NN LEARNING TO ACT

THE PARTPAGE 14

NIAGARA NEWS

A WALK THROUGH

THE WALKER BUILDING

PAGE 3

MARCH 18, 2016 • VOL. 46 ISSUE # 12

niagara-news.com

By UTSAV GUPTAStaff Writer

Niagara College’s longest-serving ambassador will retire at the end of March.

Jon Ogryzlo, dean of international partnerships, is ready to hang up his boots after a successful 36-year career at the college.

“It’s that stage of my life,” says Ogryzlo.

“Because I’ve been here for 36 years, I’ve decided to start doing other things and leading a more balanced life now that I can retire. I could’ve retired eight years ago according to the col-lege’s formula but it took me eight years to decide it.”

Before joining the college in 1980, Ogryzlo worked as an immigration officer

for four years with Canada Employment and Immigra-tion. While working at the border, he worked with the college on contract training and discovered there was a job available for him as a training consultant.

On being asked about his switch from the govern-ment job to the private one, he says he was young and wanted to try different op-portunities at the time.

He has trail-blazed on several development and transformation projects and has worked in various posi-

tions unique to him.Following the two-year

training consultant post, he became the development officer for four years before becoming the manager of Planning, Research and Development in 1986.

From 1991 to 2005, he created, managed and directed the Centre for Environmental Training, which later became the Environment, Horticulture and Agribusiness School. In 1995, he became its dean. During this span of time, he created a new environ-

mental centre, introduced 10 new programs consist-ing of some unique pro-grams such as the Teaching Winery and Viticulture programs and introduced a 25-year development plan for the Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) campus with college President Dan Patterson.

“When Dan started, he challenged me to start up some environmental programs, as I gave him some research reports for the development of college,” says Ogryzlo.

The NOTL campus was once a cornfield and “every-thing was put in place by students and staff since the start in 1998.”

“This whole vision of this campus when we moved here was part of a 25-year master plan to make a showcase campus for Canada. So what you see out here and why this campus looks so nice and dramatic is because of that 25-year master plan.”

In addition to establish-ing the NOTL campus, he worked on building inter-national partnerships in Thailand, India, Jordan and Sri Lanka and welcomed the first intake of interna-tional students in the late 1980s.

Continued on page 8

A TOAST TO 36 YEARS

By LAURA BARTONStaff Writer

A study finds that adult post-secondary students who have taken adult upgrading programs are finding success in their programs.

Prepared for Success is a study in its 17th year con-ducted by the College Sector Committee for Academic Upgrading (CSC), which looks at the post-secondary success of adult students who took adult upgrading courses to achieve a Grade 12 equivalent.

“For the over 3,000 academic upgrading students who went on to post-secondary studies in 2014-2015, the statistics are impressive,” says Robin Mackenzie, director of com-munications for CSC, in a press release.

Published November 2015, the 2014-2015 study had 24 colleges provide data, which found an 82 per cent success rate for first semester.

That data covers a num-ber of areas, such as first term success, grade point average (GPA), second se-mester enrolment, and pro-gram choice and changes.

Continued on page 2

Dean of International Partnerships Jon Ogryzlo is stepping down after nearly four decades

of service to the college

Jon Ogryzlo, dean of international partnerships, is shown admiring his hard work over the years in the form of a glass of NC beer at the Teaching Brewery building in Niagara-on-the-Lake on March 15. PHOTO BY UTSAV GUPTA

Never too late for finding post-secondary success

HEALTHY EATING IS THE NEW MARCH

MADNESSPAGE 7

Page 2 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

NEWS

By NIKITA GRISEStaff Writer

It took two years for Alex MacGregor and Frank Bieri to have their say.

It all started when Ox-ford University Press de-cided to revamp the inter-mediate language learning textbook Have Your Say 2, wanting to add a beginner and an advanced edition to the series.

“Irene McKay, who did Have Your Say 2, agreed to do the revised version and Have Your Say 1,” says MacGregor, the college’s acting associate dean for English Language Studies. “But they needed someone to do Have Your Say 3.”

Oxford University Press sent an announcement out to all its reviewers asking if they or anyone they knew were interested in produc-ing Have Your Say 3, and requested them to send in a sample chapter for the new book.

MacGregor submitted a sample chapter and was chosen to work on the advanced book.

“From that point I thought, ‘OK, I know how long it took me to prepare the chapter I sent in, I’m not going to be able to do this by myself,’” MacGregor explains. “I’d worked with Frank on many occasions. We’d worked well together so I invited Frank to join the team.”

Because MacGregor’s sample chapter was not used in the book, the part-ners contributed 50/50 to Have Your Say 3’s content.

Bieri, an English Lan-guage Studies faculty member, says, “We started out sitting together and

working on the chapter and writing it at the same time, really collaborating together.”

“Once we felt that we had a good template to work with then we split up,” Bieri continues.

When choosing content for the textbook’s chapters MacGregor and Bieri chose topics consistent with Niagara College’s theme of Be World Ready.

In order to do this they took a different path from most language learning textbooks, whose listenings are usually made for the sole purpose of language

learners.The listenings in Have

Your Say 3 are made with native English speaking listeners in mind.

“A lot of textbooks when they say they prepare stu-dents for post-secondary study will have an exam-ple lecture,” Bieri explains. “But if a native speaker were to listen to that they would say ‘a real class-room doesn’t ever sound like that.’”

“This textbook draws that out,” says Bieri. “This is real language, not scripted.”

The listenings in each chapter are followed by

questions. Then move to speaking activities. All of which revolve around spe-cific topics from the news and popular culture.

Topics include water pol-lution, the way the English language is used, transi-

tioning to professional life, and more.

“We have one unit deal-ing with waste, we have one unit with a speech by Justin Trudeau,” Mac-Gregor explains. “We’re kind of lucky that he be-

came prime minister.”“I don’t know if it’s to

say the timing is good or it’s edgy, but we have activities that lead to dis-cussions that are relevant to today’s world,” Mac-Gregor says.

Alex MacGregor, left and Frank Bieri are the co-writiers for the intermediate language learning textbook, Have Your Say.PHOTO BY NIKITA GRISE

Continued from page 1 “In terms of retention and GPA, students from adult upgrading programs who move on to post-secondary programming continue to demonstrate they are well prepared both academically and personally to succeed,” Mackenzie says.

Niagara College has provided data for the survey every year since 2008 according to the report. Information about its own academic upgrading program can be found on the college’s website and by asking for it.

In a document provided by the college about the

Academic and Career En-trance certificate program, it indicates courses geared toward academic upgrading include English, math, sci-ences and computers.

It has a work-at-your-own pace workflow along with classroom support. All three of Niagara College’s campuses offer academic upgrading courses.

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities covers the costs. Childcare and transit arrangements can also be made to help the prospective student achieve success.

The Prepared for Success study did notice a decrease

in post-secondary enrol-ment for the 2014-2015 school year, but attributes that to the decreasing unemployment rate in the province.

Mackenzie makes no mention of the decreased numbers, however, and sees instead the accom-plishments made by the students.

“This year's Prepared for Success report has proven again that adult learners who complete academic upgrading programs in Ontario's 24 public col-leges are well-prepared to succeed in postsecondary programs.”

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You can teach old dogs new tricks

A new chapter for Have Your Say

Incorrect information appeared about two events, Movie Night and Anime Night, which are held at Niagara College’s Welland campus in a story published

on Page 7 of the Feb. 19 edition.

Anime Night, held on Tuesdays, and Movie Night, held on Thursdays, are events run by NSAC’s

Nerds and Geeks Club. The events do not use Netflix to present films as incorrectly reported.

We apologize and regret the error.

CORRECTION

NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 3

NEWS

By RAZA MALIKStaff Writer

The Niagara Region has always had an economy centred on tourism, wine and hospitality.

But big money investors coming into the region isn’t a commonplace

occurence, thanks mostly to our economic

metropolis to the north. The prov-ince of Ontario is

looking to tip the scales.

Ontario is set to commit $20 mil-

lion to college applied re-search projects over the next three years.

This invest-ment will help local businesses

that are smaller and

find their com-petitive edge hampered due to limited resources. The

government will provide assis-tance to compa-nies to speed up their economic growth, allowing them to expand into other mar-kets.

All of this extra funding gives Niagara College

the resources to help build jobs

throughout the Niagara region.

Topping that investment list is the Walker Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre at the Welland campus. It is located next to the Rankin Technology Centre. The 15,000-square-foot building will be completed by this spring.

Marc Nantel, the college’s as-sociate vice-president of research and innovation, says, “This will be a place where companies want to grow and want to develop new products and have more of an impact on the market. If they’re into manufacturing or manufacturing a new product testing a new product or a new design, they would come to us and we would help them develop this new product and test that product until they’re happy enough where they’ll start producing it or going somewhere where someone else produces it for them.

“This means they’ll have more

products or newer products on the market. They’ll have to hire more people, meaning more jobs in the region. It’s all about the economic development of the region as well as getting students involved in proj-ects, so when they graduate they’ll be a better employee.”

Nantel is hopeful these future projects will show students they are setting the stage in terms for design and innovation. The building will have 3D digital scanning technology and will also specialize in engineer-ing design which, in turn, is more appealing students.

