links with history extension a titanic presence at 2012 chancellor’s cup golf tournament For the Faculty of Extension volunteers stationed at the first hole of Glendale golf course, the story of the Titanic came alive in at least one very specific, very palpable way… in particular, they learned how it must have felt to be in the boiler room of the storied ocean-liner.
“We chose the Titanic theme because the year of its first and last voyage was also the year University President Henry Marshall Tory founded the Department of Extension,” explained Wayne, “and we’ve been throwing lifelines to people and keeping them afloat in turbulent waters ever since.” Each visitor to the Extension hole was greeted with a cold beverage and invited to have their photo taken in authentic replica life vests identical to the ones used on the Titanic.
Things were already heating up when the crew arrived at 7:00 a.m. on June 25 to set up a display and get decked out in authentic period costumes. By the time the day reached an un-Edmontonian high temperature of 26 degrees centigrade, the idea of colliding with a gigantic wall of ice was starting to sound pretty sweet. “This is insane,” declared coordinator Brianne Thomas. “I’m head-to-toe heavy, thick, dark fabric and there’s no A.C. in the tent. NO ONE KNOWS HOW WE SUFFER FOR OUR ART.” If the heat was getting to Wayne MacDonald (of Extension’s Government Studies unit), it didn’t show; as the Faculty’s in-house expert on Titanic history, Wayne was in his element in full captain’s regalia, grinning as he welcomed 36 quartets of golfers and unflinchingly parried their jokes about the hole’s theme with his own quips.
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For several years, the University of Alberta’s Chancellor has hosted a golf tournament “to raise public awareness regarding the University of Alberta’s commitment to excellence and its outstanding performance and vast accomplishments in the areas of learning, discovery and citizenship.” This year, Ralph Young, CEO of Melcor Developments, was onhand to welcome participants in what was only his second week as University of Alberta Chancellor. “This is a really fun, laid-back event, and it’s encouraging to know how many people are interested and knowledgeable of our 100-yearold Faculty,” said Anu Varsava, who was outfitted in an ankle-length black velvet formal dress befitting her character (a first-class Titanic passenger). “But my goodness, if it’s going to be this hot next time, we’re changing the theme to ‘Bike Shorts Follies.’”
we dream of genii And those dreams come true with the addition of four new academic Staff Over the summer of 2012, the braintrust at the Faculty of Extension ballooned in size with the welcome addition of acclaimed scholars Thomas Barker, Ann Curry, Heather McRae, and Billy Strean. “These four excellent individuals bring tremendous intellectual and collaborative energy, creativity, and innovation to the Faculty of Extension’s activities,” said Dean Katy Campbell of the newest members of the Extension family. “We value and are committed to multidisciplinarity in our engagement work; each exemplifies thoughtful perspectives from different disciplines. Each of our new colleagues will bring depth to their own areas as well as breadth to many Extension programs and to the broader University community as well.” Alphabetically first among the roster is Dr. Thomas Barker, erstwhile English professor and expert in technical writing, social media, and health communications at Texas Tech University. A regular contributor to Technical Communication, the journal of the Society for Technical Communication, Dr. Barker enhances Extension’s graduate program in Communications and Technology (MACT) with his broad body of expertise and a passion “to find out ways to better integrate agency knowledge with the people who need it.”
Thanks to his 40% appointment with the University’s new Writing Studies program, Tom also brings an important connection between Extension and its counterparts on U of A North Campus. As communication spans all aspects of academic life, we look forward to his help in cultivating connections with this promising program. Also adding muscle to the MACT program is Tom’s new colleague, Dr. Ann Curry, former Director of the U of A’s School of Library and Information Science. In addition to her teaching and research duties, Ann is also carrying on with her important work in shattering preconceptions about librarians. To wit: As a volunteer, she taught impoverished, racially-segregated Chinese children in Northern Malaysia for two years. As a public librarian, she worked hard to help teens find reliable information about drugs and sex, while simultaneously lobbying for Canada’s first and only provincial legislation to protect libraries from libel suits. And, to boot, she regularly publishes thought-provoking articles with titles like “Library Planning - With Inspiration from Lady Gaga” and (most recently) “Bums, Poops, and Pees: A Scholarly Examination of Censorship of the Scatological in Children’s Literature.”
dr. tom barker
dr. ann curry
You grew up in Texas and spent a lot of time there in your adult life. How exactly did we convince you to leave the Lone Star state for the northernmost provincial capital in Canada?
