Winter 2015 Campus Magazine

LAURIER FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS | WINTER 2015

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY

CAMPUS Introducing the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics Laurier partners with BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis

From rapper to radio host: Shad settles in as host of q Kate Psota and Ashley Stephenson are helping put women’s baseball on the map

Chart the best course for your life in the years ahead.

Start with preferred insurance rates.

On average, alumni who have home and auto insurance with us save $400.*

Insurance program recommended by the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association

Supporting you... and Laurier.

Your needs will change as your life and career evolve. As a member of the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association, you have access to the TD Insurance Meloche Monnex program, which offers preferred insurance rates, other discounts and great protection, that is easily adapted to your changing needs. Plus, every year our program contributes to supporting your alumni association, so it’s a great way to save and show you care at the same time.

Get a quote today!

Our extended business hours make it easy.

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

HOME | AUTO | TRAVEL

Ask for your quote today at 1-888-589-5656 or visit melochemonnex.com/wlualumni The TD Insurance Meloche Monnex program is underwritten by SECURITY NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY. It is distributed by Meloche Monnex Insurance and Financial Services Inc. in Quebec, by Meloche Monnex Financial Services Inc. in Ontario, and by TD Insurance Direct Agency Inc. in the rest of Canada. Our address: 50 Place Crémazie, Montreal (Quebec) H2P 1B6.

Due to provincial legislation, our auto and recreational vehicle insurance program is not offered in British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan. *Average based on the home and auto premiums for active policies on July 31, 2014 of all of our clients who belong to a professional or alumni group that has an agreement with us when compared to the premiums they would have paid with the same insurer without the preferred insurance rate for groups and the multi-product discount. Savings are not guaranteed and may vary based on the client’s profile. ® The TD logo and other TD trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

contents Looking to the future BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis has a clear vision for the future of Canada’s tech industry — and Laurier will be playing a big part.

14

12 Research file

Can games change the world? Laurier’s Scott Nicholson thinks so.

Also, Bradley Ruffle explores how beauty can be a barrier.

12

20 Silver lining

Fresh off silver medals at the Pan Am games, Kate Psota and Ashley Stephenson discuss the growth and future of women’s baseball.

26 From rapper to radio host

Juno Award-winning rapper Shad trades rhymes for interview questions as he settles into his new role as host of q on CBC Radio.

20 26

30 Homecoming highlights

Thousands of proud alumni return to Waterloo and Brantford campuses to celebrate Homecoming 2015.

3 Editor’s note 4 President’s message 6 Campus news 32 Q&A

34 Alumni Profile 36 Alumni Updates 38 Postcard to home 40 Flashback campusmagazine.wlu.ca 1

“To every former Golden Hawk who gives back to Laurier, thank you for helping students like me reach the finish line—graduation!

Your unwavering belief in us drives us to dream big and achieve.”

MORE THAN HALF of Laurier’s students rely on financial assistance, and this

number continues to grow. Without the generous support of Laurier alumni, we simply cannot meet this need.

Make your gift today.

wlu.ca/giving

DEVE-76-OCT15

Holly Kegel, Class of 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE

Exciting time for Campus Waterloo | Brantford | Kitchener | Toronto Volume 54, Number 2, Winter 2015 ISSN 0700-5105

Laurier Campus is published by the Department of Communications, Public Affairs & Marketing (CPAM) Wilfrid Laurier University 75 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 Publisher: Joel Peters, Assistant Vice-President: External Relations Managing Editor: Kevin Crowley Editor: Justin Fauteux Writers: Kimberly Elworthy Design: Jessica Hillis, Tara Olheiser Justin Ogilvie, Dawn Wharnsby Photography: Jordan Jocius, Nick Lachance, John Ternan, Dean Palmer

Send address changes to: Email: alumni@wlu.ca Tel: 519.884.0710 x3180 Publications Mail Registration No. 40020414 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Wilfrid Laurier University 75 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 We welcome and encourage your feedback. Send letters to the editor to campusmagazine@wlu.ca. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

Laurier Campus (circ. 55,000) is published two times a year by CPAM. Opinions expressed in Campus do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the university’s administration.

Cover photography: Dean Palmer

Our cover story this issue outlines Laurier’s exciting new partnership with BlackBerry creator Mike Lazaridis, a significant milestone in the ongoing success of the School of Business & Economics. In a similar way, this edition of Laurier Campus also marks a significant step forward for this magazine.

The publication of this issue marks the first edition of a new, vibrant online version of Campus. In addition to the print copy you hold in your hands, you can visit campusmagazine.wlu.ca and find all the same great stories plus online exclusives such as video, sidebars, photo galleries and more.

Offering a digital version of the magazine that goes beyond a PDF posted online (which we’ll continue to do for those who love a good print layout) not only enables us to give you story elements we simply can’t deliver in print, it also allows us to reach a wider audience. This new online presence will also allow you to easily share individual stories about Laurier and its graduates with your friends, family and networks via social media.

Campusmagazine.wlu.ca is “fully responsive”, which means it adapts automatically to whatever device you’re

viewing it on, whether that’s a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

Launching this new online presence could not have come at a better time. In an era of environmental and cost sensitivities, we are trying to reduce the number of copies of the magazine we print and mail. The online version will complement the print version and allow us to continue telling great Laurier stories in multiple ways.

To help us sustain the great tradition of Campus magazine, we’re asking alumni to let us know if you would prefer to go paperless and only receive a digital version of the magazine. Simply email alumni@wlu. ca or call 519-884-0710 ext. 3180 and we’ll remove your name and address from the magazine’s print mailing list.

As the editor of a magazine, I’m one of print media’s staunchest defenders. But I am also excited by the opportunities and additional content that come along with a digital version as robust as the one we now have for Campus.

So check out the new online edition of Campus magazine at campusmagazine.wlu. ca. As always, we’d love to hear what you think.

Justin Fauteux (BA ’13)

Questions, comments, rants or raves?

We’d love to hear from you! Email us at campusmagazine@wlu.ca or reach out to us through social media.

Don’t forget to check us out online at campusmagazine.wlu.ca!

Visit us online at campusmagazine.wlu.ca

‘Like’ us at facebook.com/WilfridLaurierUniversity youtube.com/LaurierVideo

twitter.com/LaurierNews

#LaurierLove

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 3

campus corner PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

A transformative step forward for Laurier I have had the privilege of participating in many good-news announcements during my time at Laurier. Ours is a truly vibrant community, supported by generous alumni, friends and partners, all working together to develop innovative ways to deliver higher education and research for the benefit of individuals and society.

An outstanding example of this is our recent collaboration with Mike Lazaridis

a world-leading centre that will focus on scaling high-tech start-ups, which are produced in great number in our community, into globally competitive businesses.

Called the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises, this centre will address a significant gap in Canadian business education. While Canadians regularly develop leading-edge technology, Canadian tech companies

Left to right: Micheál Kelly, dean of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics; Michael Lee-Chin, Laurier chancellor; Max Blouw, Laurier president and vice-chancellor; Mike Lazaridis; Deb Matthews, deputy premier of Ontario and president of the treasury board. and the Ontario government.

On Sept. 8 I had the pleasure of announcing that Laurier is naming its faculty of business and economics after the visionary entrepreneur who created the BlackBerry smartphone. The Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, as it is now called, combines the strengths of an outstanding academic faculty with an internationally renowned person who symbolizes innovation and leadership.

I also had the honour of announcing that the new home of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics will be called Lazaridis Hall. This landmark building is nearing completion on University Avenue and will also house Laurier’s Mathematics Department.

These namings recognize a transformative investment of $20 million from Mike Lazaridis and $15 million from the Ontario government. Together, this combined $35 million will be used to create

4 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

often have to look beyond our borders for business managers who have significant experience in the technology industry — especially in scaling small start-ups into robust companies that can compete in the global market.

The Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises will change this by producing research and training a new generation of business leaders with in-depth knowledge of technology management.

What is most inspiring about this endeavor are the collaborations, partnerships and synergies that comprise the new institute.

Laurier is situated in the heart of the Waterloo Region technology hub, one of the most vibrant tech ecosystems in Canada. This geographic advantage presents numerous opportunities for guest speakers, mentorship, co-op placements and other activities that leverage the

technology expertise in Waterloo.

Second, the vision that Mike Lazaridis has for strengthening the Canadian technology industry aligns closely with SBE Dean Micheál Kelly’s strategy for “building Canada’s best business school.” Kelly’s own research involves technology management, venture capital, and strategic alliances. He believes that Laurier’s highly regarded and well-rounded business curriculum will be significantly enhanced by further developing our expertise in high-tech management.

Third, the Ontario government has long recognized the valuable contribution that Laurier makes to the social, cultural and economic prosperity of the province.

The $15 million it has committed to help establish the Lazaridis Institute follows a previous $72.6-million investment toward the cost of building the state-of-theart facility that will soon house SBE and Laurier’s Mathematics Department.

Taken together, the strategic alignment of these private and public investments shows the enormously positive outcomes that can result when individuals, governments and universities work collaboratively to advance our economy, our quality of life, and provincial and national prosperity.

It is also a demonstration of confidence in all that we do at Laurier. Our university is a remarkable institution, comprised of nine outstanding faculties, each contributing to the strength of the whole.

It is important to note that the Lazaridis gift is part of Laurier’s Building Canada’s Best Business School campaign. This campaign represents Phase One of a larger $131-million pan-university campaign, which will support all faculties.

To all of you who help make Laurier a truly great university, I extend my heartfelt gratitude.

Max Blouw, President and Vice-Chancellor

campus corner MESSAGE FROM THE WLUAA PRESIDENT

Celebrating excellence in the Laurier community This fall marked my first Homecoming as president of the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association. It was definitely not my first Homecoming, but experiencing it as president gave me a slightly different point of view.

Standing in the alumni end zone and seeing the Laurier community gathered together in such a massive celebration. Sitting in the stands surrounded by 10,000 students. Joining the university’s senior and student leaders on the field — where we even ran a brief football play.

It hit home for me that this is Laurier. This community. This group of people that comes together, that wants to be together, that celebrates together. This is what makes Laurier so special.

Celebration is something we do pretty well at Laurier.

Over the next year, we’re going to be making some adjustments to the Awards of Excellence program. For more than three decades, this program has celebrated (there’s that word again) the achievements of alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends.

It is important to WLUAA that we continue to recognize these people. Looking through the gallery of past recipients, I am impressed by the great things that our alumni, students, staff, faculty and

community members are doing. Recognizing these award-winners validates all of the hard work they have done; it also tells the story of what Laurier is all about.

We don’t know exactly what the Awards of Excellence will look like, but know that we are going to continue this important celebration for the Laurier community. I encourage you to visit www.laurier alumni.ca/awards to learn more about the program, past recipients — and maybe even nominate someone who’s worthy of celebration.

Something else that we’re celebrating with this issue of Campus is the launch of an online version of the magazine. This magazine is a great way to tell the story of who we are at Laurier. With the online version, we will be sharing that story in new ways and extending our reach to new audiences. I encourage you to check it out at campusmagazine.wlu.ca and share it with your friends.

There is a lot to celebrate within the Laurier community. This magazine is just a small snippet.

Keep in touch.

