. A closing prayer, a bite Laurentian’s Native Education Council to eat, and a symbolic tree planting and saw construction start in 2015. completes the ceremony by 11:00 am. “It was so awesome to see the room By the time it finishes, the room will see filled with so many people who have 350 in attendance. A proper welcome. supported Indigenous education over the years as well as the development A CELEBRATION YEARS IN THE of the centre. Personally, I think it MAKING represented the growing commitment While many congratulations for the at Laurentian University to enhancing inaugurations likely go to the ISLC’s and building Indigenous programming new Director Shelly Moore-Frappier, and supports as well as ensuring that

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Indigenous peoples are welcome on communicate with family back home, campus,” she says. counselling room, student work space, seminar room which is a dedicated WORK STILL LEFT TO DO space for the Master of Indigenous Now that the fanfare has subsided, Relations program, student lounge the work begins. Or rather, continues. and traditional resource room. Sewing Moore-Frappier, who returned to ribbon skirts and shirts, sweat lodge Laurentian to take the directorship a ceremonies, full moon ceremonies, and year and a half ago after eight years beadwork workshops are just some of overseeing Indigenous education the regular activities that happen here. for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, had first worked for the While some of these activities have university from 1995 to 2008, helping long been a part of the Laurentian to develop the Indigenous Student community, the importance of this Affairs (ISA) office in its earliest new space cannot be overstated, says stages. This past academic year, the Moore-Frappier. “This is important ISA has run and/or supported several for Indigenous students, but it’s also events, including an orange shirt day in important for all students. For too September to acknowledge residential long, Indigenous people have been school survivors, a red dress campaign oppressed, marginalized and it’s in the form of a haunting art installation creating a space that gives a sense across campus in February to raise of, ‘Here we are and we’re not going awareness for murdered and missing anywhere.’” Indigenous women, the Maamwizing Indigenous academic conference, an WISHES FOR THE FUTURE Indigenous education week, faculty As she enters her second year as education events, along with the usual President of the Indigenous Students orientation and graduation events that Circle and her fourth year as an are more standard student fare. Many of Indigenous Studies student, Gaby these same events are planned for this Pellerin says she looks forward to academic year. continuing to organize events in the space. “For Indigenous students, this The ISLC space, where the ISA office is centre represents a safe space to now located, is also home to support come together, to learn, and celebrate staff including an Indigenous counsellor our culture. The centre helps to keep and student engagement lead, an students grounded emotionally, Indigenous learning strategist, a Métis spiritually, mentally, and physically outreach coordinator, a traditional through their academic journeys,” she resource program coordinator, says. Indigenous community outreach and liaison coordinator, and an Indigenous She adds that the space is a “home Special Projects Officer. There’s also away from home” for Indigenous support space like a kitchen, a private students. “It is a space where students room for students from remote are always welcomed and who are communities who need private space to treated like family when they enter. For

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 non-Indigenous students, this centre means that more will have opportunities to learn and be immersed in our traditional ways. This centre represents an opportunity for reconciliation and common understanding among both peoples.”

That echoes Cote-Meek’s wish for the space as well. “I hope that the centre will be an active hub of sharing and learning as the name suggests. We need to work together to make society a better place and I hope the centre will be part of doing this,” she says.

Moore-Frappier says it’s a point of pride that Laurentian is leading the charge, adding that she attended a provincial meeting shortly after the ceremony in which other institutions were saying they already had “space envy” over the new centre. “I think this is a lot bigger than just Laurentian and the Laurentian community. When you think about it, especially on a province-wide level, this is the flagship for space for Indigenous learners. I think that it is going to be moving things forward for other institutions as well,” she says.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Ralph Ahrbeck B. Com. ‘81 AROUND THE WORLD AND BACK AGAIN Laurentian Commerce grad Ralph Ahrbeck builds an international business career