“From a point a view of recruit-ment, the fact that we applied re-search and the fact that we have new facilities to do more of it, is going to be helpful bringing new students in and bringing students into the college and into our programs,” says Nantel, adding, “These new develop-

ments will also introduce stdents to new products.”

Colleges outside of Ontario are now beginning to follow this lead, with schools in certain areas that rely on trade like technology.

“Manufacturing is our most im-portant activity in Canada because it helps us export and helps us create jobs that are high value and high paying, so,many regions, with col-leges, do advanced manufacturing technology studies,” says Nantel.

Along with funding, Niagara Col-lege is collaborating with Mohawk College in Hamilton, Sheridan College in Oakville and McMaster University in Hamilton.

“We’re on a new network called the Southern Ontario Network for Advanced Manufacturing and In-novation.They have facilities also, but for different things. Others may be experts in automation or specialize in 3D printing for metal. By getting together and showcas-ing our strengths, we can help the whole industry access the services. It’s a team work type thing,” Nantel explains.

The construction of the building began in March of last year, and was funded by the Ontario govern-ment with $4.2 million and Walker Industries Holdings Limited for $1.2 million.

“Both of these are being brought to bear to the building, making sure it’s constructed, being the best we can have and that it has equipment inside and all the research we need for the students to come,” Nantel duely notes.

This project is part of Niagara Col-lege’s Capital Vision project, which is a $1.5 million-funded project to expand and build new facilities at Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake campuses to help grow, enhance and expand the college’s capabilities.

Investing in applied learning

Top: Construction of the A.M.I Centre is entering its final stages. PHOTOS BY RAZA MALIK

Visitors and the media received a first hand look at the centre’s progress. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Associate Vice-president of Research and Innovation, Marc Nantel speaking at the centre.

Walker Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre is part of $20-million provincial investment looking to jumpstart local economic development

Page 4 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

2009 WINNER2009 WINNERC A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2011

BNC2009

EDITORIALEditor: Emma MasonAssociate Editor: Cerena Gatila Assistant Editor: Chris GericsPhoto Editor: Nikita Grise

Publisher: Misheck MwabaProgram Co-ordinator: Charles KopunProduction Manager: Paul DaybollAssociate Editor: Phyllis BarnattOnline Editor: Susan Pedler Photography Consultant: Dave Hanuschuk

Living the life I want to liveEvery week I stand in

the corner of a room while the other women crowd around each other discuss-ing clothing, hair and nails and joking about how much they’re going to drink that night. Personally, I can’t be bothered with listening to any of it.

They always tell me not to separate myself and to come and talk with them but, honestly, I don’t know what I could add to their conversation. My life re-volves around school, work and family, not nails, bars and clothes.

I have always known I was different than most of the other women I know. I have always preferred talking to guys over other girls and I have never really felt like I fit in with other women. I liked hockey and playing sports, wearing jeans and T-shirts and didn’t care about makeup or fashion.

Things have changed a bit since I have grown up. I now prefer to dress up and I do wear a bit of makeup but it’s more because I want to look good for me, not for others, unlike a lot of the girls I grew up with and now work with.

It really starts to make you question whether or not you are as pretty as all those other women, even though you’ve been told countless times that you are. It seems the people

around you focus more on them because they are prettier than you, or at least that’s what you tell yourself when people walk right up to them and ignore you.

I have been told that I have a shopping habit but I have always preferred

quantity over quality. I would prefer to buy three shirts for $10 at Ardene over one $30 shirt from For-ever 21. I can put together a full outfit purchased at Gi-ant Tiger for $20 that would rival theirs, but it still seems we are measuring our self-

worth based on the price tag on our clothes.

It also makes you wonder how they have all this time and money to devote to their appearance. They are students just like me and they get paid the same as me but I don’t have $60 to

get my nails done every two weeks, not that I have the desire to, but still.

When I compare the way my life turned out to the way my friends’ lives have turned out, I often wonder who came out ahead.

They have all had numer-

ous boyfriends, they bounce from job to job and place to place, they drink and party and because of it, some of them are dropping out of school.

If we compare that to my life, I’m an honour student who loves tea and knit-ting, with a job I love and a boyfriend who is happy just to sit at home with me and watch a movie.

We don’t have to go out and spend money, mostly because we don’t have any, to impress a bunch of people we don’t even really know that well.

So who has lived a more fulfilling life? Probably them. Who is going to go further in life? Probably me. But in my mind it’s not so cut and dried.

You can be the prettiest girl in the room with all the friends and expensive clothes, but if you have nothing else to offer other than a vibrant personal life what do you really have?

I like to have fun but to me, getting drunk and passing out isn’t fun. I’m a student with bills to pay so I would rather not spend all my money on alcohol.

To keep going in this life, I have to keep telling my-self that beauty fades and clothes go out of style, but personality and life skills do not.

EMMA MASON

PHOTO BY NIKITA GRISE

Feminism is misinter-preted. Gender inequity continues to be an issue.

Although I think people in general are becoming less judgmental, more progres-sive and more outspoken on most issues about discrimi-nation, there is still a long way to go.

In the entertainment industry, especially music, most female musicians are slammed in the media for being too “sexy” for show-ing a bit of cleavage while men are praised for posing nude on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

Male musicians go topless or sing about sex explic-itly but when women do the same thing, they get slammed for it and are label and deemed “sluts.”

A recent example of this

is Zayn Malik’s debut single Pillowtalk, praised by the general public and get-ting frequent radio airplay. Girl band Fifth Harmony released its song for their second album, Work from Home and released the mu-sic video on the same day. They were slammed for the way they were dancing and the lyrical content of the song, which to me doesn’t make sense.

Why do male musicians always get a free pass for singing something explicitly while women do the same thing but are never given the praise they deserve?

This isn’t the 1940s or 1950s, when women were expected to be submis-sive, were viewed as men’s property and were never to show much skin. It’s 2016

when women should be paid the same as men and be treated equally.

Many women in the music industry have spoken about sexism.

Nicki Minaj told Time magazine women tend to be judged more harshly. Ac-cording to an article on the news site Mic, women are being exploited by music executives and are encour-aged to show more skin and to change their entire im-age to remain marketable to the fans.

A current case in the music industry is the singer Kesha, who is suing a pro-ducer who she has worked with, Dr. Luke, claiming that he had been sexually assaulting her.

On Feb. 19, an injunc-tion was denied. Many big

names in the music indus-try, such as Adele and Lady Gaga have shown their support for Kesha.

Zayn Malik has been used as an example as he was able to break his contract with the boyband One Direction without any legal consequences and did it quickly and quietly. Malik has said in recent interviews that stress and creative differences were the biggest reasons for him to leave the band.

However, the fact that Kesha has to go to court to get out of her contract, while Malik was able to leave quietly shows sexism in the music industry has a long way to go.

Many people I know have said that “nobody wants to hear girls sing” or that

“all girls sound the same” which makes me frustrated, because there are many female musicians who are very influential. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Adele, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, just to name a few, are also on Forbes’ list as being some of the highest paid female musi-cians for 2015.

Girl bands such as Fifth Harmony and Little Mix are trying to make their break in an industry that remains male-dominated, while, along with the big names in music, hope to inspire young women in what they stand up for and also to feel good about themselves.

I hope that sexism, eventually, will end in my lifetime.

CERENA GATILA

Women of the music industry face sexism

Zayn Malik left One Direction without incident, avoiding the consequences that singers like Kesha are now dealing with. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Some women like makeup and partying, others like a quiet night in

NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 5

OPINION

CHRIS

GERICS

Columnist

A promotional image for “The Sixties Scoop” a documentary on the displacement of Aboriginal children in the 1960s-1980s. The event was held March 11 at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre at Brock University. SUBMITTED PHOTO

A dark past that no one can forget

On Nov. 11, 2014, my fam-ily was given a great gift. My mother welcomed my sister Alivia Bella into the world and she was received with the open arms of many.

Unfortunately, it would be over a month before we were finally able to bring Alivia home.

Alivia had some trouble breathing in her first weeks. When she was asleep, she stopped breathing and turned blue. She was at great risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) from suffocation.

My mother would watch helplessly as Alivia turned blue.

My mom’s pregnancy was considered a risky one. She’s had cancer since I was in elementary school, so she was admitted to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Ham-ilton to deliver Alivia.

It is, frankly, considered one of the best children’s hospitals in Canada.

All the while, parking and transport costs skyrock-eted and quickly got out of control.

We’re a Niagara family, so access to McMaster isn’t exactly readily available.

Further, my mom and Alivia were sent to Ronald McDonald House in Toronto for continue sleep testing on Alivia.

In the new year, Alivia was diagnosed with a spectacularly rare disease called Central Congenital Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS). It’s colloquially called Ondine’s Curse, after a French folklore water goddess.

It’s a disease so rare that in 2008, there were fewer than 1,000 known cases around the world.

Doctors in Toronto told my mother that Alivia was only the second or third case of it they’d ever seen in person.

From that day forward, Alivia has been burdened with oxygen tanks and nasal cannulas.

More costs not covered under our universal health-care considerations.

It’s a daunting task to have to pay out of pocket for crucial medical supplies,

but it’s a task that my family charged into with ferocity.

Born out of the tenacity my family and our family friends showed was Breathe Deeply Alivia, a wild night of games, food, raffles and more, all in the name of helping us pay for oxygen and fresh tape for Alivia’s breathing tubes.

