Northwest Community College Connections

Christines Blog - Welcome 2012! Snowmageddon is here..

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome back to school for a new year, new surprises, new resolutions. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions because I’m not very good at them, so this year I tried to keep it simple; more procrastination, eat out more, and no wait I’m just kidding. I think I already did those previous years. This year is simple: drink more water and eat more raw food.

This year is like many previous years, I don’t know where I am going to be 6 months from now. I have long term goals such as getting my MBA, but I’m not sure where my next step is for now. I am faced with a handful of ideas with no real idea what to do next.  

 

Dear NWCC, you would make my life so much easier if you’d offer year 3 and 4 in the Business Admin program. Sincerely, Christine

There, I’m already starting to make things happen. What are your goals for the New Year and how do you plan on making things happen?

On a different note, I also wanted to say a big welcome to Canada Mark! One of our friends we met on our exchange to China has come here to spend a few months at NWCC and we couldn’t be more excited :)

 

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!

Paula's Blog: Deaf Culture parallels Native Culture

As I have become involved in art, I have really noticed how much Deaf and Native culture have in common.  As an a carver and artist, I use visual images passed down without a written form, much like I do in Deaf culture.   Art is a visual language and is not written.  So, it would seem obvious that the First Nations would be very keen on the visual arts.  There are many famous First Nations artists who have continually and accurately portrayed the First Nations experiences on their media of choice.  Art culture itself is even passed down “verbally” through storytelling, songs, ceremony, totems, carvings, rituals, paintings, community gathering, dancing, performances, dreamings, and designs – not through books like non-native cultures. 

Like First Nations art, there is a wealth of Deaf art including poetry, stories, theatre, media, mime, games and comedy and that teach the culture.  Most of these are not written down.  There are couple examples of links related to Deaf Culture: Deaf Culture Centre and  Deaf artist websites.

These avenues demonstrate and support the way Deaf people lives their lives:  being Deaf and proud!  Now, you may notice that in First Nations communities, we are also proud of who we are.

First Nations has a culture of art that reaches both positive and negative ends of the spectrum unlike any others;  I have truly learned so much about the First Nations simply by seeing the artwork that First Nations culture produces.  The First Nations people have experienced many negative life changing events throughout history.  They’ve been strongly oppressed and labeled as “non-human” in the early centuries.  More recently, have even been forbidden to express and identify with their spirituality in a variety of different ways.  That is why the Freda Diesing  Art School is so important.  The strong positive connections and community in the First Nations Fine Art program is like finally finding the light at the end of a dark tunnel. 

The Deaf community has also hundred of years of oppression.  Even 130 years ago, they were forbidden to use their sign language and even now are expected to conform to hearing society.  Should we be forced to wear FM devices, hearing aids or surgically altered (cochlear implants) to fit this society?  Is this supposed to make our lives easier or is it supposed to make hearing society more comfortable?

Just like with First Nations culture, not all people agree and some have good reasons for this disagreement.  I just want to educate that these are decisions we all have to make for ourselves.  I can only share my experience as a First Nations Deaf person and hope that you will make your own decisions.

I hope that you have gained as much from reading this as I have from writing this blog.    I also wanted to show you what I have been making out of little buttons for Christmas ornaments, see a cute Snowman on left, White angel on top right and Santa Claus on right below.  Hope you can see the photo that I took from my Christmas tree as the Christmas lights may have made it a bit bright in the background.   

Please have  a safe and happy holidays.  See you in the New Year 2012!

Christine's blog - Another semester bites the dust

GOOD NEWS: There is light at the end of the tunnel, which means we have survived another semester. Finals are finally finished on Friday, which just happens to be the first day Shames is open for the season. WAHOO!

I just wanted to wish everyone good luck with their finals, as well as a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Also, if you are looking for another course in the New Year for a few extra credits, or to try something new, may I suggest Electronic Commerce? Its going to be a great class accompanied by an excellent teacher (and of course some cool classmates).

