28 minute read
Spotlight On Research
Dr. Kara Thompson
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DR. KARA THOMPSON
Department: Psychology Year Started at StFX: 2015 Courses taught: Psychology 155 (Introduction to Psychology for Nursing), Health 102 and 202 (Health across the lifespan I and II), and Health 490 (Honours Seminar)
Could you tell me a bit about your research? My research focuses on understanding patterns of alcohol and cannabis use among youth and young adults. In particular, I focus on understanding what factors contribute to the development of high risk substance use patterns, such as personality and substance use motives, and the impacts of substance use on mental and physical health for young adults. I am conducting research with students examining how the ways that cannabis is consumed (i.e., via a joint, bong, vape, edible) alters the physiological and subjective e ects of cannabis. How did you become a researcher? Growing up, I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, working one-on-one with individuals to help them navigate challenges throughout life. When I entered graduate school, I began working with several proli c scholars at the Canadian Institute of Substance Use Research and witnessed rsthand the signi cant impact of population health research. I realized that through innovative research I could improve health for individuals and populations. My work today continues to be driven by a need to uncover the factors that determine health and apply this knowledge to programs and policies that promote health and prevent disease for young people.
What impact do you hope the research will have? Substance use is deeply embedded in our culture and while it serves numerous social functions for us, it also is associated with numerous health and social costs, particularly for young people. Identifying the mechanisms that contribute to these costs can help us build prevention and intervention tools that minimize these costs and encourage safer use of alcohol and cannabis. It’s exciting to engage in applied research that will help shape the landscape of substance use policy in Canada and help consumers make more informed choices.
Could you tell me a bit about yourself and any awards or accomplishments? In 2014, I returned home to the east coast for a postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University a er graduating from the University of Victoria with a PhD in Life-span Development Psychology. In 2015, I accepted a position at StFX where I have established my program of research focused on Substance use and Health in Emerging Adulthood (SHEA lab). I have published over 50 peer reviewed articles and have been a principle investigator or co-investigator on grants totalling over $4.6 million. I recently received the 2021 StFX President’s Research Award. I attribute my research success largely to the preeminent national and international scholars I have the privilege of collaborating with, as they continually inspire me to push the boundaries of research innovation.
What excites you or what do you enjoy about being a researcher at StFX? e small, intimate learning environment that StFX is known for allows me to apply my research in a way I wouldn’t be able to at a larger institution. e research I conduct is highly relevant to supporting student health. As a result, student services are o en collaborators on my research and I serve on many institutional committees related to student health and well-being. It’s exciting to know the work I do contributes meaningfully to the StFX community and directly impacts student health.
What’s something surprising about yourself that people wouldn’t know? I was born and raised on PEI, only a short drive (and a ferry ride) from Antigonish. In summer, my children and I spend much time at our cottage playing in the red sand, eating Cows ice cream, and enjoying time with family.
Dr. Bhavik Parikh
DR. BHAVIK PARIKH
Department: Schwartz School of Business, Department of Accounting and Finance; Resident Fellow, Brian Mulroney Institute of Government Year started at StFX: 2014 Courses taught: Advanced Financial Management, Financial Management-I, Banking and Financial Institutions
Could you tell me a bit about your research program? My primary area of research is international nance, speci cally portfolio ow and tax evasion. e other area I look at is Islamic nance and emerging markets.
How did you become a researcher? I started my PhD in nance in 2009. As a requirement, you have to write a thesis, that’s how my journey began. e nance and economics professors at the University of Memphis, where I attended, helped me start my career, and we’re still in touch today.
What drew you to this area of study? What motivates you or excites you about it? Attracting capital is important for companies to grow and establish. ere are two types of investors, domestic investors and foreign investors. To attract foreign investors, they’re o en taxed at a lower rate. I’m interested in what domestic investors can do to lower their taxes. As well, tax evasion is a huge problem because governments need tax money to build infrastructure and support health care and social supports. Tax evasion is not applicable to just one country. It’s a global phenomenon, which needs to be tackled.