One of your academic pursuits is censorship. In what ways does censorship threaten intellectual freedom in Canada right now?
I lived in Canada until I was 9, so I can identify. Agriculture and ranching shape the flat prairies of West Texas, as they do those of Alberta. Oil is huge in both regions. In Texas we could drive a few hours and enjoy alpine climates and winter sports. The scale is different, but the basic geography is the same. Where do your academic passions lie? I teach and study communication; communication isn’t a skill all people have. So most students are glad to have a good teacher help them be better communicators. I also study how people communicate, often between agencies or industrial producers and clients and agents. My academic passion is to find out ways to better integrate agency knowledge with the people who need it.
Hmmmm – do you have time to audit the new Information Control course that I just taught to MACT students this summer?? In that course we covered censorship topics ranging from privacy to pornography, from the censorship tactics of the religious right to the political left. But just to pick one censorship issue that we should be concerned about, the recently proposed federal Bill C-30 would give law enforcement much greater powers to access our private information—all without a warrant. I think we need a balance between those privacy violations necessary to control terrorism and our rights to retain personal privacy. Maintaining that balance between freedom and safety requires constant debate… my goal is to spark that debate amongst students who may not be aware of the democratic principles involved, nor the threats to their fundamental freedoms.
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The uninitiated to our Faculty might now be getting the picture that a good deal of the strength of our scholarly activities lies in the diversity in knowledge areas and personalities of our academic staff. How, then, one might ask, can Extension focus on providing unrivalled lifelong learning opportunities within its broader mandate, the Scholarship of Extension? The answer is safely in the hands of Extension’s very first Associate Dean of Engaged Learning, Dr. Heather McRae. If there is such a thing as Continuing Education royalty in Canada (and we all hope such a thing will exist formally in the immediate-to-near future), Heather is it: Working for many years in adult education and civic engagement at the local, national, and international levels in her position as Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Victoria Continuing Studies, Dr. McRae called her choice to join Extension “an easy decision to make,” considering “Extension is taking a leadership role in framing engaged learning as a core value.” Fortuitously, team effectiveness is among the many areas of research interests for this CAUCE Graduate Student Research Award winner. In her new role, Heather plans to build on the already excellent team dynamic among Extension’s professoriate to ultimately “develop new theories and approaches that advance our understanding of adult learning.”
Billy’s CV is impressive at even just a cursory glance: He earned his doctorate in sport and performance psychology from the University of Illinois in 1993. He is a well-sought-after speaker and workshop leader, expounding his “Exhilarated Approach” to everyday work at any number of corporate trainings, conferences, and events. And he is also (why not?) a Certified Somatic Coach, a Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher, a Certified Laughter Leader, and a Certified Professional Co-active Coach. Humour is obviously at the core of Dr. Strean’s teaching and learning philosophies; as he explains: “there are some good studies and a whack of anecdotal evidence that shows humour does things like enhances the teacher-student relationship, reduces students’ anxiety, improves creative thinking, and increases interaction and engagement.” Our greatest thanks and warmest welcome to our new Academic team members – your involvement augers well for this Faculty as we enter our next 100 years of touching lives!
dr. heather mcrae
dr. billy strean
In 100 years, you’re our very first Associate Dean, Engaged Learning! Why, in your opinion, is it now important for Extension to focus energies on Engaged Learning?
Why should people have more humour in their lives? What’s the benefit?
I am delighted that the Faculty of Extension is taking a leadership role in framing engaged learning as a core value. I think that collectively through research and practice in the scholarship of engagement we can develop new theories and approaches that advance our understanding of adult learning. How does community engagement enhance lifelong learning, and vice-versa? Community engagement provides a focus and context for our work, connecting programs, courses and research projects with individuals and their communities. These connections provide opportunities for sharing and co-creating knowledge to promote positive change for individuals and within society.
