Familiar Faces

Asking Around

BY PRECIOUS AKANINYENE / STAFF WRITER

If you could have a superpower, what would you pick and why?

“Flight. It’s something that you can’t do naturally.” – Della.

“Stopping time. I get to do whatever I want, whenever I want.” – Mayowa.

“Super strength, so I can take all your girlfriends.” – Judah.

“I’d like to transform into any animal that I want. It would be useful when escaping a difficult situation.” – Ezra.

“I’d like to predict the future. It would help my financial investments and I would win all my bets.” – Elamin.

“Telekinesis. It’s a cool power to have.” – Katrin.

“Flight. ‘Cause I can go anywhere I want.”- Ona.

“Speed. I can perform tasks faster and my thinking speed increases.”- Ansh.

“Gravity manipulation. It’s convenient and I can do things easily.”- Hisham.

“Stopping time. I can finish my assignments easily.”- Lalight.

“Invincibility. Torment my enemies, cherish good times with friends, experience nostalgia, gain knowledge and transform society.”- Saim.

“Mind reading. Knowing what people think.”- Leon.

“Reading people’s minds. You can win people over easily and get whatever you want.”- Mirah.

“Teleportation. To run away from my problems easily.”- Husna.

“Teleportation. I’ve always wanted to travel around the world, and experience new cultures and life.”- Aishi.

An Augustana Treasure

Catching Up With Terence

By ISHA GODARA

  1.    Since when have you been working here?

Since January 2015.

  1.    What is your favorite part of the job?

Most likely the students and faculty I get to deal with.

  1.    What do you like about Augustana?

Augustana is a small local community so you get to interact with people you normally wouldn’t get to.

  1.    What have been your most memorable experience here so far?

So far…ummm. It has to be SCORE. Because it brings in local usable stuff. Nothing gets thrown out. So it’s a good thing for the community.

  1.    What would you recommend everyone to try at Café? Why?

Try our espresso, or like an Ice Latte or Cappuccino. The espresso comes from Transcend in Edmonton. So it’s local and good.

  1.    Which is your favorite type of coffee?

I like Americanos because it’s with espresso and water.

  1.    What is your favorite food?

My favorite food. It has to be Pasta. I am a Pasta guy; I love Italian meals.

  1.    When are you happiest at work?

At work… (laughing) usually at the lunch rush because there is lots to do. Keeps my attention focused somewhere. Lunch rush is the best.

  1.    Tell me about a difficult situation and how you handled it?

Difficult…. I don’t know if I had too many difficult experiences. The most challenging thing I do in a day is trying to make a good special. Try to make a sandwich that everybody likes and which suits different food groups.

  1.    Where would you like to travel this summer?

This summer, I kind of want to go up to Great Slave Lake and do some fishing. It’s a great place to do some camping and see the Northwest Territories at the same time.

  1.    What do you like to do in your spare time?

In my spare time. I like movies, I like to make things, I am not into TV. I have been a year and a half off the internet. So, trying to find things that we used to do, to keep ourselves busy without smartphones and androids.

  1.    How are you surviving without the internet?

I am doing really good and you know like I am not living up to someone else’s expectations now that I have a lack of social media. So I feel things that I do in a day are relevant. They are actually adding up to something opposed to just checking out what somebody else did in a day. So it’s interesting but not using google… it was so easy to just google a question and find the answer. Now I actually have to think about it or research it. So, it’s a little different and then maybe start writing letters again.

  1.    What was the first dish you ever prepared?

The very first thing I cooked was wieners and beans and I was 6 years old and I stood on a chair and I stirred the pot and had to put my arm in the pot because I was so short.

  1.    What is your funniest experience at Augustana?

Monica and I were making a special. We did a pita that we didn’t warm didn’t even taste. Like, usually we taste it. And we just rushed through the rush. We found out later on that nobody liked it and so when we tried it, it was the worst special we had made. And so now we don’t make them but Monica and I laughed hours about that special; all we had to do was try it and we would have realized it’s taste. We never had that bad of a special.

  1.    Your words of advice for students?

Keep your head up. You know, a lot of you think less of yourselves during exam time. Studying for exams is only retention, so just retain the information and you will do fine. Our brains naturally recall so this should be less stress if you are paying attention in class. Studying should be just fine.

Familiar Faces

By JENNIFER HA

Every issue, we reach out to staff members or faculty who are new or new to their roles at Augustana for our Familiar Faces feature. If you’ve attended soup supper, Geordie Nelson is probably already a familiar face. Geordie is the Chaplaincy Assistant here at Augustana and, apparently, quite the gymnast.

1) Do you have any hidden talents that most people don’t know about? 

I can do a really good cartwheel.

2) What did you wear to your high school graduation?

A suit with a fedora and snazzy long-toed white shoes.

3) Did you make resolutions for 2017? How are they coming along?

I did. [It was] to become more active. I did a boot camp in January and I’ve gone running with a friend twice. So it’s slow progress.

4) What is your role on campus?