Marc Richardson ’94 President, WLUAA, LaurierAlumni.ca Facebook/Twitter: LaurierAlumni alumni@wlu.ca

WLUAA 2015–16 EXECUTIVE

Board of Directors

President Marc Richardson ’94

Kate Applin ’09 Craig Mellow ’97 Michelle Missere ’06 Andrew Ness ’86 Jacinda Reitsma ’99 Karen Rice ’87 Shirley Schmidt ’86, ’09 Ryan Smith ’98

Vice-President Megan Harris ’00 Secretary/Treasurer Fiona Batte ’96 Honorary President Dr. Max Blouw

Board of Governors Representatives Scott Bebenek ’85 Tom Berczi ’88, ’93 John Trus ’90

Senate Representatives Ashley Cameron ’86 Benjamin Graham ’99, ‘00 Chris Hiebert ’83

Past President Marc Henein ’04

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 5

campus news LAURIER NAMES SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

SBE named in honour of visionary tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Mike Lazaridis Wilfrid Laurier University has named its renowned School of Business & Economics in honour of Mike Lazaridis, creator of the groundbreaking BlackBerry smartphone.

The newly branded Lazaridis School of Business & Economics marks the start of an exciting new era for Laurier as the university prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its business and economics school and open a $103-million state-of-the-art facility in 2016.

Laurier is poised to become a global centre for research and teaching related to the leadership of technology companies, thanks to a $20-million donation by Lazaridis and a contribution of $15 million from the Ontario government, both announced earlier this year. The combined $35 million will support the creation of the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises, which will be part of the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics.

Lazaridis is internationally known for creating the BlackBerry smartphone, building BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) into an $18-billion global business, and reshaping the global mobile communications industry. He is currently a founding partner in Quantum Valley Investments, a Waterloo-based fund that focuses on the commercialization of breakthrough technologies in quantum information science and which seeks to support Waterloo Region’s growing reputation as the “Quantum Valley.”

A large crowd gathered in the SBE Atrium Sept. 8 to celebrate the naming of Laurier’s School of Business & Economics. Photo by John Ternan.

The Lazaridis School of Business & Economics will be housed in a $103million landmark building that is nearing completion on University Avenue in Waterloo. Known previously as the Global Innovation Exchange, this remarkable facility will be renamed Lazaridis Hall in honour of the entrepreneur’s generous contributions to Laurier, the global technology industry and the community of Waterloo Region.

“I chose to invest in Laurier because I thought that they were uniquely positioned to transform the way that technology

business managers are trained and developed,” said Lazaridis. “I believe the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises will help Laurier produce exceptional tech-savvy business managers and leaders that Canadian technology companies need to grow and succeed globally. I want to thank the Province of Ontario for their continuing vision and support for technology entrepreneurship in this province.”

For more on Mike Lazaridis and his partnership with Laurier, see page 14.

LAURIER APPOINTS CN FELLOW IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Donation from CN helps create new three-year appointment Professor Michael Haughton has been named the inaugural CN Fellow in Supply Chain Management within the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics.

In this new role, Haughton will foster outreach, teaching, curriculum development

6 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

and research in supply chain management.

He will also serve as a consultant to CN on current issues, enabling closer partnership on research activities and trends between CN, researchers and students.

The CN Fellowship is a three-year

appointment and was made possible by a generous donation from CN. In March 2015, CN announced a $500,000 donation to support research and education programs in Laurier’s Centre for Supply Chain Management.

campus news

VANIER CUP 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

2005 Golden Hawk football team honoured at Homecoming

The fall of 2015 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Laurier football team’s triumph over Saskatchewan in the 2005 Vanier Cup. On Homecoming weekend the team was inducted into the Golden Hawk Hall of Fame and took part in a special ceremony prior to the annual Homecoming football game.

Undefeated through the 2005 regular season, the Golden Hawks beat the Western Mustangs in the provincial championship to claim their secondstraight Yates Cup. They then travelled to Nova Scotia, where they topped the Acadia Axemen in the national semifinal.

On Dec. 3, 2005, in front of a packed crowd at Hamilton’s Ivor Wynne stadium, the underdog Hawks won a thrilling

WATCH

photo: Kha Vo

Laurier launches online version of Campus magazine

A retrospective on the Golden Hawks’ magical 2005 season CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

contest 23-21 over the Saskatchewan Huskies, with Brian Devlin (BA ’07) kicking the game-winning field goal with 19 seconds on the clock. The win gave Laurier its second Vanier Cup in school history and served as a perfect farewell for 13 members of the team, who played their final game as Golden Hawks that day.

In addition to the team’s induction in to the Golden Hawk Hall of Fame, two members of the 2005 Vanier Cup champions — receiver Andy Baechler (BA ‘07) and running back Nick Cameron (BA ‘06) were also inducted as part of this year’s Homecoming festivities.

See more of Homecoming 2015 on pg. 30

$1-MILLION DONATION

Linamar makes contribution to Lazaridis School accounting program Linamar Corporation recently announced that it is donating $1 million to the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University. The gift will support the accounting program in the Lazaridis School and establish the Linamar Centre for Accounting Education.

Linamar Corporation, which started as a one-man machine shop in the basement of founder Frank Hasenfratz, today is a $4.2-billion firm with more than 19,500 employees in 48 manufacturing locations located around the world.

Linamar’s donation will fund a fellowship and scholarships to support and encourage accounting faculty and students.

The fellowship will support a professor who is pursuing research in accounting.

The fellow will also be an instructor, educating students in the theoretical nuances and practical skills of the accounting field.

The Linamar scholarships will be granted annually to students who demonstrate leadership skills and strong academic performance.

Laurier Campus magazine has a fresh new digital presence! The Winter 2015 edition of Campus marks the launch of campusmagazine.wlu.ca, the exciting new online version of Laurier’s alumni magazine.

In launching this vibrant web edition, Campus will be available to a wider audience while offering readers exciting online exclusives such as video, additional photos and information, interactive graphics and much more.

Meant as a complement to the print version, campusmagazine.wlu.ca will bring readers the same compelling stories found in each issue of the magazine along with exclusive onlineonly content delivered in a more accessible and engaging digital format.

The web version will be fully responsive, allowing readers to view each issue on their desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. It will also give Laurier alumni and friends greater opportunities to share stories about the university and its graduates via social media.

The new web version of Campus magazine is not intended to replace the print version entirely. However, in an era of environmental and cost sensitivity, we are trying to reduce the number of copies that we print and mail each issue. If you want to go paperless and receive Campus magazine only online, please let us know by emailing alumni@wlu.ca or calling 519-8840710 ext. 3180. We will send you an e-mail each time a new online edition of Campus is published.

Regardless of which format you choose, we’re confident that you will continue to find Campus magazine a great way to stay connected to Laurier.

Check out the online version at campusmagazine.wlu.ca

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 7

campus news

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION DONATES $750,000

Gift to support programs, services and scholarships for Laurier students The Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Association (WLUAA) recently donated $750,000 to enhance programs, services and scholarships for Laurier students.

This donation brings WLUAA’s total contribution to Laurier’s current fundraising campaign to $1 million.

The gift will be divided equally between three priority areas: mental health initiatives, social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and student financial support.

The Alumni Association, which is comprised of over 92,000 graduates,

has a longstanding history of philanthropy and mentorship. In total, WLUAA has contributed more than $2.25 million to support Laurier’s capital projects and student scholarships, with nearly $1 million-worth of donations occurring since 2009.

PEOPLE AT LAURIER Bruce Arai has been appointed to the new role of assistant provost: strategy for a one-year term. Arai will be responsible for developing and enacting strategies for enhancing not-for-credit and for-credit programming at Laurier. Arai has previously served as associate dean and dean of the Brantford campus and most recently, as dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences.

During Arai’s term as assistant provost: strategy, Lauren Eisler will serve as acting dean of Human and Social Sciences.

Former Deloitte executive John Bowey has been named the new chair of Laurier’s Board of Governors, succeeding Jamie Martin, who served as chair since 2009. Bowey, who enjoyed a 37-year career at Deloitte, has served on the Laurier board as a communityat-large representative since 2011. Previously, he served as vice-chair and chair of the audit and compliance committee, and as a member of the executive and governance, finance and investments, and HR and compensation committees. He remains a member of the Laurier Senate.

Longtime Laurier employee Jennifer Casey (BA ’89) was appointed to the position of assistant vice-president: enrolment services and registrar. Casey held the role in an acting capacity since July 2014, successfully leading the development of stronger evidence-based decision-making in Enrolment Services, particularly in recruitment and admissions activities. Most recently Casey served as director: university community relations at Laurier and has held increasingly senior positions within the university, including manager: liaison services, director of development operations, and university secretary.

8 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

Kathryn Carter has been appointed Laurier’s acting associate vice-president: Teaching and Learning.

Carter previously served as associate dean: Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and inter-faculty associate dean: academic coordination.

In the latter role, she reported directly to the vice-president: academic and provost and was responsible for central advising at the Brantford campus and for supporting collaboration between and within multicampus academic programs.

Robert Gordon has been named Laurier’s new vice-president: research.

Gordon previously served as the dean of the Ontario Agricultural College and a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph since 2008. Prior to his role at the University of Guelph, Gordon spent a decade at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (now part of Dalhousie University), where he held a Canada Research Chair in Agricultural Resource Management and served as dean of research, department head, and associate professor in the Department of Engineering.

In addition to his five-year appointment as vice-president: research, Gordon will hold a faculty position in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.

Former Ontario cabinet minister John Milloy has joined Laurier and the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in a dual appointment. Milloy, former member of provincial parliament for Kitchener Centre and senior adviser to former prime minister

Jean Chrétien, will serve a two-year term as an assistant professor of public ethics and co-director of the Centre for Public Ethics at the Seminary, a federated college of Laurier.

He will also hold a one-year appointment as the inaugural practitioner-in-residence in applied political science at Laurier.

Marlin Nagtegaal was appointed interim director of the Beckett School at Wilfrid Laurier University. The Beckett School of Music, which was gifted to the university in April 2015, became part of a new Laurier Conservatory of Music in the fall. Nagtegaal has taught at the Beckett School of Music for over 25 years, and in Laurier’s Faculty of Music for over 15 years. His one-year term runs until June 15, 2016.

Richard Nemesvari has been appointed dean of Laurier’s Faculty of Arts, joining the university from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where he served as dean of Arts since 2010. Nemesvari, originally from Waterloo, had a long, decorated career at St. FX, teaching in the university’s English department for 20 years before being named dean of Arts. Among his many accomplishments while heading St. FX’s Faculty of Arts, Nemesvari was responsible for leading the development of the Arts Pathways website, which links academic choices in Arts disciplines with career opportunities. He also oversaw the development of a first-year Social Justice Colloquium, modeled after St. FX’s successful Humanities Colloquium.

campus news

MULTI-CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT

Laurier continues pursuit of a Milton campus Laurier has taken an important step forward in the process to create a new campus in the Town of Milton with the recent appointment of public-affairs strategist Deborah Dubenofsky to the position of executive director and senior project lead for Laurier’s Milton campus bid.

The appointment initiates a comprehensive strategy that will engage the public, civic officials, key stakeholders, partners and supporters in a dialogue with the Ontario government about the importance of access to university education in Milton and Halton Region.

Dubenofsky will champion the development of Laurier’s bid for a Milton campus in response to a request-forproposal (RFP) process announced last May by the Ontario government to build post-secondary facilities to serve the growing demand for higher education in the Halton and Peel regions. The province has stated it will provide details of the RFP in early 2016.

The Laurier Milton plan proposes a

150-acre environmentally sustainable university campus within a larger 400-acre Milton Education Village, adjacent to the protected Niagara Escarpment greenbelt.

The proposal benefits from broad community support and includes a gift of 150 acres of land from the Town of Milton, valued at $50 million. The proposal would also enable shared use of the $56-million Milton Velodrome, which was built for last summer’s Pan Am/Parapan Am games and presents an excellent opportunity for cost-sharing and long-term facility use.