On the surface, it’s a fan-tastic example of a group of people coming together for the greater good. I fully ad-mit my bias here, but what we did was incredible.

But it shouldn’t have been necessary.

The single-payer, state-funded health system the Honourable Tommy Douglas envisioned as the continent’s first socialist democratic government leader was a comprehen-sive one.

It seems an abject failure that my mom should have to pay out of pocket to receive the oxygen tanks that keep my sister alive.

And these costs don’t even include the exorbitant parking fees at McMaster that threatened to put us behind on their bills for ev-ery day Alivia was still kept in the neonatal intensive care unit.

My mom, Paula, is with-out a doubt the toughest woman I know.

She always told me that God never throws more at a person than they can handle.

There have been many times when I’ve wondered how the hell that could be true. My mom proves it right every time.

As such, I was never once worried about the emo-tional toll of Alivia’s disease, because I knew my mom

would and could persist. After all, Alivia was the greatest gift of all.

But the financial strain? Well, in my eyes that’s inexcusable. Hospitals say they charge for parking to help cover costs. To those of us on the outside, it’s just a means to exploit people who are ill.

It’s 2016, and we’re expected to bankrupt our-selves over a parking spot in some dimly-lit garage buried underneath the hospital.

And what’s more, we do the same to bridge the gaps between our healthcare system and cost. It’s unfor-tunate, and the only easy solution is to throw more money into the pot.

But this country doesn’t really have the money right now.

Every day it seems the government is announcing that its operating deficit is going to be a teensy bit bigger than it previously attested to.

AUSTIN

GOODER

Columnist

Ontario’s health care fails to offer adequate funds to its residents

Lack of complete government coverage of healthcare costs has made it tough to afford the supplies Alivia Tremblett needs to survive. PHOTO BY AUSTIN GOODER

Taking a step back into a dark period of Canadian history, healing is a pro-cess that can take entire lifetimes. For the “Sixties scoop” era, it was a time when Aboriginal children would be removed from their homes, stripped of their language, their iden-tity and their hope.

These victims were transported to European-Canadian homes to assimi-late into Western ideology and culture. For one night they gathered to share their survival stories while fight-ing to regain their natural identity.

The event was held on March 11 at the Sean O’Sullivan theatre on the Brock University campus and was hosted by Darcy Belanger, a victim of these blatant abductions, as a way to raise awareness in students, faculty, and the community. Touching briefly on his own past he passionately declared that while crime was essentially

easier, he needed to set a good example for his chil-dren. Following a prayer by Marie Jones, giving thanks for everything from Grand-mother Moon, to the natural medicines and food, the first speaker took the stage.

Colleen Cardinal, a victim of the Sixties scoop whose siblings were all adopted into the same family spoke about how losing her iden-tity was one of the worst things to happen to her. She explained her birth certifi-cate shows her father was from England; a clear mis-nomer that has caused a lot of confusion and frustration towards her family.

Briefly touching on how treaties are often poorly enforced, she focused her attention on the Indigenous Adoptee Gathering in 2014, when adoptees from across Canada shared their stories. Cardinal organized the event, and received praise from the Indigenous com-munity. She assured the audience that although this is a problem that occurred many years ago, the healing will never stop.

The next two speakers, Tanja Steinbach and Tonia Taylor both touched on their stories albeit with two contrasting elements.

Steinbach told the audience that her experience of being assimilated into a Western family was not all abuse and misguided ideologies. She shared about how her jour-ney to find her heritage led her to numerous jobs within the field of social work; a burgeoning issue within Na-tive society today.

She jokingly exclaimed, “My mother wanted me to be adopted by a French fam-ily, that turned out well,” as she mimicked her surname with a thick German accent.

Taylor, on the other hand, did not have as fruitful an experience as a foster child. She spoke about how her family had relocated to New Zealand while she was quite young; and that not know-ing her own identity was a crisis for her.

“We used to play dress-up as Indians, I thought that’s what we were.” An identity crisis led to domestic abuse, so she returned to Canada. This was a painful choice, as she had to leave behind her children but soon found a positive beacon of light.

It was through a simple Facebook message to her cousin, she found her heri-tage. Soon afterwards, she returned to Canada per-manently, graduated from

college and has just begun the healing process.

The last speaker of the evening, Elaine Berwald, gave an empowering and tear-jerking speech about how losing one’s identity is akin to losing a child. Explaining her upbringing in a non-Indigenous house-hold, she touched on issues such as sexual and physical abuse and how many young

children died during this time period that has often gone ignored.

Berwald urged the mainstream media to stop portraying Aboriginals as savages, when in fact they had physicians, medicine, economy, and stability. Stressing the importance of having allies, she envisioned “a perfect world, where we can all understand the pain.

Come talk to us, we want to be heard.”

Through waves of tears, she passionately exclaimed that the victims will no lon-ger be suppressed, eliciting uproarious applause from the audience.

The four speakers then embraced in a sign of solidarity, with the drum-ming and songs being sung becoming anthems of hope.

Page 6 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

OPINION

Sue Gerics, a person who was known for her strength, determination and formidable spirit, lost her battle with kidney failure. She is pictured here at her niece’s wedding, showing the smile that once lit up every room. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Everyone has lost some-thing in their lives, whether it be a favourite toy or possibly the championship game. We struggle through loss, and by no means is one loss any less valid than another. I have personally been struggling with this nightmare, because I have lost my mother.

It’s not a romantic death, nor is it one that out of the ordinary but it is truly a mind-altering event. My mother suffered for years with a variety of hideous and debilitating diseases such as Type-1 diabetes, kidney failure, blindness and arthritis. She was a single partial-leg amputee, who, as recently as July, had triple bypass heart surgery. These are the types of diseases spread through genetic disposition among family members; but for one person to accumulate all of this sickness is excruciat-ingly difficult to compre-hend.

Those who have known me for a while know that I highly stressed the impor-tance of being there for my family. I’ve lost a few significant people in my life over the last couple of years, but nothing can reach the magnitude of losing your mother, and your best friend.

When life always got me stuck in a rut, there was never a problem turning to

mom. Whether it be a hug, or a motivational kick in the rear she always had my back.

Dealing with the loss of a parent is an event in life that occurs normally once a person has hit middle-age,

possibly even in their early 30s or so; but to lose a par-ent at 23 is numbing.

Personally, I know a hand-

ful of people who have lost their parents and the atmo-sphere is all the same: we forget what feeling is. Your

typical modern family will include a father, a mother, possibly a sibling or two (or 10 if you’re Catholic) but if you remove that critical aspect of family structure, you lose not only a loving, nurturing and empathetic person, but a foundational pillar in the home.

Throughout this entire or-deal, I have had the absolute pleasure of interacting with friends and family members sharing their stories and favourite memories of my mom. Time and time again their stories paint this beau-tiful image of my mother.

No longer were they talking about the sick and broken person who has suffered for decades. Instead they were glowing with pride about what a wonderful and loving per-son she was.

It hurts an immense amount to sit and dwell on how my mother has passed away, but there is never a day when she is forgotten. Parents and parental figures are backbones to establish-ing a close-knit atmosphere within the household, and their job is to comfort, support, nurture and love. Without those critical at-tributes a home just simply isn’t a home, something I’ve begun to felt.

I have the undying sup-port of my aunts, uncles, father, grandfather, teachers and friends. I could name them all but I’m afraid you’d get tired after the first 100, but to everyone who has helped me, I thank you sincerely. Losing a parent is a battle that you’ll never win, but as long as you keep their memory alive; the war will eventually be won.

Always loved, never forgotten

If you feel alone with no one to talk to, remember there are over seven billion people in the world.

And according to the World Health Organization, about 450 million people worldwide struggle with mental illnesses.

It’s not uncommon for these people to want to reach out to others who are struggling and help them, or want some advice from those who have experienced the same thing.

Thanks to technological advances, this is possible, and there are ways to connect with people worldwide.

There was a period in the summer when I had gotten

into a fight with my best friend and we took some time apart. I had no other friends at the time and was struggling to keep my head up. I remembered coming across a website called 7 Cups of Tea. I signed up.

The site reads, “7 Cups of Tea is an on-demand emotional health and well-being service. Our bridging technology anonymously and securely connects real people to real listeners in one-on-one chat.

“Anyone who wants to talk about whatever is on their mind can quickly reach out to a trained, com-passionate listener through our network. We have hun-dreds of listeners who come from all walks of life and have diverse experiences.

“People connect with lis-teners on 7 Cups of Tea for all kinds of reasons, from big existential thoughts to small, day-to-day things that we all experience. Unlike talking to family or friends,

a 7 Cups of Tea listener doesn’t judge or try to solve problems and say what to do. Our listeners just listen. They understand. They give you the space you need to help you clear your head.”

To become a listener, cre-ate a listener account you will be asked to do a read-ing and a quiz at the end.

Then you can make yourself available to chat.

To be listened to, create a member account and click connect to a listener or browse through the listen-ers and pick your own.

I have both a listener and a member account.

I’ve found a few benefits from this. Although I have

real-life supports again, I still go on from time to time.

It’s anonymous – I don’t hide much but what I like about this is that there are no “stupid questions” or “stupid thoughts”. If I’m freaking out over something that seems ridiculous, I can talk to someone I don’t know, anonymously. Even if that person secretly judges me, they don’t know my name and we don’t have to talk again.

