AMPUS NEWS — sororssersn THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 3 Elissa Travers, instructor of the new message therapy program offered at Langara, guides her student, Kevin Yee. Yes to hands-on learning Langara now offers two-year massage therapy program to students By ALI CRANE u can learn to give a profession- al massage thanks to the first public post-secondary massage therapy program in B.C., to be of- fered at Langara. Currently, massage therapy programs are offered only at private institutions in B.C. The program starts this coming fall, and will contain courses such as human kinesiology, nutrition and classes teach- ing hands-on massage-based tech- niques. “It’s a two-year program and it pro- vides you with a job-ready skill,” said Linda Turner, the program manager. The massage therapy industry is growing increasingly popular, and has recently been registered as a recog- nized healthcare profession. “It’s similar to medicine, nursing or dentistry,” said Turner. “You’re a regis- tered health care professional.” After completing the intensive two- year course, students will write the reg- istration exam through the college. “Tt’s not an easy program,” said Kevin Yee, a student currently taking a trial run of the program, offered in January. “But if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, the work pays off and it ends up giving you a very rewarding career.” Class sizes are a maximum of 20 peo- ple, allowing students the opportunity to work closely with the teacher, in a small-class environment. “T like that you are dealing with a lot of one-on-one interaction,” said Yee. “It provides flexibility, because you’re not necessarily working eight hours, you’re there whenever you have a client.” As arequirement students must com- plete Intro to Massage Therapy, which is a weekend-long course where you learn the basics. This course is offered in March, and costs $305. Other require- ments include submission of the appli- cation, completion of Grade 12, a mini- mum of 70 per cent in English 12 and an interview. Students interested in the program are recommended to start applying this spring for September enrollment. ALI CRANE photo 66 It’s a two- year pro- gram and it provides you witha job-ready skill LINDA TURNER More fees before graduation Langara registrar’s office charges an additional $10 fee for graduating stu- dents just for applying By CHRIS SLATER pinions vary when it comes to 0: Langara College students think about the $10 application fee they must pay to graduate. The fee is a non-refundable payment that must accompany a student’s grad- uation application form in order for it to be processed by the registrar’s of- fice. “Tt’s to cover the processing of the application,” — ex- plained a__ staff member from the Langara regis- trar’s office who did not wish to be identified. “A basic applica- tion with no issues will take at least 20 minutes for us to process,” said the em- ployee. “A more complex application can take at least over an hour.” The source said the fee policy has not changed for at least five years and that many of the office’s processes and forms do require fees. Langara student Thanos Kritharis does not understand why the fee is not included in tuition. “Tt’s not really the fee,” said Kritha- ris. “It just seems kind of silly that you have to pay a separate fee. It’s a bit odd.” Student Sam Laird, who admitted he was previously unaware of the $10 fee, said he also finds it hard to understand. “Tt doesn’t really make sense to me,” said Laird. “I don’t really know why they need to do that. Why do you pay for school and then have to pay on top of that? Where does your money go?” However Laird admitted that $10 is quite a small amount to pay in compar- ison to the amount he’s paid in tuition already. Student Virginia Millsap said she un- derstands it probably takes a lot of work to go through so many forms and in the end she doesn’t really care about having to pay such a small amount. Student Katherine MacLennan said she also believes the fee is reasonable. “Someone has to do it. They have to get paid for their work.” THANOS KRITHARIS Langara student Black Panther goes Langara =", Langara’s International Socialists event reminds students about the works of the Black Panther Party By GRAHAM McFIE former Langara student Parry Singh Mudhar recently spoke at the Langa- ra International Socialists club event about the Black Panther Party’s lesser- known work. The Black Panther Party was a black revolutionary socialist organization in the United States in the 1960s to 1980s. They primarily focused on the rise of “black nationalism” and U.S. politics. iimer ta Socialists member and They were in the news at the time for urging protests that sometimes turned violent. The Black Panther Party sought healthcare and gender equality while performing deeds like feeding children breakfast and providing escort services to ensure citizens’ safety. Self-reliance and self-defence were two parts of one whole, and this was how they intended on helping the com- munity, said Mudhar. The Black Panthers’ means of self- defence is unfortunately what “most people only see about them.” This was the Black Panthers’ way of unifying people, he continued. “T think it’s really important to dis- cuss these things,” said Bradley Hughes, faculty member of the physics and as- tronomy department at Langara. Mudhar would like to see a similar grassroots political group come togeth- er today with the same intentions and purpose. “In my high school, there’s a program and they have special-needs students,” said Mudhar. “But they found out that the students aren’t eating before com- ing to school. “When the teacher fed them during the day, there was such a rise in the stu- dents’ performance. “So if we can get a grassroots organi- zation to help students and children - just like the Black Panthers did — that would be amazing for the next genera- tion.” He admits there are other organiza- tions that are doing this. However, Mud- har would rather see one large organi- zation. ui Oll GRAHAM McFIE photo Parry Singh Mudhar talks about the Black Panther Party, for Langara’s International Socialists club.