Dubenofsky has a distinguished career in public service and public-policy advocacy, including senior executive roles in municipal and provincial government, and the private sector.

The role of executive director and senior project lead for Laurier’s Milton campus bid is a one-year engagement funded entirely through donations raised specifically for the effort to secure a university campus in the Town of Milton.

We saved you a seat.

Now we want you to put your name on it.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to be recognized for

LAURIER REAPPOINTS CHANCELLOR

your donation to the Lazaridis

Michael Lee-Chin accepts second term Michael Lee-Chin has been appointed to a second four-year term as the chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University.

A renowned investor, businessman and philanthropist, Lee-Chin has served as chancellor since 2011 and is the eighth person to occupy the role since the university became a public institution in 1973.

Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Lee-Chin came to Canada to study civil engineering at McMaster University on a scholarship. After graduation, he became a financial advisor and, at the age of 32, borrowed money to purchase stock in an investment firm. He has since become one

School of Business & Economics.

CanadasBestBusinessSchool.ca/NameYourSeat

of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs and generous philanthropists.

Today, Lee-Chin is chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., a privately held investment company that manages public and private equity and has a direct ownership interest in a collection of diversified businesses operating in sectors that include telecommunications, financial services media, tourism, health care and waste management. campusmagazine.wlu.ca 9

campus news

SUPPORT FOR REFUGEES

Laurier sponsors Syrian families They are a family of four. The daughter is just two years old, the son seven.

Before war broke out in their country of Syria, their father worked as a salesman and their mother was a housekeeper.

Today, they are homeless and country-less.

This is one of the Syrian families Laurier will be sponsoring in immigrating to Canada. The university has partnered with the Mennonite Central Committee to sponsor and resettle three Syrian refugee families later this year.

Two families will settle in KitchenerWaterloo and one family will settle in Brantford.

Through a “blended sponsorship” program, Laurier and Citizenship and Immigration Canada will partner in a cost-sharing arrangement to support the refugee families. The approximate cost of sponsoring one family of two adults and two children is $27,000.

Laurier is seeking community support for this effort through volunteers and financial donations.

Almost immediately, more than 80 donors from the Laurier community came forward and donated over $21,000.

More than 70 staff, faculty and students from Laurier’s Brantford and Waterloo campuses volunteered to provide practical, emotional and psychological support to the families.

This support includes arranging the initial housing set-up — including furniture and household items, as well as providing basic necessities and additional settlement assistance including language classes, enrolment in school, finding health-care providers and job search support.

For more information on Laurier’s efforts to support Syrian refugees, including how you can contribute, visit wlu.ca/Syria.

10 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

EDNA STAEBLER AWARD

Author Lynn Thomson wins award for creative non-fiction Lynn Thomson has won the 2015 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for Birding with Yeats: A Memoir (House of Anansi Press).

Birding With Yeats recounts Thomson’s efforts to support her son, Yeats, a solitary young man who has trouble finding his way in the world. She gamely embraces his passion for bird-watching, which leads them across the country and as far away as the Galapagos Islands, which she describes in evocative detail. Along the way, Thomson rediscovers the solace that can be found in the natural world. As much about the bond between a mother and a son as it is about bird-watching, Birding With Yeats is an elegantly written, engaging memoir.

“Birding With Yeats is an exquisitely

written first book,” said Bruce Gillespie, an award juror and professor in the Digital Media and Journalism program at Laurier’s Brantford campus. “Thomson’s writing makes you want to read the book as slowly as possible, so as to appreciate fully each finely crafted sentence and keen-eyed detail.”

In addition to Birding with Yeats: A Memoir, the shortlist for the 2015 Edna Staebler Award also included: Writing with Grace: A Journey Beyond Down Syndrome by Judy McFarlane (Douglas & McIntyre) and Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents by Mark Sakamoto (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.).

Established and endowed by writer and award-winning journalist Edna Staebler in 1991, the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction is administered

by Wilfrid Laurier University, the only university in Canada to bestow a nationally recognized literary award. The $10,000 award encourages and recognizes Canadian writers for a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance.

PAN AM TORCH STOPS AT LAURIER The torch relay for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/ParaPan Games made its way to Laurier’s Waterloo campus in June, with Golden Hawk soccer star Emily Brown (pictured) carrying the flame on to Alumni Field.

campus news

FIRST IN VOLUNTEERISM

LinkedIn study finds Laurier students and alumni volunteer more than any university

LAURIER WELCOMES NEW ALUMNI

Brantford campus hosts first-ever fall ceremony

Wilfrid Laurier University has the highest proportion of students and alumni with volunteer experience compared to other universities worldwide, according to LinkedIn. LinkedIn analyzed the 10 million professionals around the world who added “volunteer and causes” to their LinkedIn profiles; when they looked at where these professionals attended university, Laurier ranked number one.

The business-oriented social networking service added the “volunteer and causes” section to their profile options three years ago. It has become a popular feature, growing from 3 million last year to more than 10 million professionals listing their volunteer work and highlighting the organizations they support. According to the LinkedIn blog announcing the results, the popularity of the feature indicates how closely volunteerism is tied to one’s professional identity.

Nearly 4,300 new graduates officially became Laurier alumni at the university’s 2015 spring and fall convocation ceremonies.

The spring ceremonies at the Athletic Complex in Waterloo and the Sanderson Centre in Brantford saw more than 3,000 grads cross the stage. Honorary degree recipients included Ziauddin Yousafzai, education activist and father of Malala Yousafzai; Linda Schuyler, co-creator of the Degrassi television series; and Mohawk language preservationist Brian Maracle.

In the fall, Laurier celebrated the first graduating class of its Business Technology Management program with its inaugural fall convocation ceremony in Brantford. Speaking at the ceremony was Tanya Stephens (BA ‘03), a lawyer in Brantford and one of the first graduates from the Brantford campus.

Journalist Chantal Hébert and Canadian entrepreneur Peter Brown received honorary degrees at fall convocation in Waterloo.

The first-place ranking reflects Laurier’s focus on integrated and engaged learning and the school’s philosophy of ‘inspiring lives of leadership and purpose,’ which encourages students to measure success through academic excellence as well as the quality of the lives they lead and those they inspire.

In 2004, Laurier introduced the Co-Curricular Record (CCR) to its students. Since then, over 13,000 Laurier students have created a CCR, and the number continues to grow each year, with more than 3,000 Laurier students updating their CCR in the 2014-2015 academic year.

Since its inception, the activities, groups, clubs, associations, events and programs that students can choose from has grown from 210 to nearly 350, representing a significant spectrum of opportunities for student involvement at Laurier.

LAURIER LAUNCHES BA IN POLICING

Unique new program aimed at working police officers Laurier has launched a unique program, targeted specifically at working or retired law enforcement officers. The university’s new Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Policing — which will host its first cohort in January of 2016 — will be offered entirely online. To qualify for this interdisciplinary program, applicants must have at least one year of professional work experience in policing.

The fully online nature of the program, combined with the fact that admission is restricted to officers with a minimum of twelve months of on-the-job experience, make it unlike any other policing program found in Canada.

“The BA in Policing was designed after

comprehensive consultations with senior members of police services across Canada on the types of courses needed to develop competencies required by officers in increasingly diverse, complex societies,” said Lauren Eisler, acting dean of Laurier’s Faculty of Human and Social Sciences.

Input from these consultations helped shape the topics that are covered in the program, which include leadership, communication, diversity, ethics and building resilience. The program offerings — including such courses as Mental Health, Addiction and Crime; Media, Social Media and Crime; and Diversity and Inclusion within the Force — provide

officers with content that is readily applicable in their daily work lives.

Each course in the Policing BA program is six weeks long, with six hours per week of course work. Transfer credits will be offered for previous courses completed at community college, university or via police colleges or academies, allowing officers to enter the program having already earned up to half of their required 20 credits. By completing two to three courses per term, officers can earn their degrees in three to four years.

Questions regarding the program can be sent to policing@wlu.ca campusmagazine.wlu.ca 11

research file

Scott Nicholson studies how games make a difference

by Kimberly Elworthy

IT SEEMS OBVIOUS to say that students would rather play games than spend their nights doing homework, but for Laurier Professor Scott Nicholson, those things are two in the same.

Nicholson, a lifelong gamer, studies gameful design — the application of game playing elements to other areas of activity — and how these concepts can be used in learning environments to make a difference.

He is now leading Laurier’s newly created Game Design and Development program, hosted at the university’s Brantford campus, where students will learn how to craft games that create player experiences and develop a fundamental understanding of how to motivate people to be engaged.

In his research, Nicholson explores theories of education, motivation and game design to define the concept of “meaningful gamification” where games are used to help

12 LAURIER CAMPUS Spring Winter2014 2015

find meaning in a non-game setting instead of simply incentivizing behaviour.

A common assumption about game design is that it’s simply about playing video games or creating recreational games.

However, gaming can be used in just about any environment, such as in healthcare to motivate patients to live healthier lifestyles, or in schools to help students engage with difficult or complex material.

A former programmer, librarian and statistician, Nicholson’s first large-scale research project studied how games can be effectively used in libraries, which led to his book, Everyone Plays at the Library.

He has since studied the use of games in environments such as museums, schools and corporate training.

“From being a lifetime gamer, I knew that games were motivating to many because of things other than points,”

PHOTOS

Changing the world one game at a time See photos of our Game Lab, which opened on the Brantford campus CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

says Nicholson. “They are about stories, character development, empowerment and engagement with other people.”

Nicholson’s current research focuses on escape rooms, which are live-action games in which groups of people are locked in a room and have to solve clues and complete tasks in order to “escape” within the allotted time limit.

His research covers the design of the rooms themselves, how guides can help achieve learning goals in escape-room concepts and how escape rooms can be used not only for corporate team building but also corporate training.

“My goal is to not only make games to change the world,” Nicholson says, “but to help Laurier students identify their own strengths and passions, and combine them with the art and craft of game design to join me in changing the world.”

ACADEMIC GAMING PROGRAMS have typically taken one of three approaches. There’s the computer science and engineering programs that teach students the steps to make a digital game. There’s the Game Studies approach within the humanities, which focuses on studying the concepts around gaming and society. And then there’s the artistic approach, where students learn animation and study the artistry of games.

Laurier’s program offers a little bit of everything, but primarily seeks to discover what motivates people to interact and engage in all types of games, not just digital ones. This is one of the least common approaches to game design education and there is currently nothing like it in Ontario.

“What we’re offering is really a motivation degree,” says Nicholson.

“We don’t put the technology or art first, we’re looking at the experience you’re making for the player. We don’t like to say one game over another is better; we look at how we want to affect the player with the game.”

Laurier will partner with Conestoga College to provide students with the technical skills required to understand the programming and design of games. Because of the program’s wide reach, fourth-year students will be required to partner with a local organization in Brantford and solve a problem facing the group with a game they design.

The Game Design and Development degree is also unique in that students will graduate with a projectmanagement certificate so that they can lead game-design projects in the real world.

“The industry really needs people who understand how to make a game from start to finish,” says Kate Carter, associate vice president: teaching and learning at Laurier. “Students will learn how to manage that process, put together a team and meet deadlines.

This program gives you skills you can take anywhere.”

More information on Laurier’s Game Design and Development program is available at wlu.ca/programs

The anti-beauty bias Laurier researcher studies the impact of beauty on the hiring process

by Kimberly Elworthy

GETTING OUT OF SPEEDING TICKETS, better service at bars and restaurants, getting a leg up in a job interview — it’s a common assumption that physically attractive people have an unfair advantage in life. However, a Laurier researcher has found that better-looking people, particularly women, don’t always have it easier when it comes to the job market.

