VOLT leader, award winner

Maggie Stewart recognized for her dedication to volunteers

By NICK VALKA

olunteers are leaders who

impact their community

and Maggie Stewart has

been recognized for her
outstanding efforts as the leader of
Langara’s volunteers.

Stewart, the VOLT student vol-
unteer program coordinator, won
the 2017 Impact Award that recog-
nizes individuals who have demon-
strated exceptional leadership and
knowledge in the field of adminis-
tration of volunteer resources in her
fourth year in the position.

“Tt motivated me because it rec-
ognized what we're doing here is
very special,” said Stewart, who
graduated from Langara in 2015.
“Hard work pays off, you put in so
much effort into designing a pro-
gram that is student-centric and it’s
working.”

The VOLT program works to
empower students by connecting
them to various volunteer oppor-
tunities within the community and
on campus.

Students learn new skills by en-
gaging in their community. Stewart
has brought a new approach to the
program, including volunteer rec-
ognition and a speed connecting
program where volunteer groups
are able to pro-
vide volunteering
pitches to stu-

“Sheisliterallythe | $i os

Being able to provide multiple
perspectives has endeared Stewart
with the students working in the
VOLT program.

“She is literally the definition of

what a lead-
said

dents in a more | definitionofwhata | deck third-
intimate and en- on year —_ busi-
gaging way. leader 1S. ness ween
_ Stewart came | _py, aNcrappock, BUSINESS STUDENT AND and VOL
into the role after VOLT MEMBER mene

es an

being a partici-
pant in the program while study-
ing at Langara. During her time
as a student she found a mentor
in Reba Noel, student engagement
programs coordinator who would
eventually become the supervisor
that nominated her for this award.
“She grew up in the program, she
got to see it from the inside out,”
Noel said. “I felt it was important
for her, you want to encourage and
lift up people when they’re young

in their profession.”

awesome person, very welcoming
and it’s well deserved.”

“There should be a hall of fame
room at Langara with her face plas-
tered on every corner,” said Khaled
Sukkarie, an international business
student and Volt member.

“This award is proof that she’s a
pillar to her community and she
deserves more than just this ac-

knowledgement," said Khaled.

2017 Impact Award winner, Maggie Stewart holds her award that she lovingly
calls ‘diamond shaped thing’ outside of her office at The Hub Nick vALKA PHOTO

Love be

Four years, two
weeks and end-
less hours for one
inspiring story

By ALLISON HAYES

he production team of My
Heart in Kenya is finally
reaping the rewards of the
voyage of this part-time endeavour.

‘The self-funded, voluntary project
that had the team members work-
ing outside of their fulltime jobs
in the T.V. industry completed the
documentary by working overtime,
which publicly premiered at Lan-
gara College Nov. 17.

‘The documentary captures the
struggle Zeynab Muhammed expe-
rienced after fleeing to Kenya to es-
cape civil war in her native Ethiopia
— then fighting to be reunited with
the newborn baby she was forced to
leave behind. After an intense two-
week shoot period in Africa four
years ago, the crew slogged through
four years of post-production work
— all part-time, said Trev Ren-

ond borders and ovetime

ney, the writer and one of the film’s
producers.He said the driving force
was knowing they had a great story
that was going to grip viewers.

“Filming only took a couple of
weeks but it took about four years
to cut, which is crazy,” Renney said.

“When you are making a docu-
mentary you do have to have a crazy
work ethic if you ever want to see it
get finished because you know you
arent getting paid for it.

“Nobody makes money off a doc-
umentary.”

Before fleeing, Muhammed had
completed the Canadian immigra-
tion paperwork for herself and her
five children but became pregnant
with her sixth child, Nasteha, and
could not bring her to Canada.

Ruth Beardsley, one of the princi-
pals in the documentary and the so-
cial worker who travelled to Kenya
to go get Muhammed’s daughter
and bring her to Canada, said it was
a lot more stressful than anticipated.

"Before we went to Kenya, it took
three and a half years to get the
paperwork,” Beardsley said. “[The
film] was something off the side of
their desk.

‘There was no budget for it. I
mean all of this was done through

Ruth Beardsley being filmed by son and director, Hunter Wood, behind the
scenes filming his mother in the early days of shooting. sugmiTTeD PHOTO

volunteer efforts."

In contrast to the slow grind of
post-production, Director Hunter
Wood said the African shoot was
fast-paced and strenuous.“It was an

exhausting cycle.

‘The craziest day was when we
flew back, we basically filmed 24
hours straight,” Wood said.

Geographic
Information
takes over

The database that
Knows all and plans all

By DANICA WALKER

eographic Information
Systems (GIS) are a bur-
geoning industry that is

growing among young students,
and chances are people use it every
day without knowing it.

GIS isa method used by research-
ers to collect years of data about ev-
ery aspect of modern life and turn
it into a visual rendering in an open
database to ease everything from
real estate development, city plan-
ning, the maps in smartphones and
the weather maps. Langara Col-
lege held its first GIS day on Nov.
15, in The Science and Technology
Building. Currently GIS courses
are offered in the departments of
Geography and Geology, Applied
Planning and Continuing Studies.

Andrew Egan,
instructor of Ge-
ography and Ge-
ology at Langara,
wants to offer
more GIS cours-
es across disci-
plines _ because
the new technol-
ogy is applicable
to many fields in
the future.

“People think it’s only applicable
to geography or environmental sci-
ence,” Egan said. “It’s all kinds of
different fields, whether it be busi-
ness and commerce or whether it’s
something as simple as real estate,
it’s been revolutionized by the
world of GIS.”

Through various applications,
GIS technicians can create a daily
database that maps anything. Con-
nor Forsdick is a recent graduate
of the University of Saskatchewan
now works for the City of Surrey.
He uses GIS to create databases of
the water distribution system de-
picting residential, commercial and
service connections so crews can
work with precision when digging.

“GIS is a growing industry and
the more applications evolve the
more manpower is needed to com-
pile these databases,” Forsdick said.

Real estate developers will consult
with GIS technicians to create 3D
models of potential developments.
With the use of existing mapping
systems, they receive quotes to
project what their buildings will
look like before development.

Virginia Lawrence, a First Na-
tions and geography student told
The Voice why it’s important to the
future.

“It’s a very employable field, it’s
very relevant to pretty much every-
thing that you're doing nowadays,"
Lawrence said.

Andrew Egan
GEOGRAPHY AND
GEOLOGY INSTRUCTOR

Cartographic design, data analy-
sis, computer modeling, program-
ming, database administration,
project management and system
administration.

GIS answers spatial queries that
can only be done by using latitude
and longitude data linking differ-
ent information sets.

SOURCE: ESRI.COM