UPEI's synchronized swimming team will host their 'Sync or Swim' fundraiser on Wednesday, January 30, 8-9 pm at the CARI Complex. The team will showcase various routines as well as a highlight routine which showcases incredible lifts and jumps. The UPEI men's rugby club will perform their very own routine, which is sure to be entertaining.

The synchro team recently competed at the Canadian University Synchronized Swimming League (CUSSL) Eastern Canadian Divisionals hosted by Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario where they had an impressive first-time showing with a second-place team result, first-place solo result, and first and third place finishes in the duet event.

The team's next competition is the CUSSL Nationals held in London, Ontario on February 9 at Western University. UPEI will compete against approximately 18 other teams and is currently training three days a week with three-hour practices. Duet and solo routines require an additional two or three practices per week.

'This is a very talented, motivated, and determined group of young women,' said swimmer and coach Ally Merrill. 'When we set our minds on something, we are a force to be reckoned with. If we perform at the level I know we are capable of, there is no doubt we will be returning from Nationals with gold medals around our necks.'

'Sync or Swim' tickets can be purchased for $10 or $8 (students), or $15 VIP (which includes on-deck seating and a special screening of the routines underwater). Tickets are available from any UPEI synchro team member, or at the W.A. Murphy Student Centre on January 29 and 30, 11:30 am-2:00 pm. All funds raised from the event will help cover training and travel costs.

For more information on UPEI's synchro team, contact Danielle Stewart at danielle.stewart@live.ca.

Student Affairs invites the entire campus community to our open house-come see our "refreshed digs," chat with our team, and learn about our services and supports for students and our initiatives to improve the student experience at UPEI. Drop by to enjoy some cookies and coffee on us! All are welcome!

The success of UPEI case competition teams continues with a team winning the right to compete internationally. Team IJAM- comprised of fourth-year business students Isaac Townshend, John Williams, Alex Whalen, and Mary Whitrow-was recently accepted into the Network for International Business Schools (NIBS) 2013 Worldwide Case Competition in Leuven, Belgium. This is the second time a UPEI case team will compete at an international case competition.

The NIBS case competition consists of a qualifying round and a championship round. In the qualifying round, IJAM was given a case the team had never before seen-on sustainability in China's pharmaceutical industry-and was asked to create a case-analysis report in eight hours or less.

Of the 22 teams attempting to qualify, only 10 teams successfully advanced to the week-long championship round on March 3. UPEI will compete against the likes of Thailand's Assumption University, Finland's Lahti University of Applied Sciences, and Germany's Heilbronn University.

Whitrow and her teammates are grateful for the chance to compete at the international level. 'We've dedicated many long hours to secure our spot in the championship round,' she said. 'We couldn't have done it without the guidance of our professor, Edward Gamble, and the support from faculty, staff, and the UPEI community. We look forward to representing the University and Prince Edward Island in March.'

'The continued success of our case teams demonstrates the strong foundational education that students receive through the UPEI business program,' said Alan Duncan, dean of the school of business. 'It also highlights the effort, dedication, and inspiration of the team and its professor. The quality of the program is highlighted by the quality of our students. These students demonstrate this quality at each and every competition entered.'

This success does not come without a cost. These students have invested a significant amount of time, effort, and their own financial contributions to compete at this level. For more information on how to support Team IJAM, please contact their faculty advisor Edward Gamble at (902) 620-5144, egamble@upei.ca, or Alan Duncan at (902) 566-0340, awduncan@upei.ca.

For more information on the NIBS 2013 Worldwide Case Competition, visit: http://www.khleuven.be/nibs/.

UPEI offers students many ways to help fund their post-secondary education, including second-semester bursaries for current students.

Second-semester bursary applications must be submitted on or before February 15, 2013. Each submission requires a completed second-semester bursary and financial-need form.

Visit upei.ca/scholarships to access the forms or call Heather Keoughan, Scholarships and Awards Coordinator at (902) 566-0358 for more information.

On Saturday, February 2 at 7:30 pm the UPEI music faculty will be showcased in their annual gala concert at the Dr. Steel Recital Hall. The concert is an opportunity for faculty members to perform some of their favourite repertoire as solo and ensemble musicians.

The evening will feature solo performances by Karem J. Simon (clarinet), Jim Dickson (guitar), Morgan Saulnier (flute), and Frances Gray (piano). 'Wonderland Duets' based on the poems of Lewis Carroll will be performed by Gregory Irvine and Robert Nicholson on tuba, with narrator Stephen Bouey and Jacqueline Sorensen who will join Frances Gray in Dvorak's piano duet 'Slavonic Dances Op.46.'

Tickets are available at the door for $15/$10 (students/seniors). For tickets and information, contact Susan Stensch at music@upei.ca or 566-0507.

At the next Research on Tap, join us for a discussion about a life-saving device that some reject. Dr. Robert Gilmour, UPEI's vice-president of research will lead a discussion entitled: Is your life worth it? The science and ethics of implantable defibrillators.

PITCH101, Atlantic Canada's 60-Second Pitch Series takes place on Friday, February 1, 1-5 pm at UPEI's Don & Marion McDougall Hall, Room 242. The event, which is organized by Invest Atlantic and co-sponsored by ACOA, Innovation PEI, and the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce brings together students, startups, young and seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors for a networking forum.

