ampus news EDITOR JACQUELINE LANGEN THE DAILY VOICE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013 Blood, Sweat and tears Over $2-million is awarded to students who have demonstrated academic or athletic excellence By MARIE-ANDREE DEL CID ing a Celebration of Excellence award is an amazing academic achievement for putting in many long hours of hard work, sweat, blood and tears. The Celebration of Excellence cere- mony was held yesterday afternoon at the library on the second floor. Stu- dents, instructors, staff and employees from Langara gathered to honour indi- vidual students on their achievements by awarding scholarships. “T was surprised to receive the letter that said I got the CGA scholarship,” said Komalpreet Shahi, who is in her fourth year in the accounting program at Langara. “All of my struggles, high and lows for sure paid off.” Assistant registrar, Laura Vail, who works at the financial aid and awards office at Langara, organized the cere- mony. “It’s very exciting to be having this event today,” said Vail. “It seems like there is a good turn-out and great to see everybody gathered together to recognize the hard work [done by] stu- dents. I am glad everything came to- gether and I am happy that we got the design formation department to give us the décor.” Lack of advertising for scholarship opportunities is surprising to many students. “There should be more awareness for these awards to students,” said Shahi. “ I think it’s important for peo- ple to strive for these scholarships be- cause it will benefit you in the long run in your career, but it can also help to motivate students to achieve their goals and obtain a better education,” said Shahi. Andrew Lee was at the ceremony representing the recreation depart- ment. He was there to congratulate the recipients for the recreational scholarships. “There are a good number of them and I am very excited for them,” said Lee. Since 2006, there have been schol- arships of over $2-million distributed to recognize scholastic achievement and bursaries are given to students who experience financial difficulty. F:: some Langara students, receiv- Pros pooh pooh $488 course cost By GAVIN FISHER or those who love walking dogs, a new program at Langara offers a chance to turn that hobby into cash. Offered through continuing studies at Langara, the dog-walker program is a 31/2 day intensive course that teach- es about dog behavior, bylaws, dog first aid, and marketing a dog-walking busi- ness. The program is being taught by Jill Taggart, a practicing clinical animal behaviourist, costs $488 and takes place in June and September. There is no standard certification process for dog-walkers. Dog-walking professionals say that certification is not necessary. “Anybody can start a dog-walking business,” said Mark Tincombe of City Canine, a dog-walking company in Van- couver. Donna Hall, owner and operator of Hot Diggity Dogs Services, agreed. “No one needs certification to be- come a dog walker,” said Hall. “For people to be paying money for it is cra- zy to me.” Instead, Hall learned from experi- ence, which she has passed on to her employees through intensive training sessions. Cora Van Wyck, is the continuing studies program co-ordinator for holis- tic studies and human services at Lan- MHAIRI NICOLSON photo Moose stays warm and well-behaved thanks to owner Mhairi Nicolson. Langara offers a course for those looking to work with dogs. Dog-walking course available gara. She said the program was devel- oped so that people don’t have to learn from experience. “With experience [’'m sure people will eventually get to know some of that information,” said Wyck. “I think for people starting a new business...or even people that haven’t learned any- thing at all and would like to upgrade their skills, it’s really great.” Wyck said the program is something that potential dog-walkers can use to market themselves. “I Know that there are people that are really worried about the lack of ex- perience with dog walkers,” said Wyck. Gillian Dunn runs Dunn’s Doggies in Kitsilano. She considered taking the program to improve her dog-walking skills, but didn’t feel it was necessary because she has enough customers. 66 No one needs certi- fication to become a dog walk- er. For people to be pay- ing money for itis crazy to me. Donna Hall LSU by-election brings eight new members to college's student board R::: from the Nov. 12-18 Langara Students’ Union by-election were recently released. Eight candidates filled the positions. Here are the results: The anti-racism and cultural diversity adviser is Yiyi Wang. The three councillors are Sukhvinder (Sukh) Chand- harh, Jingyi Hao and Faisal Paktian. The two diversity and inclusion officers are Kavitha- jeet (Nisha) Ram and Oren Burnspark. The secretary to council officer is George (Edward) Hensley and the stu- dents affairs’ officer is Ziyun Huang. Huang received 259 votes, Wang took 255 and Hensley had 252. Chandharh received 190 votes, Hao had 36 and Paktian 55. Ram obtained 190 votes and Burnspark 81. - Marie-Andree Del Cid Langara students bag lunches for the DTES Langara social club pack over 200 bagged lunches for downtown homeless By ANDREA ANTHONY bagged lunches to the homeless on ithe Downtown Eastside tomorrow. Started in Los Angeles last Christ- mas, #HashtagLunchBag quickly spread to 12 international cities, in- cluding Vancouver. Tomorrow will be Langara’s first time hosting their own version of #HashtagLunchBag, organized by the Langara social club. They will be assembling 200 bagged lunches and handing them out on the Downtown Eastside. Both #HashtagLunchBag Vancouver Lee students will be delivering and the Langara version will be putting together bagged lunches with sand- wiches, a piece of fruit, a cookie or muf- fin and a bottled drink. “We want to use some of the pro- ceeds we gained from past events to give back,” said Langara social club president, Jade Solacito. “We want to do something for the greater good.” Sophia Mach, co-ordinator of #HashtagLunchBag Vancouver, said she is friends with one of the people who started the event in Los Angeles. Since starting in May, there have been four or five #HashtagLunchBag Vancouver events, said Mach. They try to host it the last Sunday of every month. The goal for this Sunday is to make between 1,000 and 1,500 lunches. “We're building a community of like- minded people that want to give back,” said Mach. “It really reaches a network that is hard to get to, which is young adults,” said Mach, adding that many people bring their children downtown to help hand out the lunches. This Sunday is the Haiyan edition of #HashtagLunchBag Vancouver, said Mach. Different organizations in Van- couver have sponsored almost all of the food, so most of the donation money will be going toward Haiyan relief. There will also be a clothing drive, so people are encouraged to bring cloth- ing to donate for all ages, said Mach. Volunteers for #HashtagLunchBag Vancouver are meeting at Electric Owl Social Club at 929 Main St. on Sunday at noon to assemble the lunch bags. Those planning to attend should regis- ter at ticketzone.com/hashtaglunch- bagdec and bring a minimum $10 dona- tion, said Mach.