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To the last point, if there is anyone who is willing to push for progress in teaching and learning, it is one of the University of Alberta’s most decorated and popular teachers, Dr. Billy Strean, who will spend the next three years infusing Extension’s educational environment with his iconoclastic teachings and techniques.
Most of us are suffering from YALE and TOTS syndromes (You Aren’t Laughing Enough and Taking Ourselves Too Seriously), perhaps disproportionately in academe. The evidence is overwhelming that laughter and humour have so many benefits for physical and mental health and quality of life. I also believe that laughter, humour, play, fun, and joy are culminations in themselves. Even if there were no benefits, I wouldn’t want to imagine a life without laughter and humour. Coming from the U.S., does it annoy you to have to spell “humour” with a u? I really don’t feel I have to include the “u.” As a matter of fact, being bilingual (Canadian and American), I sometimes use the ‘u’ and sometimes, when I’m feeling sassy, I leave it out. No annoyance.
dominos illuminatio mea 2012 access and privacy conference a cascade of cutting-edge information The right to access government records and the protection of the human right to privacy was relatively cut-and-dry in the early 80s; at the time, Canada was leading the charge toward better information practices with its impressive Access to Information and Privacy acts. Of course, at the time, people still bought erasers and white-out, and files were kept in cabinets instead of clouds. A few years later, the Internet started coming into its own, and professionals in these fields could see the dominoes start to fall all around them. In 2012, Access and Privacy professionals are doing heroic work trying to keep the dominoes in place, and from June 13 to 15, several hundred of them convened at the University of Alberta’s Access and Privacy Conference, under the banner theme The Domino Effect.
small family, but also the many new dynamic people who will curate our information rights for the next several years,” said Wayne MacDonald, Chair of the conference. While newcomers to the Canadian Access and Privacy fields were networking with their contemporaries, the conference also acknowledged the support of two contributors to the continued success of this conference: Extension’s Dean, Dr. Katy Campbell, and Charles Hitschfeld of Adsum consulting, the founding father of the conference. 10 years ago, the University of Alberta took over the conference from Charles, and it has continued to thrive as a function of the Faculty of Extension under the leadership of Dr. Campbell. The organizing committee of Access and Privacy 2012 wish to thank this year’s volunteers, speakers, and delegates for their invaluable contributions.
Delegates of this, the foremost information rights conference in western Canada, took part in a number of workshops, panels, and speeches from such luminaries as Colin McKay, Manager of Global presents the inaugural Public Policy at Google, as H E A L T H * * well as the new Information I N F O * * A T I O N P R I V A * * * * * * and Privacy Commissioner * * * * * * E C U R of Alberta, Jill Clayton, who * * * * B A N F F took office in February 2012. “This profession is one whose incredible importance is still yet to be fully realized, and every year I’m excited to see not only the longstanding members of our formerly
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October 18 & 19, 2012
The 2012 HIPS Conference in Banff, presented by the University of Alberta, is the first of its kind in Alberta to share top-level research and best practices in the management, access, and security of patient records in an intimate, collegial setting at the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel.
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Options Explored Over 200 Adult Learners infiltrate Enterprise Square for Fall Information Sessions Things are looking promising for the adult learning community in Edmonton, as an impressive 200 curious education shoppers met in Extension’s Enterprise Square classrooms the night of August 28 to explore the space, ask questions, and learn about the upcoming semester’s courses and programs. Though an asterisk may need to be placed next to the attendance numbers (we admit to bribing attendees with coffee and treats, as well as a prize draw for a 16 GB iPod Nano), there’s no question that many were very keen to kick off the school year, with several people registering for class the same evening. All told, 13 sessions were held, featuring presentations and Q+A for such popular programs as Residential Interiors, Construction Administration, and the part-time graduate program in Communications and Technology (MACT), as well as Extension’s newest program offering, Community Engagement Studies. The latter program, which nicely bridges our Faculty’s Academic domain (the Scholarship of Engagement) with adult learning, is for those wanting to learn to successfully engage with stakeholders, members of communities, or special interest groups. scenes from:
Congratulations to Debra Hesleton of Edmonton, who won an Extension Gift Set including an Apple iPod nano 16 GB. A gift set with a University of Alberta Chess Board goes to Thomas Hogg. Two lucky participants in the Occupational Health and Safety Certificate Info Sessions won $250 Gift of Knowledge vouchers towards an OH&S course: Stefanie Gardner in Calgary and Rory Kucera in Edmonton are our lucky winners! Thanks to everyone who came out to our information sessions, and good luck to all out fall students!