ECOM 250-3.0: Electronic Commerce This course will examine the impact of these emerging technologies on how we conduct business in a wired world. Topics include: the Internet and the web, software, security threats to electronic commerce, electronic payment systems, strategies for marketing, sales, and promotion, purchasing, logistics and support activities and other current topics.

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox

Christine's blog - Sleep deprivation enhances blonde-isms

FOR ANYONE else November is a great month, you just had a fun filled Halloween, followed by the anticipation of Christmas right around the corner.  The opening day for the ski hill isn’t too far away and men are taking over with funny looking mustaches everywhere. However, for a student it’s one of the two hardest times of the year, and most stressful. Projects and essays are due that have been put off for a while; you’re surrounded by mid-terms and all the regular assignments to boot. The fear of finals is becoming evident and the workload just appears to be overwhelming.

Then it hits. Walking zombies having taken over the College and for myself, I am such a knucklehead when I’m sleep deprived. I know I’ve hit exhaustion when the ridiculousness starts.  First, there is crying over things like Ikea commercials, finding my purse in the fridge and driving to my parents’ house constantly thinking I still live there. Then this downward spiral begins and things get out of control. The other day I started my vehicle to warm it up then got out to brush the snow of my vehicle, just to hear the worst noise in the world, ‘click.’ My vehicle locked me out and there I was, stranded in my sweat shirt, in the snow, with everything I needed for my midterm that started in 10 minutes locked in the vehicle. Just to call BCAA and have them tell me after half an hour of freezing half to death that the tow truck would be another hour because I was third on the list to get rescued. I made it to the test with 20 minutes left, frozen and a little bitter to say the least.

The good news is, it’s December now. We are faced with one week of class, followed by one long week of finals and then the semester is complete. A little more hard work and everything has paid off. One semester closer to being done and pure excitement of knowing you’ll never have to do Cost Accounting again!

 

A thank you to my friends in UofS for supplying a few snap shots showing the exhausting life of a dental student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!

NWCC Student Blogger - Paula Wesley

Paula Wesley is NWCC's newest full-time student blogger!

Paula is currently a second-year First Nations Fine Arts student at NWCC's Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art. She is from the Wolf people from Coast Salish and also is Tsimshian, born in 1976 in Terrace, BC, where she currently resides. Says Paula: "I feel inspired by the art of my people. I create art to continue what our people started long before me, to express my cultures and represent our people through art."

Paula's mother is Coast Salish from Chilliwack, her father is Tsimshian from Port Essington. It is unique to mix these two cultures to create my own style, she says.

Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along.

Hi, I’m Paula Wesley.  I’m in my second year at Freda Diesing Art School working on carving projects.  I just wanted to share with you a thought that popped up today. It has been a mind-boggling week of trying to figure out how to balance my life with Art history research. From what I have learned in the last few weeks, I have started to find more about who I am. The more I dig, the more I discover about how Art is important to me and how I want to share this knowledge with generations to come.

I see that most artists struggle; in life, that is common and this builds strength. Becoming an artist, I accept that I will have this struggle and fight for survival, but that the purpose of these struggles is to make me stronger.

I identify myself as a visual artist, but also I use my other senses. How do I define these? You all know that we have five traditional senses:  sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. Well, so far, you probably have not realized that “hearing” does not have any effect on me. In this blog, I want to educate people and make them aware that Deaf people can do anything other people can do except hear. I have already made my Deafness my strength since I have decided I don’t want to be invisible to the world.

The Deaf use their facial expressions, hands and body language – they depend on it for their communication.  For non-Deaf people, 85% of communication is non-verbal through body language, facial expressions and tones, but most people aren’t aware of this. So often, non-Deaf people will say very different things with their bodies than with their words. Deaf people pick up on this very quickly.