What impact do you hope it will have? I’m hoping that my research supports policies to help ght tax evasion. Tax evasion can be done in multiple ways. I’m looking at existing policies and if they are being implemented well. I hope governments become more transparent on why people are paying tax and in showing how the money is spent on their citizens and communities.
Could you tell me a bit about yourself and any awards and accomplishments? My research article, “Tax havens, tax evasion and tax information exchange agreements in the OECD” received the “Best Paper Top Download Award” from the European Financial Management Journal for the year 2017. My article in the Journal of World Business, a top-tier journal, is on the list of their most downloaded and two of my papers on emerging markets were semi- nalists at the Financial Management Association Conference. During the pandemic, I’ve published six journal articles on international nance. I was born and brought up in India, completed my master’s and PhD in the U.S. and my wife and I have been living and working in Canada for almost seven years.
What do you enjoy about being a researcher at StFX? StFX has a very supportive environment for research. Two things I really enjoy is making my research interdisciplinary, looking at how aspects such as culture and morality can a ect tax evasion, and supervising very good undergraduate honours. I’m able to do a lot of early stage research with them.
What’s something surprising about yourself that people wouldn’t know? I’m a big sports fan. Two of my favorites are Formula 1 racing and cricket. I make sure I’m up-to-date with them, and when the pandemic is over I hope to travel to Montreal to the Canadian Grand Prix.
Dr. Jantina Toxopeus ’11
DR. JANTINA TOXOPEUS
Department: Biology Year started at StFX: 2020 Courses taught: Biology 111 (Intro Cell Biology), 201 (Animal Biology), 395 (Advanced Cell Biology)
Could you tell me a bit about your research program? We study how insects survive winter, with a particular focus on how some insects can actually freeze solid and survive. How did you become a researcher? In high school, I did a six-week Summer Research Program organized by WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology) at the University of Alberta. A er that I was hooked, and pursued research opportunities during my BSc honours, MSc, PhD, and beyond. Along the way, I had truly excellent mentors and colleagues who supported my goals to build my own research program as a professor at StFX. What drew you to this area of study? What motivates you or excites you about it? I have been interested in how life survives in extreme or di cult environments for a long time. About eight years ago, I learned that some insects can survive ice formation inside their bodies, and I have been researching insect overwintering ever since!
What impact do you hope it will have? Insects are super important – both to humans (e.g. as pollinators or pests of our crops) and to the environment in general (e.g. as food for birds). Understanding how insects survive winter is important for understanding how climate change will a ect these insects, and all the services they provide for humans and our environment. Resilience in the face of climate change is the most pressing issue of our time (we only have one planet!), and I hope to support this resilience with my research.
Could you tell me a bit about yourself and any awards/accolades/ accomplishments/highlights? I come from a family with many strong, independent, intelligent women. My sister, my mother, my aunts, and my grandmothers have all thrived in challenging environments, and have been a constant source of inspiration and motivation for me as I navigate this career. My most recent career accomplishment is receiving an NSERC Discovery Grant in my rst year at StFX. I was awarded this research grant in April 2021, and it will help fund my research program for the next ve years!
What excites you or what do you enjoy about being a researcher at StFX? I absolutely love mentoring undergraduate students. Helping students design and complete their rst independent research project and seeing how this supports them in their education and career goals is the most rewarding part of my job.
What’s something surprising about yourself that people wouldn’t know? I was born in Zimbabwe and lived there until I was 12 years old!
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON STFX’S UNSUNG HEROES
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year, the StFX Alumni A airs O ce created the Xaverian Spirit Award to honour those StFX faculty and sta who make the StFX experience memorable. It is meant for the unsung heroes whose support, encouragement, guidance or attitude leave a lasting impression. Here, we share a story, unsolicited, that came from Dan Campbell ’03, living in Brussels with his family, celebrating and thanking Janet Stark ’65 for the impact she made on his life.
Dan writes:
In 1991, I was expelled from StFX for poor academics. is was 100 per cent my own undoing, but along the way, I came to know Ms. Janet Stark as she was then Assistant to the Deans (Dr. Kevin O’Brien ’61 being the Dean as I recall). I had courses with Dr. O’Brien and it seemed a monthly routine would see me in her o ce asking to see Dr. O’Brien.