By Evan Bate, BA ’06, MA’07

When asked to recall the moment he company), build cutting-edge global left Sudbury for his first international brands, new business models and posting, Ralph Ahrbeck does so with market leadership. a sense of humour. “I grew up in an immigrant German family and deep THE SECRET IS BUILDING TRUST down I always had the bug to explore – WITH BOTH CONSUMERS AND the world. When the opportunity to EMPLOYEES move to Brussels came up with Kraft More impressive than the list of Foods International, I jumped on it. companies he has helped, though, is his They were hiring auditors and wanted approach. While building or redefining a Canadian Chartered Accountants. global brand may seem daunting to the Young people with a couple years of average person, Ahrbeck says that the work experience, who spoke a few secret to branding is simple: create an languages, were single, wanted to travel intimate consumer-focused approach and were good looking. I thought ‘Five that uses an emotional connection out of six ain’t bad!’ – I wasn’t that to create trust. It’s a philosophy he young!” continues to deploy as the head of his own consultancy, Arqus Advisory. Since that first gig at age 29, Ahrbeck has built a 30+ year career cultivating With so many years in the industry, global brands and innovative, profitable it’s not surprising that Ahrbeck speaks businesses for a diverse list of with confidence about his approach international clients. He has become a to consumers. “You have to intimately coveted, strategic mind, sought after know your market. Consumers are by international companies looking to more alike than you think. When create sustainable, profitable growth. a mother in Japan who is health- His innovative approach to strategy conscious and has two young children development and consumer-focused thinks about vitamins, for example, brand marketing has helped start-ups she thinks emotionally the same way and established global companies, that a mother in Sudbury would feel including Kraft Foods, Roche Pharma, about it. They also want to connect Alliance Boots and Tokyo-based with your company, relate to the values Shiseido (a US$ 7-billion cosmetics your company embodies. They want to

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 have trust. This requires companies to —and me. Being sent to Japan, never create emotional bonds with today’s having set foot in the country, and consumers. Your product has to touch overcoming huge cultural challenges to them.” be accepted as a capable and trusted foreign leader was one of my most He adds that companies also need gratifying moments.” to know when to act, and make change. “The bane of any business is Ahrbeck’s willingness to jump in to a complacency,” says Ahrbeck. totally foreign environment—to observe and appreciate its subtleties—is key On the organizational and people front, to developing what he describes as Ahrbeck says it’s people that build “cultural dexterity.” Without it, he brands and reinvent companies, not believes there is little hope for anyone tools like PowerPoint presentations. to be truly successful in international Leaders need to develop trust with markets. employees, particularly in foreign markets. That has much to do with OTHER NATIONS, OTHER understanding and embracing where CHALLENGES you are working—its history and cultural After experiencing so much in Japan, nuances—and who you are working Ahrbeck continued his international with. career working for international companies in Switzerland, Germany, THE PAYOFF OF CULTURAL Poland, the United States, the United DEXTERITY Kingdom and China. His former It’s a simple, people-focused approach positions include European Head of that Ahrbeck has used himself many Roche Consumer Health (later sold to times. When he was asked by Kraft Bayer), Global Commercial Director Foods to oversee the revitalization of for AllianceBoots, Founder of global its struggling traditional Japanese joint marketing consultancy Novus Life venture, he and his wife first travelled Sciences, Alliance Boots, and a stint to a non-English speaking part of the as Global Chief Strategy Officer and country for three months of intensive Regional Head in China, for Shiseido. language and cultural studies in order to acclimate, assimilate and learn as But four languages, eight countries much about their new home as possible. and three continents later, he still Only then did he start working in the considers Canada his anchor. And Tokyo office. now, the wanderer has returned, at least part of the time. With worn and While the learning curve was significant, tattered passports and too many air Ahrbeck says it was well worth the miles to count, today Ahrbeck divides effort, especially when he saw how his time between homes in Canada and much it paid off in terms of earning the Germany and various global clients. trust and respect of his new peers. Although he travelled far from “There were 999 Japanese employees Laurentian, Ahrbeck says he still calls

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 regularly on the important soft skills he acquired during his undergraduate years—teamwork, compromise, negotiation, networking, public speaking, and working in a high- pressure environment. With the benefit of countless mentors, experiences and years of continuous learning (he’s a big fan of leadership guru Jim Collins’s book Good to Great), Ahrbeck has learned a lot and is ready to share some wisdom himself. His parting advice?

“Jump into a business or career that you are passionate about, have fun with it and do something that is entrenched in the values you hold dear to your heart. Because only with passion and fun will you be able to reinvent yourself continuously. Always be consumer- focused and be different in what you do–only then will you achieve greatness. The rest of it will fall into place.”