However, in spite of the differences, Deaf people do all the same things as the non-Deaf. Deaf people can drive, get groceries, forget our homework. Do I seem like a different person than you?  I think my hopes and dreams would seem very similar to yours. I hope one day we can meet and you will feel the same.

Stay tuned, next blog post will be about how Deaf Culture parallels Native Culture.

NWCC Student Blogger - Christine Leclerc

NUTRICIOUS AND DELICIOUS

If you went to the cafeteria last week you may have noticed a little kiosk. The nurses teamed up with the culinary arts students to have a healthy eating week and were surveying any willing participants on healthy eating. Together they are looking at offering more healthy options on the menu.

The problem with eating healthy is it costs more, and it’s more time consuming to prepare the meals. I have dabbled with raw foodism over the past couple years (eating foods that haven’t been heated above 116F) and would love to eat a strict diet as such, but reality is, is I don’t have the time, or the money to pay for the specialized products needed to uncook this way.

If school isn’t stressful enough, we are faced with a limited budget and limited time away from studies. It's finding the balance between what is most important with your spare time, whether it be working out, making healthy food, hanging out with friends and family or playing Starcraft. But this balance isn’t always easy to find.

In order to be successful, I’m a firm believer that you need a healthy mind and healthy body. It’s great seeing NWCC make these steps towards trying to make things easier for the students to make the right decisions. I asked a couple people what they thought of this, and their answers were pretty similar:

“I’m so happy to see the cafeteria looking into offering healthier options. I try not to eat there because I don’t always want a burger and fries. A salad with chicken would bring me in there on a more regular basis” C. Farkvam, Business Admin

 

“We got into groups and came up with healthy mainline lunches, short order lunches, salads, desserts, and baked goods. Our objectives were mainly to see if people were interested in healthy eating and the booths were set up to provide information about nutrition!” L. Smith, Biology 222

It looks like the students are responding in a positive manner and we can hope to see some positive results from this. Good work NWCC!

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!

NWCC Student Blogger - Christine Leclerc

IT'S THAT time of year again, when everything is so colourful. The trees are changing colour, the mountains are filled with snow and the streets are lined with signs. Small signs and big signs. Simple signs and colourful signs. Now they even come with the candidate’s face on them! It almost seems as though some candidates are having this competition for who can put the most on one corner. Or maybe how many signs can one candidate line along one street before another candidate gets in the way!

With that being said, there is more to election season than just the signs. This blog is just going to be simple and to the point. Voting is a privilege or a right -- however you look at it -- but not enough of us do it. An alarming 20% of voters came out to vote during the last local election.  Can you imagine if only 20% of people decided to show up for school?  Next time you’re downtown, take a quick survey in your head: the statistics say that just two of the first ten people you see actually voted to select the leaders of our community.  Pretty surprising, isn’t it?

Election Day is on November 19 from 8am to 8pm. Now is your time to educate yourself on the candidates running and who you want to vote for.

I am very excited to say that the Students Union has also put on a meet and greet November 15 from 4pm – 6pm in the Kiva. "Rock the Vote" will be starting with a Mayoral Candidates Debate (4:00PM to 5:00PM), followed by an all Candidates Meet and Greet (5:00PM to 6:00PM). 

“The Students Union believes that young people will be much more inclined to vote if they have had some type of connection and interaction with the candidates. This event will increase the awareness of young voters as well as provide candidates the opportunity to meet with students and hear their concerns. Similar events have been organized for cities across BC, as part of the Rock the Vote BC campaign to increase young voter turnout.” – Mikael Jensen NWCCSU Organiser

For more information on each candidate, visit http://www.terracestandard.com/news/election/

Hope to see you on Tuesday!!

