The Honourable Allen Roach, Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning, signed a proclamation today presented by UPEI co-op student Kylie Ford to recognize next week, March 16 to 20, as National Co-operative Education Week. National co-op week is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Canadian co-operative education students.

'Providing students will real work experience and mentorship is an important part of building the leaders of tomorrow,' said Minister Roach. 'Co-operative education at UPEI is a win-win proposition where students gain valuable experience to prepare them for their careers, and Island businesses and organizations, through investing in co-op education, contribute and gain access to a skilled labour force.'

UPEI will recognize the accomplishments of its co-op students during their work terms at its annual awards ceremony on March 18. Presentations will be made to the Co-op Student of the Year in business, physics, and computer science and who have demonstrated high academic achievement, a valued contribution to their employer and community, and displayed personal and professional development. Employer Recognition awards will also be announced.

Pat MacAulay, Director of the Office of Skills Development & Learning said, 'The UPEI Co-op Program gives students the opportunity to apply classroom theory and practice in the workplace. This blending of strong academic programming and applied work experience gives our co-op students a competitive advantage in the job market and supports their transition from University to workplace.'

UPEI is among 130 colleges and universities across Canada that is actively involved in developing their students into workplace professionals through co-operative education. UPEI's Co-operative Education Program fosters next generation's leaders, and gives students the opportunity to push themselves, while, at the same time, giving back to the local community. Through real-life experience and guidance from employers and co-op coordinators, students gain valuable knowledge and skills that will be used throughout their career upon graduation.
For more information on UPEI's Co-op Program, visit upei.ca/co-op or email co-op@upei.ca.

Tyler Scott, a guard with the UPEI Men's Basketball team and Reggie Traccitto, defence with UPEI Men's Hockey, were both named 2014-15 CIS Second-Team All-Canadians this week.

Scott, a second-year Bachelor of Business Administration student from Halifax, NS, enjoyed a strong season, earning several 'The Wave Athlete of the Week' honours and being named an AUS First-Team All-Star. Read CIS release.

Also an AUS First-Team All-Star, fifth-year Arts student Traccitto, from Oakville, Ontario has been a go-to for his UPEI squad since he arrived in 2010. He was UPEI Panther Male Athlete of the Year for 2013-14. Traccitto will graduate this spring with his sociology degree. Read CIS release.

CIS awards and the first, second, and all-rookie CIS All-Canadian teams were named last night in the lead up to CIS championship tournaments this weekend for Men's and Women's Hockey and Men's and Women's Basketball.

University of Prince Edward Island Women's Hockey coach Bruce Donaldson is excited to announce that Emily March, with the Etobicoke Dolphins in the Ontario PWHL, and Gabrielle Gray, with the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA league, have agreed to join the Panthers in September 2015.

March was born and raised in the city of Toronto. She started playing hockey when she was six years old and fell in love with the game. At 5'10' tall and 165 lbs, she is a formidable presence on the blue line. March has been with the same team and head coach at the Etobicoke Dolphin Association for the last three years, one year in midget AA as a forward, and the last two years, playing defense.

Coach Donaldson says, 'Emily has great size and presence on the blue line and will bring additional strength to our back end. The fact that she has played up front at times is also an added feature in her game.'

March is an honours student at Loretto Abbey Catholic Girls School in Toronto where she also plays on her school team that has won two city championships.

Comments March, 'Not one day goes by where I don't have the opportunity to excitedly tell someone that I will be attending the University of Prince Edward Island and playing as a Panther for the women's hockey team. What an honour! Go Panthers Go!'

Emily is enrolled in the School of Business at UPEI and has a career aspiration to become a lawyer.

Gray plays defence for Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats. In 28 games, Gray has two goals, five assists, and 46 penalty minutes.

Gray grew up on a mixed grain and cattle farm near Brownlee, Saskatchewan. She played lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, fastball, rugby, and figure skated and ran cross-country growing up, but her true passion has always been hockey. Gray began her hockey career in the small town of Craik, playing on boys' teams until grade nine when she was given the opportunity to play for the Wildcats. Gray moved to Swift Current and has lived with a billet family for the past four years.

Coach Donaldson remarks, 'We looked to add some size to our lineup and at 5'9" Gabrielle adds both size and versatility to our defence. She moves the puck very well, reads and reacts to the play making a great first pass and is a ‘team first' type of player.'

Gray comments, 'My goals have always centered around academics and hockey. The opportunity to attend UPEI and play for the Panthers not only fulfills some of those goals but it opens up a whole new set of challenges and possibilities. I can't wait to wear the green and white for the UPEI Panthers.'

Gray is enrolled in UPEI's new School of Sustainable Design Engineering.

About UPEI Athletics and Recreation
• Nine varsity sports and six club team programs
• Proud member of the AUS and CIS
• Athletic facilities include: Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre, UPEI Alumni Canada Games Place
• Home of Panther Sports Medicine
• Other facilities available to students and the community at large include: fitness centre, squash and racquetball courts, competition and leisure pool with hot tub, and two ice arenas

The UPEI Women's Curling team, skipped by Veronica Smith and including third Jane DiCarlo, second Emily Gray, lead Aleya Quilty, and coach Paul Smith, is off to the 2015 CIS-Curling Canada University Curling Championships at the KW Granite Club at Waterloo, Ontario.

