UPEI partners with Nunavut on unique Inuit leadership program

Two representatives from the Nunavut Department of Education visited UPEI recently to develop plans for a unique Convocation ceremony to take place in Iqaluit on Canada Day. Twenty-one Inuit educators from nine communities scattered across all three regions will receive the first graduate degrees ever offered in their home territory.
The degree is a Master of Education in Leadership in Learning and it is being conferred by the University of Prince Edward Island. This leadership milestone presents the promise of positive change for the educational system in Nunavut.
'This Master of Education in Leadership in Learning enables graduates to provide leadership within the school and post-secondary systems of education, as well as in other educational settings,' says Dr. Fiona Walton, an associate professor in the UPEI Faculty of Education who co-led the development and delivery of the program. 'Graduates carry deeply-held Inuit values, beliefs and knowledge, as well as Western educational knowledge, and their own research and scholarship into these leadership roles.'
Mary Simon, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the organization that represents Canada's Inuit on national issues, has identified the importance of educational reform on numerous occasions. At a First Ministers meeting in Ottawa in January she stated, 'We need to invest in leadership development because it will take leaders to create the conditions in our schools to implement a program of change. We need to foster a whole new generation of education leaders like our business schools create business leaders.'
The Master of Education in Leadership in Learning is being offered as a unique partnership between the University of Prince Edward Island, the Department of Education, Government of Nunavut, Nunavut Arctic College and St. Francis Xavier University.
Cutline (l-r): Darlene Nuqingaq, Co-ordinator of Educational Leadership Development and Cathy McGregor, Director of School Services in Nunavut, and Tim Goddard, UPEI Dean of Education with Fiona Walton and Sandy McAuley, two members of the UPEI Faculty of Education who led the development and delivery of a unique master's program for Inuit leaders.

Motivational speaker Joe Sherren to speak at UPEI Business Society annual lunch on March 13

'Tomorrow is going to be amazing' is the theme of the UPEI Business Society's 32nd annual business luncheon on March 13, starting with a reception at 11 a.m., in the Delta Prince Edward Hotel ballroom in Charlottetown

For the first time ever, the event will feature a professional motivational speaker. Born and raised in Kinkora, Prince Edward Island, Joe Sherren is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, author and executive coach. Sherren has been delighting audiences with his thought-provoking, interactive and inspirational presentation for 25 years. His outstanding accomplishments include being inducted into the Canadian Speaking Hall of Fame, becoming a national bestselling author, and appearing on the daytime talk show Oprah.
Since 1974, he has trained thousands of executives, leaders, and professionals. Some clients include BDP (Canada and Australia), Scotiabank, UBS Wealth Management, IBM, University Health Network, Easter Seal Society, ING Bank of Canada, Lexmark, Allied Beauty Association, Universal Studios, Canadian MicroAge Network, Financial Models, as well as various government ministries and agencies.
Sherren's presentation will be a dynamic wake-up call which will benefit management in dealing with employee issues and understanding the new loyalty. It will help participants deal with new expectations, shifting priorities, the information explosion and different reporting relationships, where roles are sometimes vaguely defined.
'The upcoming year will have its challenges, but we must take the attitude that, as Mr. Sherren says, ‘tomorrow is going to be amazing,'' says Greg MacDougall, president of the UPEI Business Society. 'Having a positive vision for your organization's future will be a key success factor when striving towards maximizing your bottom line."
The UPEI Business Society is a student-run organization dedicated to enhancing the educational experiences and social well-being of students throughout their time at the School of Business. Many activities and initiatives are undertaken each year, providing members with great opportunities to develop relationships with local business leaders, faculty members and, of course, fellow students.

After the reception, the lunch will be served at 11:45 a.m. Tickets for the lunch are $55 per person. Tables of eight or ten can be purchased. For more information or to order tickets, please contact the UPEI Business Society at (902) 566-0407 or at bussociety@upei.ca.