NWCC Student Blogger - Christine Leclerc

HALLOWEEN. One of my three favourite holidays of the year. The other two of course being Christmas and Christinefest(my birthday week). The rest of the year I spend my time anticipating these great events. Halloween anticipation usually starts one-two months before Halloween, when the hunt for the ‘perfect costume’ begins. This year my genius idea was for my boyfriend and I to be Dr. Evil and mini me, to mock our excessive height difference. But I didn’t think the whole bald idea would go so well with my round cheeks so I made up all kinds of excuses why I wasn’t doing it. So I decided to play the role of cheap student and be the paper bag princess. But I changed my mind when I sat down and heard this awful ‘rrrip.’ Now, I know Halloween is supposed to be about full moons, but not this kind; my plans needed to change. In a last minute panic I wound up wearing my batgirl costume, for lack or originality.

On Thursday we celebrated Michelle’s birthday with a Wii Dance Party. Sounds like a blast right? Well it was a rocky start when my first dance was against a 4 year old who put me to shame. In my defense my cape was slowing me down. A few hours of trying to redeem myself and off we went to the Students Union Halloween party.

It was held at the Kiva and was decorated great. However, it was missing something.. oh right: people. I’m not saying you need a hundred people to have a good time, but the problem was there were 4 or 5 tables and everyone just sat with their class. You could've fooled me into thinking business students and welders werent allowed to talk. Or maybe everyone was scared the SSW students were to going to analyze their behaviour? What ever it was, there was very little mingling amongst the students and a whopping two people on the dance floor. The good news about the low numbers was I’m sure there was one bartender for every five people there. Not that my party needed any more! We still had a good time thanks Christina practicing her Zumba moves on the dance floor.  She was able to bee all that she could bee.

The Students’ Union plays a big behind-the-scenes role, both academically and socially.  Lots of time & money goes into planning events, so it’s important to get what you paid for and to come out and enjoy these events! Dont forget, as a student you have alreay paid money towards the students union. Nows the the time to get a bang for your buck.  Plus, who knows: you might even get a sneak peak at Christina’s Zumba dance floor moves the next time…

Any Terrace students who have any questions about the Student Union you can visit Mike. His office is the first room on the left, right before the Kiva.

 

Michelle, me & Christina @ the Kiva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike the Trojan man and his princess Christina, the bee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me & Smartie pants Michelle :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to spice up Mondays class...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to check next Monday for a new post!

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!

NWCC Student Blogger - Christine Leclerc

Midterm Mayhem

I KNOW this blog is still new, and maybe I’m moving things too fast since we are still getting to know one another. But I wanted to talk about the dreaded M word. I felt it was a softer blow than the F word; either way, no one likes midterms or finals. Teachers put you through these excruciatingly painful exercises because they are in cahoots with the recipe card, highlighter and energy drink companies. I’m sure of it!

I’m still new to the whole concept of Midterms. I didn’t study a lot for tests in high school; not because I was some genius kid but because I crossed my fingers hoping that I would get at least a 50% pass just for showing up. They had to give me some credit for spelling my name right! Sadly, I am proof that this in fact does not work. After not graduating with my fellow classmates I quickly learned that you actually have to take the textbook out of the plastic wrap, attend classes and try to listen to what the teacher has to say.

As a first year student, I was lost trying to study for midterms. I had my textbook out of the plastic wrap and had even highlighted a few words the textbook already made bold for me. I was in the routine of going to almost all of my classes and even tuned in the teacher for half the class.

Sadly though, I have to admit my study habits were still in the premature stages. I would spend the week before the exam stressing out about it. I would open my textbook to read it, but then I would decide to check the weather forecast quickly before I started. Oh that was depressing, bad idea. Back to the textbook, read one more paragraph. Did they just quote that from a guy named cookie? Mmmm, I haven’t make cookies for a while. Maybe I'll just make cookies before I get into this too far. A few tanned cookies and one fire alarm later, back to the textbook.

