MAGAZINE pictures MOVING seymour schulich’s ‘life-changing scholarships’ coal age galapagos VOL.25 | NO.2 | FALL | 2008 Canada Post Publications Mail Return undeliverable Canadian Agreement No. 40065040 addresses to: Alumni Office Dalhousie University Halifax NS B3H 3J5 These fund raising superheroes don’t require a phone booth to swing into action. Just a phone. Meet the Dalhousie Annual Fund gang. And, while it’s called the Annual Fund, this team works daily to secure the unlimited educational and research opportunities that make Dalhousie a great university. By supporting the Annual Fund you help Dalhousie ensure every student learns and explores in a dynamic and stimulating environment. For more information give us a call at 902.494.6862 or visit us at www.dal.ca/annualgiving. LEFT TO RIGHT, FRONT ROW: Anne Swan, Development Officer; Kimberly McDonald Winsor, Development Officer; Deb Maskell, Administrative Support; Marni Tuttle, Director LEFT TO RIGHT, BACK ROW: Yazeed Sobaih, Co-op student, Phonathon; Greg Blacklock, Development Officer DEPARTMENTS FROM THE EDITOR 2 UPFRONT ON CAMPUS 4 DaMAGAZINE l h o u s i e 12Lessons from the Little DALUMNI 28 Black Schoolhouse CLASS NOTES 31 It takes a lot of hats to learn THE BACK STORY 40 and share the lessons from 20Fossil record our past. Researcher, writer, producer and director Sylvia After Charles Lyell visited Hamilton’s latest film about the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, his segregated schools reveals impressions influenced a an aspect of Canadian young Charles Darwin. The history that has been all place where the fossil record but invisible. Time for a documents evolution in second take. action has since been dubbed 10Building on a by Marie Weeren a ‘coal age Galapagos.’ Now On our cover family tradition the site is inspiring a current 22Research matters Alumna Sylvia Hamilton, Gemini- generation of geologists, award winning director, was Enter the Goldberg architects and community From the infinitesimally Computer Science leaders who have made the small world of quantum photographed at the University of Building. Dalhousie students world take notice, once again. physics, to the most King’s College where she teaches, will benefit from a new by Marilyn Smulders ancient life forms that by Nick Pearce of Dalhousie’s scholarship established 16Talking points emerged on earth, Creative Services. in recognition of Halifax’s investigators are pushing Goldberg family And you know, it don’t the boundaries of knowledge. by benefactor come easy. Not being able We share the most recent Seymour Schulich. to talk, sing, share or even research highlights from by Joanne Ward-Jerrett argue with people you OutFront magazine. care about is frustrating by Julia Watt and isolating. An intensive speech therapy program is teaching stroke patients how to communicate, while providing hope for caregivers. by Ryan McNutt FromtheEditor DalhousieMAGAZINE EDITOR Amanda Pelham ASSISTANT EDITOR/ADVERTISING MANAGER Lights, camera, action Keri Irwin CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Marilyn Smulders xit, stage left: From the Class of 1926, Wilf Creighton. ART DIRECTOR Fran Ornstein Wilf grew up nearby on LeMarchant Street, went pond skating on the Murray CLASS NOTES/ DALUMNI/ IN MEMORIAM homestead before it became the Studley campus, saw the damage in the neighbourhood For submissions, contact: Joanne Ward-Jerrett [email protected] E from the Halifax explosion, and witnessed royalty opening buildings that are now cloaked ADDRESS CHANGES in ivy. A lifelong friend of Dalhousie, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004, the same Tel: (902) 494-6855 1 (800) 565-9969 Email: [email protected] year he celebrated his centenary. Alumni Records, Macdonald Building Farewell, old friend. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5 PRODUCED BY Dalhousie University Taking centre stage: Each autumn, every student arriving on campus embodies the possibility Communications and Marketing of realizing his or her own unique potential. Achieving that self-awareness and ability CONTRIBUTORS will involve facing unknown challenges and – as we say around here – discovering When not interviewing illustrious benefactors and the unexpected. notable alumni for stories that appear within these pages, Joanne Ward-Jerrett toils as communications When CBC recently aired The Little Black Schoolhouse, it was a reminder that the ability to advisor in Dal’s Advancement Marketing pursue a higher education is predicated on access to a solid secondary education. The original and and Communications department. thought-provoking film by Sylvia Hamilton explores the legacy of the segregated school system, a Marie Weeren gives full credits for the 2 little known aspect of Canadian history (see “Lessons from the Little Black Schoolhouse,” Page 12). cover story to Dr. Sylvia Hamilton and the other interviewees who so freely shared Accessibility is based on many factors, including financial means. Philanthropist