It’s 24/7. If I need to talk to someone, I usually talk to my best friend, but she isn’t available all the time. This is another option for me if I want to talk to someone in the early hours of the morn-ing or when she’s busy.

What I also like about it is that the listeners have usernames, so if I want to I can have an ongoing virtual relationship with them.

7 Cups of Tea is a website and iPhone and Android app.

I recently tried out

another app called Kindly available for iPhone.

This one differs from 7 Cups because it allows you to post a situation or questions and then listen-ers will message you with advice. You can then take the conversation further if you wish.

Listeners know the situation ahead of time and choose you to help. I like that.

It also differs by offering the option to pay to talk to a verified professional for $10 a day or $30 a week.

Like 7 Cups, it is free, anonymous, confidential and available 24/7.

Kindly website reads, “Rediscover the joys of meeting new people. Learn from experts in their fields. Uncover new ideas and different perspectives. Get inspired. Vent. Let it out. Talk through your feelings with complete strangers. And then pay-it-forward by helping others.”

Take a deep breath, people will listen

CHRIS

GERICS

Columnist

JESSICA

HENDRIKS

Columnist

Healthy eating habits can be achieved by making small, manageable changes to your diet over a period of time.

By EUN JOStaff Writer

“Take a 100-meal journey. Make small changes one meal at time.”

It’s a good time to learn how to prepare foods for a balanced diet during Nutri-tion Month.

Dietitians across the country are busy this month organizing events, as well as providing information and guidance to educate Canadians.

“The most important thing of celebrating this month is creating Canadi-ans’ wellness,” says Emily St. Aubin, a registered dieti-tian at Niagara Region.

“Dietitians in Canada take a theme every year to achieve and co-ordinate Nutrition Month. The theme for this year is ‘take a 100-meal journey’. Make small changes one meal at time.”

Over the course of a month, data shows most Canadians eat about 100 meals: three meals a day. St. Aubin explains that the theme is about trying to make small changes at meal times and encouraging people to continue them as a new habit throughout the month. For instance, adding a piece of fruit at breakfast every day during this month can help people gain access to a healthier diet.

“When you do it enough, it becomes a habit,” explains St. Aubin.

There are also three im-portant things that should be included for a nutrition-ally balanced diet.

According to Canada’s

Food Guide, it’s important to enjoy a variety of foods from four groups daily: vegetable and fruits, grain products, milk and alterna-tives and meat and alterna-tives. Health Canada’s new tool, the Eat Well Plate,

helps people see quickly what Canada’s Food Guide recommendations are for different meals.

Second, it’s important to pay attention to hunger and fullness as appetites change every day.

“We should focus on lis-tening to our body’s hunger and fullness cues,” she says. “Listen to our bodies and ask ourselves, if you are really hungry, if you just want to eat popcorn while watching a movie or if you

just want ice cream when you are bored and sad.”

It’s also important to diagnose the overall pattern of foods eaten. She says one meal or one type of food doesn’t really determine eating behaviour.

“Look over a day and week at what thing you are eating most,” says St. Aubin. “There isn’t necessarily one food or one meal that deter-mines if eating behaviours are healthy or unhealthy.”

The Dietitians of Canada’s app, Cookspiration, is providing hundreds of dietitian-approved recipes and inspiring many to get into the kitchen and cook.

EatRight Ontario also provides easy-to-use nutri-tion information. It helps Canadians achieve a high quality life by providing meal planning advice.

Niagara Region’s Commu-nity Food Advisor program is running educational sessions such as nutrition topics, cooking, and healthy eating on a budget, among other topics for community groups, schools and work-places. These services are free except for the cost of food for cooking sessions.

For more information about healthy eating and requesting a session, visit www.niagararegion.ca/living/health_wellness/healthyeating.

NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 7

NEWS

By AUSTIN GOODERStaff Writer

Corrie Evans is new to the Niagara Area Children’s As-sistance Program (NACAP) board of directors, but she knows exactly what the organization is out to do.

“Our goal is to help every family that needs it,” ex-plains Evans.

She got on board in Janu-ary after delivering Kmart goods from Buffalo, NY, to the charity in Fort Erie after people had donated their Kmart points.

“We order clothes, toilet-ries, toys and I pick up and deliver to the charity,” Evans elaborates.

She believes deeply in the work NACAP does because Evans has dealt firsthand with the adversity a single

mother faces.The charity aims to help

families provide for their children when they’re hav-ing difficulty making ends meet during the holidays.

“Helping the community is a passion,” Evans says. “I also enjoy running charity functions such as our recent meat raffle.”

NACAP sold tickets and raffled off various packages that included steaks, bacon, poultry and seafood.

Evans suggests that one of the “coolest” parts of work-ing for a charity organiza-tion like NACAP is getting to know the deeper stories of the people around her.

“Everyone has one. Sometimes they shock you, sometimes they make you sad. You always leave the conversation a better

person.”NACAP has been in opera-

tion since 2010 helping 260 families and over 2,000 children.

Evans is joined on the NA-CAP board by Mel Cameron. She was very open about why she works with NACAP.

“Most people live their lives struggling and jug-gling their financial burdens to try to do the best for their families,” Cameron says. “Some people have to choose [whether] to pay their rent or bills or have food on their table.”

She suggests that this is where NACAP might be able to step in and assist.

“We have the chance to make a difference in the lives of many children and their families,” she says.

“This is a chance that very

few people get and even fewer people know there is such a need out there.”

Last year, NACAP helped families put Thanksgiving dinners on the table and presents from Santa under the tree.

“We aim to help more and more families on each oc-casion and raise awareness that we are here to make a difference in an otherwise discouraging world,” Cam-eron says.

Evans and Cameron both say that NACAP helps any family struggling to keep up with finances or is other-wise struggling to make ends meet.

“We have a huge vision for the future and really look forward to expanding, and none of that would be pos-sible without the awareness

and help from the volun-teers, donors, sponsors and everyone within the community.

Cameron and Evans both deflect praise regarding how much they help the community.

“We are just everyday people,” Evans says. “We keep the capes in storage in the basement of our store,” she continues in jest.

NACAP was founded by Mindy Laveille in 2010, and Cameron suggests that she also has the spandex suit to match the cape. Laveille was unavailable for comment when contacted.

Another board member, Meagan Stewart, spoke highly of Laveille’s work with NACAP.

“Mindy has been work-ing her butt off, from the

ground up, for six years to make it what it is today.”

“Mindy is the leader of the pack and we are just her stunt doubles,” says Cameron.

All board members in-sisted there was a need for volunteers.

“We need help with the store, as most of us have full-time jobs. Some days, keeping the store open is difficult,” Evans says, “Although, Mindy always seems to find a way,” she continues.

For Easter this year, NACAP is requesting cash or gift card donations to help families purchase gifts or food for the holiday.

NACAP can be emailed at contact@nacap.com, phoned at 905-871-5437, or visited at 151 Gilmore Rd.

Healthy eating a step-by-step journey

SUBMITTED PHOTO

New charity supports families for Easter

Page 8 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

PROFILE

Continued from page 1He later became the dean

of the Environment, Hor-ticulture and Agribusiness division in 2005 in which he introduced Wine Business Management postgradu-ate programs and made the NOTL campus a “living labo-ratory” for the students.

In 2009, he was reassigned to be the dean of the Cana-dian Food and Wine Institute where he developed a Wine Visitor and Education Centre

combining programs such as Teaching Winery, Teach-ing Brewery and Teaching Restaurants.

The centre was opened and inaugurated in the presence of Britain’s Prince Charles. Later, the institute was divided into three mod-ern day major enterprises: the Benchmark Restaurant, Teaching Winery and Teach-ing Brewery.

In addition, he developed international partnerships

in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

Ogryzlo, in 2013, became the dean of international partnerships where he launched the World Ready Niagara initiative and created a Study and Work Abroad program.

He expanded partnerships with Ireland, Peru, Jamaica, Bolivia and Vietnam and suc-cessfully established a new campus in Taif, Saudi Arabia.

Apart from being at the forefront of the college’s development through the years, Ogryzlo has won many awards.

The college’s Award of Excellence came his way several times such as in 2013 for the Brewmas-ter program, in 2004 for Hospitality and Tourism and for the Wine and Viticulture program plus the 2010 Tony Aspler Award of Excellence acknowledging his dedica-

tion and hard-work.Under his leadership, the

college has won more than 150 awards for its Teaching Winery and more than 11 awards, since 2010, for the Teaching Brewery.

Ogryzlo has spent about two-thirds of his life here and thanks the college for support in his crucial times. One of them was when his son, Craig Ogryzlo, passed away. He established the Craig Award in his memory

to be given to students as a scholarship for agricultural research projects.

On being asked about his future plans after retire-ment, Ogryzlo says, “I plan to work on different projects internationally, so I don’t plan to leave the work entirely. I’m hoping to link up with NC [Niagara College] in other projects around the world.”

“I plan to use my camera a lot,” he adds.

By UTSAV GUPTAStaff Writer

By the time he decided to take a new job and pursue a different career, he was ready for his retirement.

Jon Ogryzlo, dean of inter-national partnerships, has been one of the people be-hind Niagara College’s huge transformation and develop-ment over the years. The decision to work here was “a passing decision” for Ogry-zlo, however, he couldn’t part from it afterwards.

