The next presentation in the University 100 Vern Smitheram and Andy Robb Leadership Development Series 2017 features Elyse Cottrell. Cottrell will present “Dis-Abling Challenges, Redefining Success” on Wednesday, March 1 at 1:30 pm in UPEI’s Chaplaincy Centre.

Elyse Cottrell is the first UPEI student to be awarded a prestigious 3M National Student Fellowship through the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE). The 3M National Student Fellowship honours up to ten full-time students at Canadian post-secondary institutions who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their lives and their post-secondary institutions. These students embrace a vision of education that enhances their academic experience and beyond.

Cottrell’s talk will touch on her work as a disability rights advocate and the importance of access to services, and inclusion, for all. She will also discuss the 3M National Student Fellowship program.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

The University of Prince Edward Island prides itself on people, excellence, and impact and is committed to assisting students reach their full potential in both the classroom and community. With roots stemming from two founding institutions—Prince of Wales College and Saint Dunstan’s University—UPEI has a reputation for academic excellence, research innovation, and creating positive impacts locally, nationally, and internationally. UPEI is the only degree granting institution in the province and is proud to be a key contributor to the growth and prosperity of Prince Edward Island.

Every week, UPEI Athletics and Recreation recognizes two student-athletes for their hard work and dedication to their respective sports. Congratulations to Bailey Smith (Track and Field) and Dut Dut (Men’s Basketball), the UPEI Panther Subway Athletes of the week for February 21-26!

Bailey Smith is a Nursing student from Mount Stewart, PEI and a member of the UPEI Track and Field team. She won gold in the 60-meter race at the AUS Track and Field Championship. “Bailey won a very close 60m championship by three hundredths of a second over some very strong AUS competition,” said coach Colin MacAdam. “Her hard work has paid off with this win—a very deserving UPEI athlete of the week!”

Dut Dut is a fifth-year Bachelor of Arts student from Ottawa, Ontario and a forward on the UPEI Men’s Basketball team. The Panthers lost their final two games of the season, but Dut Dut shone in both weekend games, scoring 57 points and grabbing 22 rebounds. He is ranked number one in the country for rebounds in the regular season, averaging 11.9 per game. “Dut Dut is very deserving of the Athlete of the Week award,” said coach Tim Kendrick. “He had a great weekend for us and broke the single season AUS rebound record here at UPEI in the process! A very fitting way for him to end his university basketball career!”

Find more details at gopanthersgo.ca.

The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, visited the University of Prince Edward Island campus on Monday, as part of a whirlwind tour through the Maritime Provinces.

Minister Duncan first met with President and Vice-Chancellor Alaa Abd-El-Aziz and Interim Dean of Science Kathy Gottschall-Pass and discussed several topics including climate change, women in science, and growth in science programming at UPEI.

“We were so pleased to welcome Minister Duncan to our campus to advise her of the tremendous work we are doing to create unique programming, such as with the School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences and the School of Sustainable Design Engineering,” said President Abd-El-Aziz. “It was a great opportunity to highlight our recent successes as well as introduce some plans for the future.”

President Abd-El-Aziz and Dr. Gottschall-Pass were then joined by Vice-President Academic and Research Robert Gilmour who accompanied the Minister to the UPEI Climate Research Lab.

Dr. Adam Fenech, associate professor and director of the UPEI Climate Research Lab, introduced the Minister to several of his graduate students and outlined some of the Lab’s initiatives including CLIVE (Coastal Impacts Visualization Environment) and climate change monitoring programs. Dr. Fenech worked previously with Minister Duncan as part of the Nobel Peace Prize award-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body established under the auspices of the United Nations.

The brief visit also included a presentation by Dr. Amy Hsiao, associate professor in the School of Sustainable Design Engineering. Dr. Hsiao explained how the four-year degree program is set up like an engineering consulting firm where students serve as junior engineers working on real-world challenges for their real-world clients. She described the distinctive features found in the 76,000 square-foot facility that houses both the sustainable design engineering program and UPEI Department of Physics, and invited the Minister to come again for a tour. The building opened a month earlier than scheduled in August 2016. Dr. Hsaio also serves on the board of the Wind Energy Institute of Canada and is currently working on a research project with Dr. Fenech examining the effects of climate conditions on windmill efficiency and designing solutions to minimize those effects.