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Theresa Nyabeze B. Eng. ‘01 LEADING BY EXAMPLE Mining Engineering graduate passionate about encouraging girls in STEM

By Suzanne Bowness

Theresa Nyabeze holds many titles, Nyabeze says she became passionate several of which break gender barriers. about educating young people, Frontline Supervisor at Vale’s Coleman particularly girls, about STEM fields Mine in Sudbury, Mining Engineering when she was an engineering student. graduate from Laurentian (’01), working “When I was in university, I really mother. struggled to see anyone who looked like who I would want to be when I grew And her latest title reflects elements of up. I really lacked visible role models,” all of these identities: children’s author. says Nyabeze.

Written to educate children about THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP mining, Underground! My Mining She says finally met her own role Adventure tells the story of Maiya, a girl models when one of her professors who gets to go on a surprise adventure brought in guest speakers from for her birthday. Besides taking readers an organization called Women in through the adventure of a mine, the Science and Engineering (WISE). She story’s hero also gets to follow her immediately joined the organization working mother through her day. and has now volunteered with them Nyabeze launched the book at Dynamic for several years, this year taking up a Earth, and has done several readings second stint as Chapter President. at local schools. “The kids are very enthusiastic. They’re very welcoming Hired by Vale right after graduation and sweet,” says Nyabeze. and building a career on technical roles over many years before moving into Nyabeze is also determined to make her current people-oriented role as the book the first in a series, so she Frontline Supervisor, she already walks launched a new company called the talk. Diversity STEM (www.diversitystem. ca) to help engage youth in creative But Nyabeze says she’d like to see ways about topics related to the those role models reach girls even science, technology, engineering and earlier. Perhaps it’s a realization that mathematics (STEM) fields. hits her even more now that she has an 11-year-old daughter herself (she

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 also has a 13-year-old son). Originally from Zimbabwe, Nyabeze moved with her family to Sudbury when she was 12. But she only started thinking about engineering as a career when she got to university. “I didn’t know the power of mentorship as a high school student. It’s only as I joined WISE that I saw the power of mentorship,” she says. “I want to be that for somebody,” she adds.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE Nyabeze makes that resolution concrete by organizing an annual Science and Engineering Olympics, a free WISE event that brings together 120 girls from grades four to seven in the Sudbury area for a day of hands-on workshops and speakers on science topics. In teams, the girls compete to solve a series of puzzles on fun topics, like figuring out how many balloons it would take to lift a house like in the Disney movie Up! “They’re learning about science in a fun, engaging way. We really meet them where they are,” says Nyabeze.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 David McGeachy B.Sc. ’10, M. Sc. ‘14 PURSUING THE POLAR BEAR Laurentian graduate David McGeachy brings passion to Environment and Climate Change Canada

By Jason Hagerman, BA’ 07

Two-time graduate David McGeachy will never forget the first time he “I was full of adrenaline as I inched approached the largest land carnivore closer to the bear on foot,” says in the world. McGeachy. “It was such a dream come true to be so deeply immersed in this “I couldn’t help but be awestruck being aspect of wildlife research,” he says. so close to a polar bear, just watching it breathe was mesmerizing and reminded Thanks to the research conducted here me of the scene in Jurassic Park when in Canada, the country that is home to they approached the triceratops,” says 16,000 of the world’s estimated 20,000 McGeachy. to 25-000 polar bears, also boasts the longest-running polar bear data set on It all started on a late-summer day the planet, cataloguing and tracking in 2015. He was flying around Cape the bears to provide insight not only Churchill, Manitoba, a favourite hangout into their population but the Arctic spot for polar bears as they wait ecosystem as a whole. for the ice to return to Hudson Bay. McGeachy, who works in polar bear A POLARIZING SUBJECT conservation for Environment and Based on the raw numbers, polar bears Climate Change Canada, was with his seem like a conservation success story. colleague Dr. Nick Lunn, a research A WWF Canada report shows only one scientist who has been researching of Canada’s 13 polar bear groups in polar bears for over 30 years. population decline. Seven groups are stable and two are growing. Northeast winds were gusting at over 30 kilometres per hour as they But the raw numbers don’t tell the approached the Cape by helicopter and whole story. found a dozen bears loosely spread out and lounging along the raised beach The landscape across the Canadian ridge. As they got closer, they randomly Artic, where McGeachy executes his selected a bear for health testing. It was field work as a polar bear research identified as X33277, a 14-year-old adult technician, offers an alternate vision of male. the future of our largest land carnivore.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 “We will search for bears from the “The polar bear body condition is helicopter,” says McGeachy. “We have declining, the reproduction rate is collars on a few, but mostly we’re declining,” McGeachy says. “We find, either following tracks in the winter not often, but regularly enough to or spotting them along the green notice, females who aren’t lactating, vegetation in the fall.” even though they have cubs.” The team that McGeachy is part of also Western Hudson Bay is at the far south interacts with the bears directly. “We of the polar bear territory, with only two will dart them, approach very carefully, populations (in Southern Hudson Bay take measurements and samples, assess and further east along the Davis Strait) their health, look for contaminants and that wander further south. Sea ice here pull teeth to age the bears. Sometimes is in decline, and sea ice, like rain on the we collar them, sometimes not,” he savannah, is life. says.