The event starts off with an inspiring hour-long 'fireside discussion' emceed by UPEI's Dean of the School of Business, Alan Duncan. The discussion among guests and audience members will be on a specific topic such as 'Access to Capital' carried over from the last Invest Atlantic Conference. Participants will then pitch for one minute to a panel of experienced pitch judges and the audience.

These pitches are designed to be a crucial first step in helping prepare entrepreneurs to develop longer pitches and demos for when they meet real-time investors and potential partners. UPEI has two students presenting their entrepreneurial ideas-Duncan Shaw, UPEI alumni and Board member, and Jevon MacDonald, former student and soon-to-be UPEI graduate.

UPEI encourages students to attend as the event is free for students and provides an opportunity to hear first-hand about entrepreneurship from some of the top entrepreneurs in the region. Click here to register.

Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada CEO, national team coach, and newly appointed Canadian Interuniversity Sport CEO will be the guest speaker at UPEI's swim team fundraising event on Thursday, February 7 at the Rodd Royalty Hotel.

Lafontaine led Swimming Canada to podium finishes at major international games, including three Olympic and 39 Paralympic medals, as well as several world-record performances. Prior to his time at Swimming Canada, he worked with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), which included a three-year stint as their head swimming coach. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, AIS swimmers captured six medals, two of which were gold.

He has also held numerous coaching positions in Canada and the United States dating back to 1976, including head coach of the Phoenix Swim Club in Arizona, where athletes reached the podium eight times at the 2000 Olympics, including three gold medals.

'I'm personally very excited to have Pierre as our event's guest speaker,' said Bill Calhoun, UPEI swimming head coach. 'He's an electrifying speaker who sends everyone away feeling motivated and prepared for challenges to come.'

Tickets for the fundraising event can be purchased for $60, which includes a reception beginning at 6:00 pm, a dinner to follow at 6:45, and a live and silent auction. 2013 Subway AUS Swimming Championship (February 8-10) tickets can also be purchased for $15 for the weekend, or $10 per day. For more information, or to purchase tickets, please contact Carol at heartz@upei.ca or (902) 566-0432.

UPEI will be celebrating its 12th annual International Development Week (IDW), February 4-8, with all events open to the public. The 2013 theme is 'The Role of Youth in Global Collaboration for Sustainable Peace and Development.' IDW is a national event held each year to increase awareness of Canada's role in international development. The events also serve to educate the general public on life in developing countries.

Some of this year's IDW events include a community luncheon, global trivia, international coffeehouse, the first public film screening of CHASING ICE in Atlantic Canada, and special guest presentations by the Honourable Mobina S. B. Jaffer, Senator for British Columbia; Dr. Adam Fenech, Director of UPEI's Climate Research Lab and Dr. Douglas R. Brown, Director of Agriculture and Food Security at World Vision International.

Senator Jaffer's keynote presentation during the annual luncheon will examine and reflect on IDW 2013's theme. She will look at the theme from three different angles: health, nutrition, and women in conflict, with an emphasis on knowledge sharing. Dr. Fenech and Dr. Brown will host the film screening and discuss climate change and its international and local impacts.

The full schedule of events is posted on upei.ca/idw. For more information, contact Erin Clarke at (902) 894-2842 or eeclarke@upei.ca.

Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver in 1974, the same year her Malaysian-Chinese parents immigrated to Canada from Malaysia. In Thien's new novel, Dogs at the Perimeter, her heroine's life in Montreal as a neuroscientist, wife, and mother unravels when she is overwhelmed by the haunting legacy of her horrifying childhood in post-war Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule. As readers, we are plunged into the child's effort to survive a savage catastrophe, and the adult's struggle to transcend the sorrows of the past.

As a part of the UPEI Winter's Tales Author Reading Series, Thien will read and talk about her fiction on Thursday, February 7, at 7:30 pm in the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. A reception and book signing will follow her reading.

Her first book, Simple Recipes, a short-story collection, won four prizes, including the City of Vancouver Book Award. Certainty, her first novel, won the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and has been translated into 16 languages. Thien now resides in Quebec.

In an article Thien wrote for The Guardian (UK) about Dogs at the Perimeter while at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last year, she said, 'In my 30s, I began spending time in Cambodia. I found, as the months and years passed, that I could not let the country go, and I began, despite many doubts, to write about the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge years. There are, I believe, eternal and harrowing questions that the Cambodian genocide poses, and which we have never confronted. The Khmer Rouge emptied the cities, people changed their names, let go of their identities and effaced their selves; the world forgot a small country that had suffered immeasurably from the interference and the wars of larger powers.'

'I am almost 40 now,' she wrote, 'the novel is finished, but my questions remain. If a person erases him or herself in order to survive, how can they find that self again? Can survival bring them peace, or is it only madness to remember?' Her new novel offers powerful answers to these questions.

Madeleine Thien is a voice of courageous vision from the newer waves of Canadians whose heritage and ancestral histories are not in western Europe, but in such regions as Southeast Asia. The UPEI English Department, in collaboration with Confederation Centre Art Gallery, and with support from The Canada Council of the Arts, is honoured to present Thien and her fiction to an Island audience.