UPEI’s Island Studies program presents public lecture about the Aland Islands

UPEI's Island Studies program will present a public lecture by Bjarne Lindstrom, director of the Statistical Agency of the Aland Islands, on Wednesday, March 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Atlantic Veterinary College's (AVC) faculty lounge.
Located on AVC's fourth floor, the lounge may be accessed via the elevators on the right at the far end of the college's main entrance.
Lindstrom's presentation is entitled 'Economic Capacity and Political Room for Manoeuvre: Lessons from the Aland Islands.'
Lindstrom has been a key player in the development of the North Atlantic Islands program which developed at the Institute of Island Studies in the early 1990s. He was then research manager at the Nordic Institute of Regional Policy Research (NordREFO), based in Stockholm. He is currently deputy director of the Alands International Institute for Comparative Island Studies (AICIS) and a member of the International Editorial Board of Island Studies Journal. He has written some 150 publications in the course of his career, mainly in the area of regional policy and regional development.
The Aland Islands is an autonomous archipelago of some 26,000 people, located in the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Finland. It is part of the state of Finland, but its distinct culture and Swedish language have been protected by an international treaty since 1920. They are also outside the customs area of the European Union.
The lecture is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be available, courtesy of the Dean of Arts.

UPEI engineering students to compete in Canadian Engineering Competition

A team of engineering students from the University of Prince Edward Island is off to the Canadian Engineering Competition from March 5 to 8 after placing second in the junior design division of the recent Atlantic Engineering Competition. This marks the fifth year in a row that UPEI students have won the right to compete at the national engineering competition.

Katie Hughes, Mandy McKenna and Chris Russell, all of Charlottetown, and Tim McCarthy, of Summerside, finished second in the junior design division for their project on wind power. The Atlantic Engineering Competition, an annual event showcasing young and emerging engineering talent, took place in early February at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The four students competed against 12 teams from nine other universities.
"We are all very excited for our students... this year we again have a team competing nationally,' says Dr. Andy Trivett, chair of the UPEI Engineering department. 'They have big shoes to fill, since a UPEI team has also won the national prize twice in the past five years."
During the competition, the teams were asked to design and build a simple device to extract the maximum energy from the wind blown by a fan. Each team had six hours to build and test their wind turbine using supplies provided, and to prepare a short presentation for the judges. The UPEI team was shut out of the first place spot by the slightest margin in one of the judging categories.
The students' second place finish earned them a place in the Canadian Engineering Competition, which will be held at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Cutline: UPEI engineering students Chris Russell, Katie Hughes, Mandy McKenna and Tim McCarthy will compete in the Canadian Engineering Competition at UNB from March 5 to 8 after placing second in the junior design division of the recent Atlantic Engineering Competition.

Bill Andrew reappointed as Chancellor of University of Prince Edward Island

William E. "Bill" Andrew, a 1973 Engineering graduate of UPEI, has been reappointed as the Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) for the next four years.

Andrew was first installed as the university's seventh Chancellor on March 6, 2005, replacing philanthropist and journalist Norman Webster who served as Chancellor from 1996 to 2004. Andrew's extended term will conclude in 2013.
Andrew is currently director and chief executive officer of Penn West Petroleum Ltd., one of Canada's largest senior oil and natural gas exploration and production companies. He is on the Alberta Council on Carbon Capture and Sequestration, and is a former governor of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. His P.E.I. involvements, in addition to his role at UPEI, include service as a director of the Canadian Wind Institute and as a national director of the Fathers of Confederation Buildings Trust.
He and his wife Denise reside in Calgary, but the native of Milton, P.E.I., has maintained very close ties to his home province. The Andrew's have a home on the Island, and they partner with Bill's brother Brian and his wife Carol in Meridian Farms in Milton where they raise standardbred horses. The Andrew family has continued a four-generation involvement in racing standardbred horses in Atlantic Canada, and is active in P.E.I. and national harness racing circles.
Andrew is an active and contributing member to the Friends of UPEI group in Calgary, which annually provides scholarships for students to study at UPEI. He and his wife are active in various community and philanthropic endeavours, and they are members of the UPEI Visionary Society for planned giving.
Andrew was a leading donor to UPEI's recently completed Building a Legacy fundraising campaign, with funds going to numerous initiatives at the Island university, including neuroscience research; the School of Nursing; women's athletics; scholarships for students in the Master of Arts in Island Studies program; renewable scholarships for engineering students; new instruments for the music department; capital support for the School of Business; and travel bursaries for international education and community development.
The decision to appoint Andrew as Chancellor for a second term was made by a 25-person electoral board with broad representation from UPEI and the general community.
"This was a unanimous decision, with exceptionally positive comments regarding Chancellor Andrew's leadership, effective representation, generosity and down-to-earth encouragement of students, faculty and staff and the entire UPEI community," said UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan, who chaired the electoral board. "Bill Andrew exemplifies the success of UPEI and its graduates, and the multitude of ways in which they are giving back."