The team delayed their departure by a day due to Sunday's storm, but begins play on Wednesday, March 18 at 12 noon (EST) versus Thompson Rivers University.

Canada's top university curling teams, eight teams of each gender, will compete in the eighth edition of these championships, which are staged in partnership between Canadian University Sport (CIS) and Curling Canada, and presented by Travelers.

The teams play a round robin ending Friday evening, followed by semifinals pitting 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 on Saturday morning, with the winners advancing to their respective finals Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm ET.

UPEI's berth at the event was secured at the Atlantic University Sport women's curling final in Montague on February 15, where they were silver medallists. The gold and bronze medal winning teams, Saint Mary's and St. Francis Xavier, respectively, are also competing at the CIS-Curling Canada championship. The Smith team has attended the past two national championship events and hopes to improve its record.

To follow the action, visit the CIS-Curling Canada University Curling Championships website.

Go Panthers Go, good curling, Team Smith!

UPEI's round-robin schedule (times listed as Atlantic Time (ADT)):

Wednesday
1:00 pm - Thompson Rivers vs. UPEI
9:00 pm - Brock vs. UPEI

Thursday
9:00 am - Wilfred Laurier vs. UPEI
5:00 pm - Guelph vs. UPEI.
9:00 pm - Saint Mary's vs. UPEI

Friday
1:00 pm - Alberta vs. UPEI
5:00 pm - St. FX vs. UPEI

A research team at the University of Prince Edward Island is seeking volunteers to participate in an anonymous online survey. There is currently limited research into what influences older adults' knowledge of the link between oral health and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, aspiration pneumonia, and diabetes.

The team is looking for volunteers over the age of 50. The results of the survey are completely confidential and takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Participants can participate in the survey at upei.ca/oralhealth.

For more information on the research project, contact Alison MacDougall at amacdougall@upei.ca.

Dr. Etienne Côté, veterinary cardiologist at the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC), University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), has been named a 2015 3M National Teaching Fellow by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) and 3M Canada.

Each year, STLHE and 3M Canada reward exceptional teaching and learning at Canadian universities by selecting ten teaching fellows. One of only a few veterinary cardiologists in Canada, Côté was nominated for the prestigious award by Dr. Sue Dawson, professor of anatomy and director of curriculum and outcomes assessment at AVC.

In her letter of nomination, Dawson describes Côté as an educator and leader who goes above and beyond within his specialty and the veterinary profession in general.

Côté's ultimate goal is to help his students be better veterinarians and better people, she says. Within the classroom, he experiments with ways to help students engage with the subject of cardiology. He uses examples of actual cases, and he has developed innovative learning aids such as cardiology karaoke and cardiology mythbusters. Beyond the classroom, he has developed opportunities for experiential learning, for example, a hands-on lab using volunteer animal patients to teach students to listen to animal heart sounds. In all of his teaching, he stresses the importance of compassion and communication between veterinarians and animal owners.

'Etienne Côté teaches with heart, both literally and figuratively,' says Dawson. 'He advises his veterinary cardiology students to remember that when they're in the examination room with a pet and an owner, they are dealing with more than one heart. In such complex and intense situations, he wants the student to feel that it is OK not to know, but it is not OK not to care.'

Côté is fuelled by the challenge of recognizing a need, an opportunity to resolve it, and addressing them together in a new way, says Dawson. For example, a few years ago, he helped an AVC graduate perform her first-ever heart surgery on a puppy with a severe cardiac birth defect.

'What is unique about this case? The surgery took place in Alaska with Côté assisting from AVC via Skype-five time zones away.'

In a letter of support for Côté's nomination, Dr. Leigh Lamont, associate dean of academic and student affairs at AVC, says, 'Dr. Côté is committed to shaping the student experience to ensure that our graduates are the best they can possibly be when they leave our program.'

As a member of the College's curriculum committee, Côté is a strong supporter of including in the curriculum courses and skills that ensure graduating veterinarians are well prepared to meet the challenges of clinical practice when they enter the work force.

Among other accomplishments, Côté has established a cardiology residency program at AVC and instituted bi-weekly 'cardio rounds,' which are podcast on iTunes University. He co-created a veterinary exam board game that students use to prepare for the rigorous national veterinary licensing exams. He is editor of 'The Clinical Veterinary Advisory,' which involved coordinating 400 authors and 19 section editors from 16 countries. He was an integral part of a team that created a veterinary drug index app, which is now licensed to over 145,000 veterinarians world-wide.

Côté is the first faculty member at AVC, and the sixth at UPEI overall, to be named a 3M National Teaching Fellow.

'To me, this award is the pinnacle of recognition for a university teacher, but this never happens in isolation,' he says. 'The award belongs equally to the mentors who have helped me do what I do, the students whose engagement make it worthwhile, and to my family who keep me going.'