“A recent study showed the bears Samples of bear fat tell field biologists using more of the Bay than they used like McGeachy a story. A polar bear’s to. It’s a reflection maybe of changing primary food source is seals, and food abundance,” says McGeachy. seals are fat. When a polar bear eats “Everything in the Arctic revolves a seal, the bear basically takes that around the ice. It’s not just the bears. fat and puts it on him or herself, says It’s the things at the lower levels of the McGeachy. A fat sample from a bear food chain too. Different species of reveals the type of seal, but also the fish are coming into the Bay and the seal’s diet. This information helps gauge existing fish move to different waters. the health of the local ecosystem and That changes diets of everything from feeds into the long-term data profile birds to seals.” for Environment and Climate Change Canada. When sea ice moves, food moves. And you can learn a lot about it all—the “Things are changing so fast—it’s a animals, the environment—from polar global concern,” says McGeachy. “This bears. is important research to continue, as it tells us about the state of this super- PURSUING THE FACTS charismatic animal, but also the Arctic Three months out of the year, for ecosystem it lives in.” stretches of about a month at a time, McGeachy flies from his home base in And as for X33277, the first polar bear Edmonton to the project site on the McGeachy encountered, “I hope to western shore of Hudson Bay. catch him again someday just to see how he is doing,” he says. During that month, he criss-crosses the Arctic sky by air, searching for wandering polar bears.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Karim Omri B. Eng. ’12, M.A.Sc. ‘13 AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Two-time Laurentian engineering graduate is passionate about business

By Jason Hagerman, BA ‘07

As a young entrepreneur building building his career in the tired evenings. a business, Karim Omri, founder of engineering firm Komri Systems “I had the skills, knowledge, some Incorporated, spends a lot of time on experience,” Komri says, “but my the road. biggest selling point was being lean and efficient. I found opportunities A typical day might find him driving to optimize the revenue from a from his home base in Sudbury to a business standpoint. Ways to do things client work site in northern Ontario differently.” in the morning, then pricing a job for another client in the afternoon, with the Komri Systems offers engineering, occasional lunch meeting in between. fabrication and product design services, mostly for manufacturing and industrial After graduating from Laurentian, applications. The applications are broad, Omri started his career at TesMan, covering everything from mechanical a consulting firm providing services and structural engineering to product for the mining industry, and did a few design and even electronic design. summer gigs at Rock-Tech, an industrial manufacturer for the mining industry. The first big contract, in 2015 at age 25, allowed him to step out on his own, and But he always had his eye on he’s never looked back. entrepreneurship. In fact, he already showed early signs of the THE CHALLENGES OF START-UP entrepreneurial spirit. In elementary Two years into the business, Omri has school, he traded marbles with already worked with over 20 different classmates. He started Karim’s Music companies. He says that finding clients Exchange as a teen, buying used is a major challenge for an entrepreneur music equipment in bulk and selling it starting out. “It might not sound like it elsewhere at a higher price. from how many companies I’ve worked with, but getting a solid base of clients As he gained experience in the working was by far the hardest part of starting world, Omri built Komri Systems on this business,” Omri says. the side, working his day job 9 to 5 and

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 “Getting trust from potential clients without an extensive track record, with their money, with their own businesses. Cold calling and finding people, that daily grind of getting business, was so hard. Especially in the consulting end of the business, selling services instead of product.”

