HUMBER COLLEGE

from Etobicoke Lakeshore Press - August 2021 Edition

FINANCIAL

Photo: Mohammed Taabish, Student, Marketing Management

The best part of the year is just around the corner, and at Humber Lakeshore, we can’t wait to welcome students, faculty and staff back to our beautiful campus.

Humber will continue to offer a mix of in-person and online learning for the fall 2021 term. Fortunately, vaccination rates are increasing and Ontario continues to reopen, so we expect to offer increased access to campus as public health restrictions loosen.

We are hopeful that students and staff will soon have access to the libraries, study spaces and athletic facilities that have been missed so much over the past months. Humber has been encouraging the college community to get vaccinated, so we can safely be together again.

We will share our return to campus progress in this monthly update and at humber.ca/updates. Of course, Humber Lakeshore continues to connect with the community virtually as well. I want to highlight a recent initiative presented in partnership with LAMP CHC, the GARDENS project and Humber’s Indigenous Education & Engagement (IE&E) department: A free, two-part strawberry jam-making workshop.

On the evenings of July 8 and July 15, attendees were introduced to Indigenous teaching and storytelling as facilitators walked them through the jam-making process.

The facilitators were Lynn Short, an Indigenous education specialist from Humber’s Indigenous Education and Engagement department, and Liz Osawamick, a long-time educator and president of the Board of Directors for Anishnaabemowin-Teg Inc.

Lynn’s grandmother taught her how to make jams and other preserves when she was a teenager, which she continues to do - celebrating each season using local fruits and vegetables. Her father is part Ojibwe and she has a strong connection to the land.

Liz is of the Anishinaabe Odawa Nation from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Reserve, located on Manitoulin Island. She uses Indigenous knowledge, songs and ceremonies in her teaching. Her work includes facilitating language immersion programs in First Nation communities and decades of teaching elementary, secondary and post-secondary students.

The pair taught attendees to prepare the berries in the first session while the second session focused on making the jam. The facilitators generously shared their knowledge and teachings throughout.

Watch our social media pages for more information on upcoming workshops and community events like this one!

If you’ve been following our progress with the GARDENS project, I’d like to invite you to share your thoughts with us through our community consultation survey. To ensure this project evolves to meet the needs and wants of community members, we’re looking for your ideas on community gardens and food security.

Scan the QR code to take the short, two-minute survey, where you can share your views. When you do so, you’ll be entered into a draw to win one of four $25 gift certificates from one of our neighbours, Birds and Beans Café.

I would also like to share some personal news. I have recently accepted the position of Associate Vice President, Academic here at Humber. I do this with mixed emotions as it means we will be hiring a new senior dean and principal to take over my role. My time in the role of principal has been one of the most rewarding during my 17-year career in the Ontario college sector as it came with the opportunity to work directly with our community and alongside so many of you. While I began my new role last month, the search for a new senior dean and principal will take us into the Fall and I will continue in the principal role until then.