A recent study published in Management Science by Bradley Ruffle, associate professor at the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, found that while attractive men experience higher callbacks during the hiring process than “plain-looking” men, attractive women actually experience less success in getting an interview than plainlooking women.

The study, “Are good-looking people more employable?” investigated the role of attractiveness in the hiring process, challenging previous research that indicated people perceived as attractive are viewed to have better career prospects than people perceived as unattractive.

“The research demonstrates a bias in the hiring process and that we don’t just hire the most qualified candidates,” says Ruffle. “There is clearly discrimination based on attractiveness.”

Ruffle, along with his co-author Ze’ev Shtudiner of Ariel University in Israel, submitted over 5,000 resumés to junior positions in banking, budgeting, chartered accountancy, finance, accounts management, industrial engineering, computer programming, senior sales, junior sales and customer service.

Resumés were prepared almost identically including the same levels of experience — the variant being an attached photo of an attractive candidate, a plain-looking candidate or no photo altogether. The study selected photos through a rigorous rating process, accounting for ethnicity, intelligence and attractiveness. Picture and no-picture resumés were sent in pairs to hiring agencies and directly to companies.

Ruffle’s study found that attractive males received more invitations for a job interview than plain-looking males and no-photos resumés. However, the study also found that attractive females were penalized over their plain-looking female counterparts and resumés with no photo. The majority of biases were from resumés that were sent directly to the company, instead of to a hiring agency.

“Companies should consider the impact of beauty discrimination to their business in selecting the best person for the job,” says Ruffle.

In order to understand the prejudice against attractive females, Ruffle interviewed the companies to whom resumes were sent. Overwhelmingly, the hiring personnel were found to be young, female and single — possibly indicating a jealousy dynamic.

The study accounted for intelligence and attractiveness — making the photos of attractive and plain looking women of equal intelligence, eliminating the possibility of the “bimbo effect.”

Ruffle says an anonymous hiring process could be the best practice for companies looking to select the best candidate for the position. Eliminating names and photos means hiring personnel can focus on the skills and experience that a candidate would bring to their team. Also, gender-balanced hiring committees would help to reduce the favouritism of attractive males and discrimination against good-looking females.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 13

THE LAZARIDIS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Laurier teams up with BlackBerry c0-founder to train next generation of technology managers story by Kevin Crowley

14 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

campus feature

hen smartphone trailblazer Research In Motion was growing by leaps and bounds in the early 2000s, one of its biggest challenges was finding business managers with experience in the technology industry.

property to understanding technology licensing, finance and capital markets, working with network carriers, acquisition strategies, and developing production, sales and distribution systems for a highly regulated international marketplace.

The company, later renamed BlackBerry Ltd., needed business people at all levels who understood the unique challenges of taking a high-tech enterprise to the global level — everything from how to protect intellectual

“We realized that experienced hightech management and business leadership was hard to find,” recalls company founder Mike Lazaridis, who grew his start-up into an $18-billion global business, effectively

creating the smartphone industry in the process. “We frequently had to look beyond Canada, particularly to the United States.”

A gifted engineer and visionary entrepreneur, Lazaridis is now helping to address the tech-management gap through a strategic partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University that will teach business students and business leaders how to manage and scale high-tech start-ups into globally competitive businesses. continued on next page >

The Lazaridis gift is part of Laurier’s Building Canada’s Best Business School campaign.

This campaign aims to raise $55 million for the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics and represents Phase One of a pan-university $131-million campaign.

For more information, visit: canadasbestbusinessschool.ca

Above and on pg. 16/17: renderings of Lazaridis Hall, a landmark new building that will house the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics and Laurier’s Mathematics department.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 15

he heart of the initiative is the new Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises. Located on Laurier’s Waterloo campus, this innovative institute is being created with the help of a $20-million donation from Lazaridis and a $15-million commitment from the Ontario government.

“The Lazaridis Institute is designed to be a global leader in providing management research, education and training that will prepare the next generation of business leaders to grow Canadian technology businesses globally,” says Micheál Kelly, dean of the School of Business and Economics. “The institute will draw top talent nationally and internationally, it will build partnerships with leading global organizations, and it will create networks with leading business schools in tech hubs across Canada and around the world.”

In recognition of Lazaridis’ many accomplishments and his generous gift to Laurier, the university has named its business and economics faculty the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics.

“I can’t imagine a better name for a school of business,” says Kelly. “The Lazaridis name is recognized nationally and internationally. It’s a name that is associated with vision, innovation and excellence. Our association with this name provides us with a singular opportunity to build the visibility of the school, nationally and internationally, and to make more people aware of what a great business school we have here at Laurier.”

The Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, along with the university’s mathematics department, will soon move into a $103-million landmark building that is nearing completion on University Avenue in Waterloo.

Known until recently as the Global Innovation Exchange, this state-of-the-art facility has also been named in Lazaridis’ honour and will henceforth be called Lazaridis Hall.

stablishing the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises is part of the BlackBerry creator’s vision to ensure that Canada, and Waterloo Region in particular, is ready for the next “industrial supercycle” — an era that Lazaridis and other leading thinkers on the subject believe will be defined

16 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

campus feature

Quantum physics, which has been evolving since about 1900, is a way to understand how nature behaves at the tiniest levels — the world of atoms and subatomic particles. One of its most intriguing concepts is “superposition,” the notion that things at the quantum level can exist in multiple states and multiple locations at the same time. Scientists and engineers have been putting quantum physics to use for several decades, but harnessing quantum behaviour on a broad, practical scale is expected to revolutionize technology to a degree not seen since the 1947 invention of the transistor — a Nobel-Prize-winning achievement that led to the development of modern computers and electronics.

To help prepare Canada for this “next quantum revolution,” Lazaridis has invested more than $320 million over the past 15 years in theoretical and applied research, primarily through the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), both in Waterloo. In support of his vision and leadership, the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario have both made major investments in these two institutes.

As well, Lazaridis and his longtime friend and BlackBerry co-founder Doug Fregin established the $100-million Quantum Valley Investment fund in 2013 to support the commercialization of breakthrough technologies in quantum information science.

“Canada pretty well sat out the last quantum revolution in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s,” says Lazaridis, whose many honours include the Order of Canada, Order of Ontario, Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), and The Globe and Mail’s Nation Builder of the Year award. “What we’re trying to do now is lay the groundwork and make the investments necessary to create the opportunity for Canada to participate successfully in the next quantum revolution.”

While his vision is national in scope, Lazaridis believes that the well-established tech ecosystem in Waterloo Region is the perfect foundation for developing a worldleading hub for quantum research and commercialization — a hub that is gaining awareness globally under the brand name the “Quantum Valley.”

“We know it can be done here because this region has this incredible culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and selfsufficiency,” he says. “You can see it in the success that IQC and the Perimeter Institute have had — the whole community has gotten behind these institutes.

It’s a need that Laurier’s Micheál Kelly understands well. In addition to his considerable experience as a business dean, Kelly is known for his research and consulting work in the area of technology management, venture-capital financing and strategic alliances.

“There is a latent receptivity in the region and a culture that is very much a can-do culture, and you have these two universities and a college that are both a magnet to attract talent and a resource to train talent and to infuse talent with the latest understandings of science and technology and business. The Quantum Valley vision is actually working — we’ve made great strides in promoting the region as one of the top centres in the world for theoretical physics and for quantum computing and quantum information science.”

Upon joining Laurier in 2012, Kelly saw the potential for creating stronger ties between the university’s renowned business program and Waterloo Region’s dynamic technology community.

He quickly set to work developing a proposal that linked the school’s business programming and its new building with Lazaridis’ vision for strengthening the Canadian tech sector.

For Lazaridis, who values the twin virtues of being bold and being prepared, the potential for collaboration was both timely and exciting.

WATCH

by quantum-based technology.

n addition to leading-edge research, a key requirement is the strategic development of a new generation of business leaders who understand the technology industry. By developing welltrained tech managers, Lazaridis believes that Canada stands a better chance of seeing more start-up companies stay here and grow to become globally competitive enterprises, which will keep more jobs, wealth and prosperity in this country.

Introducing the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

“When Micheál Kelly and Laurier President Max Blouw came to talk to me about their plans for the Laurier business school and the new building — the scope and the ambition behind it, and Micheál’s experience with the technology industry — we realized that there was a shared vision,” says Lazaridis. “That was the ‘aha!’ moment.’”

A keen proponent of co-operative education, Lazaridis was impressed with

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 17

Create a Legacy.

When he first started at Laurier, Kyle Walker struggled with the transition to university. Through the support of many people, Kyle eventually found his place at Laurier and went on to serve as Students’ Union President.

Now, Kyle is making sure other Laurier students have the support they need to succeed. Through a gift of life insurance – just $2.04 per day – Kyle will be able to make a big difference for future Laurier students.

Life insurance is a simple - and reasonable - way to make a big impact through philanthropy. For example, with tax deductible premium payments as low as $60 a month for 20 years, you can donate more than $100,000 to Laurier.

wlu.ca/giving

DEVE-33-OCT15

To find out how you can set up a gift through life insurance, contact Cec Joyal, at cjoyal@wlu.ca or call 519.884.0710 x3864.

campus feature

the size of the school’s undergraduate business co-op program — nearly half of the university’s 4,200 BBA students are in the co-op stream, making it the largest business-degree co-op program in Canada. Lazaridis was also intrigued by the school’s many other “immersive” learning opportunities, such as the Integrated Case Exercise (ICE), the Laurier Student Investment Fund, the Laurier

Startup Fund, and the entrepreneurship program.

LaunchPad

Lazaridis says one of the most valuable aspects of the Lazaridis Institute will be the exposure students get to business leaders who have experienced the challenges of running a high-tech company, from the use of venture capital to the war-like reality of patent litigation.

“The only place you’re going to learn those

skills is from business leaders who have gone through it,” he says. “That’s one of the most important parts of the Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises — bringing in people with that kind of experience as special visitors, special lecturers, and advisers with the curriculum.”

continued below

Photos by: Dean Palmer & John Ternan

ore than two years after his initial meeting with Kelly and Blouw, Lazaridis spoke at a packed event to announce the naming of the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics in September.

“I chose to invest in Laurier because I believe that it is uniquely positioned to transform the way that technology business managers are trained and developed,” said Lazaridis, whose star power in the tech and business worlds attracted a huge crowd, including three provincial cabinet ministers.

“I believe that the Lazaridis Institute for the Management of Technology Enterprises will

help Laurier produce exceptional tech-savvy business managers and leaders that Canadian technology companies will need to grow and succeed globally.”

Laurier President Max Blouw called the celebration of the Lazaradis and provincial contributions a “landmark day” for both Laurier and the school of business and economics.

“This is a strategic public-private partnership investment that reflects the key roles that private citizens and governments can play together in advancing our economy, our quality of life, and provincial and national prosperity,” he said.

For Micheál Kelly, the Lazaridis donation is a gift that will keep on giving for decades to come.

“Mike Lazaridis has not only given his name to the school, he has also given us a pillar on which to build a global reputation,” says Kelly.

“The Lazaridis name attests to the school’s outstanding quality and helps us to continue to attract the best and the brightest in a very competitive marketplace.” CAMPUS

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 19

For the

love of the story by Justin Fauteux | photography by Nick Lachance There aren’t many who have athletic resumés quite like Kate Psota’s or Ashley Stephenson’s.

From silver medals at the Pan Am Games to multiple podium finishes at baseball World Cups to a bevy of national and provincial hardware from playing university hockey, the two Laurier alumni have had decorated careers both as Laurier Golden Hawk women’s hockey players and as members of Canada’s national women’s baseball team.