According to Omri , every job Komri Systems does is done to the highest possible standard, which is what keeps his clients coming back.

SEEKING MENTORS Omri says the best thing he did to build his business was appeal to the goodwill of experienced peers in the industry.

“I set up a board of advisors early, and it was the best thing I did,” he says. “It was never really me alone. I would recommend this to anybody starting a business,” he says.

His technique makes it sound simple. “I approached people I knew in the industry and just asked for help. My board of advisors are all volunteers, paid for by beer and a nice dinner here and there. Whenever I need help, I can send an email or make a call.”

Perhaps another sign that Omri is an entrepreneur at heart is his ability to see potential everywhere. “I look at everything as an opportunity. Your entrepreneurial spirit could reveal itself just in the way that you look at things,” he says. “You see value and ways to improve value all over the place. The opportunities are out there. They always will be. If you see them, chase them.”

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 STRENGTHENIG BONDS SPAD’s Alumni Golf Tournament continues to grow

BY SACHELLE VIOLETTE, BA ’12

It’s not everyday that you see a member events. of the inaugural class at an alumni chapter event. But that was the case on Along with attendance, the number June 17 when the Sports Administration and value of the prizes donated by (SPAD) alumni chapter held its annual SPAD graduates and their employers, golf tournament. Not only did Dennis continues to rise. “Our raffle table looks O’Brien, (H.B.Com.SPAD ’75) play in the like a celebrity golf tournament raffle tournament, his sons Kevin (H.B.Com. table,” says Rains. SPAD ’01) and Michael (B.Sc. ’02) made up the other half of his foursome. “We receive a lot of prizes that are autographed by professional athletes, This year’s event had record-breaking which is wonderful because these are attendance, attracting 97 graduates things you just can’t buy,” adds Diane from around the province, at The Club Mihalek (H.B.Com.SPAD ‘89), a member at Bond Head, a few kilometres north of of the organizing committee. Aurora, Ontario. REVITALIZING A NETWORK While other SPAD alumni functions Although the tournament has evolved happen throughout the year, chapter in terms of registrants and prominence, President J.P. Rains (H.B.Com.SPAD ’09, its objective has always remained the MBA ’15), says this is the major event. same. “With many of us working in different sectors all over the country, it’s great to “The tournament is a fundraiser but the be able to come together in one place.” purpose isn’t to make a lot of money— the goal is to provide a networking A GROWING TRADITION opportunity for graduates. We do make The tournament dates back to the mid- some money, which we usually donate 2000s, created as part of a third-year back to SPAD,” says Mihalek. student project. It began as a simple round of golf involving a couple dozen Historically, those funds been former classmates. After a brief hiatus, donated to SPAD initiatives and it has quickly grown to become one of student bursaries, including a $2,000 Laurentian’s most well-attended alumni contribution to the Steve Harrington

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Memorial Award. This year, the committee took a different approach As the program grows older and when they learned that the SPAD the tournament continues to build program’s first director, Dr. Bob Wanzel, momentum, generations of SPAD was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease graduates are coming together for the in 2016. In his honour, a $1,000 cheque event. was made out to the Parkinson Canada and presented to Wanzel at the event. “In many more ways than one, this truly is like a family reunion,” says Mihalek. “It’s great that we were able to show him our appreciation because he has been such an integral part of the program since its inception, and has continued to be so supportive of the program,” says Mihalek. “I don’t think he’s ever missed a SPAD alumni event, even years after retirement.”

MAINTAINING AND EXPANDING CONNECTIONS Along with Wanzel, former Director and Founder of the SPAD program Dr. Kit Lefroy has also played in the tournament every year.

“Something that alumni truly appreciate is the fact that professors come out as well,” says Rains. “Being able to catch up with them and find out what they’ve been up to in their personal and professional lives, it’s really the only occasion that we get to do that and it’s pretty special.”

The tournament this year saw more young alumni and student players than ever.