I was heartbroken by the decision. I always had a di cult time with schoolwork and although I attended classes regularly, I was not a good student away from the classroom where independent work and discipline is required.
I carried that disappointment for many years and had really not wanted to link up with anyone from StFX outside a few close friends. I really was a bit lost. Living on the west coast in the late ’90s—still without a degree—I was working in a sales job when I received a call from an alum I always kept in touch with – Kevin Chadwick. Kevin had moved to Ottawa and was looking for someone for a business he was managing. My family (including three sisters who graduated from StFX) were out east and the extended family was hoping I’d move closer. I took Kevin’s o er, settled in Ottawa and worked for Kevin until 2002. is is where Ms. Stark comes back into the picture. I spoke to Kevin, telling him I was thinking of going back to X. He thought it a superb idea. From his o ce, I picked up the phone and called and who answers but Janet Stark. I began by saying “Ms. Stark you would not remember me, but I took some courses with Dr. O’Brien…” No sooner had I got that out when she replied “I do remember you, Dan.” She then asked, “what can I help you out with?”
I can’t overstate—and this is something about X that resonates with many I am sure—how important it was that she reached out across that phone line and ‘welcomed me’ – no matter the outcome of the call. I was touched by her demeanor and of course she was so kind...anyone that has ever come across her knows this about her.
A door I was predicting closed, opened with her return call and the words “Dan, I’ve had a look at the courses you have taken and believe it or not, I have some good news: you only need one full year of courses to graduate.”
(Ms. Stark, then Registrar, de ects some praise, saying the decision to admit a student a er dismissal, and to permit credits to count if over 10 years old, would have been the purview of the Committee on Studies. “I might have added up the credits and the pattern for a degree, so might have told him he needed a year to nish. But I cannot take credit for opening the door. I would have told him to write a letter of appeal to the COS…but the bottom line is that Dan was permitted to re-enter and he completed his degree.”)
Says Dan: is is a letter of thanks I have been meaning to write for almost 20 years! I did graduate spring 2003 with a major in English and not three months later found my way into a pharmaceutical position and spent the next 17 years in that eld. By giving me that second (or third or fourth!) chance, Janet began something that became my ‘adult life!’ I mean, everything turned with that call and the eventual work I nally put in to complete the degree. at’s how important she was to me. And boy, in this day and age, why not share a little joy with someone who should know “she made a di erence.”
THANK YOU, KCOACH
KCOACH
LEGENDARY X-MEN BASKETBALL COACH STEVE KONCHALSKI RETIRES AFTER 46 YEARS
BY SHELLEY CAMERON-MCCARRON
To glimpse into the heart of a champion, into the heart of Steve Konchalski—or Coach K as he’s fondly known, the winningest men’s basketball coach in Canadian university sport history—one needed only to stroll into his o ce in StFX’s Amelia Saputo Centre to nd walls covered in some 250 pictures of teams and players he’s coached over a remarkable 46-year tenure at StFX, a tenure that came to a celebrated close March 31, 2021 with his retirement. “The biggest challenge will be to tear down this o ce. I wanted to build a tradition, that when you walked in this o ce, you’d see there is tradition in this program, a record of all the players I coached there,” mused Konchalski in conversation the week before he retired. “I look at the pictures, it gives me energy. I see all the relationships I built after all these years, and that’s what I value.”
It’s been quite the ride since Steve Konchalski, a native of Elmhurst, NY who played basketball at Archbishop Molloy High School, borrowed a friend’s car and drove to StFX in the summer of 1975. At the time, he was working with Canada’s men’s national basketball team and they were in Wolfville, NS for a game. ere, Acadia University’s athletic director told him StFX was seeking a head basketball coach.
“It was a beautiful day, August 8th,” says Konchalski, whose storied career at StFX saw him guide the X-Men to over 900 wins, three national U Sports championships, nine AUS championships, and a lengthy list of accolades—not the least of which are countless relationships built through the years, helping players succeed on and o the court.
“I saw the beauty of the area, and I just had a feeling.