"I am honoured to be reappointed as Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island,' says Andrew. 'Denise and I have been fortunate in our lives and believe that by sharing and working with the university, we can give something back to Prince Edward Island.'

UPEI business student awarded prestigious Frank H. Sobey Award

Graham Watts, a fourth -year student in the School of Business at the University of Prince Edward Island, has won a prestigious Frank H. Sobey Award for Excellence in Business.
A native of Montague, Watts is one of only six university students in Atlantic Canada to receive this honour. Other winners are from the University of New Brunswick, Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University, Cape Breton University and Mount Allison University.
The award, which is valued at $10,000, recognizes business students who have excelled academically and demonstrated a commitment to extracurricular and community activities.
'We are very pleased that Graham has won the Sobey Award for 2008/09,' says Dr. Don Wagner, acting dean of the School of Business. 'He has a very entrepreneurial spirit, and he performs extremely well in his academic courses. He is exactly the sort of person the Sobey Award was designed to recognize. We know this competition attracts applications from many outstanding students from across the region, and winning this award is a terrific achievement.'
A full-time student at UPEI, Watts is very pleased to be a recipient of the Frank H. Sobey Award for Excellence in Business.
"The Frank H. Sobey Award is a prestigious award created by an extremely successful businessman,' says Watts. 'It is an honour to receive this award, and I hope it will help to further enable me to meet my own business aspirations in the future.'
Currently he is working as marketing coordinator for Island Abbey Foods, a young and emerging P.E.I. specialty food company. The company was named a Top 10 Innovator for 2008 by Food In Canada magazine for its honey drops, individual drops made from 100 per cent pure dried honey that can be used to sweeten tea and coffee.
Watts is founder and owner of Nature Trails, a company that manufactures walking sticks, twig pencils, bird houses, bat boxes, bird feeders, and wooden pens. He started his business in 1999 at the age of 12, and has since expanded into the production of other wood products. He has also branched out into forest management with the purchase of 178 acres of woodland.
For his entrepreneurial spirit, he was named the 2008 Prince Edward Island Student Entrepreneur Champion by the national charitable organization, Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE).
In 2008 he also received the Harry MacLauchlan Memorial Award in Entrepreneurship and the H. Wade MacLauchlan Scholarship. He was a member of a fourth-year business student team that recently won a competition to develop a business strategy for a local company.
Watts and the other award winners, along with the deans of their respective business schools, were formally recognized at a special presentation held on March 6 at Crombie House, home of the late Frank H. Sobey, in Abercrombie, Nova Scotia. The events was attended by members of the Sobey family, and the boards of directors of the Sobey and Empire corporations.
About the Frank H. Sobey Awards for Excellence in Business Studies
Each year, the Frank H. Sobey Awards for Excellence in Business Studies presents six awards of $10,000 each. All full-time business students attending Atlantic universities are eligible for consideration. Deans of Business at each university are asked to nominate candidates - based on academic standing, entrepreneurial interest, extracurricular and community activities, employment history, and career aspirations.
Since the Frank H. Sobey Awards for Excellence in Business Studies were established in 1989, more than $700,000 has been awarded to business students in the four Atlantic provinces. Every university in the region that offers a business program has had more than one recipient of a Frank H. Sobey Award.

UPEI Aboriginal Student Association holds Cultural Connections event on March 27

The UPEI Aboriginal Student Association, in partnership with the Native Council of PEI, will hold an event called Cultural Connections: Building Our Future Through Education on Friday, March 27, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the W. A Murphy Student Centre on campus.

During the event, members of the local First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities will share their cultures through dancing, drumming, singing, talking circles, traditional teachings, crafts and more.

'This is a wonderful opportunity for artists, leaders, and Elders to share their spirit and wisdom,' says coordinator Julie Bull. 'It will also convey the message that UPEI welcomes all individuals, regardless of culture, ethnicity, or background. Diversity and education are the keys to change and to the future of our province.'

A fundraising event for the UPEI Aboriginal Student Association, Cultural Connections will include singers, dancers, drummers, prayers, discussion circle and storytelling by Elders, native games, craft making and selling, traditional food and clothing, and information booths set up by the Mi'kmaq Confederacy, Native Council, Hep'ed up on Life, NCPEI youth, Native Alcohol and Drug Awareness Program and the Aboriginal Women's Association. Children can have fun in the kids' corner, with a small teepee and NCPEI youth color and activity books.