“It was a chance for them to meet some of our more established alumni, which, along with our mentorship program, has really helped form significant connections leading to potential opportunities post-graduation,” says Rains.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Allan Lekun BA ’84, MBA ‘02 SERVING WITH PASSION Greater Sudbury Police Services Deputy Chief celebrates almost 30 years of protecting his community

BY EVAN BATE, BA ’06, MA ’07

Greater Sudbury Police Services studies at McGill University, Lekun (GSPS) Deputy Police Chief Allan (Al) began working with the GSPS in 1989. Lekun embodies the commitment to Since then he has served in front-line, community-focused policing, both as a supervisory, and progressively senior member of the GSPS’s executive team leadership positions. and outside of the force as one of the most committed volunteers you are Beyond his day-to-day police work, ever likely to meet. Lekun has also pursued a deeper understanding of his industry through Born and raised in Sudbury, Lekun is a continuing education. A passionate man who truly loves his job and his city, advocate for continuous learning, Lekun and over his 28-year career seems to has embraced opportunities that allow have internalized the common phrase him to develop what he calls a “multi- “to protect and serve.” faceted approach to addressing issues.”

More specifically, Lekun focused on how Completing an MBA in 2002 from to help his community. “What policing Laurentian taught Lekun about new does is not strictly enforcement—our ways of advancing the profession. police services in this province are a “At the time, I saw our organization key focal point in community building. evolving. Expectations and demands The question that started my career in were growing, and new standards of law enforcement was: ‘How do I make conduct were being implemented as Sudbury a better place to live, work benchmarks of exceptional service. and play?’ I wanted to be an agent for I saw an opportunity to increase positive change, and I still do—through professionalism within myself and the my work and as a volunteer.” organization, which was really key in enhancing the trust and confidence the THE ROAD TO POLICING public had in policing,” says Lekun. Lekun was encouraged at a young age by various relatives in policing to He adds that exposure to new ideas consider it as a career option. After and perspectives helped him to bring completing a BA in Law & Justice outside ideas to his own profession. from Laurentian (’84), and graduate “I also got to learn about different

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 business models and ways of solving and outside of the force as one of the problems from my classmates who most committed volunteers you are were from very different professional ever likely to meet. backgrounds—social services, government, mining, etc. This was Born and raised in Sudbury, Lekun is a really motivating for me and allowed man who truly loves his job and his city, me to bring in new ideas to aid in the and over his 28-year career seems to transformation of our organization.” have internalized the common phrase “to protect and serve.” VOLUNTEERISM ALSO KEY TO SUCCESS More specifically, Lekun focused on how Equally important as the lessons he to help his community. “What policing learned inside the classroom were does is not strictly enforcement—our those he learned through his volunteer police services in this province are a activities. Volunteering has given Lekun key focal point in community building. a tremendous appreciation for how The question that started my career in interconnected people truly are and law enforcement was: ‘How do I make how important these connections are to Sudbury a better place to live, work community building. and play?’ I wanted to be an agent for positive change, and I still do—through “There is tremendous crossover my work and as a volunteer.” between the personal and professional lives of the residents of a community, THE ROAD TO POLICING and discovering and strengthening Lekun was encouraged at a young these bonds makes for a deeper sense age by various relatives in policing to of unity,” says Lekun. “The feeling that consider it as a career option. After we are truly all in this together, and that completing a BA in Law & Justice we can work together to enhance our from Laurentian (’84), and graduate individual abilities, and those of our studies at McGill University, Lekun neighbours, so that everyone benefits.” began working with the GSPS in 1989. Since then he has served in front-line, Today, Lekun is involved such with supervisory, and progressively senior groups such as the Community leadership positions. Advisory Board for Homeless Initiatives, the House of Kin, the Sudbury District Beyond his day-to-day police work, Council of Easter Seals Ontario and Lekun has also pursued a deeper the Sudbury Task Force to Remove understanding of his industry through Impaired Driving Everywhere (STRIDE), continuing education. A passionate among others. advocate for continuous learning, Lekun has embraced opportunities that allow Greater Sudbury Police Services him to develop what he calls a “multi- (GSPS) Deputy Police Chief Allan (Al) faceted approach to addressing issues.” Lekun embodies the commitment to community-focused policing, both as a Completing an MBA in 2002 from member of the GSPS’s executive team Laurentian taught Lekun about new