But as nice as it is to win medals and gain the kind of recognition that came with their historic appearance at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, neither is the reason Psota (B.Sc ‘10) or Stephenson (B.Sc ‘05) got into baseball — or hockey, for that matter — in the first place. It’s also not why they continue today, balancing national team, provincial team and club team commitments with full-time jobs.

The reason, they say, is quite simple.

“I just play every year because I love it,” says Stephenson. “I wish I had a better answer, but I’ve always just played because I loved it and I never, ever thought anything like this would happen.”

Adds Psota: “When I was 15 or 16, I played on three different teams in the same summer and my mom said to me, ‘The day you wake up and you’re not sure you want to keep doing this, then it’s time to stop.’

“Here we are now and I’m still at it.”

Kate Psota (left) and Ashley Stephenson (right)

WATCH

campus feature

Ashley Stephenson talks Pan Am Games, the future of women’s baseball and more CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 21

Both women fell in love with baseball at early ages. Growing up in Mississauga, Stephenson’s baseball career began when she was four years old and her dad was asked to help coach a team of mostly boys. He agreed to help coach on the condition that his daughter could play. But there was one problem: “Everyone was supposed to be five, so my dad just lied,” laughs Stephenson. “But then he realized, ‘Oh man, she’s never touched a ball or a glove before!’”

Within a few games of catch in the backyard, Stephenson was hooked. She’s been a ballplayer ever since.

Psota, a Burlington native, remembers being obsessed with baseball from the time she was able to talk. No one in her family had played the game, but she couldn’t get enough. After a few years playing in all-girls and all-boys house leagues, she made a triple-a boys rep team at age nine and the bulk of every summer since has been spent on a baseball diamond.

Growing up in the heyday of the Toronto Blue Jays’ back-toback World Series championships in 1992 and 1993, it wasn’t difficult for Psota or Stephenson to get swept up in baseball hysteria as kids. But while their male friends could grow up dreaming of playing Major League Baseball or even representing Canada in the Olympics — men’s baseball was included in the Summer Olympics until 2008 and is slated to return in 2020 — the same opportunities just didn’t exist for women.

“When we were kids there wasn’t even a Team Canada. We just played because this was really fun,” says Stephenson. “It’s not like my mom ever said ‘play so you can get a scholarship’ or anything like that.”

While opportunities for women’s baseball were limited when Psota and Stephenson were growing up, there was no shortage of opportunities for women who played softball. Softball was an Olympic sport from 1996-2008 — it will return in 2020 along with men’s baseball — and athletic scholarships to prestigious schools are plentiful in the sport.

This has given rise to a common misconception that women only play softball and not baseball, something Psota and Stephenson are often correcting. “We find ourselves explaining that our fields are the same as major league fields and there are women who can hit home runs, and yes, we throw curve balls,” says Psota. Both Psota and Stephenson tried softball at different points of their youth, and while they hold no ill will towards the game, it wasn’t for them, regardless of what it might have led to.

“I did have people telling me all the time, ‘There’s nothing for you after this, you should play softball,’” says Psota. “I played hockey and I knew that could be an avenue to get me to school and things like that. But that stuff wasn’t as important to me because I just loved baseball so much.

“There was never a point when we were younger where we could say ‘I aspire to do this or that’, because there just wasn’t anything there.”

That changed in 2004 when Baseball Canada formed its senior women’s national team. After making it through regional tryouts,

22 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

campus feature Psota and Stephenson were invited to a training camp in Montreal featuring the top 40 women baseball players from across Canada.

They both made the final cut. Today they’re the only two members of that original team still on the roster.

Despite the growth of women’s baseball in Canada, from the depth of talent across the country to the visibility of the program, there simply isn’t the funding for baseball to be a full-time job. So on top of workouts, practices, games and tournaments — which can require travel to Asia, South America or across Canada — both Psota, who works full-time at a garden centre, and Stephenson, a phys ed teacher, hold down day jobs.

While they admit it can be demanding, the sacrifices are well worth it.

“You just find ways to make it happen,” says Stephenson. “I haven’t taken a summer off baseball since I was four and honestly, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I wasn’t playing.”

W

ith all the progress women’s baseball has made in the 11 years since the Canada’s national team was formed, perhaps the most significant step came when the sport made its debut at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. This marked the first time women’s baseball had been included in a multi-sport event and the importance of exposure at that level was not lost on Psota and Stephenson.

“Obviously, our main goal was to win gold, but we wanted to show everyone that we’re good ballplayers and we’re here to stay,” says Stephenson, who, as the most senior member of the team, became an unofficial spokesperson during the Games. “We wanted to put on good baseball games, “I just play and that’s what we did. There weren’t blowouts, it was good baseball.” every year because Team Canada won every preliminary game they played I love it. I wish I had aside from a tight 3-1 loss to the rival Americans, who they’d also a better answer, but lose to in the gold medal game.

I’ve always just played As is the competitive nature of elite athletes, Psota and because I loved it and Stephenson admit the silver medal was tough to swallow.

I never, ever thought But a few months after the Games, both can see the bigger anything like this picture.

“After the game I told the girls that would happen.” in a year or two, maybe longer, we’ll – Ashley Stephenson look back and we’ll be proud of what we did,” says Stephenson. “We were only together for the Pan Am Games for a month, but we all worked so hard for years and years.”

Although the medal they came away with wasn’t the colour they were hoping for, Psota and Stephenson still count playing for Pan Am gold, and the entire experience of the Games as the highlights of their playing careers.

A

side from her Pan Am experience, Stephenson’s best sporting memory came in 2005 when she led Laurier’s women’s hockey team to the first — and still only

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 23

GRADVANTAGES Get the services you need— like insurance, credit cards and more—and you’ll be helping Laurier students.

Sign up with our GradVantages partners, and you’ll receive valuable discounts, just for being a Laurier graduate. As well, a portion of revenues from GradVantages partners comes back to the university helping to fund programs for alumni and students.

GradVantages: You’ve earned it, use it!

laurieralumni.ca/gradvantages

— national hockey title in school history. A decade later, the former team captain and stalwart defender recalls every detail with ease.

“Going into that game, no one was giving us much of a chance,” she says of playing the vaunted University of Alberta Pandas, who at the time had won three-straight national titles and were riding an unbelievable multiyear winning streak.

“But I just remember on the bus, Candice Djukic, one of our forwards, took

you’ll have for the rest of your life.”

When her Laurier career ended, Psota decided to stop playing hockey competitively, and focus on baseball, a decision she says was made a bit easier by an opportunity to spend the fall and winter of 2011 in Australia playing baseball, something she’s done twice since.

Stephenson followed up her Laurier career by playing in the early days of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), now called the Canadian Women’s Hockey

her headphone out and said to me, ‘We’re winning this game.’ And I said, ‘You know what, I think so too. I’m not even nervous.’

And the whole bus was just calm, nobody seemed stressed.”

The Golden Hawks pulled off the remarkable upset with a 4-1 win. That 2004-05 team was inducted into the Golden Hawk Hall of Fame in 2014, while Stephenson — a two-time All-Canadian, six time provincial all-star, two-time team captain and MVP of the 2005 national championship — was inducted as an individual athlete in 2011.

Psota arrived at Laurier the year after that national championship triumph, joining her teammate from the national baseball squad, as Stephenson returned for a fifth year in 2005-06.

While Psota didn’t win a national championship during her five-year Laurier career, she’s not short on hardware from her university days. The Golden Hawks won provincial gold every single season she was on the team, also winning three silvers and a bronze at nationals.

“As much as it was about hockey then — and it was definitely nice winning five OUA championships — looking back now I realize how special it all was,” Psota says of her time at Laurier. “You don’t realize the friends you’re making and the connections

League (CWHL), also spending some time with Canada’s national women’s hockey team. Though the CWHL covers travel and equipment expenses, players don’t draw a salary. So while playing hockey professionally, Stephenson started her teaching career; all while spending her summers playing baseball with the national team.

After seven seasons in the NWHL/ CWHL, Stephenson was forced to retire from competitive hockey when she suffered her seventh concussion. She stays connected to the game, coaching the boys’ hockey team at her school and refereeing girls’ junior hockey, with the hope of working her way up to the university level.

B

While it’s too soon to tell if this will be the case, the early signs are encouraging.

“Multiple times at the Pan Ams, we had people coming up to us saying, ‘You just changed my daughter’s outlook on sports,” says Psota. “We really didn’t know what to say to that. We just put on our ‘ball stuff and start playing. You don’t really realize the impact it can have.

“Even if we can inspire a dozen little girls to get playing baseball, it’ll be an accomplishment.”

Another factor that might influence the growth of women’s baseball in Canada is the 2015 resurgence of the Toronto Blue Jays, who made the playoffs for the first time in 22 years. Baseball experienced a boom among boys and girls across Canada when the Blue Jays were dominant in the early 1990s and with a more encouraging climate for women in sports today, a second boom could have even more of an impact on young girls.

“You look at the Jays games right now, they’re full of young kids — girls and boys,” says Stephenson. “With the popularity of the sport in the country and now that there are those opportunities for girls, I think that could be huge.”

With the future of women’s baseball in Canada looking bright, Psota and Stephenson have started contemplating their own futures with the national team.

Both are committed to playing in next year’s World Cup in South Korea, but haven’t looked too far beyond that. By then, Psota will be 30 and Stephenson 33. In sports terms, both know they’ll be closer to the ends of their careers than the beginning.

But much like what got them into the game in the first place, both say if they still love playing and can still contribute, they’ll keep showing up to the diamond, bats and gloves in hand. CAMPUS

eing involved in women’s hockey has given Psota and Stephenson a good barometer for how a sport can grow.

The past 20 years has seen a substantial increase in the number of girls playing hockey around the world, particularly in Canada, growing the game at the grassroots level.

Many credit women’s hockey’s inclusion in the Winter Olympics for the first time in 1998 as the catalyst for this growth. Those involved with women’s baseball are hoping the 2015 PanAm Games can play a similar role.

LAURIER CAMPUS Summer 2013 25 25

campus feature

26 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

story by Kimberly Elworthy

SHAD’S NEW

Arriving at the CBC Radio One offices at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning, Shadrach Kabango (BBA ’05) — known to most simply as ‘Shad’ — begins another week as the host of Canada’s only national arts and culture radio program, q.

Since March of 2015, Shad has switched gears from his decade-long career as a rapper and performer to become a newly minted radio host. How he got here, even he’s not so sure.

Juno Award-winning rapper Shad settles into his new role hosting CBC Radio’s q

“I don’t know why I wanted to take this job. I tried it out and thought ‘this is really fun and interesting and challenging,’” he says during an interview squeezed in between a recording session and a production meeting. “It felt like a privilege, so if I was offered this job I couldn’t turn it down, it was way too cool. I knew it would be uncomfortable, but the fun and the opportunity superseded that.”

Shad can only explain his life now as an amazing, non-stop flurry of activity. Four days a week, his mornings are spent in the studio recording live and pre-taped interviews, where he’s learning anything and everything he can absorb.

His afternoons, bolstered by coffee, are a blur of meetings, recording segments and preparing for future interviews, something he says is a much longer process than one might expect.

“At this point it takes a lot to prepare because I’m still learning everything. A more experienced interviewer has some things they can lean on. But the fortunate thing about being an interviewer is that you shouldn’t know too much about your guest. If you know too much, your listeners won’t know what you’re talking about. You’re supposed to be a surrogate for the listener, and be interested and surprised by things they will be.”