Chaplaincy’s mission is to walk with students on their liberal arts journey of educating the whole person, body, mind and spirit. Practically, I help to build community on campus. I help put on the chapel services, soup supper, and our coffee houses for example. I work with the student chaplains and other students like the Inter-Faith Council (where we plan evenings to talk about different religious perspectives). I can be a listening ear for students, whether they have questions about their spirituality or other things. I also do some office work, to keep Chaplaincy functioning day to day. And I do events planning, like SCORE!, the Fair Trade Local Made Sale, and other events. So my role is a mix of things, I see my job as three parts: working with students, office work, and events planning.  

Familiar Faces

by JENNIFER HA

We at the Dagligtale have a fun tradition (it’s officially a tradition if you do it semi-regularly for a few months, right?) of acquainting the campus with some new members of its community. This issue, we talked to Alyssa Martin, a transplant from the Camrose Public Library, about future goals and sparkly things. Alyssa is a Public Service Assistant at our library.

1)Do you have any hidden talents that most people don’t know about? 

Hidden talents… I’m pretty good at real life Tetris. I can fit more food into a refrigerator than should really be allowed. The same goes for packing boxes, getting a lot of stuff into a car, cramming all of my junk into the closet when company comes over, etc.

2) What did you wear to your high school graduation?

At Camrose Composite High School, they combine graduation and prom into one day, so I wore a dark turquoise gown, and I borrowed some sparkly earrings. 

3) Did you make resolutions for 2017? How are they coming along?

I don’t normally make New Years’ resolutions, but I do have some goals I’m working towards. I want to do more illustration and design work this year (that’s what I went to school for), and I want to start to learn another language. I always hated French class in school, and subsequently I didn’t learn much. But it becomes more and more apparent to me that the ability to communicate with people who have different life experiences is incredibly important. So, I decided to start with French because I thought it might be easiest language for me to learn; we’ll see how far I get.

4) What’s your favourite part of your job?

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is helping students with their research questions (we have research help available Monday-Friday, 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm) and we love seeing everyone’s lovely faces at the circulation desk.

Familiar Faces

by JENNIFER HA

Every issue, we interview faculty and staff who are new to campus or new to their positions here at Augustana. This issue, we interviewed Robin Willey, a sessional instructor in sociology, and Amal Chehayeb, an sessional instructor in French.

We asked them the following questions:

1) Have you lived anywhere outside of Alberta? If so, where? 

2) If you had a theme song to describe your life or capture your personality, what would it be?

3) What is your number one pet peeve when marking?

Willey-headshot.jpg

Robin Willey has recently defended his PhD dissertation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. His research generally focuses on Evangelical Christianity in Canada. Although he has previously published articles on the difficulties of conducting research in church communities and the sexual practices of Evangelical young adults, his current research looks to investigate the changing theo-political orientations of Canadian Evangelicals.

  1. Nope. I have lived in six different places in Alberta, however, which has got to count for something. Right?
  2. “Chapel Song” by We are Augustines. I can’t tell you why. It has just been on my main playlist for almost 3 years now. I guess it might speak to some of the grad school related angst I have been experiencing over the last several years. Thank goodness that is done! But, a close second would be “Reason to Believe” by Bruce Springsteen. The song pretty much sums up why I think the sociological study of religion is important.
  3. Semicolon use! In an ideal world, students would have to write a certification exam to obtain the right to use semi-colons in their work. Or an outright ban, I could get behind that too. These things would make the world a better place.

 

robin

Amal Chehayeb is a French instructor.  She taught AUFRE101 and AUFRE201 last term and is teaching AUFRE 102, AUFRE202, and AUFRE 301. She also is a belly dancing instructor.

  1. I was born in Lebanon.  In 1976 we moved to Alberta to escape the civil war.  My father was a pilot for the Middle East Airlines.  He quit his job and bought a Burger  Baron in Wetaskiwin where the whole family worked while going to school. I lived in Buffalo, New York for one year where I attended college. During my career as a teacher, I worked in Lebanon for 5 years as an elementary school teacher; in Adelaide , Australia for 8 months where I taught French and Spanish to beginner adults; in Doha, Qatar for one year where I taught at the Qatar Canadian School; in Amman, Jordan, as well as Guadalajara, Mexico for 5 months each, teaching at their Canadian Schools.
  1.  Roar by Katy Perry. Although I depend a lot on my partner and enjoy his company and am grateful for all that he does for me and my family, I know I have proven to myself over and over again that I am able to get up every time I fall.
  1. Not a lot bothers me when I am marking.  Once I find my flow I am able to mark quite happily.  What I dislike is receiving a late assignment as I would need to review my previous method on the assignments that have already been marked in order to be consistent.

Familiar Faces

by JENNIFER HA

Familiar Faces is a regular piece that features faculty and staff members who are new or new to their positions around Augustana and their answers to a series of non-formal questions.

This week, we asked Augustana alumnae Tia Lalani and Samantha Christensen the following questions to get them thinking about the holiday season:

1) What’s at the top of your wishlist this holiday season?

2) What’s your ideal vacation?

3) If you’re hosting a dinner party, what would be on the menu?

Tia Lalani, Communications Assistant for the External Relations Department

1) Some boots I’ve had my eye on. I’m trying not to spend my entire paycheck on things to wear to work, which can be a vicious cycle, so getting them as a gift would be great.