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 ways of advancing the profession. neighbours, so that everyone benefits.” “At the time, I saw our organization evolving. Expectations and demands Today, Lekun is involved such with were growing, and new standards of groups such as the Community conduct were being implemented as Advisory Board for Homeless Initiatives, benchmarks of exceptional service. the House of Kin, the Sudbury District I saw an opportunity to increase Council of Easter Seals Ontario and professionalism within myself and the the Sudbury Task Force to Remove organization, which was really key in Impaired Driving Everywhere (STRIDE), enhancing the trust and confidence the among others. public had in policing,” says Lekun. COACHING STUDENTS TO A HIGHER He adds that exposure to new ideas LEVEL and perspectives helped him to bring As a life-long football fan and highly outside ideas to his own profession. regarded university player, Lekun “I also got to learn about different also gives his time to coaching high business models and ways of solving school football and developing the Joe problems from my classmates who MacDonald Youth Football League, were from very different professional an organization he helped found in backgrounds—social services, memory of his former colleague and government, mining, etc. This was close friend. really motivating for me and allowed me to bring in new ideas to aid in the For Lekun, helping young people transformation of our organization.” develop their character and leadership abilities though sport is extremely VOLUNTEERISM ALSO KEY TO gratifying. He has seen firsthand the SUCCESS positive fruits of this labour—a number Equally important as the lessons he of the young people he has coached in learned inside the classroom were the past are now members of the GSPS. those he learned through his volunteer activities. Volunteering has given Lekun “I find great fulfillment in my a tremendous appreciation for how involvement in football. There are some interconnected people truly are and amazing, amazing kids out there just how important these connections are to yearning for the opportunity to play community building. and build their self-confidence. The young guys I’ve coached at 14, 15 and “There is tremendous crossover 16, who are now on the force, I couldn’t between the personal and professional be prouder of what they’ve been able lives of the residents of a community, to achieve in the organization. I look at and discovering and strengthening them as mature, well-rounded adults these bonds makes for a deeper sense setting strong examples for those of unity,” says Lekun. “The feeling that following in their footsteps,” says Lekun. we are truly all in this together, and that we can work together to enhance our RECOGNITION ROLLS IN individual abilities, and those of our In recognition of his tremendous service

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 to the community through his daily work and volunteerism, Lekun has received some of policing’s, and the province’s, top honours, including the Police Exemplary Service Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He was also appointed as a Member of the Order of Merit of Police Forces in January 2014.

Almost 30 years after it began, this distinguished career remains far from over. The drive to make his hometown the best place it can be—to work, learn and thrive—is as strong as ever.

“Where does it all end? It doesn’t end! What still motivates me today is the ability to work with all types of individuals to make our community better. I’m so proud to be living here. There is a spirit of cooperation and collaboration that exists in Sudbury that makes us unique. Everyone has a role to play. We can all make a difference,” says Lekun.

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 HEALTHY CONTRIBUTIONS Laurentian grads celebrate tenth anniversary of first Nurse Practitioner-led clinic in Canada

By Suzanne Bowness

It’s a good news story when any group months for a women’s health clinic. of Laurentian grads work together. It’s Today the clinic includes five full-time even better when they create the first and two part-time Nurse Practitioners, workplace of its kind, and when that a dietician, a Registered Nurse, a workplace is dedicated to serving its Registered Practical Nurse, a Social community. When the effort prospers Worker, two part-time Pharmacists, to the point of celebrating a tenth an Administrative Lead, and four anniversary? Clearly congratulations are Medical Secretaries. It also opened a in order for the Sudbury District Nurse second location in the town of Lively, Practitioner Clinic, the first in Canada. 16 kilometres away, in 2010. Today the clinics employ nine Laurentian Opened in August 2007 by Nurse graduates. Practitioners Marilyn Butcher and Roberta Heale, the clinic represented a Looking back, co-founder Heale, solution to two outstanding problems: who is now an Associate Professor at few positions available for Nurse Laurentian’s School of Nursing, says Practitioners (NPs) in Sudbury, and that the clinic’s achievement verified a 30,000 local patients without access need in the community. “The success to health-care services. Why not open of the NPLC confirms for me that it a clinic? The fledgling team applied wasn’t merely a vision of two NPs. It for and, after some effort, eventually confirms that NPs are effective primary received government and funding care providers and the NPLC model approval for the operation, which is a solid solution to lack of access to started with three Nurse Practitioners, comprehensive primary health care,” plus Butcher who also held the Clinic she says. Director role. Today there are 25 Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics (NPLCs) in Jennifer Clement, a Nurse Practitioner Ontario. who trained at Laurentian (BScN ’97, NP ’08) has been with the clinic since AN IDEA TAKES OFF 2008, and its Director since 2012. The team got to work serving patients She says she loves the community at its downtown location on Riverside involvement of primary care work. “You Drive, with visits to Chapleau every two get to really know your patients. They’ll