After a whirlwind day that sees him discussing everything from literature to politics to an upcoming blockbuster film, Shad strolls the short distance to his home (close to the studio because he fears being late), usually arriving around 7 p.m., and gets ready to do it all again.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 27

had recorded his debut album, When this is Over, in 2005 while studying business at Laurier. Throughout his time as an undergrad he performed and recorded songs; he’d even stop by his friends’ hip-hop shows on Radio Laurier to freestyle.

But it was when he won a talent contest sponsored by a local radio station that his music career really took off.

I was always thinking, ‘Should I do music or something else?’” he says.

Still in the final stages of his degree, the contest granted Shad $17,500 towards studio time to record an album. While many would have taken time off from school, Shad pursued his dream while finishing his studies, recording what became When this is Over while on a co-op term in Ottawa. A few months later, he graduated with a business degree and a minor in English.

For some, Shad’s sudden switch from successful rapper to journalist could be seen as a sign that he’s given up on his music career. However, he never saw it as choosing one over the other, continuing to think in the terms that were framed for him at Laurier.

He’s since released three more albums and, in 2011, won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for his album TSOL, beating out Drake’s Thank Me Later for the award.

Despite the excitement of a budding music career, what Shad remembers most about his time at Laurier is the impact that university had on his personal development.

He says he learned a lot about himself during his undergrad years and left with a much clearer idea of who he wanted to be as a person.

And even though his degree is in business, his time at university had a profound impact on his decision to pursue music.

“For me, music has always been a great joy of my life and it was a privilege to do it professionally. When you’re a kid and you’re trying to figure out what to do with your life,

“But it was actually framed for me when I was at Laurier. It occurred to me that I could do whatever I want. I really liked music and at the time I had written songs and I wanted to record. So I thought, ‘Why wouldn’t I record them?’ It didn’t have to be a big choice about what I wanted to do or be forever.”

“This job [at q] wasn’t an opportunity not too long ago, so it wasn’t on my radar, but when this became available it helped thinking in those terms. A radio host doesn’t define who I am, it’s just something new.”

After receiving a BBA from Laurier, Shad completed an MA in Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University, studying parttime while touring. He says he pursued his masters degree simply because it interested him, not because he wanted it to define him.

Such a diverse background also comes in handy as the host of q, a radio program that covers topics ranging from sci-fi to comedy.

“My degrees have definitely framed my way of thinking,” Shad says. “Laurier trained me to think pragmatically and taught me that there wasn’t a right or wrong answer.

I realized that if there’s a problem, I had to find a solution — it doesn’t always have to be the best.

built my mental stamina. It certainly helps to have a breadth of knowledge to pull from if your interviewing a wide range of people, like I am on q.” hile his academic background has certainly helped him transition into his role at q, Shad jokes that not all of his past experience has been transferrable. When asked what skills from being a rapper carry over into being a radio host, he laughs and replies, “I want to say none, just about none!”

Joking aside, he says there are some skills that transfer over, such as being an entertainer and being able to bring a sense of fun and play to the interview. He’s also comfortable being open to the live radio format and is able respond to spontaneous moments in the studio.

Shad’s overall inexperience as a radio host and journalist meant he has faced an enormous learning curve, which he has approached with humility and a deep respect for the profession. As he learns on the job, Shad focuses on finding his own voice.

“It’s a challenge to stay true to yourself,” he says. “Journalism is similar to music in that few musicians do everything well, but the best ones play to their strengths. As a journalist there are many ways to ask a hard question; the challenge is for me to figure out what my way is. That takes a lot of energy and thought.

“My master’s degree helped me be more thoughtful and deliberate in my thinking, it

S

“

HA T

W

s.” erm rt me el m su mm u H ce ien

28 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

e.” or m ill f thr big

T

sa wa at Th

CES: “I opened for Common w ho w RMAN O F as m ER E U P D P A O M F S y fa L I E A O U RIER vou ” LOG ABL C Q R O “ rite E L O O H e around, they’r m w U o T ll M o art f s R r E e also S? ist colou M OW e m s N o T y in h h K S T i g ! t h hig U O o s cho M hs YO I did n n o o t r f a o l c e m a : o g l n n D i “ a k Y ch d I c n i e r R , o d living , D r l O o e oo urs M free mm : Franklin Ram S F E O u l.

R s P . ” R .

M E e s I I o R h o h m t ad air, D LAU ER ts in I E a n e d K : r i T c W k avid I Lamar, lot NO UR ree UR Kany Ro IGHT of LA e st AVO eW se OR fu T h P a e F G t s n t N O ng , Ki d S n in NI i n E t k gs ep the s Staples, Yo-Yo Ma al IS T of he : Mavi , Sal L S W C W m n ’S an on V IE D R R ve A ush TE H n N die I ST BE

airs weekdays at 10am and 10pm on CBC Radio One.

While Shad freely admits he still has a lot to learn, his accomplishments over the past 10 years speak for themselves. When it comes to defining success, he doesn’t see his celebrity as the ultimate measurement; instead, he’s deeply motivated to make choices that help him find peace with himself.

“I think success is about being responsible with what you’ve been given. That’s where peace of mind comes from, which is what I want. Celebrity is a by-product of success.

I want to be normal and be able to walk around. I hope I don’t become so famous that I’m recognized on the street, but you also can’t complain about it — you’re an entertainer and that happens.”

With his music career on the backburner for now, and a non-stop schedule propelling him to national fame, Shad continues to be the same, humble artist who spent his early 20s walking the streets of Waterloo, drinking lemonade during summer semesters at Laurier.

Today, he says the best days on q are surprising and fun, while at the same time insightful and maybe even inspiring.

“I think that if we can provide some sort of understanding about the human condition or about society and culture, that is q at its best. If we can do that all within the context of a fun, varied and exciting show — that is a wonderful service we can provide to Canadians.” CAMPUS WATCH

“This is one of those weird jobs where at the bottom it’s not hard, but that only means that being good is a lot of nuance.

Some jobs there’s no other way to learn but to figure it out on the job.”

Photos courtesy of CBC

One of Shad’s most memorable interviews: renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma CAMPUSMAGAZINE.WLU.CA

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 29

8

1

2

3

7

9

4

10

5

6 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14: The football game at University Stadium. 3,4: Founders’ & Golden Anniversary Luncheon in Waterloo. 6, 8, 10: The hockey game in Brantford.

3015:LAURIER 2011 1, 13, PancakeCAMPUS breakfastSummer in the quad on the Waterloo campus.

11

12

Alumni celebrate Homecoming 13

14

In an event billed as “Return of the Hawks,” alumni returned to Wilfrid Laurier University’s campuses in Brantford and Waterloo this fall to celebrate Homecoming.

More than 10,000 alumni, community members and students participated in a number of events, and $23,936 was raised for Laurier through donations from alumni reunion classes.

“Every year, Homecoming gives alumni a wonderful opportunity to come back to campus and reconnect with Laurier,” said Bridget McMahon, director of alumni relations, annual giving, stewardship and donor relations at Laurier. “We always have a variety of events for alumni of all ages and their families, and we were very proud to welcome everyone back as part of our Golden Hawk family.”

Highlights included reunions, the pancake breakfast in Waterloo, the always popular tailgate party in the Brantford Civic Centre parking lot, awards nights hosted by Athletics and the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics — and of course the football game in Waterloo and the hockey game in Brantford.

Jen Connor (BA ’13) moved to Brantford in 2009 to attend Laurier. Following her graduation in 2013, she remained in the community, and now works as a real estate agent with Century 21. For her, Homecoming rekindles memories of her time at Laurier.

“Laurier was a huge part of my life for four years, and it feels good to be able to return to the campus and see all the growth and development,” she says. “Each Homecoming is like a school reunion. We really are like a community here so when we all come back it does truly feel like coming home.”

To view a photo gallery of events, visit facebook.com/laurieralumni.

15 For more photos, visit facebook.com/ laurieralumni.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca

31

Q&A

JOHN DOMA

honouring his Slovenian heritage

In addition to working as a partner at Bateman MacKay LLP, an accounting firm in Burlington, Ont., John Doma (BBA ’84) holds a special position with the Slovenian Consulate in Toronto. As Honorary Consul General for the Republic of Slovenia, Doma, the son of Slovenian immigrants, pays tribute to his heritage and gives back to a community in which he takes great pride. A former Golden Hawk soccer player, Doma also takes great pride in being a Laurier alumnus, something that runs deep in his family with his wife Margaret (BA ‘86) and two of their four kids — Alex (BBA ‘10) and Elena (BA ‘12), along with Alex’s wife Monique DaSilva (BBA ‘10) — also graduating from the university.

Describe your role as Honourary Consul General for the Republic of Slovenia.

My official role is dictated by the Vienna Convention on Consuls. In Canada I am responsible for the interests of Slovenians.

I also work on furthering commercial and economic relations between Slovenia and Canada. While I’m not a diplomat I work out of the shared premises with the Ambassadors Office in Toronto, as well as developing cultural and scientific relations.

How did you end up in that position?

I was selected by Canadian Slovenians and then approved by the Slovenian government.

The process took six months. It was a long process requiring police checks and financial assessment.

Why is it important to you to honour your heritage, and Slovenian culture more generally, in this way?

It is my way of giving back to the community and the country my parents came from. I owe John Doma (front, right), with the Laurier alumni of the Doma family: his wife, Margaret (front, left), daughter Elena, son Alex and daughter-in-law Monique DaSilva (back row, left-right). Photo by Jordan Jocius.

32 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

keeping in touch

my success in my personal, family and business life to the exposure I received in the community. My parents instilled their values, which were learned in Slovenia, and passed them on to me.

Why did you choose to attend Laurier?

The excellent business school and athletic spirit! The size was also important. I did not care for the larger school environment.

How would you describe Slovenian culture?

Slovenian culture has been derived from years of occupation where they had to adapt to the ways and environment of the occupiers. This has promoted the importance of family and a sense of belonging. However, Slovenians are entrepreneurial and hard working.

Both you and your wife, Margaret, are Laurier alumni, and two of your four kids, Alex and Elena, also graduated from the university. What was your reaction to your kids following in their parents’ footsteps?

We were very pleased when they chose Laurier. We really felt the school is a great educational institution and a place for personal and life development.

What do you remember most about your time at Laurier?

The friendships and the lifelong lessons attained during my time at the school.

In the business program we learned the importance of working in a team environment. We also learned to prioritize when we had numerous assignments with deadlines and exams within days of one another.

Multi-tasking and organizing yourself was the only way to survive and this is part of my everyday life today.

Soccer clearly plays a big role in your family, with both you and your son Alex playing at Laurier. How did you first get into the game?

I started late in life at 12 years old.

I had a German-born neighbor who was a very passionate soccer supporter.

I learned to enjoy the sport and developed fairly quickly and enjoyed all the relationships I developed through the years in the soccer community. I’ve been lucky to attend the [2004] Euro Cup in Portugal and the [2014] World Cup in Brazil.

Do you still find the time to play?

I coached all four of our kids at one time or another and they all played at a rep level.

My sons also played rep hockey and my daughters danced competitively. I played in a men’s league up to my mid-forties but had to give it up due to family and sport commitments.

In your first year at Laurier, your team won the provincial championship. What memories stand out from that season?

Our team spirit and the support from the school and our fellow students, especially the other athletic teams, was inspirational.

We had a real family feeling among the students and faculty.

Almost 30 years later, your son Alex was on the 2008 Laurier men’s soccer team that came out of nowhere to win the OUA title. What was it like watching your son have the same experience you did in 1980?

It brought back memories as we were not expected to win the provincial title and neither was the 2008 team. His team came together under the guidance of a great coach, Mario Halapir, similar to our circumstances with Barry Lyons.