“I thought I would work here for two years and then look for another job. Now here I am 36 years later,” says Ogryzlo, rocking on his chair and laughing hard.

He was born in Arnprior, Ont., and started his journey of work at his father’s farm while he was only six years of age. He graduated from McMaster University in Hamilton in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science.

A tall 6’4” figure with a longish face combined with a long nose, shaded and stylish vision glasses on his eyes, wavy hair locks falling on his forehead and dressed in a business suit gives a portrait of a 50- to 52-year-old per-son. However, Ogryzlo, 64, has surprised a lot of people with his age, many of whom asked him, “Why are you retiring so early?” when he announced his retirement in early February.

“Everyone thinks I’m younger than I am,” says Ogryzlo, laughing and ad-justing in his chair.

Apart from work, his hobbies include culinary photography, cycling, going to the gym and watching Formula 1 racing.

“I actually have been an award-winning photog-rapher,” says an amused Ogryzlo.

He explains his wife, Lynn, is a food and wine travel writer and has done a num-ber of cookbooks for which he did the photography. The books, in turn, have won international awards.

Although he’s tried food from all around the world, he doesn’t have a favourite origin of food and goes by his mood. He cherishes and finds taste in salads among all food choices.

And then he remarks, “By

the way, when you get old, you have to stay fit.”

Along with him, his sons are also enrolled here, one in broadcasting and the other one in cooking.

“We’re Niagara College folks through and through with the kids coming to the college as well,” remarks Ogryzlo.

He explains he has three children and recalls his late son, Craig, who passed out at the start of the work at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus in 1998.

“The college was very sup-portive at the time and now we’ve a tree, a bench and a scholarship for him named after his name,” says Ogryzlo, emotions flushing his face.

On being asked if he likes cooking, he slyly says, “I like taking pictures of cooking,” while laughing hard on the remark.

“Lynn does so much cook-ing so I don’t need to. When you’re an author, you cook all the time so I don’t get many opportunities to cook.”

He praises his long time here by saying, “What I love about Niagara College is it allowed me and other people who work here to really ex-pand and explore what you want to do.”

As one of the facts, he mea-sures his time by how many presidents he has worked with over the years.

“I’ve been here for three presidents starting from Jacqueline Robarts from 1980-90, then John Saso from 1990-95 and then Dan Patterson from 1995 to present.”

As part of the job, Ogryzlo has been to several countries such as Thailand, Jordan, India, Sri Lanka, China, Jamaica, Peru, Bolivia and Vietnam, for different proj-ects, to name a few.

On being asked about the vision for Niagara College five years down the line, he wittily remarks, “I always have visions,” while leaning

down and coming close as if to whisper and then leaning back on the chair to laugh hard.

“I’ve always got plans. You know, I can work here for like 100 years but I’m not going to. I’ve always found myself entrepreneurial and trying to do stuff on a much bigger scale.”

He has a hard time think-ing of someone specific to at-tribute his success to during the years.

“I’ve been lucky to work with some really great

people. From my supervisors and managers to the people who’ve worked with me,” says Ogryzlo.

On being asked to name a few, he thinks for a second and then replies, “O Gosh! I don’t want to do that. There are probably so many and I don’t want to miss anyone.”

He then goes on to men-tion the names of his boss and mentor George Repar and Patterson.

“Repar was my earliest boss and a nice mentor. Working with Dan has been

very important. He’s been a mentor to me and I’ve always admired him. He’s always supported all the initiatives.”

On being asked about the important moments of his life here he recalls the 25-year master plan and meet-ing Prince Charles in 2009 as the highlights of his career.

For his plans in retirement, they include staying in the education system and being involved in projects related to it. He also wants to do some consulting work and

wants to use his “camera a lot more.”

Most importantly, he wants to lead a more bal-anced life and spend more time with his family.

He remarks, “I might go back to school. I’ve always been fascinated with the foreign languages. I might learn one of them.”

Ogryzlo then thanks the staff members who have worked alongside him dur-ing the years for his success and wishes them all the very best.

Farewell to ‘Dean of Transformation’

Jon Ogryzlo is shown standing in front of Niagara College’s Wine Visitor and Education Centre at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus on March 15, 2016. PHOTOS BY UTSAV GUPTA

He is shown sitting and admiring the feel of the courtyard at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.

The world map shows the international partnerships he initiated with different countries all over the world throughout his time here.

We’ll definitely miss your consulting services

“I’ve always got plans. You know, I can work here for like 100 years but I’m not going to.”JON OGRYZLO

NIAGARA NEWS • March. 18, 2016 Page 9

NEWS

By UTSAV GUPTAStaff Writer

“The Russian people were very warm and friendly and they made sure we were well fed and in good health all the time.”

Simon Price, vice-presi-dent of Enactus Niagara Col-lege, who went to Siberia, Russia, to attend a 12-day intensive training session at Tomsk State University (TSU), is back in Canada and ready to share his experience.

“It was unbelievable and I’m planning to go there to learn the Russian language soon,” says Price.

“TSU is in an absolutely beautiful city. I got to see so many beautiful things. Not only did they offer us a rich intellectual experience, but they also provided us with so many fun opportunities such as dog sledding.”

“One of the most memo-rable experiences I had in my life when I went to a rare book museum to see original works from Voltaire [French philosopher and writer] and Leo Tolstoy [Russian writer].”

Price and other partici-pants worked together on different projects and “they wanted to make sure ev-eryone kept in contact with each other after.”

“I did a project on Tomsk’s tourism industry because they don’t have any tourism industry there and I’m invited to go back next year for it.”

“Russia is facing a finan-cial crisis right now and because of my experience in the hospitality industry

in Canada, I suggested we build the tourism industry to help the economy there.”

Price also gifted two bottles of Canadian icewine to the vice-director of col-lege along with some gifts for other people present in the training session.

Price says he achieved a lot of personal growth in Russia.

He learned different concepts on social entrepre-neurship, different prob-lems in different countries and “We ended up being distributed in six groups to

tackle some of the man-dates by United Nations.”

Andrey Nemtsev, project director at TSU, applauded Price for his commitment by giving him his own Master’s Degree Trophy “as a parting gift.”

He is now looking to

improve and maintain the Enactus Gardens and plan-ning to go to Russia to study the Russian language.

“I think I did a great job in representing Niagara College and Canada and showing the Russian people how good and warm Canadians are.”

Who better to ask for help in the tourism industry than the world’s best?

Simon Price, vice-president of Enactus Niagara College, and Anisha Sharma, member of Enactus Niagara College, are shown with their gear after 2016 Enactus Canada Regional Exposition on March 10, 2016. PHOTO BY UTSAV GUPTA

Enactus: Creating a better world

By DAVON JAMES Staff Writer

The traumatizing experi-ence of being in a car ac-cident is something nobody ever wants to experience.

On Feb. 26, Richard Anthony was the victim of a car accident that nearly ended his young life.

A 23-year-old student now attending Osgoode Law School at York University, also holds a degree in social science. He was on his way to meet his mother, Margaret Anthony, after surgery she underwent the previous day.

Speaking with Anthony, he explained what hap-pened prior to the accident in Mississauga on Winston Churchill at Brittania Road.

“I’m an extremely cau-tious driver and this all flashed right before my eyes. As I was just casually driving through a green

light, I turn my head and another vehicle zooms at around 90 kilometres through a red light and T-boned the passenger side of my car,” says Anthony.

With his mother not being able to move around be-cause of her prior surgery, his father being out of the country and younger brother at a distant school, the moment this happened, Anthony was in shock and did not know who to call.

“I’m honestly very lucky to still be breathing with minor injuries right now. At the time, I didn’t want to call and frighten my mother because she just got out of the emergency room. The only person left to call at the time was my cousin that coincidently happened to be in the area, ” says Anthony.

When someone goes through an accident as hor-rifying ashe went through, it

can cause them to be petri-fied to drive for quite a long time and in severe cases, may potentially require therapy.

“Sometimes I do have crazy flashes of when this happened, but I know, for a fact, I was not wrong in this situation. However, this accident will by no means stop me from driv-ing again and I definitely plan to take legal action going forward,” further explained Anthony.

As the weeks went for-ward, he has been slowly easing back into driving again after purchasing a rented vehicle and getting back into his normal rou-tine. Luckily, this accident did not cause severe harm to both people involved and he did not have to go through a lengthy thera-peutic session for his inju-ries and emotional pain.

A cautionary tale for road safetyTraffic Accident Statistics in Canada 2015

23,002Amount of people injured in traffic accidents

399Amount of people killed in traffic accidents

$4,620,165Total cost of traffic accidents

5.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants

Amount of deaths per inhabitantsFor more information visit…http://www.icebike.org/real-time-traffic-acci-dent-statistics/#canada

University student works to regain confidenceand drive again after trauma of traffic accident

A Niagara College second-year Hospitality and Tourism Manage-ment student repre-sented Niagara College in the 2016 Enactus Canada Regional Ex-position (ECRE) March 10-11.

Anisha Sharma, mem-ber of Enactus Niagara College, along with Price, showcased how Niagara College was involved in community outreach projects.

“Being with Enactus, I learned many things and gained a lot of ex-perience,” says Sharma.

“I always thought about helping people but never found a way to do it. Enactus gave me an indirect oppor-tunity to do it. It gave me a way to be at the regional level for the first time in Canada.”

