Calen Ryan - Studying in Australia

Calen Ryan exploring a billabong by boat, complete with a basking croc in the background!

For Faculty of Science student, Calen Ryan, spending the 2009 Winter term taking courses in Wollongong, N.S.W., Australia was just the change he needed while working on his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Biological Sciences.  Calen explains, “Working towards an undergraduate degree can feel like an eternity. So I started looking into an exchange program to break up the routine of education, satisfy my wanderlust, and give me respite from one of our brutal winters!”

Calen heard about the World W.I.S.E. Resource Centre at the University of Manitoba though a friend, and decided to look into an exchange.  He discovered that he could spend a winter term in Australia, and still take courses towards his degree.  “I basically paid my tuition at the University of Manitoba, but attended university in Australia. You get the benefits of international study, but with the same fees as studying here at U of M.”

His search for a host university, however, was somewhat unorthodox.  He wanted several things:  a high quality institution with a good reputation, in a smaller city, next to mountains and a beach! He was able to find it all at the University of Wollongong, and its proximity to Sydney didn’t hurt either.

The staff at the World W.I.S.E Resource Centre helped Calen with information and details; they also have all kinds of resource information for students online.  Noticing his excellent academic record, they encouraged Calen to apply for a highly competitive scholarship that landed him $5,000 AUS - a very nice perk for those long hours studying.

While studying abroad, Calen found that the perspectives and emphasis differed both in the research being and in the course subject matter.  He explains, “For example, in Australia global warming and issues surrounding invasive species are given a lot more attention.  As a developing Biologist, it was really interesting to learn about their perspectives and benefit from their specialized knowledge in certain areas.” 

Calen gained an appreciation for the subtle influence society and culture has on science and research, and how the importance given certain issues in science is not absolute. Scientists in different parts of the world approach topics from different perspectives and have developed expertise in different areas - and that gave him a broader understanding of his field.

He also found he was well-prepared for their education system. He discovered that his education at the U of M had given him a strong theoretical and practical foundation in his field.  He had developed skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and scientific communication which meant he was well-equipped to handle the major assignments and long formal reports he encountered there. Calen was also able to see how some of the U of M program requirements gave him an advantage over students without the same background. 

While abroad, he noticed that the Australian institution didn’t have the same course and program options available to students at the U of M, and that they didn’t have the same opportunities to be involved with research. “You have a lot of options in the Biological Sciences to pursue your passions and to get involved in research,” Calen said. “That may not always be the case at other institutions.”

Being enrolled in an Honours program is also important if you want to work in your field of study, enter a graduate program or consider a career overseas.  “They place a lot of emphasis on Honors programs down under, so it’s a wise choice if you want to keep your options open,” Calen reflects.

He also felt more confident about his degree from the U of M.  “You hear about people going to expensive ivy-league schools, and you wonder how your education measures up.”  After spending a term at another university, Calen believes that “we get an amazing experience at the U of M.  We have some awesome Profs, and all the tools we need to succeed are here. It is up to us to take advantage of that.”

Calen plans to continue with his ongoing commitment to his studies and to research, in order to get the grades and experience that he needs to be competitive for postgraduate funding. His goal is to make a career out of studying life, and to share that passion with others.

He says that he often has to explain to people, even other students, that being a biologist really is a job - a very cool job where you can travel, meet amazing people and never stop learning new things. He implores new students to work hard, keep an open mind and pursue what they are passionate about. The perfect way to do all three is to participate in an exchange with a foreign university.

Calen’s advice for anyone looking at studying overseas: “Start your preparations early!”

Posted in:  Science

Featured Graduate — Deanna Betteridge, 2002 (BESS), 2006 (M.Sc.)

It’s always nice when you can find common ground between your job and your hobbies.

It’s even better when that same common ground exists between your job and your hobbies and your other job.

That’s the case with Deanna Betteridge, a lifelong sports enthusiast whose day job – as an in motion coordinator with Winnipeg in motion – gives her the opportunity to affect change on entire communities, helping members find ways to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives.