“It was a great t right from the start. I wanted to continue to work with the national team. StFX was willing to allow me to take my vacation time in the summer,” says Coach K, whose involvement with the national team spanned over 30 years, including a stint as head coach from 1995-98.
e opportunity to coach at StFX appealed to Konchalski, who knew he wanted to return to Nova Scotia. He was educated at Acadia (he led the Axemen to four conference titles and a national championship in 1965, where he was tournament MVP) and Dalhousie, earning a law degree. He knew he wanted to coach in the Atlantic conference with its college-oriented environment.
StFX appealed, too, for several reasons. As someone who’d bene tted from a Catholic education, he said he found the presence of the priest-educators and administrators on campus when he arrived a comfort zone. Plus, it was a small school where you got to know everyone, and you could develop relationships, something the veteran coach prioritized. “It’s kind of a common touch you have here. People are concerned about each other, that’s the StFX I came into.”
While he didn’t expect to stay nearly half a century (“I just took it one day at a time,”), Coach K says there was never really any time he thought of leaving. “I felt really comfortable here from the start. Antigonish is a great place to raise a family.”
At StFX, he was fortunate to develop a great relationship with his boss, the late Father George Kehoe, the university’s athletic director, who would in 1980 marry Coach K and his wife Charlene ’79 ’80 and later baptize their three children.
“We became great friends. He became a great mentor of mine. He told me this will be a great place for you to stay and make your life here. is was before I met Charlene. I guess I was a good employee because I listened to him. I made it my life’s work to be here.
“ e second thing he taught me is that it wouldn’t necessarily be the championships that brought the most satisfaction, but it would be seeing the players developing as young men and to get up on that stage and get their degree. I can say I’ve done that for 45 years.”
Now, with his retirement, which included a series of tributes throughout March, former players have been in touch regularly, bringing back many memories.
“It’s been special. Over time, the wins and losses become hazy, but I’ll never forget any player I’ve ever coached. It’s about relationships.”
Konchalski says as a young coach the games are exciting, but you begin to see the bigger picture, the players growth through basketball.
In fact, the game’s inventor, James Naismith, believed the commonality of a love of basketball provided a means to teach life lessons to students, he says. “I would say I share that philosophy as well.
“ rough a love of the game, a love of competition, it gives you an opportunity to impact the students and players in other ways than just on the court.”
ALWAYS A CONTENDER
Looking back, he says the thing he’s most proud of is that his teams were always contenders.
“It’s easy to pick out the championships, they are de ning moments. If you’re going to coach 46 years, you have to have some degree of success.” However, he says, during that rst job interview, he recalls stating his goal was to put a team on the oor that was consistent every year, that had a chance to win. His did that. His X-Men missed the playo s his rst year as coach, but then made a 38-year playo run and appeared in the post-season 42 of the 45 years he coached. (COVID-19 suspended competition his nal
season.)
“I’m satis ed, I can look in the mirror. I satis ed the original goal to be consistent. Championships are icing on the cake.”
For the young coach, a key moment came early in his tenure when he welcomed Gil Green ’80, a 6’2” guard from New York City, a player recommended by his brother, the late Tom Konchalski, a legendary basketball scout. Green was the rst player Coach K recruited and the rst person of colour to play for the X-Men. ey’re still in touch today, still friends.
“I call him the godfather of the program, he was the rst one I could build the program around,” says Konchalski.
Says Green, a four-time AUAA All-Star with the X-Men and three time StFX Most Valuable Player, who says coming to StFX from New York City was a leap of faith, but the best thing that ever happened to him: “ e impact he’s had, not just to my life, but to hundreds of young men, it’s incredible, and for almost 50 years. And the way he’s been able to adapt over almost 50 years is unparalleled to me. Both at the collegiate and international level, the game of basketball has changed so much. e impact he’s had both on and o the court and how he’s been able to adapt his coaching style is unheard of.”
NO ONE RATHER HAVE IN YOUR CORNER
John Hatch ’84, a three-time AUAA MVP and three-time CIS 1st Team All-Canadian who represented Canada at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games and the World University Games, and who played professionally in Switzerland and built a business career, also had high praise.