Price says, “I was proud to have her pres-ent along with me and she did extremely well in all the rounds.”

ECRE offers live, presentation-based competitions with business leaders as judges to select student entrepreneurs in Enac-tus teams to compete nationally.

Hospitality student represents NC at Regional Exposition

Page 10 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

NEWS

By JESSICA HENDRIKSStaff Writer

If you struggle with taking tests, you may be eligible to use the Test Centre here.

The two main services are accommodations for students with disabilities and for students who have to write a missed test or a make up test.

Testing accommodations include additional time to write, assisted software, specific requirements for the testing environment, for example, a student may need to be alone to write their test, use of a scriber, interpreter services and

other support.“It’s hard for me to do

tests in the regular class-room. The Test Centre helps in that aspect and because of it I have been able to do well in my tests,” says Rachel Baylor, a student in the Recreation and Leisure Services program.

“It allows me to not get distracted and to focus and not have to worry about not finishing on time. It’s quieter than a classroom because you don’t hear people turning pages of tests and you don’t have to worry every time you hear someone leave after their test,” says a student who did

not want to be identified.“I like that it’s small so not

a lot of people are in there ... so there’s no distractions,” says Erika Lindey, a student in the Pharmacy Technician

program.According to the centre’s

website following proce-dures must be followed. “One week prior to each test, students must visit the

test centre in person. You will be asked to provide scheduled test date and time. An appointment will be set up for you to take the test.”

Students are respon-sible to provide the test information and their needs, students will then be required to bring a test envelope to the teacher who will then put the test in that envelope and bring it to the centre for the date and time of your test.

“Once [your test is] com-plete your professor will pick up your test from the Test Centre on their own time.”

Additional services include, mature student admission testing, Ontari-oLearn/online course tests and exams, customized testing contracts for busi-ness and corporate clients and language proficiency test.

To contact the centre call 905-641-2252 exten-sion 4172 or 4179 for the Niagara-on-the-Lake cam-pus and call 905-735-2211 extension 7589 or 7508 for the Welland campus or email testcentre@niagara-college.ca.

For more information, visit http://www.niagara-college.ca/test-centre/.

College Test Centre at your service Trouble with tests? Make sure to check out Niagara College’s Test Centre, whose goal is to help you

WOODCRAFTNiagara College automotive student

creates works of art out of wood Photos by Jeremiah Link

Woodworker Curt Carter creates beautiful handmade pieces of furniture and instruments, such as this handmade banjo and tea tray. The tea tray is carefully shaped out of a single piece of walnut. The banjo consists of a mahogany neck and body, with a rosewood fret board. Carter is a Niagara College student enrolled in the Automotive Service Technician Apprenticeship program. You can see more of Carter’s work from his YouTube channel MrCartersAccount.

NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 11

NEWS

By JESSICA HENDRIKSStaff Writer

The BTS Network is a transportation company for the disabled and elderly, who’s motto is “on time, every time.”

However, Sarah Hirniak and Rhys Evans, Niagara College students who use the service daily to get to campus and back, disagree and have a different view.

“I have yet to see that statement shown true in the actions of the company,” says Hirniak.

On Nov. 3, Niagara Region’s public works community voted to award Niagara Specialized Transit to the BTS Network Inc., in Vaughan, Ont., at a cost of $1.2 million.

Red Cross, whose contract ended at the end of November, previously provided the service.

Niagara Specialized Transit, which is run by the Region, has 1,080 active clients and 10 vehicles and

one shuttle bus.This is a special service

to help people, who are un-able to board a convention-al transit vehicle or walk a distance of 175 metres, get to medical appointments, school and work.

A trip must also be from one municipality to another municipality.

These include: Niagara Falls, Thorold, Welland, Wainfleet, Fort Erie, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lin-coln, West Lincoln, Pelham, St. Catharines, Grimsby and Port Colborne.

Riders are required to pay a minimum of four one-way trips ($30.00) in advance and they will receive a punch card.

Upon boarding, the driver will punch out a $7.50 fare. If the trip costs more, the driver will punch out an additional fare.

Since the BTS Network took over for Red Cross, Hirniak and Evans, among others, say they have had a number of issues.

Evans says they are late “about 95 per cent of the time.” The longest wait time for him has been two hours.

Time is not the only issue.He says a few of the

drivers seem as if they are not trained to hook up a wheelchair.

“My dad had to physically show the guy how to do tie my wheelchair down.”

He adds that the first day the new company took over, it didn’t send a wheelchair accessible van due to hav-ing incorrect information.

Hirniak says, “One driver stopped to fill up for gas and got lottery tickets when he was already an hour late, and I was already late for class.”

She adds that sometimes they will show up even though she had cancelled the run, and that she can rarely get through when she tries to call.

They both say the people in the office, as well as a few of the drivers, are “rude and disrespectful”, and that

they are “very disorga-nized.”

They say they feel they are being “belittled” as they feel they aren’t being treated with the respect they deserve.

Evans says that just like everyone else, he has places to go and people to see; it makes him feel like a “sec-ond class citizen.”

Hirniak says she feels as if the firm sees customers as “objects for delivery” and not people.

She raises the fact that the drivers get angry if one of the students is late to get to the pickup spot, which may only be a few minutes, but yet, transportation issues can cause people to miss whole classes.

“They have schedules and their time is valuable, but so is ours,” she says.

Evans and Hirniak have personal support worker services every day at scheduled times. If they are late to arrive for those, they either miss them or have

less time with them.Evans also speaks for

those who use the transit service for their medical appointments.

“They rely on that service to get to their medical treatments. … If they’re not at the right place at the right time for their medical treatment, their treatment might not be as effective. So, it’s those people that I am advocating for as well as myself and others.”

Hirniak has been told that the company is working on these issues, but says she has yet to see improvement.

Confirmed by Sarah Holmes, transit co-ordi-nator for Niagara Region, starting in May, the price will be changing, but the punch card system will still be used. The price change was approved by Regional Council.

Holmes admits to receiv-ing some complaints but is working to get them resolved.

“The service provider has

resolved a number of these issues and is continuously working to improve the ser-vice and customer experi-ence. This is witnessed by a significant decrease in vol-ume of complaints we have received. However, while the service overall has seen substantial improvement, some clients have unfortu-nately been inconvenienced on more than one occasion.”

She adds, “As the new ser-vice provider is still adapt-ing and learning, there is an element of rationaliza-tion that must occur in unforeseen circumstances. For example, in the event of an accident resulting in a driver being delayed, a client travelling to dialysis may be prioritized over a client travelling to school or work. We continue to work closely with the service pro-vider to resolve all issues and address all customer feedback.”

Two attempts were made to contact BTS, both were unsuccessful.

New bus operator faces some complaints

By SAM JANJAC Staff Writer

The warmer the weather the more chipper people’s moods, but do unnatural warm spells have the same effect on our environment as on people?

Renee Delaney, founder and project manager of Niagara Farm Project (NFP), says the up and down weather has good and bad aspects.

Speaking about NFP, Delaney says, “For us it’s the worry about pests, the bugs that typically like warmer weather are often only found south of the border. Now we will see a change of what we ‘normally’ see around here because they have had the opportunity to migrate north.”

Many critters now have the opportunity to move north due to the warming climate, including biting insects such as mosquitos, which can carry pathogens that can be harmful to humans.

A bug that bites some-thing other than humans is the crucifer flea beetle that thrives when there is decent snow cover but milder winters. This small beetle is dangerous for cruciferous crops, which are vegetables in the cabbage family such

as broccoli, kale and cab-bage and can also destroy canola crops.

The NFP is a “for com-munity profit” agricultural organization focusing on establishing a desire to pro-duce local sustainable food and food practices.

The Weather Network forecasted this winter in southern Ontario to be milder than the past two winters. The network de-scribes the warm winter as a result of El Nino.

That is a band of warm, nutrient poor water from the equatorial Pacific caus-ing climatic changes every few years, typically in late December. El Nino is a phase in the cycle called El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), along with the re-verse phase called La Nina.

Regular winter tempera-tures in southern Ontario do not hit the double digits and this winter, there has been a lot of hitting the double digits.

Hamilton, Toronto, Lon-don, Sarnia and Windsor were all able to break their previous records for the warmest Feb. 20, with most reaching 12 degrees Celsius.

Windsor hit the warm-est temperature out of all of them, with an increase of 2.9 degrees from their previous record in 1983.

Lack of precipitation is another big problem with such unsure weather. Del-aney says, “This is why we are trying to set up sustain-able methods that don’t rely on pumps and electricity, for example, rain barrels and simple irrigation tech-niques.”

If the up and down temperatures that have been occurring all winter continue into the spring and summer, Delaney says it can affect the harvest of plants.

“Last summer was not good because the up and down temperatures slowed the plants’ growth. I waited until the end of August before I was able to harvest a tomato!” says Delaney.

On the plus side, Delaney says the warmer weather does allow for more work to be done in preparation of the growing season ahead.

Socks and sandals don’t mix

March 7 was one of the warmest days of 2016 so far and students and plants alike were taking advantage of the warm day with the snow piles melting next to them. PHOTOS BY SAM JANJAC

A look into what rising temperatures are doing to the environment

Page 12 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

NEWS

Security guard pay lags in Ontario

By JOHN HOPKINS-HILLSpecial to the News

For the 69,000 licensed security guards in Ontario, the grass is truly greener on the other side of the fence.