Minister Duncan left the Island mid-afternoon for Moncton, and then will travel to Halifax for an announcement on Wednesday that involves the UPEI Climate Research Lab.

On Tuesday, March 7, the Sir James Dunn Animal Welfare Centre will hold the final webinar in its 2017 winter webinar series, New Approaches to Old Diseases, from 1:00–2:00 pm AST.

Speakers Dr. Caroline Hewson and Dr. Christine Savidge will tie together the concepts illustrated in the first two webinars, using diverse clinical cases from their practice and submitted by webinar participants. As with the previous two webinars, this webinar gives participants one hour of CE.

In the first webinar, Dr. Hewson reviewed three core communication tools for delivering terminal diagnoses and creating workable clinical care plans with clients. She also introduced three other tools that provide a framework to help attendees and their clients to anticipate and respond with greater peace of mind, as the animal’s condition deteriorates, and to identify the right time to start talking about euthanasia and the animal’s end-of-life.

In the second webinar, Dr. Savidge used feline and canine cases of renal disease to illustrate different disease trajectories and how they can help veterinarians and clients anticipate and respond to an animal’s changing condition, as renal insufficiency progresses, and decide when or if intensive rescue treatment is desirable in uremic crises.

For more information, please visit awc.upei.ca. Registrants who are unable to attend a webinar at the scheduled time will be sent the link to view it after it has taken place.

When Dr. Mike West, DVM, was growing up, he had pets but no inkling that he would become a veterinarian—until his third year at Dalhousie University.

Born in England, Dr. West moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1982, with his family. After he graduated from high school, he attended Dalhousie University where he earned a BSc in biology, with a minor in English literature. While at Dalhousie, he saw a poster promoting an information session about AVC’s doctor of veterinary medicine program, which caught his eye. He went to the session and was hooked! After four years at Dalhousie and one at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, he applied to AVC and was “lucky enough to get in on my first try.”

“I really enjoyed my time at AVC as a student—the atmosphere, the intensity, the learning, the camaraderie,” he said. “It was a very exciting time in my life, and it confirmed that veterinary medicine was the career I wanted.”

After graduating with his DVM degree in 1994, Dr. West worked in private practice in Atlantic Canada for a year, gaining experience in various areas of veterinary medicine. In the fall of 1995, he and his wife, Jennifer King, moved to England with the intention of staying six months. He practiced veterinary medicine in and around Oxford, earning a certificate in veterinary dermatology in the process. Eight years later, he and Jennifer came back to Halifax, with two children, Maddie, now 16, and Evan, now 14, and two cats. He worked at the Fairview Animal Hospital until recently when he decided he wanted a new challenge. He applied for and won a position at AVC as a community practice veterinarian, teaching DVM students and providing veterinary care to companion animals.

Welcome back, Dr. West!

Dr. Peter Foley, Assistant Professor, Small Animal Internal Medicine, Atlantic Veterinary College, will give a public workshop on Thursday, March 9, at 7 pm, about end-of-life issues with companion animals. The workshop will take place at AVC in Lecture Theatre A. Dr. Foley will offer information to help people act on behalf of their beloved pets as the end of life draws near. He will discuss palliative care options, assessing quality of life, deciding when euthanasia is right, the euthanasia procedure itself, and coping strategies for dealing with the loss of a pet.

Everyone is welcome. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. For information, contact (902) 566-0589.

The AVC Wildlife Service will hold its first Midwinter Pub Night for Wildlife at Upstreet Craft Brewing, 41 Allen Street, Charlottetown, on Thursday, March 2, 2017, from 7–11 p.m. There will be an art raffle and a silent auction to raise awareness of and funds in support of the Wildlife Service. For information, please contact Fiep de Bie, AVC Wildlife Service, (902) 620-5166.