capital ex parade: extension centenary edition
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eriko’s story an english language student shares a first-person perspective on the 2011 tsunami On March 11, 2011, tragedy struck Japan in the form of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake (the world’s fifth-largest since 1900) and a towering tsunami sweeping across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a cruising jetliner. All the words, photos, and hours of footage that had saturated the internet almost immediately afterward could not do justice to the unimaginable destruction brought upon Japan and its people at 2:46 that afternoon (local time). Since then, an influx of international aid benefitting a stoic and industrious population has meant rapid reconstruction… but things are by no means back to normal in Japan, according to Eriko Konishi, an earthquake survivor who came to the University of Alberta over the summer of 2012 to study English as part of the Hope For Youth program, of which the Faculty of Extension’s English Language Program is a proud and vehement supporter. We had the opportunity to speak with this spirited and talented 20-year-old two days before she boarded the plane back home. The interview was slated to take place over an hour, but spilled over well into the second hour, and one is given the impression that we just barely began to scratch the surface of her story, or capture the totality of her energetic, fascinating personality. With that caveat, we reprint our interview below (with greatest thanks to Extension’s Michael Viola for interpretation): Where were you when the earthquake struck? When the earthquake happened, I was in Tokyo. I did what I had always been told to do in an earthquake: I went to the safest, strongest part of the building, which was under a pillar. At first it was just slight tremors, but then the buildings were literally shaking. There was very little to do besides wait it out, which is what I did…. It seemed a bit like it ended too quickly, so I wondered what was going on. There was a smaller Earthquake in Tokyo, and I thought that’s where the hypocenter was.…
Geologists had been predicting a large earthquake that would soon hit the Konto area, as part of a cycle of earthquakes that hits once every 300 years. I looked at the TV to find out where the Hypocenter actually was, and it was very near my old hometown. After the tsunami warning was reported, I didn’t know what was going to happen. What was going through your head at the time? When I had first believed that this was the Konto Earthquake [which would be the most devastating in Tokyo], I knew my parents would be worried to death. I wanted very much to call them and tell them I was okay. When I found out that the epicenter was actually up in the Northeast region, where my parents lived, I became worried that there might be a tsunami coming. All that was coming through the TV was bits of information, but no pictures or footage. I very soon found out that the tsunami had already hit my home prefecture. From then, all I could do was sit in front of the television waiting for any further news to come out… Eventually, there were pictures of the affected areas, and I started recognizing the ruins of buildings that I grew up around. I discovered that the wave easily covered buildings over two storeys high: This was not your average tsunami; this was something very scary and serious.
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How long was it before you heard from your parents?
seconds later, the wave hit. It was a very narrow escape.
I didn’t hear from my parents until three days after the tsunami.
My childhood home was completely destroyed, along with everything inside. My parents had made it out with their lives, the clothes on their backs and that’s all.