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 come in for a visit and you spend half the feedback has been fantastic,” she the visit talking about what’s going on says. in their lives,” she says. With both sites combined, Clement says the roster is Heale adds that the clinic also helps up to over 5,600 patients, ranging in keep health-care practitioners serving age from six weeks to 95 years old. And their own communities. “The Nurse the clinic’s growth continues—future Practitioners and NPLC staff that plans include hiring another Social are employed at the clinic are from Worker, Nurse Practitioner and pending this area. They know the health-care the approval of a proposal to the environment, the people and politics of Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, this northern region. This is an added a Physiotherapist. value to the comprehensive primary health care that they provide. This For those unclear on designations, also ensures continuity and stability of today’s Nurse Practitioners can health care for patients registered in the diagnose illnesses, prescribe clinic,” she says. medications and perform many medical services (exceptions include With so many specialities available on MRIs and CT scans). Registered site, the clinic also enables patients Nurses are allowed to assess but not access to other services in the same diagnose or prescribe medications. location. Patient programs include Nurse Practitioner programs were first everything from footcare to diabetes developed by Ontario universities in to stress management to smoking 1995, and the Ontario government cessation. There’s an exercise program regulated the designation and for seniors, and a chronic pain exercise authorized their practice in 1998. In 2011, program that the clinic holds in NPs’ scope of practice was extended to partnership with a Pilates studio. grant wider prescription and diagnostic rights. Today, Laurentian’s Nurse A ONE-STOP SHOP Practitioner program is two years and Bev Castonguay, who earned her admission requirements include two Bachelor of Social Work degree at years of front line-service as a nurse. Laurentian (’93) and started working for the clinic six years ago to serve COMMUNITY BENEFITS patients with mental health issues, says Besides the sheer advantage of the multiple service offering is one of more health-care professionals in the best advantages for patients. “It’s the community, benefits to a Nurse a very collaborative approach. We can Practitioner clinic include their ability to manage all their needs. So, they may spend more time with patients, and a be accessing mental health support to holistic approach whereby patients can deal with anxiety, foot care because consult about more than one issue at they’re diabetic, as well as having their once. Clement says the public today is health-care needs met by our Nurse more aware of what nurse practitioners Practitioners.” do, where once they were nervous and saw NPs as a stopgap measure. “Now As a professional, Castonguay also

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 likes the clinic’s model. “I love the fact Sherry Giroux of how we work so well as an intra- BScN ’05, NP CERTIFICATE ’15 professional team,” she says. Arro Barry, a graduate of Laurentian’s nursing Mary Geroux program (BScN ’02, MSN ‘17) who BScN ’04, NP CERTIFICATE ’05 worked in rural northern communities in the Yukon and Moosonee, Thunder Tiffany McGilvery Bay, and the Yukon before returning BScN ’09, NP CERTIFICATE ’12, to Sudbury, adds that the capacity of MSN CANDIDATE a primary care clinic to help so many different people attracted her to work there. “It was an opportunity to do lots of different types of nursing. I didn’t have to pick something. It was a really accommodating, supportive environment. It was a new model.”

Patients are also enthusiastic, says Clement. “The patients like it. They like the fact that we can spend the time with them. They like the fact that it’s a team-centered approach to care.”

LAURENTIAN GRADS WORKING AT THE CLINIC: Arro Barry BScN ’02, MSN ’17

Jana Carter NP CERTIFICATE ’09, MSN CANDIDATE

Bev Castonguay BSW ’93

Jennifer Clement BScN ’97, NP CERTIFICATE ’08

Jennifer Dawson NP CERTIFICATE ’12, MSN ’13

Kim Demers NP CERTIFICATE ’07

This document has been prepared to comply to The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act,2005