WGSI launches Equinox Fellowship

a news release from the Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI).

The Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI) has launched its Equinox Fellowship, a program that funds projects initiated by young people between the ages of 18 and 30 inspired by the priorities outlined in the Equinox Blueprint: Learning 2030, which was launched globally last week in Oxford, UK at the World Literacy Summit.

Equinox Blueprint: Learning 2030’s student-centered vision for the future of education was developed at last fall’s Equinox Summit: Learning 2030. Half of its collaborators were high school students, student leaders, entrepreneurs, and activists between 18 and 30.

In partnership with leading youth social entrepreneurship network, TakingITGlobal, a cohort of 30 young innovators participated in the Sprout e-course to develop a project and be eligible for a Project Launch Grant and mentorship opportunities provided by TakingITGlobal and MaRS Discovery District.

The recipients of the Equinox Fellowship are:

Iyinoluwa Aboeyeji  (Lagos, Nigeria) – Teaching for Learning
 
Aboeyeji is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fora, a start-up that connects young Africans to e-learning resources, and a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo. His new project, Teaching for Learning is program that will use e-learning resources from Coursera and the Commonwealth Education Trust in Foundation of Teaching and Learning to expose primary and secondary school teachers in Lagos, Nigeria to new ideas about pedagogy and tools that will allow them to become better teachers.

Eric Kennedy (Phoenix, AZ, USA) – International Interdisciplinary Student Network

Kennedy, a PhD. Student in the Consortium for Science Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University and graduate of the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Knowledge Integration, is developing  The International Interdisciplinary Network (IIN) to link, empower, and support interdisciplinary student associations and their young leaders around the world.

Bryson McLachlan (Waterloo, ON, Canada) – Design Thinking Module

McLachlan, a student in the Centre for Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo, is developing a learning module for middle and high school students that introduces them to design thinking and collaborative work. The long term goal is to equip young people with a resilient and flexible skill set that can be adapted to difficult problems that stretch across multiple disciplines and outside school walls.

Olatunde Ajoke Omoware (Agbado, Nigeria) – Agbado e-Learning Centre

Omoware is the Human Resources and Project Coordinator for the non-profit AGDC Employability and Enterprise. Her project targets children from the poorest homes in Agbado, Nigeria who are almost a year behind their classmates by the time they start school. In an area serviced by only one government secondary school, Agbado e-Learning Centre will provide children with access to the basics of ICT and Internet usage as well as books and literacy resources.

 

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Remembering Faye Abrams

Faye Abrams, former librarian at the University of Waterloo, died April 10.

Abrams began her professional career at McGill University’s McIntyre Medical Library in 1973 before moving to the Bank of Montreal Library in Montreal. In 1978, she started working at the University of Waterloo as head of the E.M.S Reference and Collections Department in the Library. Later, she managed the library’s Industrial and Business Information Services and the interlibrary loan service.

She is remembered for the unique role she played at Waterloo, beginning in 1992, when she chaired the committee that brought the “UWinfo Gopher” into existence. That was the technology, in pre-Web days, that first allowed campus-wide access to databases, documents, and the Daily Bulletin.

“Faye was unforgettable,” writes Mark Haslett, University Librarian. “I first met her more than 20 years ago. She had come to McMaster to give a talk on the University of Waterloo’s new “gopher” portal, what soon became the WWW-based UWInfo. Today the acronym “WWW” seems quite old-fashioned, but at the time it was only emerging, was very exciting, and was in fact even a risky proposition to champion. Faye, to her significant credit, was there at the beginning - advocating, promoting, experimenting; dare I say daring.”

In 1999, Abrams was seconded to the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) in the role of Projects Officer, working to build and sustain a “collaborative vision of how all 21 academic libraries in Ontario could work together in acquiring digital scholarly resources.” She continued to work for several years in an office on the Waterloo campus before relocating to Toronto. She retired from Waterloo in December 2009.

“Faye dared to be different – and to take risks,” continues Haslett.  “She was seconded from Waterloo to OCUL for more than a decade, and though Waterloo faculty and students lost the immediate on-the-ground benefit of a simply excellent academic librarian, Faye, in her OCUL role, benefitted hundreds of thousands of faculty and students across Ontario.”

“Her vision and leadership encouraged librarians in Ontario universities to collaborate, to think OCUL-Y not locally, as Faye would say, to develop shared strategies to build digital library collections,” says a statement from OCUL. “She was a mentor to many librarians - her knowledge and expertise have been instrumental for OCUL in negotiating license agreements with vendors, and in representing OCUL’s interests in many different venues.”

Abrams retired from OCUL in 2011.

In recent years, Abrams was honoured with several awards, including the 2007 Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Academic Librarianship Award, the 2011 Ontario College and University Library Association (OCULA) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2013 Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) Award of Merit.

Abrams is survived by her spouse Lawrence and daughter Rebecca.

A memorial event is in the works, and details will be published as soon as they are available.

Photograph courtesy of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL).

 

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Renison to honour Roman Catholic bishop

Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas David Dowd will be named an Honorary Senior Fellow at Renison University College at their 55th Founders' Day celebration, which will be held on Saturday, April 26.

The celebration commemorates both the efforts of the founders to build the college and the founding of Renison itself. Renison University College was founded by the Anglican community and is affiliated with the University of Waterloo.

According to a statement from Renison, the move "highlights Christian unity and cooperation; a passion for which Bishop Dowd, former Chairman of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, is well known."

“We are very excited to have Bishop Thomas Dowd with us on Founders’ Day,” says Renison's Principal and Vice-Chancellor Glenn Cartwright.  “He has been a long standing proponent and a tireless worker in the cause of ecumenism. It is highly appropriate that a college like Renison, whose motto is “One sky over all,” recognize his valuable contribution.”

During convocation, Bishop Dowd will be installed as an Honorary Senior Fellow to recognize his many accomplishments, including being the youngest Roman Catholic Bishop in Canada (and second youngest in the world) at the time of his appointment in 2011. Bishop Dowd will be the Convocation Speaker at the ceremony.  

Renison will also install Professor Adel Sedra, former Dean of Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and Joe and Stephanie Mancini of The Working Centre as Honorary Senior Fellows. Dr. Ellen Sue Mesbur, retired Director of the School of Social Work at Renison University College, will be installed as an Honorary Fellow of the College. The Outstanding Alumni award will go to Linda Jackson, a graduate of the Social Development Studies program at Renison University College, and the Vice-President, Residential Programs, Memory and Neurotherapeutics and Mental Health at Baycrest in Toronto.

“This is a day in which we pause to remember the contribution of Renison’s Founders by honouring individuals who have continued the work of the College in the spirit of volunteerism, service, and community,” says Dr. Cartwright.

This year Renison will provide live streaming of the Founders’ Day proceedings online, starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

 

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