Although, I will have to admit Alex had more of an impact on the 2008 team than I did in my year.

What was more nerve-racking: playing on the team, or being the father of a player?

I was extremely nervous for the team and have to say it was nerve-racking to be the father of a player. Being passionate, it was tough for me to see the play, wanting at times to get on the field.

Although I’ve tried playing with the kids in an old-timers’ game, I was quickly reminded my place was better suited in the stands.

by Justin Fauteux

Alex Doma during an annual soccer game the Doma family hosts. Photo by Jordan Jocius.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 33

keeping in touch

MR. RESOURCEFUL

Bernie Webber’s path from teaching to government to jazz radio photo by John Ternan

story by Justin Fauteux

WHEN BERNIE Webber (BA ’64) arrived in Waterloo to study at what was then called Waterloo Lutheran University, he had no idea where he was going to live. Unfazed, the enterprising young student stepped off the train, checked into the Heuther Hotel in Uptown Waterloo and by the next day he had found a home on Regina Street.

That kind of resourcefulness has been a staple of Webber’s fascinating career, a diverse path that began in teaching and continued through various positions in the Ontario government and as a CEO in the insurance industry.

Today, Webber is the chairman of the board for Jazz.FM91, Canada’s only nonprofit radio station devoted to jazz. And his connection to Laurier remains strong, not only as a proud alumnus himself, but through his grandson Douglas who studies at Laurier’s Brantford campus.

“I’ve always been a listener,” Webber answers when asked about his remarkable adaptability. “I’ve found that you learn an awful lot more by listening rather than forcing your opinion on everyone else.”

When Webber arrived at Waterloo Lutheran in the fall of 1961, the institution had just changed its name from Waterloo College and was still more than a decade away from becoming Wilfrid Laurier University. The Arts

34 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

Building’s entrance off of University Avenue served as the main entry point to campus and construction on the current Laurier Library had recently begun.

“I was part of one of the first significantly expanded student bodies,” says Webber. “We had a freshman class of probably 100 and everybody thought ‘Oh, how are we going to handle all these people?’”

During his time at the university, Webber enjoyed the small class sizes and close relationships with his professors. In particular he forged lasting bonds with English Professor Flora Roy, economics Professor Max Stewart — who would remain a close friend of Webber’s following graduation — and history Professor Welf Heick.

“They really formulated a lot of my outlook on life. I can’t say enough about them,” Webber says, recalling anecdotes such as a scheduling error giving him a first-year English class the size of a graduate seminar with Roy, whose impact was especially profound.

AS MUCH AS HIS time at WLU influenced his future, Webber was acquiring knowledge that would play a key role in his career even before he started university. Looking to make some money to pay for his post-secondary

education, Webber worked for Atomic Energy, which was near his family home in Pembroke, Ont., for two and half years.

He was assigned to the data processing department at a time when “people were saying ‘somebody told me there’s this thing called a computer that might be coming along’,” he says.

A decade later, Webber, just a few years out of university and working as a high school teacher in the Ottawa area, saw an ad for a job with the Ontario Ministry of Education. The ministry was looking to automate processes like scheduling and record-keeping and needed someone with a background in both education and computers. Webber was a perfect fit.

“They had some problem areas and, as I like to tell the story, within a year or so of me being there they got better, and people thought it was because of me,” he says with a laugh.

The resourceful Webber built a reputation as a troubleshooter and that initial position in the Ministry of Education led to a 26-year career in the provincial government that saw him hold positions in various ministries. One was as the deputy commissioner of the Ontario Insurance Commission, which made him several connections in the insurance industry and helped lead to his post-government career as a CEO in the property and casualty insurance industry.

keeping in touch

ALTHOUGH HE’D LOVED music all his life, playing in the Salvation Army band from a young age — even performing at Expo ’67 — Webber’s first experience in radio came in the late 1970s through his job in the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture. At the time, Ryerson University was running CJRT, a radio station that, in addition to classical and jazz programming, hosted Open College, an early form of distance education where lectures were broadcast and students wrote exams by mail. The ministry provided grants to the program and Webber became connected with the station.

When he left government in the early 1990s, Webber once again found himself as a perfect fit. “Shortly after I left the

government, about three minutes after actually, my phone rang and they said ‘you’re coming on the board,’” he says.

point for Canada’s jazz community, is a truly special experience — and something he’s happy to give back to.

Webber joined the volunteer board of CJRT in 1995 and became chair in 2000, leading a board that includes the widow of the late Oscar Peterson, one of the world’s most prominent jazz musicians.

Shortly after Webber became chair, Open College was shutting down and the station became devoted exclusively to jazz, rebranding as Jazz.FM91.

That idea of giving back has been a driving force for Webber and something he’s instilled in his three children; Bernard, a forensics expert with the Peel police, and Jeanine and Michelle, who each have a PhD and are faculty members at the post-secondary level. Webber sums up his motivation by quoting Winston Churchill — of whom he is a longtime student and admirer, serving as a prominent member of the International Churchill Society — “you make a living by what you earn – you make a life by what you give.”

Nearly 15 years later, Jazz.FM91 is among the best jazz radio stations in North America, competing with stations in New York and L.A. and drawing listeners from around the world. For Webber, being involved in Jazz.FM91, which proudly refers to itself as “more than a radio station,” acting as an unofficial gathering

S U P M !

A E CONLIN

D A E R

campusmagazine.wlu.ca Our new digital version of Campus magazine offers all the same Laurier stories in the print edition with additional online exclusives!

If the online edition is all you need, you can help us be more environmentally friendly and cost sensitive by unsubscribing from the print edition.

Email alumni@wlu.ca or call 519-884-0710 ext. 3180 to be removed from our print mailing list.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 35

keeping in touch

ALUMNI UPDATES 1970s

Phil McColeman (BA ’76) was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for the BrantfordBrant riding. First elected as the MP for Brant (since renamed Brantford-Brant) in 2008 and re-elected again in 2011, this will be McColeman’s third term in Parliament.

1980s

Marie Fanjoy (BBA ’85) is seeking her floormates from Janet Benson’s C-1 floor from 1981 for a residence reunion. Contact mariefanjoy@rogers.com.

Brian Lewis (BA ’85) was appointed chief economist and assistant deputy minister, Office of Economic Policy in the Ontario Ministry of Finance. Lewis has served a 20-year career in the Ontario Public Service in various leadership positions, including seven years as the director of the Economic Revenue Forecasting and Analysis Branch.

Thomas Pladsen (BBA ’83) has been named chief financial officer of Crystal Peak Minerals Inc. Prior to this appointment Pladsen built a 25-year career in executive and director roles in various private and public companies.

Ray Tanguay (Dip. Bus. ’83), who recently retired as chair of Toyota Canada, was named special adviser by the federal and provincial governments to help oversee and guide the Canadian auto industry.

1990s

Robert Creighton (B.Mus. ’90) wrote the music and lyrics for and starred in Cagney, a new Broadway musical based on legendary actor and dancer James Cagney. Presented by the York Theatre Company, the show ran on Broadway from May 19 – June 21.

Steve Griggs (BA’92) was named chief executive officer of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. Griggs, a member of Laurier’s OUA championshipwinning men’s hockey teams in 1989 and 1990, joined the Lightning as chief

36 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

operating officer in 2010 and was promoted to president in 2014. His career as a sports executive has spanned 22 years to date and previously included leadership roles with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and the NBA’s Orlando Magic.

Jeff Nugent (BBA ’95) received the Small Business of the Year award from Profit Guide Magazine for his company, Contingent Workforce Solutions. Nugent founded the company in 2008 and it is now a leader in developing automated processes for companies to manage and pay contract and freelance workers.

2000s

Sarah Au (BBA ’09) and Ryan Burella (BBA ’08) were named to Marketing Magazine’s “Top 30 Under 30” list. Au is currently brand manager, Brita with The Clorox Company of Canada, while Burella works as the manager of arts and culture sponsorships for Scotiabank.

Brad Katsuyama (BBA ’01) was the subject of the cover story of the October 2015 edition of The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine.

The story, entitled “Flash forward: A year after Flash Boys made Brad Katsuyama famous, he’s still trying to save Wall Street from itself,” chronicles Katsuyama’s life since being thrust into the spotlight after being the central figure in Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, a controversial book by author Michael Lewis – of Moneyball fame – released in April of 2014. Katsuyama was also the subject of a feature in the Winter 2014 edition of Campus magazine.

2010s

Sarah Granke (MSW ’15) has been appointed to the newly created position of sexual violence prevention and supports specialist with the Province of Nova Scotia. In this role, Granke is leading the implementation of Nova Scotia’s first province-wide coordinated response to sexual violence.

Liz Knox (BA ’10) and Candice Styles (BA ’14) have returned for another season in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League

(CWHL), playing for the Brampton Thunder.

Knox, a goaltender, won four OUA titles during her time at Laurier, while Styles, a defender, won three.

William Morgan (BA ’14) was awarded the Spirit of Brock medal at his Brock University Faculty of Education convocation ceremony.

Morgan, who lost his vision at the age of five, was recognized for his determination and perseverance in becoming an elite athlete, competing in judo at three Paralympics and five World Championships.

Devon Skeats (BA ’15) signed a professional contract with the Buffalo Beauts of the newly formed National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL).

Skeats, a three-time OUA women’s hockey champion with the Golden Hawks, became the first Canadian university player to sign in the NWHL, which is the first paid professional hockey league for women.

SIXTIES GRADS REUNITE

A group of alumni from the mid-1960s returned to campus during Homecoming 2015. Pictured (left to right): Cheryl (Kirstine) Barlow ‘65, Dave Coutts ‘66, Heather MacDonald ‘65, Judy (Hango) Warrington ‘66 (sitting on rock), Judy Lancefield ‘65, Janet (Finlayson) Bargh ‘65, Jennifer Darrell ‘66 (sitting on rock), Len Warrington ‘66 and Bob Stuart ‘65 (sitting on rock). “Also on the tour but missing from photo because they went to cheer on the Hawks: John Barlow ‘67, Wayne Ginou ‘65 and Barry Schneider ‘65, who was wearing his WLU jacket — we were all impressed that he could still fit into it!”

Photo and description courtesy of Jennifer Darrell.

keeping in touch

ALUMNI UPDATES SHELLEY MAYER CHANNELS HER ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Growing up in a family land surveying business, Shelley Mayer (BBA ’96) always knew she would start her own business, too. Laurier’s co-op program prepared her well for this eventuality, as did her first post-university job at Castek Software, where Mayer witnessed the trials and tribulations of a start-up, as well as what it took to build a high-performing culture.

In 2000 she moved on to Toyota Canada Inc., first as the eBusiness strategy lead, just as the Internet was exploding, and later as brand manager. Mayer managed integrated campaigns, big budgets, hectic production schedules and Toyota’s relationships with two of Canada’s top ad agencies that were working with the company.

“I was sometimes frustrated with gaps in the overall understanding of what being on my side of the table really meant,” said Mayer.

“I lived with corporate accountability, executional complexities and a mandate to use every penny wisely.”

She also saw that through the power of advertising and communications, a brand like Toyota had a high degree of influence.

“Of course the primary goal was to sell cars,” said Mayer. “But could it do more?

Could it sell cars and change minds about social or environmental issues?”

Mayer struck out on her own and founded Ramp Communications in 2011.

Her client roster includes innovative and socially responsible corporations, non-profits and mission-driven organizations.

When she’s not running her business, Mayer can be found experimenting in the kitchen, keeping in touch with fellow Laurier alumni, and spending time with her husband, Christian Mayer (BBA ’96), and their three children.

