Hub restaurant coming to town
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more campbell arrogance
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wHat are tHe city’s top projects?
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wednesday
July 3 2013 www.newwestnewsleader.com
tourism new westminster launched its rebranding in style this week. see page a15
Still no snacks at Pier Park Mario Bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
Courtesy sFu
janelle dobson-Kocsis (left) has gone from having a math phobia to helping teach math to kids, thanks to help she received in the aboriginal pre-Health program at sFu.
Aboriginal program made the difference Local woman says she’s now found her path Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
Eavesdropping is supposed to be a no-no, not a life changer, but that’s just what happened for Janelle Dobson-Kocsis. A snippet of conversation she heard during an information session at Douglas College pointed her in the direction she’d been seeking for years and now she’s on the road to becoming a psychiatric nurse with
ambitions of even more. Dobson-Kocsis’ biological father’s heritage is from the Kwanlin Dün First Nation in the Yukon. But her mother, older sister and herself moved to New Westminster when she was four years old. She jumped around a few schools and up until Grade 5 she’d been bullied. Then on her first day at Herbert Spencer elementary she helped another girl with a puzzle and asked her if they could be friends. The pair and two others have been close ever since.
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Although she was finally accepted, Dobson-Kocsis observed others getting bullied and developed friendships with them as well. When she moved on to New Westminster secondary she noticed all the cliques in the hallways—the jocks, the rockers, the punks, the glamour girls. “There were all these different groups and it’s funny how they all come together. They all want to be different, yet they all want to come together,” she says. While Dobson-Kocsis had her
own circle of friends, she made a point of making friends with all kinds of kids. “I didn’t take pleasure in making fun of people who were different than me. I came to learn it comes from a fear of being different so they react in a dominant way.” Her fascination piqued even more when she took two psychology courses in high school, so when she graduated from NWSS in 2006 she eagerly applied to Douglas for its psychiatric nursing program. please see ‘this is very’, A4
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Visitors to New Westminster’s Pier Park who find themselves with a sudden craving for a hot dog or cold soda will have to wait a little longer to satisfy their hunger. Since opening last June, the red steel shutters at the park’s concession stand have remained locked down. Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks, recreation and culture said they’ll stay closed for a while yet as the city negotiates a lease with a preferred vendor. Part of the negotiations will also have to address equipping the stand as it’s now just an empty shell. Gibson said when the city first put out a call for interest from potential operators of the stand there was plenty of response. Reviewing those responses and narrowing them down has been a slow process as city staff and council deal with a myriad other issues on their plate. Meantime, Gibson said he hasn’t heard a huge clamour from people anxious to get a snack in the park. please see still, A3