Seymour their insights and experiences. Marie is president of 10th Floor Solutions, a Schulich still appreciates the choices opened up by his own “life-changing” university scholarship Halifax business specializing in public and wants future generations to have similar opportunities. As a result of his legacy in recognition relations writing and workshops. MAGAZINE of Halifax’s Goldberg family, students in science and computer science will be able to concentrate | As a debater and volunteer with the more fully on their academics. (See “A family tradition,” Page 10). Sodales Debating Society, Ryan McNutt is as comfortable with the spoken word as he is Learning is a life-long pursuit, especially when contending with unexpected setbacks. Stroke with the written one. In this issue, he explores the stories of people who have lost the ability patients who have lost their ability to communicate are enrolling in a workshop with speech to connect thought with speech, and the language pathology students. At the same time that the students are applying their clinical skills, speech therapy program that’s helping them rebuild their lives one word at a time. DALHOUSIE they’re testing the water as health educators (see “Talking points,” Page 16). They’re beginning their journey as teachers, a route that award-winning professor Tom MacRae – a mentor to many of his Marilyn Smulders is thankful she brought her children students and peers – describes as “a lifelong challenge” (see Guest View, Page 3). Noah and Jessie along to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs because they spied numerous fossils Enter, stage right: The Class of 2012; just over 15,000 strong, brimming with on the walk along the beach and she didn’t find one! potential, talent and curiosity. They’re singing along with Wintersleep’s Weighty Ghost at an outdoor concert, joking with the comedy troupe Brian Harrison added to the fun of moving his company Trivium Design to a new home at 1583 Hollis Street by Picnicface at the Grawood, and rock-climbing on walls high above the also designing the Dalhousie magazine at the same time. Jane Lombard, a familiar hand on the magazine, added Studley quadrangle. production assistance, design and layout skills. Debora Jewitt coordinated numerous photography sessions with Hello, new friends. photographers Nick Pearce and Danny Abriel. Thanks to Bruce Bottomley and Josh Boyter for photos. DALHOUSIE MAGAZINE appears three times a year. Editorial deadline for the next issue is December 15, 2008. Photo: Danny Abriel Danny Photo: Guestview It takes a lifetime was raised in a small village in New Brunswick, the son of a fisherman who left school to support Tom MacRae won the his family, and a war bride who braved uncertainty in Canada. I went to the same one room Dalhousie Alumni Ischool as my father and carved my initials beside his on a beam in the school’s wood house. I Association’s Award of learned many lessons from my parents and two have been very significant to me as a teacher. The Excellence for Teaching. first was to respect others and the second, as you might guess, was the value of hard work. These were learned by example, not by preaching. My mother took care of her family and worked many hours a week in the local store, an unusual thing for a woman of those days in a rural environment. After high school, which focused primarily on cars and girls (well, really only one girl), I was introduced to the privilege of academic life as an undergraduate at Mount Allison University. At first, I was unimpressed, but it was better than my previous job rolling logs into a saw mill. Then, a young professor, Bill Trentini, arrived at Mount A; he was tough, demanding, uncompromising, challenging, fair and interested in his students. Bill pushed me to my limits, let me know when I could do better and praised me when I did well. This experience was followed two graduate degrees under the supervision of Howard McCurdy at the University of Windsor, focusing on micro- organisms. At Windsor I had the opportunity to experience a 3 FALL My “secrets” for effective great lecturer in action. Howard was also heavily involved | teaching are simple... in the promotion of civil 2008 rights in Canada, where, by the way, many things remain to be done, and he followed a path that led to a seat in the House of Commons. Perhaps supervising me drove Howard from science? It is one thing to watch others perform on the teaching stage, quite another to produce yourself. I failed rather miserably in my first attempts. The reviews were scathing, informing me that I mumbled, lacked organization, and expected far too much from second-year students, especially at exam time. I remember saying to my wife, Cheryl (yes, the girl from high school), “I am in the wrong business.” The harsh criticisms of my first teaching effort, which were mostly right on the mark, eventually paid dividends to me. I came to Dalhousie a year later, determined to better meet the needs and interests of my students.