But Betteridge’s other job – that of a mental trainer who helps athletes achieve their ideal performance state – also allows her to affect similar changes, albeit on an individual level.  And of course, both jobs provide plenty of inspiration for Betteridge herself to stay active.

“It’s a perfect fit,” says Betteridge, a University of Manitoba alum who graduated from the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management.

“Winnipeg in motion looks at population-level behaviour change, whereas my work with athletes is more of an individual-level behaviour change. Finding out why people do or do not respond to something at both an individual level and a population level is very similar. So there’s a ton of overlap.”

Born and raised in British Columbia, where she was an avid baseball player and figure skater as a teen, Betteridge came to Winnipeg after high school to pursue a kinesiology-based sport psychology degree.

And even though her pilgrimage was initially inspired by the presence of sport psychology expert Dr. Cal Botterill – then a professor at the University of Winnipeg – Betteridge preferred the more “well-rounded degree” offered through the U of M, eventually earning both a Bachelor of Exercise & Sport Science degree in 2002 and a Master of Science (in Sport Psychology) degree in 2006.

“I love the mental part of sport,” says Betteridge. “I love how performance can be made or broken by what goes on in your head: how prepared you are, and how able you are to deal with distractions. I could have used someone like me back in the day when I was competitive in sport. I never had that opportunity to work with a sport psychology consultant or a mental trainer, but I think that opportunity to build skills at a really early age – how to deal with distractions, or how to deal with failure – is really important. Important in life, not just in sport.”

As a mental trainer, Betteridge works primarily with members of local curling teams and with Special Olympics athletes from both Team Manitoba and Team Canada.

Her consultations are informal (“I don’t even own a couch,” she quips), and she’s quick to point out that mental training is now an accepted part of “performance enhancement” regimens – on par with nutrition and biomechanics – as opposed to in years past, when it was only invoked after an athlete encountered some kind of problem.

“Your ideal performance state as a person informs your ideal performance state as an athlete,” she says, “so it’s about working with life balance, finding out what components make you perform ideally, being able to focus appropriately, let go appropriately, process emotions appropriately. It’s this whole emotional intelligence, and being aware of our feelings and thoughts, and how our feelings and thoughts impact our behaviour.”

Just as ideal performance states inform an athlete’s performance, Betteridge’s sport psychology background informs her work with in motion, an organization dedicated to increasing activity levels in communities throughout the city. A partnership between the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the City of Winnipeg and the U of M (the latter led by FKRM’s Health, Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute), in motion is a population-based strategy that seeks to promote physical activity for health, well-being and enjoyment, one in which the term “community” applies to everything from geographically-based areas, aboriginal populations and immigrant/refugee groups to senior citizens, pre-school students and recipients of primary care.

“We work with them from a community-development perspective, assessing what their needs are, where they are at, and how we can assist them in breaking down barriers and increasing opportunities while building the capacity to sustain whatever it is they’re doing,” she explains, adding in motionadheres to a strict “best practice” policy.

“The idea is that you can work with (communities) to get it going, build the resources and the foundation, and then back off and be a behind-the-scenes supporter. We don’t offer ‘programs’ quote-unquote, but we work with communities to develop programs that work for them.”

Introduced to Winnipeg in 2005 (Betteridge was hired in 2007), in motion recently underwent its first awareness survey, the results of which have yet to be released. But with statistics showing the general population is still a long way off from meeting even the minimum recommended physical activity levels, it’s clear Betteridge and her colleagues in the health and wellness community will have their work cut out for them for years to come.

“We know that awareness isn’t enough, because awareness doesn’t translate to behaviour change,” she says.

“So instead we’re working towards awareness coupled with skills development and increased opportunities … That, and having the right people, the right professionals to bring different skill sets to the table, is what makes Winnipeg in motion a success.”

For more information about Winnipeg in motion, check www.winnipeginmotion.ca

Posted in:  Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Featured Graduate — Randal Shore (BRS 2002)

Never let it be said that a stint on reality television can’t lead to a rich and rewarding career in show business.

It certainly paid off handsomely for University of Manitoba alum Randal Shore, a Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management grad who’s now an executive producer at one of Canada’s most prestigious special effects shops.