2) I’d like to sound sophisticated and worldly and choose somewhere with a lot of interesting history and culture, but honestly it’d be laying on a beach somewhere.

3) My mom makes wicked Indian food so I’d steal some of her recipes – samosas and kuku paka (coconut chicken). And also a lot of beer and wine! ☺

Samantha Christensen, English instructor

1) A book light and a sensible pair of shoes. Failsafe gifts for an English instructor.

2) Right now I think my ideal vacation would be to go on the Harry Potter studio tour in London. However, that might require me to come to terms with the fact that Harry Potter is fiction, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet. 

3) Probably something burned, since I’m a terrible cook. But it would be okay because there would be lots of wine. 

Samantha Christensen, English Instructor
Tia Lalani, Communications Assistant for the External Relations Department

Life After Augustana: Part Two

The Success Continues…

by JENNIFER HA

Your favourite scorpio here, bringing you the second installment of Life After Augustana where I asked recent Augustana graduates the following questions:

  1. What are you doing now that you have graduated from Augustana?
  2. What were your graduation plans upon entering university? Did they change by the time you graduated? If so, how? 
  3. What are your plans now?
  4. What do you miss most about Augustana/Camrose?

Stephanie Gruhlke – Bachelor of Arts, Class of 2016

  1. I am currently working as a foreign intern/teaching assistant at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College (UIC for short) in Zhuhai, China. I am paired with an English teacher to assist in her classes and then run my own sessions and tutorials a few times each week. We also have to put in hours in a writing resource centre where students can book in half-hour sessions to work specifically on written assignments
  2. I entered Augustana as a BSc student with a major in biology with the intent of going to med school, becoming a pediatric oncologist, and saving all the children. Then I realized that I am terrible at chemistry, even worse at physics, and I have a severe, irrational fear of needles, so the whole “med-school, be a doctor” thing fell through very early.
  3. My contract here lasts until the end of June but I can apply to have it extended for a second year if I wanted to. Right now, I am working on grad-school applications with the hopes of getting accepted somewhere for Fall of 2017.
  4. The thing I miss the most are the people. After 5 years there, 4 of which I was heavily involved with or lived on campus, I really get to know people and you become comfortable with them. It’s nice that some of my closest friends are still on campus so they fill me in occasionally on the happenings.

Connor Malone – Bachelor of Arts, Class of 2015

  1. Currently I am studying in my 2nd year at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law. In addition to my studies I provide legal services and information as a proud volunteer with CLASSIC, a poverty law clinic in downtown Saskatoon. CLASSIC works towards social justice with low-income, marginalized Saskatchewan residents, with a commitment to Indigenous peoples, through a legal clinic that is guided by the needs of the community.
  2. I have known for a number of years that I wanted to pursue a career in the legal profession. It was a desire that only crystallized further after studying at Augustana. I entered university knowing that I wanted an exceptional education that still allowed for a number of meaningful and high-impact experiential learning opportunities, which was one of the many reasons I chose Augustana. Majoring in Global and Development Studies enabled me to design my university degree around the interests and issues that I was most passionate about, while giving me countless opportunities to engage in the community through service learning and abroad on two international exchanges. Though I wouldn’t say my plans changed from entering university to the culmination of my degree, I would say that the scope of those plans and dreams has increased tenfold.
  3. My current plans are to continue pursuing my passion in law school. I hope to land one of the ever so coveted articling positions at one of Edmonton’s top firms in the Spring; a privilege that is only offered to a select few of dedicated, desperate and debt-ridden law students who can show that they’re a cut above the rest and a natural “fit”.
  4. If I was to say what I miss most about Augustana it would be the long discussions, open dialogue and debates with the two professors who made my Augustana experience unforgettable: Dr. Sandra Rein and Dr. Karsten Mündel.

     

     

    Stephanie Booth – Bachelor of Science, Class of 2014

  1. I currently am a Graduate Student in the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health doing my Masters in Public Health with a specialty in Epidemiology. 
  2. When I started my BSc straight out of high school I had planned on pursuing medicine and becoming a physician. However, as I learned more about the healthcare system I came to realize how big of a field ‘health’ is and all the different opportunities available. Upon graduating I thought that I would go into chiropractic medicine, but after working in a private clinic environment I realized that it wasn’t right for me. I began looking into Masters programs and came across the field of public health. It clicked for me right away- it’s a great combination of biology, medicine, and social science. 
  3. I will finish my Masters degree in April 2017 and will be happy to work for a few years (those student loans add up after 6 years of school!). With my MPH in Epidemiology I will likely work at the provincial or federal government analyzing health data to track disease rates and outbreaks. I’ve definitely been bitten by the academia bug, though, and in the future I may pursue further training in my field or a PhD, because I really enjoy teaching.
  4. I miss the sense of community and support that exists at Augustana. It was easy to be involved with a variety of things, including volunteer activities and community outreach. I made amazing friends while at Augustana and miss all the Camrose shenanigans we used to get into. 

    Photo Courtesy: Connor Malhone
    Photo Courtesy: Stephanie Booth
    Photo Courtesy: Stephanie Gruhlke