While guards in Manitoba and Quebec are guaranteed a minimum wage higher than the average worker, the Ontario Ministry of Labour has no plans to in-troduce a similar pay scale.

“The Employment Stan-dards Act does not gener-

ally prescribe different minimum wage rates for different occupations, such as security guards,” said William Lin, a Ministry of Labour spokesperson, in an email.

Lin added that there were no plans to review this practice, as “no comments on this issue were received during the Changing Work-places Review.”

That review has finished, but the interim report scheduled for early 2016

has not been released.For guards like Derek

Tadeson, 29, of Beamsville, a mandatory minimum wage would be a step in the right direction.

“If you’re working events such as football games and high-profile concerts, it is more physical and can be dangerous,” said Tadeson. “All around, you’re usually not getting enough for what you’re doing.”

Quebec’s minimum wage is currently $10.55 and a

licensed security guard is entitled to $15.66, while workers and guards alike in Ontario earn a minimum of $11.25 per hour.

United Food and Com-mercial Workers (UFCW) Local 333, the largest union representing security guards in Ontario, started a petition in 2013 to raise the minimum wage for security guards to $15.

The petition says security guards are being unfairly “expected to pay costs asso-

ciated with being a profes-sion” but guards “are not paid as professionals.”

The Private Security and

Investigative Services Act was passed in 2005 and has required all those wishing to become guards in Ontario since 2010 to complete training and testing before applying for licenses.

Local 333 says the costs prospective guards face to-tal nearly $600 before they can begin working.

There are a total of 782 licensed security agencies in Ontario and 485 regis-tered businesses that can hire in-house security.

Derek Tadeson, 29, of Beamsville, is just one of 69,053 licensed security guards working in Ontario. Guards in Ontario have been lobbying for increased wages since 2013. PHOTO BY JOHN HOPKINS-HILL

“All around, you’re usually not getting enough for what you’re doing.”DEREK TADESON

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NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 13

SPORTS

Kalden Andersen of Fort Erie pitches the baseball to a bantam player from Pelham during a regular season game in 2015. SUBMITTED PHOTO BY LOUIS ALBANESE

By COREY LEBLANC Special to Niagara News

With registration num-bers dwindling, youth baseball leagues around the Niagara region have struggled to stay afloat. But it’s not time to sound the alarm yet.

The Greater Niagara Base-ball Association (GNBA) is one of a few programs in the region to experi-ence growth. A 10 per-cent increase every year over the past three seasons.

Joe D’Abramo, secretary for the GNBA, says a win-ning attitude is key to run-ning a successful league.

“This is a program that achieves on a lot of differ-ent levels. We have (cham-pionships) all over,” says D’Abramo.

However, not every mu-nicipality in the region can thrive on success like the GNBA has over the last five seasons.

Elsewhere, like in Fort Erie and Pelham, the midget boys’ league (16 to 18 years old) has not existed for some time and the bantam league (13 to 15 years old) is barely getting enough players together to field one

team. The Pelham Mi-nor Baseball Association (PMBA) only fielded 13 players in its peewee boys division (11-12 years old) during the 2015 season, barely enough for one team.

Former Toronto Blue Jay and elite level coach Scott

Bullett says fixing the de-cline in numbers is a matter of determination.

“These kids don’t fight for it anymore. There’s no com-petitiveness,” says Bullett.

He says players today are missing out because they’re lacking the “grassroots” of

the game, not getting the fundamental skills they need to compete at an older age. “These days, I go around the Niagara region, kids are looking up in the sky, picking daisies, not pay-ing attention. Half of them don’t even show up for

practices,” says Bullett. “When it’s time for the competitiveness to come in, when they make the transi-tion to the ‘big field’, they usually quit because they are not being taught the fundamentals.”

St. Catharines Minor

Baseball Association (SC-MBA) is no exception to the decline in players ages 12 to 18. But the organization has managed to stay afloat de-spite the current recession in older baseball players.

Ryan Villers, director of communications at SCMBA, hopes he can instil a love for the game to try and win back some of the league’s lost players.

“Once the players get to peewee/bantam ages, we tend to see some decline in numbers as other areas of life start to take priority over baseball,” says Villers, in an email.

He adds that stressing the importance of having fun will allow the young players to fall in love with the game early on in life.

“A few years ago, we cre-ated our Blast Ball division for three and four year olds. This is a simple version of T-ball that uses foam equip-ment to help eliminate the fear factor for the kids.”

Although many of the older leagues in Niagara could disappear in the next few seasons, Bullett does offer a message to leagues in need of a jump start.

GNBA continues to seek growth Are you competitive and exhibit a strong passion for the game of baseball?

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Page 14 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

ENTERTAINMENT

By JEREMIAH LINKStaff Writer

Niagara College’s Acting for Film and Television program invited Welland native Kevin Frank to be the next guest for the Up Close and Personal series, where acting students had the privilege to do just that with the professional actor.

The series is a session hosted by the program allowing students to ask a working actor any pressing questions, to gain meaning-ful knowledge and insight into the acting industry. The session lasted roughly two hours in which Frank, the artistic director of Sec-ond City and a professional actor, shared his experi-ences and gave advice to aspiring actors.

“I personally liked the experience,” says student Dayne Schwarz. “It’s really neat to hear from the busi-ness side of things, and just how to present yourself. Because he said, ‘You’re the product.’ I liked that he was able to express that in an optimistic way. He showed very positive form. It’s something I really liked about him.”

Frank, a born performer and a businessman from the get-go, stumbled into acting when he decided to take improv lessons to better his performing and sales career. After join-ing The Second City, an improvisational comedy enterprise that teaches the art of improv and performs

live theatre, he fell in love with the art and has been performing and teaching ever since.

Frank’s love for the industry was apparent when he responded to the questions enthusiasti-cally and with a comedic touch. He responded with relevant stories from his experiences. He spoke about everything from hav-ing a successful audition to improving voice-acting skills.

Frank, being eight of the voices in Thomas and the Magical Railroad, under-stands the extent of voice acting a character. He told the students that it is im-perative to know the body of the character you are voicing in order to pres-ent the best outcome. His answers were presented with enthusiastic demon-strations.

“I felt he really had a lot to offer to young and aspir-ing actors. He really knew more about the business than other people,” says student Brandon Forsey.

Being the artistic direc-tor at Second City, Frank’s main focus was the impor-tance of improvisation and how it is an essential skill to have. He encourages everyone to learn the art.

“Improv skills are life skills, they really are. It’s really important to let the person know you are lis-tening, physically engaged, supportive, and open to new ideas. All of those great skills are life skills. I

think everyone should take improv, I really believe that would be a great thing for people to do.”

The session ended with a glimpse into one of Sec-

ond City’s improvisation exercises. Everyone found a partner and then they had to start a conversa-tion.

However, you had to

begin your next line of dia-logue with the word that your partner ended with. It was an interesting exer-cise revealing a glimpse of Second City.

“We don’t save lives. We don’t save the world, but we do tell the world’s story and we bring to life issues that we need to talk about,” says Frank.

By GAGE LEBLANCStaff Writer

Film is back in downtown St. Catharines.

Fancy a night with your significant other out on the town at an affordable price? Check out the newly featured Film House at The First On-tario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines, because at only $9, you could view a movie, whether it new or an old school one from your childhood.

“It is not the norm for Performing Arts Centres to have a film theatre as one of the venues. The Film House at the Performing Arts Centre (the PAC) was part of the original integrated archi-tectural design, preceded by many public and formal planning discussions,” says Joan Nicks, board member for Niagara Arts Centre and film program adviser.

“This makes the Film House a special downtown venue that recognizes film as both an art form and a key part of popular culture. This had been the case throughout

the history of film, back to the late 19th century. The local pre-history behind the Film House recalls the eras when downtown St. Catharines had several movie theatres, like most downtowns across North America, and film-going was part of everyday life.”

Although the Film House’s weeklong showing of Oscar films has finished, a lot more

is still in store, including all ages family films and old school movies.

“The Film House pro-grams for all ages including Saturday matinee screen-ings of family films,” says Nicks. “Evening screenings, Tuesday to Sunday, include new and recent titles and documentaries of note, screen gems that remain excellent over time, as well as new and

classic speculative fiction.”Planned since around 2008,

the Film House has been a big plan for the people behind the scenes who run the Arts Centre, with visions of the future filled with ideas and aspiration for the faculty.

Sara Palmieri, the sales and marketing manager for the Arts Centre, says, “As Joan mentioned, there is a strong film culture in the Region.

You can see this in such suc-cessful series programming like the Brock University Film Society (BUFS), The Shaw Festival Film Series, Cinéfest Niagara, and curated film programming being of-fered at many Museums and galleries, just to name a few.”

“Along with the desire to have an amazing program that responds to our audienc-

es, we see this as a gathering place, to share a collective experience and a great flick and to have a continual buzz of activity going on in the facility.”

If you’re a film enthusiast, make sure to check out the Film House, grab some cheap snacks and maybe even a beer/wine to wash it down from the licensed venue.