“I was blessed to have Steve as a coach at X and with the national team so our experiences together continued beyond X and around the world. ere is no one I would rather have in my corner than Steve...he truly had his team’s back and interests at heart always.”
A tenure like Konchalski’s, he says, touched generations of StFX graduates.
“I was fortunate to play at X during some of that period where we packed the gym and the thing to do in Antigonish was go to sporting events on campus for both students and local citizens. I think Steve’s reach into the community was something that resonates as important for him and the team.
“I think Steve always put the student-athlete rst and his mission to truly help the lives of some under-privileged and underrepresented minorities at the university was a huge part of his mission. I was proud of the fact that we recruited so widely, and the team had national resonation even though it hailed from such a small community in Nova Scotia. Of course, the alumni helped, but Steve’s pro le with the Canadian national team was very evident in getting the university on recruits’ minds. For most of Steve’s tenure, he was able to recruit the best talent within the province and go across the country and into his brother Tom’s personal connections to bring in interesting teammates. We were even able to recruit internationally at the Olympics in Seoul and the players from Central Africa came, which was great.”
Hatch says one great part of Konchalski’s incredible tenure is the support of Charlene. “ e team became an extended part of the Konchalski family and Charlene was a huge part of providing the delicate balancing act to pull that o for as long and as successfully as Steve did.”
MAGIC MOMENTS, NATIONAL GLORY
Of course, the three national championships standout, the rst in 1993, when the X-Men made big hoops down the stretch to win a hard-fought game over McMaster 72-64, and the back-to-back wins
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE
• 46 year X-Men basketball head coach (1975-2021) • 9 AUS championships • 3 U SPORTS national championships • 2001 U SPORTS Coach of the Year • 6-time AUS Coach of the Year • Winningest men’s basketball coach in Canadian university sport history • 42 AUS playo appearances • 18 U SPORTS championship appearances • 918 career wins with .614 career win percentage • Inducted into 4 Sports Hall of Fame: Acadia, StFX, Nova Scotia & Canadian Basketball • Inducted into the Dalhousie Bertha Wilson Honour Society • 2010 recipient of the CIS Jean-Marie De Koninck Coaching
Excellence Award • Tied as the longest serving U SPORTS head coach across all sports with 46 years • The StFX Amelia Saputo Centre main gymnasium was named
“Coach K Court” in 2017 • Head Coach of Team Canada for four years (1995-98) and assistant coach for 16 years prior • Coached in three Olympic Games • Inaugural recipient of 1999 Frank Baldwin Memorial Award • Member of Canada Basketball’s Counsel of Excellence since 2009 • On coaching sta of 2017 Canadian U19 World Championship team (Cairo, Egypt) • Coached NS junior men’s team for three summers, including the 2001 Canada Games squad • Worked in various capacities with Canada’s national team program for the past 30 years
in 2000 and 2001.
“If you’re going to pick one moment that’s going to jump out at you, it’s our rst national championship in 1993 in the Halifax Metro Centre,” says Konchalski. “ at was a magical moment. For two reasons. StFX, at least the Athletic Department, had been going through some tough times in the year or two previous. Athletic Director Father Kehoe and Father Edo Gatto, another prominent priest on campus, were killed in a car accident in December 1991. Just before that, the university had decided to cancel the football program, which caused a ruckus with alumni. e athletic department was going through a bit of a struggle at the time. Winning the national championship gave us an injection of life, it brought the campus together, it brought alumni together.” e second reason that made it so satisfying was a trio of players (including national tournament MVP Richard Bella ’93) who came to be known as ‘ e African Connection’ that Coach K recruited from the Central African Republic when he was at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea with the Canadian national team. e three came to Antigonish not knowing a word of English and spent six months learning the language at Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School. Four years later, they all graduated with StFX degrees and a national basketball title.
Bringing the trio to StFX was a project undertaken by the basketball program, but also Coach K and his family. To this day, they remain close—Konchalski was even best man at Bella’s wedding. “ e satisfaction to do it with those three men and to see them get their degrees, it was a storybook ending to their involvement at StFX. at was pretty special.”