Over those few days, I called all my friends in Tokyo that hailed from the Northeast region to exchange information and updates. By the second day, most of my friends had already heard from their families. I started to expect the worst. By the third day, about 1 pm., my phone rang, and it said “Mom” on the display. The first thing I asked my mother was “Are you still alive?” to which she replied “Well, there’s no way I’m going to die!” She kept a great sense of humour, but, at the time of the tsunami, my mother was not feeling well and certainly couldn’t have escaped on her own. Plus, her upbringing was in the mountains, not near the ocean, so she knew very little of life by the ocean, where we lived. Plus the power was out, so as the tsunami approached, the power was out and the TV was off; my mother had no idea what was about to happen and decided to go to bed. Oh no! Where was your father at the time? Everything happened in the middle of the day, and my dad was at work, 20 minutes’ drive from home. He has always lived near the sea, and he knew from the tremors that a tsunami would soon follow. But, he is also the head of the company, and he first had to warn everyone there and make sure they were safe. He tried to convince himself that my mother would be okay, but he knew she wasn’t used to this sort of thing, so he VERY quickly made sure all would be okay at the office, then scrambled to his car to rescue his wife. The road home had been blocked by emergency services, but he managed to get through. As he watched the waters, he also knew that if he wasn’t able to reach my mother in time, he would have to leave her, turn around, and drive for higher ground. With very little time to spare, he got home, water already seeping in, and found my mother, quickly got her into the car, and dashed off. About 30
I’m afraid to ask, but was the rest of your family able to escape? My grandparents live in the same town, but I thought they would escape right away, so I wasn’t initially worried about them at all—my grandfather has lived through many tsunamis, and knows that after the initial wave hits, a much bigger one is coming fast. Granddad actually had an “escape knapsack” prepared, which he could take with him if he needs to get away. This time, he didn’t even have time to grab it—they both needed to run away as fast as they could. Granddad is 87, and grandma is 84; they literally had to run for their lives. In hindsight, this was a blessing in disguise, since the knapsack would have slowed them down. Granddad was able to get them just past the point of danger and just collapsed from exhaustion. How long was it before your parents and grandparents were able to go back to their homes? They were able to go back the same day. Fire engines went around picking everyone up and taking them to whatever emergency shelters existed. But their houses had been completely destroyed, and winter was barely through at that time of the year. What did they do for shelter? My parents were sheltered in a gymnasium at a school. There was absolutely no privacy there, just long rows of futons. They spent the first five months there while temporary housing was being built. My parents were two of the last to be placed in temporary housing (in August), which is the first time since the tsunami hit that they had their own space. continued page 10
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A CUP of good research yoshi iwasaki, director of community-university partnership, steps up to lead extension research Along with the addition of four new members to our academic family, momentum for a bright future of engagement scholarship has been further bolstered by the recent announcement that Dr. Yoshitaka (Yoshi) Iwasaki of the CommunityUniversity Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families (CUP) has accepted the position of Associate Dean, Research (ADR), at the Faculty of Extension. Yoshi began his five-year appointment as ADR September 1; with him, he brings expertise in the areas of culture, diversity, active living, community engagement, and scads more… though his most compelling interest right now, it would seem, is to galvanize the research efforts of the Extension professoriate and staff through increased efforts toward more internal and external engagement: “As a Faculty of engagement, we should not underestimate the value of spending more time, effort, and activities on internal engagement through reserving a mutually-respectful space for open communication, dialogues, and reflections,” said Yoshi. “I realize all of us are very busy with our own day-to-day responsibilities within our own unit. We should, however, work together as a team to better appreciate time and space for looking at a big picture for Extension for our healthy growth. Collaborative community-based research and engaged scholarships are important means of facilitating this big-minded endeavour within Extension, in working collaboratively with our partners from other university units and from our communities.”
Though the well-rounded, well-traveled Associate Dean will be pulling double-duty (retaining his Directorship with CUP), eager anticipation for his contributions is growing not just among new and longstanding staff, but also outgoing staff, such as favourite son of the Faculty, the recently-retired Dr. Al Cook, who, in a farewell message to his colleagues, wrote “I believe that the Faculty of Extension research activities are on a par with any other faculty in the University. The good news for you is that not all of the rest of the campus knows how good you are yet. I also know that under Yoshi’s leadership as Associate Dean, Research the Faculty’s research accomplishments and profile will continue to grow.” We echo Dr. Cook’s sentiments in thanking and congratulating Dr. Iwasaki for accepting this new challenge!
scenes from:
Extension @ Fort Edmonton!
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teachers need love too and they get plenty of it at Extension’s Learning Engagement teaching symposium If there is a controlling reason Extension instructors are the best in the business, it is the efforts of our Faculty’s Learning Engagement Office (LEO); over the day of Saturday, September 15, LEO staff welcomed over 30 instructors for some professional and nutritional refreshment at their annual Teaching Symposium. “On behalf of Faculty of Extension and the Learning Engagement Office, I would like to thank you for your participation in Saturday’s Extension Instructors’ Teaching Symposium,” said LEO Executive Director Christie Schultz in a subsequent message to participants. “you each bring to life the very essence of why the University of Alberta has embraced “uplifting the whole people” as its promise, and as an expression of who we are together. Through teaching—and through your own participation in this instructor community and Extension’s learning communities—you uplift.” Kicked off with words of welcome from Dean Katy Campbell, the event packed seven information sessions and a keynote into the space between breakfast and lunch (both were provided courtesy of LEO).