The Acting for Film and TV program welcomes actor and writer Kevin Frank to Niagara College. Frank hosted popular TV game shows such as The Next Line and has appeared in many movies and television shows. PHOTO BY JEREMIAH LINK

The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in Downtown St. Catharines is your ideal place for local arts, including plays, films and concerts. Make sure to check out some local culture because you never know what you’ll end up enjoying. PHOTO BY GAGE LEBLANC

Film House opens in Arts Centre

Kevin Frank visits Niagara CollegeActor gives Acting for Film and Television students advice about the acting industry

NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016 Page 15

NEWS

By LAURA BARTONColumnist

The one thing I remember the most from my time as an English Literature major at Brock University is one of my professors talking about how novels can reflect the time period they’re coming from.

Specifically, I remember Prof. James Allard lectur-ing about this during one of his courses when we were talking about Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

In that time period, there was fear of foreign invasion. It was full of misunder-standing and ignorance, leading to authors picking up their pens.

What they did in that case was personify their fears to try to make them easier to deal with. Even fairy tales were a product of their time since they were originally meant to keep children in line, which is why so many children’s stories in their origins are actually rather creepy, twisted and down-right messed up.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately in terms of dystopian fiction, which has increased in popularity.

I’ll start by defining what dystopia is; quite simply, it’s the opposite of utopia.

Utopia is seen as paradise or a place that is completely desirable. A dystopia then is something that would be completely unwanted in reality. Think The Hunger Games and Divergent, two

of the most popular book and movie series now.

The Maze Runner series would fit into that niche as well. And if you want to go back in time, look at 1984, Brave New World and Fahr-enheit 451. So my thought is why are series like The Hunger Games and Diver-gent so popular at this point in time? What does my own love of dystopian literature say about the time I’m living in? My theory goes back to what Prof. Allard taught me: literature is a product and

reflection of its time.We live in a world where

we face near-constant surveillance and our leaders seem to be waging wars and doing things we might not necessarily understand, but feel we must follow.

In both The Hunger Games and Divergent, there is either literal surveil-lance or the sense of always being watched. And the leaders are certainly doing things the characters don’t completely understand, but follow anyway.

Although I think dys-topian literature today is romanticized with hero-ics and successful grand overthrows of the govern-ment figures and systems, I do think it is still reflecting on what is happening right here and now. I would wa-ger that 1984, for instance, hasn’t come back into popularity only because it is missing that grandiose quality. Really, though, it mirrors what is happening. The term Big Brother comes from that book, and he is

an overarching, tyrannical leader who keeps people in line with fear-mongering, propaganda and surveil-lance. Propaganda runs amok in today’s media and politics, even if we don’t call it that any more.

Political campaigns are reduced to attack ads, media headlines are skewed depending on what news source you pay attention to and in the end we’re bom-barded with buzz words to make us feel one way or another. Let’s not forget the

element of war or conflict in these novels and in reality.

Since 9/11, these two things have been at the forefront of our media.

Even though the “enemy” has changed over the years, we’ve been kept in a con-stant state of chaos since the World Trade Centers were brought to the ground, and that’s exactly what hap-pens in the popular dysto-pian literature now. Catalyst and then chaos. 9/11 and then war. For The Hunger Games, breaking the rules of the games and then war.

For Divergent, attempted overthrow of a system and then war. The only differ-ence between these books and what people are going through in reality, besides the romanticizing, is that the books at least have endings where everything is more or less resolved.Reality just seems to keep going. And if we look at the presidential candidacy in the United States, it almost seems like it’s threatening to escalate.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico and is causing an even big-ger rift between races. I can only imagine what kind of surveillance techniques he’d bring in and how he would control the people.

All I know for sure is that with the way things are go-ing, it’s no wonder dystopi-an literature and stories are booming in popularity.

Dystopian literature is booming

By LAURA BARTONStaff Writer

Niagara Falls’ 2015-2016 Winter Festival of Lights (WFOL) season is being called a “huge suc-cess” by Tina Myers, pro-gram director. This past season featured more displays and covered more ground while also inviting attendees to par-ticipate and share their experiences through social media.

“The results of this past season were terrific. At Dufferin Islands and through social media we heard glowing feedback from visitors!” Myers announced during a pre-sentation to Niagara Falls city council on March 8.

The festival was acknowledged at the Fes-tival and Events Ontario (FEO) annual conference earlier in the month and awarded for Top 100 Fes-

tival in Ontario and FEO Festival of Distinction.

The WFOL saw a total of $14.5 million of “tourism-related spending” and over 1.2 million visitors. Eighty-two per cent of those visitors were non-locals.Because of the additional displays on Dufferin Islands and other areas around the city, vehicle traffic increased 43 per cent. Roughly 61,500 cars drove through Dufferin Islands to see the new displays.

All of this was made possible because of vol-unteers, who put in over 3,400 hours of their time. They were recognized on Feb. 22 at the annual volunteer appreciation night.

Volunteer, Bob White, received the Rick Stokes Exceptional Volunteer award for his contribu-tion of 156 hours.

Lights festival ‘terrific’ success

George Orwell novels are the prime example of a dystopian literature that is so popular PHOTO BY LAURA BARTON

Applied learning has been taken to the next level.

Niagara College is launch-ing a Bachelor’s Degree – Human Resources as a new program in the School of Business and Management. It is slated to welcome its first intake of students in September 2016.

Small class sizes and fac-ulty from the industry who will teach their expertise will greatly benefit students. It will also give students a number of opportunities, such as studying abroad, networking with industry professions and course-based applied research.

High school students who are currently part of the special high skills major (SHSM) in business and are accepted into the program might be eligible to ac-quire a $1,000 scholarship towards their tuition.

The college also has other business-related programs, such as Hospitality and In-ternational Commerce and Global Development.

The Winter Festival of Lights was in full effect at The Oakes Hotel, in Niagara-on-the-Lake. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Degree program launched

Page 16 NIAGARA NEWS • March 18, 2016

FEATURE

By EMMA MASONStaff Writer

While most college students use their Reading Week to travel to warmer climates and party with friends, one group of Justice Studies students were using their break to help others in Nicaragua.

This year, 20 students along with program co-ordi-nator Jim Norgate, travelled to Nicaragua from Feb. 28 to March 7 as part of a Me to We volunteer trip to help build a classroom.

Me to We offers volunteer trips allowing young people to participate in health, education and economic de-velopment projects abroad.

In 2014, the students travelled to Nicaragua to help build a Grade 2 class-room without the use of electricity or modern power tools and last year the students headed to Ecuador where they helped rebuild a medical clinic.

“The concept was to provide a lifelong learning experience and life altering experience for the stu-dents,” says Norgate, who has been organizing these trips since 2014. “I wanted to provide an opportu-nity to these students that I never had when I was in school.”

Planning and fundraising has taken a year to com-plete but first-year Police Foundations student, Bailey Olsen says it has been noth-ing but fun.

“It’s been about a year-long process. We’ve been doing a lot of volunteer work trying to raise money, and raise awareness. It’s been a long process but it’s been a lot of fun.”

Norgate says he didn’t want these trips to be lim-ited to just the people who could afford to go, so he has all the students fundraise so that everybody wanting to go, can go.

“I didn’t want this to be limited to students whose parents could just pay for it,” says Norgate. “Students who can’t afford to go can go as well and the whole group will fundraise to help everyone.”

“The students come in one at a time and I find out how much they can pay so I know that you’re paying in full and I know that this guy can only paying $500 but only I’ll know.”

This year, the students raised just over $14,000 and over the last three years, Norgate estimates a total of between $45,000 and $50,000 was raised.

This is Advanced Law En-forcement Student Andrew Oosterhoff’s third trip with

the school and second time to Nicaragua. He says he is still surprised about the things he sees when their plane touches down.

“Even though you think you’re ready, you’re not,” says Oosterhoff. “I’ve gone there before and I’m go-ing for the second time to Nicaragua now. I know that as soon as I get off the plane and see it again it’s going to be shocking to see what they have, or what they don’t have, rather.”

Much of the time, Nor-gate will see 20 individuals getting on the plane on day one, but getting off the plane as one big group, of 20, on day 10.

“When you get to these places you’re so isolated. It’s so overwhelming and it’s sort of sensory overload every day,” Norgate says. “Eventually, you feel the bond getting tighter within the group. We’re not in a big city, we’re out in the middle of nowhere all the time so that forces the students to come together.”

“My favourite part is see-ing how the group changes and comes together as a bunch of people that really don’t know each other,” says Oosterhoff. “You leave Pearson [Airport] still as

a group of individuals but then really come together when you’re working on the site because you’re all working together for the same thing.”

Norgate echoes Ooster-

hoff’s sentiments saying he loves to see the bond that develops among the students.

“I can see two students that don’t sit together in class or that haven’t been

together in the meetings but all of the sudden on day three, there’s one taking water to another or putting their arm around them consoling them, or they’re talking and one’s crying

and they’re supporting each other,” says Norgate.

“We have a lot of laughs too and we have a lot of fun but the support in the tough times is what makes the fun times easier.”

“You leave Pearson still as a group of individuals but then really come together when you’re working on the site because you’re all working together for the same thing,” said Advance Law Enforcement student Andrew Oosterhoff. PHOTO BY EMMA MASON

Program Co-ordinator Jim Norgate hopes to see 20 individuals getting on the plane on day one, but getting off the plane as a group of 20 on day 10. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Becoming World ReadyA group of Niagara College students had a ‘life altering experience’ over Reading Week