A few days a er that win, StFX hosted a parade through town and raised the championship banner at the then Oland Centre. At ceremony’s end, Coach K was presented with an honorary X-Ring. “It was a total surprise to me. I said how honoured I was and that I would never take it o . I’ve lived by that.” e national titles in 2000 and 2001 (both against Brandon, both down to the wire—StFX rallied from a 60-51 de cit in 2000 to win by one point, 61-60, and the next year claimed the title in overtime) were amazing, he says. He recalls publicly challenging the team at its March 2000 celebration rally (most players were returning) to win another championship. ey did. ey nished that season with 29 straight wins.
“It’s easy to pinpoint the national championships, but I kind of thought my 46 years, if you’re going to be a coach, you’re going to have ups and downs, that’s really where the challenge is,” says Coach K.
He says Stu Aberdeen, his coach during his Acadia playing days, had a saying: “It’s not how many wins and how many losses, it’s how many men out of how many boys.”
It’s a philosophy Coach K has kept close, of developing young people to be the best they can be, to give them direction during a key time of their lives.
Academic success has always been something he’s emphasized.
“ e whole thing, young people come in, they’re 18 years old, they have stars in their eyes, they think they’re going to the NBA (though success has certainly come on the court with 33 players going on to play some form of professional basketball.) If you don’t have that degree, you have nothing to fall back on. Over time, they get it, they start to understand.”
Coach K has always prioritized relationships. From a basketball perspective alone, he says you want players to feel comfortable with you.
“ ey’re still trying to gure things out, to nd their way in a pivotal moment of their life. As a mentor to them, you want to help them nd their way through that period of time, (you want to) get to know the players, get to know their concerns. What happens o the court can impact what happens on the court, if you don’t know what’s going on in their lives, it’s harder to coach them.”
StFX Athletics Director Leo MacPherson ’89, a former X-Man and Antigonish native, who has either watched Coach K coach, played for him or worked with him for 45 of his 46 years at StFX, says what surprises him most is his energy.
“Beyond the wins and championships, what impressed me most is his consistent level of passion, his loyalty to his players and to the university that gave him a shot as a head coach back in 1975. One of the best things about having played for Coach K is that we didn’t just get a coach for our playing days at X, we got a friend and supporter for life. We know he is there for us and we are there for him as well. at’s the foundation of our X-Men Basketball family.”
As for advice? Coach K—who’s retiring from StFX, but not from basketball: “I want to stay involved in the game. e game, it’s in my blood, it’s never going to leave,” he says—counsels players: “Don’t let the ball bounce you. Use your sport to get your education, to develop as a young man or woman, and cherish the time you have as a student athlete, developing friendships and bonds. Whenever we have these reunions, rarely do I hear players mention what happened
(on the court). Most stories are of road trips, the fun they had with friends. Try to enjoy the full experience of being a student athlete.”
For coaches, he says you have to be able to adapt to athletes. “Society is going to change whether you like it,” he says, noting that when he started, he was only ve years older than his oldest player. Today, that di erence is 50 years. “You have to be adaptable. You still have to be able to relate to young people. I can do that as long as it doesn’t con ict with your core values, loyalty, trust, and respect.
“As a coach, enjoy the whole process. at’s what I tried to do.”
With his departure, Tyrell Vernon ’13, one of his former players, takes over as head coach. Konchalski says the succession feels good. “I feel the program is in good hands. I feel good leaving the program in a position to win with the talent they have,” he says, mentioning the team had an excellent chance of going a er a title this year, if COVID-19 hadn’t changed things.
Says Konchalski: “StFX has been my life. It will always be in my heart. I’ll always feel part of the Xaverian Family. StFX has been amazing, giving me an opportunity to pursue my dreams.”
COACH STEVE KONCHALSKI
Background • Native of Elmhurst, NY. Played basketball for
Archbishop Molloy High School • Led Acadia University to four conference titles and a national championship in 1965 where he was named tournament MVP • Graduated with a BA from Acadia ‘66 and an
LLB degree from Dalhousie ‘69 • He and his wife, Charlene, have three adult children, Chris, Julianne, and Maria ’10, and two grandchildren.