University of Prince Edward Island Women’s Basketball head coach Greg Gould is pleased to announce Reese Baxendale has committed to the Panthers for the 2017-18 season.

Baxendale is a 5’8” guard from Sussex New Brunswick. She leads her Sussex Regional High School Sonics—one of the top teams in the Maritimes—in scoring and assists. She has also been a starter on the New Brunswick U17 team for two straight years.

“I am very excited to be joining the UPEI Panthers,” said Baxendale. “I love Charlottetown, the people of PEI, and the overall campus feel. I’m looking forward to the challenge of playing in the AUS, growing my game to the next level, and contributing to a team that is definitely on the rise. I will be proud to be a Panther and proud to attend UPEI as I work towards my future with a quality education from such a well-respected university.

Coach Gould has watched Baxendale’s rise for the past several years. “She comes from a winning program and competes hard every game,” said Gould. “Reese is fearless on the court and attacks the basket hard—often scoring the basket and going to the free throw line. Reese has a great motor, is very fast in the open court, and constantly puts pressure on opponent’s defence. She is also a very good on-the-ball defender. I believe Reese will have an immediate impact on our team and I look forward to working with her.”

Baxendale has been accepted into UPEI’s Faculty of Science.

Find more details at gopanthersgo.ca.

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is currently underway for first- and fourth-year students at the University of Prince Edward Island. NSSE collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about first-year and senior students' participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development.

Three UPEI students have already won $100 by completing the NSSE survey. However, if eligible students have not completed the survey yet, it is not too late to do so and be included in the next early bird prize draws which are scheduled to take place on March 3, March 10, and the final grand prize in mid-April. First- and fourth-year students should check their UPEI email account for an email from NSSE to complete their online survey today!

Students in UPEI’s Department of Applied Human Sciences are hosting a panel discussion about food insecurity on Prince Edward Island. “A healthy ‘food Island’ for all? Food insecurity and healthy public policy: a call to action” will be held 7:00 pm, March 13 in the Wanda Wyatt Lecture Theatre in UPEI’s K.C. Irving Chemistry Centre. All are welcome.

The panel will discuss the current state of food insecurity in PEI, its impact on one’s health and well-being, what current actions the government is taking to address food insecurity, and future actions needed to address this growing problem.

The panel includes:

Dr. Valerie Tarasuk, Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto is the keynote speaker. Dr. Tarasuk is an acclaimed international researcher in food insecurity and is the lead researcher for PROOF, which has been providing reports on provincial and national data on food insecurity for the past several years. She will will review the current state of food insecurity in PEI and, drawing on evidence of what has worked in other jurisdictions, identify some potential policy options to address food insecurity here. 

Dr. David Sabapathy, Deputy Chief Health Officer, Department of Health and Wellness, Government of PEI. Dr. Sabapathy will review current health status of Islanders compared to the rest of Canada, and the role that the social determinants of health play in Islanders’ health.

Jennifer Burgess, Department of Family and Human Services. Burgess will discuss initiatives that government has taken to reduce poverty and food insecurity in PEI, and proposed future actions.

Dr. Colleen Walton, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Human Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island. Dr. Walton will discuss her current food costing research in PEI and the need for ongoing monitoring as  part of the strategy to improve food security.

The panel is organized by a group of UPEI senior Foods and Nutrition students, under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Taylor. The event is supported by the Saint Dunstan’s University Institute for Christianity and Culture.

For more information, contact Dr. Jennifer Taylor, jtaylor@upei.ca, or 902-566-0475.

The University of Prince Edward Island prides itself on people, excellence, and impact and is committed to assisting students reach their full potential in both the classroom and community. With roots stemming from two founding institutions—Prince of Wales College and Saint Dunstan’s University—UPEI has a reputation for academic excellence, research innovation, and creating positive impacts locally, nationally, and internationally. UPEI is the only degree granting institution in the province and is proud to be a key contributor to the growth and prosperity of Prince Edward Island.