ampus hews EDITOR BRYAN MC GOVERN THE VOICE, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25, 2015 3 Langara instructor Alwyn O’Brien teaches student Leslie Qynne to make a glaze. Potter fired up by $10,000 win Langara instructor will embark on globe-trotting ceramic journey By JAKE COSTELLO Langara College fine arts in- structor is planning two inter- national research projects after ecently winning a prominent national arts award. Alwyn O’Brien is the winner of the 2015 Winifred Shantz Award for Ce- ramics presented from The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, an award that comes with a $10,000 purse for new re- search. “Tt’s always very humbling to be the recipient of something like that,” O’Brien said outside of her first-year pottery class. O’Brien described the research this award contributes to as exploring the relationship of the vessel and move- ment. “I’m studying dance as form—so that becomes the sculptural form, and rhythm and sound becomes the sur- face,” she said. “The vessel is the foun- dational metaphor for my practice.” On top of her research she says she’s got a whirlwind summer ahead of her. Beginning in June, O’Brien will be par- ticipating in an international wood fired ceramics symposium held in Ko- hila Parish, Estonia, which she de- scribes as the Burning Man of Estonian ceramic studies. Afterwards she’s taking part in a six- week residency program studying Ta- lavera pottery with the Arquetopia foundation for development in Puebla, Mexico. KATE RICHARDSON photo Todd Stuckless, coordinator of the engineering transfer program at Langara College. New engineering program built to help ease heavy Sarita Baker, fine arts instructor at Langara, says that the college is lucky to have O’Brien on staff. “It’s an hon- our, really, to have her here. And [for students] to have someone like her as a teacher is a very special thing,” she said. “She makes the class very fun, and she really pays attention to your work,” said Calvin Liang, first year fine arts student. “She makes sure that every project goes well.” O’Brien says she’s passionate about teaching fine arts, and is inspired by her students. “It’s a risky thing to do, and it’s really the best thing to do, be- cause it shows people kind of a real confidence.” JAKE COSTELLO photo 66 [For stu- dents] to have some- one like herasa teacher is a very spe- cial thing SARITA BAKER FINE ARTS INSTRUCTOR AT LANGARA Students help the hungry Langara College and VOLT bring food support to people in need with programs By MURRAY B. HUNT ith Christmas fast approaching Wi: Langara College initiatives are attempting to help people put food on the table. VOLT, a volunteer organization at Langara College works with several or- ganizations to further the interests of the students. The Community Change Program (C Change Program) recently began working with the Greater Van- couver Food Bank society to help dis- tribute food to those in need. “We will be taking 27 students to the Vancouver Food Bank Warehouse on Nov. 27 to help with all the [food] cans that the food bank has collected throughout the community,” said Maggie Stewart, volunteer program MAGGIE STEWART coordinator of VOLT volunteer a program VOLT. “We check — goordinator the cans for expiry dates, sort them and get them on the pallets for deliv- ery.” VOLT isn’t collecting for a food ban- kavailable to students at Langara, Stewart said. “Currently VOLT is not doing any- thing for the students at Langara. We will not be collecting food.” A Langara student supported the idea of collecting food. “If Langara... was collecting food for a food bank, I definitely would contribute,” Ajdin Ne- zic, business student said. The Langara Financial Aid Program runs a Christmas program to support student families in need. “Families [with one or more chil- dren] with financial need are identified through bursary applications and are asked if they would like to receive a holiday hamper,” Melia Fernandez, ad- ministrative coordinator for the dean of student services said. “Families fill out a questionnaire indicating what kind of items they would be interested receiving. This year we have 24 fami- lies being supported by 24 depart- Engineering diploma builds new home at Langara “This is an opportunity to declare an engineering science major,” he said. encourage students to stay here for their English instruction as part of the load for transfering students By KATE RICHARDSON gineering with a new two-year di- ploma in engineering that will sup- plement its one-year program starting in January 2016. The new program was designed by Todd Stuckless, coordinator of the enginneering transfer program at Lan- gara. The one-year certificate that is cur- rently offered is a direct transfer to UBC. However, it’s format can be a challenge to some students. “The tight timetable doesn’t work for everybody. And it’s an overload of 20 credits each semester,” Stuckless said. ees College is expanding its en- The new diploma is similar to Cap- ilano College’s two-year engineering diploma. According to Stuckless, the current system makes it difficult for interna- tional students to do the one-year cer- tificate because they may not meet the prerequisites in English requirements or science and math. “Really, the vast majority of interna- tional students are excluded from the certificate program,” he said. The diploma will offer 20 preparato- ry credits in addition to the 40 certifi- cate credits. It will also offer two new science specific communications courses. For some students, the diploma will help them upgrade their math and sci- ence skills and some will help them with their English. Stuckless hopes this will encourage science students to stay at Langara for English. “I want to entire program package.” The college re- ceives hundreds of applications, but only has one sec- tion of 30 students in the cohort. “It will give them the best chance of get- ting into the certifi- cate [program] be- cause we know it’s the best [prepara- tion].” The new diplo- ma is under the de- partment of divi- sion of mathematics and sciences. 66 Really, the vast ma- jority of in- ternational students are exclud- ed from the certificate program TODD STUCKLESS LANGARA ENGINEERING COORDINATOR