The UPEI Aboriginal Student Association has been established to celebrate and share with others the cultural diversity of Aboriginal peoples on campus and throughout the community. Recently the association opened the Maoi Omi Aboriginal Student Centre on campus where aboriginal students can study, relax, share with one another, host events, have talking circles, and access support services while attending UPEI.

For more information or draft schedule, please contact Ashley Jadis or Stephanie Jadis at 620-5126 or email sjadis@upei.ca or ajadis@upei.ca.

Scholarships available for university-level Middle East study program in Egypt

Imagine spending four weeks this summer in Cairo, Egypt. Imagine visiting the Pyramids, riding a camel, and exploring some of the world's most renowned sites, while earning credits towards your degree.

Misr International University (MIU) in Cairo is offering a number of $5,000 scholarships to UPEI students for its Middle East Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program consisting of a number of courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Through this program, students gain a greater insight into the overall understanding of the Middle East, particularly its potential and its challenges.

From July 12 to August 6, 2009, students will have the opportunity to participate in an intensive study of the region's history and culture. They will take a maximum of two courses, which, upon successful completion, will be transferred back to UPEI. Possible choices include Ancient Egyptian History, Middle East Politics, Contemporary Arabic Literature, and Arabic Language for Foreigners. Course work includes classroom study and field trips.

The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, field trips, and transportation costs to and from accommodations and the airport. Students pay for their flight and living expenses.

Students are invited to attend an information session about the program on March 30, at 4 p.m., in Room 243 of McDougall Hall. The deadline for application is April 6, 2009. For more information and to obtain an application form, contact Sherilyn Acorn-LeClair, International Mobility Coordinator at 894-2837, sdacorn@upei.ca.

UPEI Physics Department presents seminar about dark matter on March 20

Dr. James Taylor, of the University of Waterloo, will give a public seminar called What is dark matter? And why should we care? in the KC Irving Chemistry Centre, Room 104, at UPEI on Friday, March 20, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Taylor is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include dark matter, cosmological structure formation, galaxy formation, galaxy dynamics, galaxy clusters, massive black holes, cosmology, computational & theoretical astrophysics.

'Many independent strands of evidence from astronomical observations indicate that roughly 85% of the matter in the universe is ‘dark matter', a gas of weakly interacting particles undetected in current particle accelerators and unaccounted for in the ‘standard model' of particle physics,' says Taylor. 'The detection and identification of dark matter in the lab has proven impossibly difficult in the past. Now, after many decades of diligent work, we may be on the verge of a revolution in this field.'

During his presentation, he will review the astrophysical evidence for dark matter, the theoretical candidates for this strange substance, and the instruments and experiments poised to reveal its true nature, opening a new chapter in fundamental physics.

Taylor's seminar is part of a lecture tour of the Maritime provinces, sponsored by the Canadian Association of Physicists.

Island poet David Hickey gives reading March 24

P.E.I. poet David Hickey, whose collection In the Lights of a Midnight Plow was a finalist for the Lampert Award for best first Canadian poetry book, will read from his work on Tuesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

The reading is co-sponsored by the UPEI English Department and Art Gallery, with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Hickey, now a Ph.D. student in English literature at the University of Western Ontario, spent part of his childhood in Labrador and the north shore of Quebec, but identifies most strongly with his Island home. Showing his literary gifts early, as an Honours English and Creative Writing student at UPEI, he won the Milton Acorn Poetry Competition in the Island Literary Awards, and represented P.E.I. as a young artist at the Canada Winter Games in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.

Many of his poems vividly evoke the P.E.I. landscape and heritage, and poignantly share his experience of growing up on an Island poised between its traditions and inexorable change. In 'Evening at the Charlottetown Airport,' he shows us his aging grandfather, perplexed by the lights and tarmac 'seeded' where his farm used to. A poem about Elephant Rock chronicles the mythology and erosion of that landmark. His poetry also ventures into other legends, such as that of Ted Williams, the great baseball hitter who spent summers fishing on the Miramichi River, and whose body was cryogenically frozen for future DNA access.

Also reading that evening will be Jeffery Donaldson, poet, critic, and professor of English literature at McMaster University. Donaldson's books include Once Out of Nature, Waterglass, and his recent Palilalia (the repetition or echoing of one's own spoken words). Toronto-born, Donaldson lives on the Niagara Escarpment near Grimsby, Ontario.

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