ampus hews EDITOR ANNA DIMOFF THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOV. 19, 2015 3 ha te dl ao <1 mo 2 | 4 j § ee Laas! b i fe. ve , ™ £ = . = ri il themap with yox ideas! s tak he == 0 on — tian z Students involved in the CityStudio program work on projects that will potentially help toward the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. The stu- dents come up with ideas that address certain areas of need in Vancouver as expressed by city employees. SEAN LEE photo Student projects hit the city's streets Vancouver partners with CityStudio program to find fresh ideas for improved liveability By SEAN LEE n Nov. 27, Langara College envi- ronmental studies students will present their innovative proj- ects to help make Vancouver a greener city. CityStudio is a partnership between the City of Vancouver and students in the Metro Vancouver area to come up with fresh approaches for city projects. Their annual showcase, known as Hub- bub, is where the top three projects from each school are presented to a panel of judges, taking place on Dec. 4 at city hall. This year, the projects tackle a wide array of issues such as: garbage and re- cycling in parks, water use, locally grown produce, industrial materials recycling, and increased capacity from communities to provide relief in natu- ral disaster scenarios. “Langara is very interested in inter- institutional exchanges,” Andrew Egan, environmental problems and solutions instructor, said. “We want to interact with these in- stitutions such as the City of Vancou- ver, or CityStudio, to give students real life experiences of what it’s like to work and conduct projects that have a larger field of view than this institution.” Jeanie Morton, the campus network manager for CityStudio, said she ap- proaches the city for projects that could use some “new energy and en- thusiasm” and then relays the projects to instructors in partner schools. “The most famous is the Keys to the Streets project. Those are the public pianos that you see. That started as a CityStudio project. It was carried on through a few semesters and now it’s become its own independent organiza- tion,” said Morton. Last fall at Hubbub, Langara stu- dents won first place, promoting the sale of “ugly vegetables” in supermar- kets, and third place for a project that proposed diverting dog poo from the landfill by processing it through the sewage system. All CityStudio projects are connect- ed to the goals of Vancouver’s action plans such as Greenest City 2020 Ac- tion Plan, Vancouver’s Healthy City Strategy, and Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force, according to Morton. 66 The most famous is the Keys to the Streets project. Those are the public pianos JEANIE MORTON CITY STUDIO Contest: a break into the biz The Crazy8s filmmaking challenge allows young artists to develop their skills by producing a short project By TESSA VIKANDER dents have entered an intense, eight-day filmmaking contest for a chance to be one of the six finalists who get to take their idea from the drawing board to the screen. Ana Pacheco and Tanner Nelson each submitted their story pitches in five-minute videos to the Crazy8s film- making challenge on Nov. 9. Pacheco said that if she were a final- ist, the making of the film would test her abilities to work in the industry. “Tt’s a whirl-wind competition so if I can handle that stress then I know I can handle working longer set days too,” Pacheco said. “I don’t have much experience, but I want to learn as much as I can. If I make a fool of myself along the way, I’m okay with that.” Paul Armstrong, executive director Te Langara College Film Arts stu- and producer of the Crazy8s Film Society, said finalists are usually a mix of new and seasoned filmmakers, but said the main goal of the contest is to help people break into the industry. “Tt’s one of the best entry points into the industry partly because of all the contacts [the contestants] make.” Nelson said his creative process ben- efitted from the competition’s time con- straints. “It got me back into the mood of working really hard,” he said “When youre writing alone, it’s hard because there are no deadlines.” They'll compete against nearly 200 other applicants, but that number will quickly dwindle down to 40 semi-final- ists to present their pitch in front of a panel of industry professionals. From there, 12 finalists will work on their scripts with story editors and from those contestants, the six winners will be chosen to produce A still from finalist Aubrey Arnason’s winning film, Kindergarten. their vision. Aubrey Arnason, a finalist from last year, entered the competition with substantial experience hosting TV shows. “Tt’s almost like a huge au- dition,” she said. “You become more hireable because every- one [in the industry] knows how intense the Crazy8s pro- cess is,” Arnason said. A word of advice for this year’s finalists, Arnason sug- gests that contestants should find a way to make their story pitches stand out and to stay open to critique. Exchange options expand Langara to pursue more international students in future thanks to new deal By SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI new agreement between British Aciusii and the province of Hei- ongjiang in northern China is easing student exchange, letting Lang- ara College attract more international students in the coming years. This fall, there are 2,062 internation- al students enrolled among the total student population of 10,457 at Langa- ra, and there is no limit or cap to pre- vent the college from attracting more students from abroad for the next se- mester. Colin Doerr, director of communica- tions and programs of the British Columbia Council tional and external development at Langara, said international students, like domestic students, come to Langa- ra for three main reasons: the college is in heart of Vancouver, has diversity of programs, and employs experienced in- structors. “You have the opportunity to im- merse yourself in an inter-cultural en- vironment,” Patel said. “You get a real community feel from this place.” Doerr said that the field for post-sec- ondary students is opened up for study exchanges through the B.C. Study Abroad program. The options for inter- national education are available to over 350,000 students province-wide. Patel said that Langara is signifi- cantly less expensive in comparison to other post-secondary institutions, and gives students the opportunity to get the skill sets and the knowledge they need for the future. COLIN DOERR Director of com- munications and programs, BCCIE 66 B.C. offers not only education, but support for International Educa- tion (BCCIE), said that in- ternational education is the key economic sector for the province. The BCCIE announced there are 114,600 interna- tional students enrolled in B.C., who brought in 2.3 bil- lion dollars for the prov- ince during 2013-14. “B.C. offers not only ed- ucation, but support, a pathway towards work through post graduate work permits and also an opportunity towards per- manent residency,” Doerr said. Ajay Patel, vice-president, associate interna- SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI photo Langara students look at a world map and discuss and weigh their future study options.