The keynote session was delivered by one of Extension’s most recent and exciting recruits, Dr. Billy Strean, a 3M National Teaching Fellow and perennially-popular speaker who addressed the crowd with his take on engaged learning: “In the Faculty of Extension, we value community engagement. How is “community” central to teaching and learning? It is an ontological reality, an epistemological necessity, a pedagogical asset, and an ethical corrective.” Also leading sessions that day were LEO in-house experts Bryan Braul (“Developing a Sense of Community”), Erika Smith (“Our Adult Learners: Are they Really ‘Digital Immigrants?’”), and Christie Schultz “Effective Techniques for Teaching Adults.” The day was closed with comments from Extension’s new Associate Dean, Engaged Learning, Heather McRae. Past presentations and more information are available on the LEO blog http:// learningengagement.blogspot.ca/. Thanks to all our amazing instructors and best wishes for an excellent fall semester!
where in the world is
bear?
For a forest predator with a predilection for not wearing pants, our Extension mascot, Bear, gets around more than the Beach Boys circa 1964. Below is a smattering of his vacation photos, also visible on the Extension Centenary website at http://100yearsofextension.ca/extension-was-here.
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eriko’s story continued from page 10 When they originally moved in, they were under contract to stay in those temporary houses for two years. It is now one year later, and most people think it’s very unlikely that they will be able to move back to their homes by the time the contract expires. Can you describe what the temporary homes are like? The houses are very small. To the right, a kitchenette and a toilet. To the left, the shower and bathtub. So, if you want to take a bath, you need to first make sure no one is using the kitchen or the toilet, or things get awkward. There is a living area about the size of a normal business office where you do everything else (sleep, eat, store possessions, etc). Obviously, there is never enough room. Whenever you move, something gets knocked over. Traditionally, Japanese go home over the New Year holidays. So, I and my sister (who is also working in Tokyo), went home to visit our parents in the temporary housing. While we were visiting, there was not enough room for everyone, so Dad slept on the floor of his company office. We were actually pretty lucky—In a different temporary housing area, the houses collapse if you so much as lean on the walls. Obviously, these places shake quite a bit whenever there are earthquakes or aftershocks. Switching topics, let’s talk about your education. To this point, you’ve spent the last few months in Edmonton, but in Tokyo, you study Spanish language and Latin culture. How did you choose these studies? I wanted to enter the Department of English in my school, but it is very competitive. There are so many Spanish-speaking countries in the world, and I’m very interested in the economy of Latin American nations. At my father’s company, there have been Latin American
people coming from as far away as Peru to learn about their technology. That was one of the reasons for me to learn more about Latin America. I really enjoy learning about languages, as a reflection of different things—if you just study Japanese, the things you learn are only seen through the lens of the Japanese language. However, when you learn a new language and about new cultures, you expand your horizons through that other language. Since I came here [to the English Language Program], I realized there are many different ways to think about how to study and learn. For instance, in Japan, you study for the sake of a high score. The idea of studying to actually communicate is a bit of an odd concept. In Japan, someone who can speak English is very well thought of. Seeing how English is studied here, I realized that it’s particularly powerful in being able to express myself to people from all around the world through listening, speaking, writing, and reading – this is the foundation upon which you learn the language. What are your plans for the future? When I first entered university, my priorities were to study languages and find work through that. Then the tsunami hit, and my life got turned upsidedown. I took advantage of the opportunity to come to Canada, and it seems as though things are changing drastically for me yet again. I have no great plans as to what I want to do for a career, but since seeing first-hand the international support for Japan following the disaster, the one thing I know I would like to do is charitable good work in other parts of the world. Many lives have been lost to the disaster, but then again, there are so many who survived, and being one of them, I feel a need to be as strong a person as I can be, and to live. Having had so many encounters with different people in Japan and here in Canada, I came to realize that as long as you’re trying to get something done, there will always be a helping hand along the way. Page 10