Donors honoured at annual Laurier Society Celebration Ian McLean (BA/BBA ’98) met his future wife, Hilary McLean (BBA ’99), when he walked her home as a volunteer of Laurier’s Foot Patrol. Since then, the McLeans have become extraordinary donors to their alma mater.

They have created a scholarship, an award for school spirit, and seed funding for the Entrepreneurship in Science course.

Ian and Hilary were among the donors honoured at the Laurier Society Celebration.

The annual event recognizes individuals, corporations and foundations that support Laurier in its mission to inspire lives of leadership and purpose.

The Laurier Students’ Union also received special recognition for the support students have provided to their university, while Barry Schneider (BA ’65) received a Laurier Society Philanthropy Award. Schneider has been a faithful donor for 32 years. His latest gift is a bursary to students in financial need; he is also a legacy donor, with plans to leave a bequest to Laurier in his will.

All of our donors have had an invaluable impact on Laurier’s students; we thank them for their outstanding leadership.

IN MEMORIAM Keith Bone (BA ‘69), March 25. In addition to running his own accounting business, Bone was active in the Optimist Club of Burlington. A proud Laurier alumnus, he thoroughly enjoyed his time at the university and was pleased when his daughters Alison Bone (BA ’01) and Lauren Bone (BA ’03) graduated from Laurier as well.

Thomas “Tupper” Cawsey, professor emeritus, Aug. 17. A well-known, highly respected member of the Laurier community, Cawsey played a key role in the development of the School of Business & Economics. He received many accolades for his teaching, including being named one of the top five business professors in Canada by receiving the Leaders in Management Education award in 2001. Cawsey helped develop Laurier’s renowned co-operative education program and created the popular Integrated Case Exercise (ICE) Week.

Tamara Giesbrecht Warren, former university vice-president, May 12. Giesbrecht Warren was a prominent figure in Laurier’s history, becoming the first woman to hold a vice-president position at the university in 1967. Known as a“financial wizard,” she played a crucial role in Waterloo Lutheran University becoming a public institution, effectively creating Laurier as it is today.

In 1981, Giesbrecht Warren received an honorary doctorate from Laurier and in 1984 she was named to the Order of Canada.

Ralph Elsaesser, professor emeritus, June 16. Elsaesser began teaching piano, musical skills and theory in Laurier’s Faculty of Music in 1970 and was a full-time faculty member until 1995. He played a key role in building the university’s music program.

Remembered as a true teacher in every sense, his love went out to every student, not just pianists or those in his studio.

Peter Sinclair, associate professor, May 19.

Over the course of his 34 years at Laurier, Sinclair was known as a caring, engaging teacher and a dedicated faculty member, earning respect and admiration from his students and colleagues. He served as the School of Business and Economics’ director of undergraduate economic programs and frequently volunteered at Laurier’s convocation ceremonies.

David C. Vaughan, professor, Aug. 10.

A longtime professor of mathematics, Vaughan was a vital member of the Laurier community. Well-respected as a researcher and teacher, Vaughan was passionate about strengthening math education at all levels.

He taught a wide range of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, making a lasting impact on thousands of students.

campusmagazine.wlu.ca 37

ings from t e re

Gree

m

G

postcard to home

ro tings f

By Lucas Perlman (BBA ’12) After graduating from Laurier’s BBA program in 2012, I spent two years working at a large accounting firm in Toronto where I eventually obtained my CPA designation.

In 2014, at the end of another long and hard “busy season,” it was clear the audit game was not one I was cut out for.

I decided it was time to make a change.

I began looking for opportunities to volunteer my skills in a developing area of the world where I could leverage my finance and business acumen in a more adventurous and impactful way. After hours of searching in an industry unfamiliar to me, a friend (and fellow Laurier alum) referred me to an organization called Anza in Moshi, Tanzania.

After a few emails and Skype calls with Anza’s CEO, I packed my bags and headed off to Moshi in January 2015.

What started as a six-month contract has transformed into a two-year commitment that will take me through December 2016, and I could not be more excited.

Anza exists to “start and scale social businesses,” and believes that problems facing low-income families in

Tanzania can be addressed by social businesses that find creative ways to develop profitable business models around solving these problems. The company’s vision aligns exactly with what I was looking for when I made the decision to leave Canada, and I find myself calling on lessons learned from my time at Laurier and in the accounting world nearly every day.

Tanzania is a traveler’s dream, and I’ve done my best to take advantage. From staring down lions in the plains of the Serengeti, to relaxing on the beautiful white sandy beaches of Zanzibar, and climbing to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania has been everything I could have imagined and more.

Leaving a comfortable paying job for a small city in East Africa may seem like a risk to some, but it ranks as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. If anyone is looking to make a career change, or just a new challenge, give me a shout at lucas@anza.co.com. We are always looking for enthusiastic and talented professionals in these parts!

Are you a Laurier alumna/us living abroad and interested in sharing your story? Email campusmagazine@wlu.ca.

38 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

calendar of events

MARK YOUR CALENDAR For a complete list of events, tickets or more information, visit laurieralumni.ca/events

Laurier Milton Lecture Series

New Music Festival

DEC. 9, 2015, 7 P.M. - 8:30 P.M.

Die Fledermaus: Comic Opera in Concert by Johann Strauss

Milton Centre for the Arts

JAN. 15 AND 16, 2016, 8 P.M.

Bree Akesson, assistant professor of Social Work, delivers a presentation entitled, “Addressing the Challenges and Mobilizing the Strengths of War-Affected Children and Families”.

Centre In the Square, 101 Queen Street North, Kitchener

Theatre Auditorium/Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Waterloo Campus

Holiday Closure DEC. 24, 2015 - JAN. 4, 2016 Happy Holidays!

Year-End Giving DEC. 31, 2015 Last day to receive a 2015 tax receipt for charitable donations to Laurier.

Laurier Milton Lecture Series JAN. 13, 2016, 7 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. Milton Centre for the Arts Simon Dalby, CIGI Chair in the Political Economy of Climate Change, speaks on “Climate Geopolitics: The World after Paris 2015”.

Laurier’s Faculty of Music is partnering with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony to present this concert, which features the Opera Laurier Chorus, Laurier Sings and the WLU Alumni Choir.

Student+Alumni Career Night Faculty of Arts JAN. 20, 2016, 5:30 P.M. - 8 P.M.

JAN. 29-30, 2016

Laurier celebrates some of our many alumni new-music specialists. For more information, visit wlu.ca/music.

Student+Alumni Career Night Faculty of Science FEB. 4, 2016, 5:30 P.M. - 8 P.M. Waterloo Campus

Waterloo Campus

To volunteer to speak with students about your own career, contact Mary Neil at mneil@wlu.ca.

To volunteer to speak with students about your own career, contact Mary Neil at mneil@wlu.ca.

Laurier Milton Lecture Series

Alumni Ski Day JAN. 29, 2016 Osler Bluff Ski Club, Collingwood, ON Hit the slopes with Laurier alumni and friends at the private Osler Bluff Ski Club. Then, warm up at an exclusive alumni après ski reception.

FEB. 10, 2016, 7 P.M. - 8:30 P.M. Milton Centre for the Arts, 1010 Main Street East, Milton Michael Cinelli, associate professor of Kinesiology and Physical Education at Laurier presents his talk, “Balance and Cognitive Deficits PostConcussion”.

wilfrid laurier university alumni association

2015 AwArds of ExcEllEncE congrAtulAtions to VictoriA gEE Emmy missEr faculty mentoring award Hind Al-AbAdlEH young alumnus of the year PAul mAxwEll (bbA ’07) alumnus of the year Andy mAcAulAy (bbA ’80) student alumna of the year schaus award for staff

read more about these exceptional individuals, learn more about our awards program and submit a nomination by visiting laurieralumni.ca/awards.

laurieralumni.ca campusmagazine.wlu.ca 39

flashback London to Kitchener ‘bed push’, 1961

The ‘bed pushers’ reach the end of their journey, travelling over 71 miles from London. Michael J. Morris (pointed out) recounts the trek below.

Photo courtesy of Laurier Archives.

by Michael J. Morris (BA ’69) Sitting around in Willison Hall, the men’s residence, (at the time, it was also the seminary and library, with the dining hall attached) just before the first Winter Carnival in 1961, a group of us were looking for some activity we could undertake.

I don’t recall who said, “Let’s push a bed” but once it was said, the project started to become reality. In no time, we had a hospital bed with wheels — my memory fails me on who actually prepared the bed — but it happened quickly, and off we went in a cavalcade of cars, including my mother’s, which I had at university with me.

We started from London at about midnight determined to set the world bed-push “record,” travelling the 71.3-mile distance to Kitchener. We did it in eight hours and 23 minutes, and set an unofficial record. We pushed in teams of four in a relay; accompanying cars drove us to our next point. Remember, this was all happening on a two-lane highway.

There were no mishaps, although as we progressed, there were more Ontario Provincial Police cruisers appearing on the highway. We had not bothered to seek permission from anyone — including the university — to undertake the bed push.

As we approached Waterloo, we decided to end the bed push 40 LAURIER CAMPUS Winter 2015

at Kitchener City Hall, rather than head into Waterloo (we were a bit concerned we all may be expelled for this antic).

It turned out the media had picked up on our push and reporters from newspapers, radio stations and CBC Television appeared. The university’s public relations people saw the publicity benefits and we were greeted by the university president, H. M. Axford, at Kitchener City Hall. Rather than expel us, he extended congratulations, and Winter Carnival was officially opened. There’s no way we were on the Carnival program when we set out.

The bed push ended up making it on CBC national news the next night, and my mother was out playing bridge when the news came on and the university’s name was mentioned. As mom looked at the television, her car appeared on screen, and moments later she saw me — but I wasn’t driving the car, I was pushing the bed. I had some explaining to do.

Do you have a photo of your Laurier days?

Email a high-resolution image to campusmagazine@wlu.ca and it could appear in Flashback.

Build

dreams

ALUMNI

INSURANCE PLANS

We are all bound by familiar milestones in life — and the financial responsibilities that come with them. Whether you’re raising a family or a roof over your head, make sure you’ve got the right insurance plan in place for your family.

Find out how Alumni Insurance Plans can help.

Term Life Insurance • Income Protection Disability Insurance • Health & Dental Insurance • Major Accident Protection

To learn more visit manulife.com/alumnimilestones or call toll-free 1-888-913-6333

Get an online quote for Alumni Term Life Insurance to enter!

Underwritten by

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company.

Manulife and the Block Design are trademarks of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and are used by it, and by its affiliates under license. © 2015 The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife). All rights reserved.

Manulife, PO Box 4213, Stn A, Toronto, ON M5W 5M3.

No purchase necessary. Contest open to Canadian residents who are the age of majority in their province or territory of residence as of the contest start date. Approximate value of each prize is $1,000 Canadian. Chances of winning depend on the number of valid entries received by the contest deadline. Contest closes Thursday, December 3, 2015, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Only one entry per person accepted. Skill testing question required.

Make 2016 the year you take the trip of a lifetime. Broaden your horizons and enjoy exclusive intellectual opportunities as you travel around the world with other Laurier alumni.

Italy’s Magnificent Lake District

Island Life® in Ancient Greece and Turkey

May 17 – 25, 2016

September 29 – October 4, 2016

Village Life® in Dordogne, France

Holiday Markets River Cruise across France, Luxembourg and Germany

May 26 – June 3, 2016

Grand Danube River Cruise

November 25 – December 6, 2016

August 20 – September 4, 2016

Discover the incredible travel line up for 2016

laurieralumni.ca/travel

ALUM-31-OCT15

Travelling through life together.