Other 3M National Teaching Fellows at UPEI are Dr. Shannon Murray and Dr. Brent MacLaine, Department of English; Dr. Brian Wagner, Department of Chemistry; Dr. Philip Smith, Department of Psychology; and Dr. Fiona Walton, Faculty of Education.

The Steering Committee for the 10th North Atlantic Forum is pleased to announce that this year's conference, 'Building Community Resilience: Innovation, Culture, and Governance in Place,' will be held from September 16 to 19, 2015 in Summerside, PEI. The North Atlantic Forum is a network of researchers, policy-makers, and development practitioners focused on best practices in social and economic development and governance. We believe in and celebrate the power of small, and the innovations that come out of unlikely places. The conference is hosted by UPEI's Institute of Island Studies in partnership with the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF).

The Building Community Resilience Conference invites explorations of how various 'dark horses' in Canada and the broad North Atlantic - including minorities, small towns, peripheries, aboriginal communities, those with little money, status, voice, or political leverage - can rise to the occasion and chart livable futures. The conference will examine opportunities for sustainable living that are more likely to emerge from small and peripheral communities - rural, coastal, or island.

Conference organizers welcome submissions from community organizations, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, government, students, researchers, and businesses to share information on the topic of building resilient communities or regions. Each presentation will be allocated 15 minutes for sharing information and 5 minutes for questions. Conference organizers also welcome suggestions for panel discussions on topics related to building resilient communities and regions.

The conference will serve as a platform for the critical and inter-disciplinary discussion of experiences where those living 'on the edge,' however defined, show unexpected ingenuity and mettle; and respond cleverly to dire economic straits or public policy negligence. Including:

• Politically, by developing suitable governance practices; flexing jurisdictional powers; and engaging in multi-level political and (para)-diplomatic relations;
• Economically, by facilitating small-scale entrepreneurship; promoting investment; creating skill-rich jobs; encouraging inward and circular migration; and developing new forms of human-scaled, place-based, no-growth economies, sensitive to environmental needs; and
• Culturally, by nourishing strong communities that celebrate traditions and encourage artistic expression; sustaining suitable environmental practices; and welcoming newcomers in their rooted yet routed ways of life.

Completed abstracts are to be emailed to Ryan Gibson (ryan.gibson@smu.ca). Contributors will be notified by the end of April 2015 regarding the acceptance of their submission. Inquiries and questions about presentations, panels, or themed sessions can be sent to Ryan Gibson.

We invite participants from academia, government, NGOs, and communities to join us this fall in Summerside, which itself has demonstrated resilience in a big way. We will use this opportunity not only to learn from other jurisdictions, but to explore rural and small-town Prince Edward Island through a lively and community-engaged program. For more information on the Building Community Resilience Conference, please visit www.pei2015.crrf.ca or contact naf2015@upei.ca.

A group of ten UPEI graduate students will compete this Thursday evening to see who can best cram years of learning into just three minutes! The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a skills development activity which challenges thesis-based graduate students to explain their research project to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. The competition is Thursday, March 26 at 7 pm in the Wave. First place wins $200 and a trip to Concordia University to compete in the Regional 3MT. Second place wins $100. Third place wins $50.

The 3MT at UPEI is organized by the Office of Graduate Studies, Research Services, the UPEI Student Union, and the UPEI Graduate Student Association. For more information, contact Colleen Gallant, cgallant@upei.ca.

The third annual UPEI Mental Health Week held March 9-13 was a great success, reinforcing the University and the UPEI Student Union's commitment to wellness among students, faculty, and staff.

'UPEI recognizes that all members of our University community are affected by mental health issues,' says President Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. 'I thank all those involved in organizing Mental Health Week, as it is important to work together to improve awareness and the resources available on campus for students, staff, and faculty.'

Themed 'Relationships Matter,' the week kicked off with a moving presentation by keynote speaker Darin Meek who spoke to how his family have moved forward since his daughter lost her battle with anxiety and depression.

Several new activities were added including an information booth; a slam-poetry event; guided meditations; and free yoga for students, faculty, and staff. All events had the aim of raising awareness about the importance of mental health and that there are resources and counselling services available at UPEI to help those cope with the various types of stress, mental illness, addictions, and disabilities.

The weeklong event is just one of many efforts by the University.

President Abd-El-Aziz and UPEI Student Union President Lucas MacArthur co-chair the 'Student Mental Health Committee' that includes faculty, staff, and student representation, reflecting further the dedication to, and importance of, mental health awareness. Created in October 2014, the committee's first action was the implementation of a free, 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week student support program in collaboration with Shepell-FGI.

The committee also serves as the adjudicating body for projects stemming from the UPEI Student Union's new Mental Health Initiatives Fund, launched this month.

UPEI Student Union President Lucas MacArthur says, 'This fund will allow UPEI students to develop new and strengthen existing mental health initiatives at UPEI. The goal of this fund is to encourage students to plan, execute, and raise awareness to address issues of mental health at UPEI.'

Applications will be considered at various times per academic semester. The application due dates for the 2015-16 year will be announced next month. Examples of projects could include but are not limited to: conferences, peer support groups, speaker series, research projects, stress busting/exam week events, film screenings, workshops, training sessions, and on/off campus events.

More information