Somehow, this painful routine would happen until 9pm the night before the exam. Then I realized I haven’t read anything and I had exactly 12 hours to learn 5 chapters. Who needs sleep when you have a stash of four Rockstars! Three cans of Rockstar and three hours of sleep later and I would show up for my test. I am proud to say this silly routine stayed in first year. Now in second year, I am older and wiser. The craziest thing happened; I have learned where the library is. Apparently tons of people hang out here, it’s like a secret society I never knew about. Proud to say I am a member, even a part of a study group (thanks Michelle!!). I now have a study habit that includes studying days in advance, library hangouts, and learning to read what’s important.

I haven’t given up highlighting bold words or getting drunk off Rockstars, but I feel more confident going into my exams.

I'm sure my battle with midterms and finals will never be over, but at least I'm making positive progress. In an attempt to continually change things for the better, I would love to hear what your routine is. Any little advice you can share I'm sure will help me and others immensely.

 

The following images came on an email I received called 'why teachers drink.' In the end I guess we're not the only ones stressed out by midterms...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to check next Monday for a new post!

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!

NWCC Student Blogger – Christine Leclerc

Video conferencing

I WAS actually quite excited when I showed up for class in the beginning of September to find 2 big screen TVs in my classroom and a microphone. I thought it was about time we got karaoke in the classroom! I was a little disheartened to find out this wasn’t the case. Its part of the video conference system the college has set up to have class with Prince Rupert. This is one of NWCCs ways of keeping up with technology, and being able to expand its class size without having to find another professor.

After having a few classes with this video conferencing system, it was all the excuse I needed to hop in a car and go to Rupert to check things out. My friend Christina and I loved the idea of being able to go to another city and still take our same classes, but from the other side. This campus is great. It’s only a few years old and couldn’t be located any better. It's placed just off of main street, which means there are three clothing stores, a coffee shop, bakery and gym less than a block away! Errr, I mean it’s easy to get to, with great scenery. When we arrived, we got the classroom number from my friend and decided to go find class. We went on our merry way to find classroom 187, and there it was tucked away right beside the stairs with a sign that said 'student lounge'. We looked around, found some vending machines, and circle tables that looked nothing like what we had seen in our video conference. We may not be detectives, but we saw enough pieces of the puzzle to figure out this was not our classroom. I went to text Krystal back asking if she pulled a fast one on us, just to discover she actually said 186. This was more like it! The classroom was set up very similar to ours, with the microphone over top, projection screen in front and a big screen TV. However all we could see on this TV was our teacher, there was no monitor showing our sister class. We made it through our first class without being to distracted by our new classroom and found we had a few hours to go to explore Rupert before next class. We went for lunch and had to make the mandatory stop at Homeworks. Shopper beware: this store is never safe for a poor student on a budget! But I’m sure if I just eat rice and beans for a week I can rationalize the sweet new necklace I got.

We went back to class a few minutes early, with just enough time for Al Sande to notice that his Terrace classroom was a little too quiet, and his Rupert classroom seemed a little louder. Yes, we were busted. Being a little giddy from our shopping trip, we just snuck in and were trying to settle down for class when we were faced with one of the problems with video conferencing. The power went out in Prince Rupert! This meant the teacher in Terrace was unable to finish the class because if he continued, the Rupert students would be left a class behind the Terrace students. This led me to think about it on the way home. Is the technology we are using to try and better ourselves actually slowing us down? Or should we just accept the little bloopers along the way and accept this as a great opportunity for NWCC to offer more classes to more students in the Northwest? Would you mind looking at a teacher on a screen all day if it meant you could save thousands of dollars and take classes at home?

As a student is there more the college can be doing to be keeping up with this technological era?

 

Christine Leclerc is NWCC's first ever full-time student blogger! She's a second-year Business Administration student in Terrace who took part in a study exchange to China earlier this year. Over the fall and winter semesters, she'll be giving her take on student life at NWCC. We're excited to see and read her posts and encourage you - the college community - to follow along. She's looking forward to getting your feedback and maybe some inspiration, too, throughout her blogging experience. And in case you're wondering, that's her beloved English bulldog Maddox!