Of course, it helps if the reality show in question is of the “rich and rewarding” variety itself, not just another trashy iteration of Big Brother, The Bachelor or Who Wants to Marry A Multi-Millionaire?

Just ask Shore, who in 2002 kick started his career in film by appearing in the Manitoba-made Quest for the Bay, a “living history” documentary series that followed eight contestants as they made their way from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay in a York boat, using only the tools, food, clothing and equipment that would’ve been available to fur traders in the 1840s.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” says Shore from Vancouver. “It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done – physically, psychologically and emotionally. It took us 61 days – just me and seven strangers – so by the end we were definitely all friends or foes.

“It wasn’t like we were just going on a camping trip together.”

In retrospect, Shore probably seemed like a no-brainer to the show’s producers, given his background as a camp counselor, wilderness guide and canoe trip leader. Born in Winnipeg, Shore sought post-secondary training at Capilano College in B.C. (where he completed the two-year Recreation Management diploma program), but not before he’d logged time working with at-risk youth in Florida for a wilderness education program called Outward Bound.

He also worked in Whitehorse (for a dog sledding adventure company) before being hired to serve as Outdoor Education Coordinator for what was then the U of M’s Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation Services. He opted to finish his Recreation Studies degree at U of M, even finding time in the summer to answer an ad seeking participants for the production of Quest for the Bay.

The decision proved lucrative, as Shore’s experience enabled him to fulfill his four month field work requirement with Frantic Films, the Winnipeg-based production house that created Quest for the Bay (along with the similarly rugged reality series Pioneer Quest: A Year in the West, and Quest follow-ups Klondike: The Quest for Gold and Quest for the Sea.)

The field work at Frantic (which saw Shore handling research and promotional duties for many of the aforementioned shows) quickly led to a full-time position as a visual effects coordinator, despite the fact he had little experience working in the medium.

“I learned everything (about visual effects) on the job,” says Shore, who in recent years has overseen special effects work on films like Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Dragonball Evolution, Superman Returns and Journey to the Center of the Earth. “I don’t do the actual hands-on stuff, on the computers or the workstations, where you’re working with the software to create the animations. I’m the one managing it. Initially, I was managing schedules and artists, making sure everyone got what they needed … And from there I worked my way up to the producer level, where you’re involved in the bidding and a lot of the client interaction and ultimately, where you’re responsible for delivering the final product.”

In 2007, Frantic sold its software and visual effects divisions to global media conglomerate Prime Focus Group, prompting a move to Vancouver for Shore and his wife, fellow FKRM grad Kyla Koskie (BPE 1997 and BRS 1999). Within months of his arrival, the company had grown from 25 employees to 85, and had traded its 3,000-square-foot office for a 14,500-square-foot base of operations.

Over the summer, Shore’s team contributed scenes to the big budget shoot-‘em-up G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which by September 2009 had grossed nearly $300 million at the box office. Not all the films they’re involved with are winners (Catwoman, anyone?), but the company remains highly-respected in the industry for pioneering software developments in the areas of fluid and particle rendering.

And while Shore himself is now a long way from Winnipeg – and from the York boat that launched this particular leg of his career adventure – he credits two key components of his time here at the U of M with helping him get where he is today.

“One was the quality of the professors and instructors … they were all very approachable and they all showed a genuine interest in the individuals in their classes, and what their goals and pursuits were,” says Shore.

“The other big thing was the practicum experience, which for me has continued for the last eight years of my life. Literally from the day I walked in there, I haven’t stopped learning.”

Posted in:  Kinesiology and Recreation Management

Featured Graduate — Barbara Cajas (BPE 1986)

It’s no surprise that Barbara Cajas – who’s spent the last 20 years teaching others how to look and feel their best – can trace the start of her career to some encouragement she received in high school.

Or more specifically, she can trace it to some encouragement and some discouragement, the latter almost as motivating as the former.

“I had two very strong experiences in high school Phys. Ed.,” says Cajas, the founder and owner of CORE Training and Therapy, a local workout facility and athletic therapy clinic.

“One was a coach who never tolerated anything but the very best from us … and the other was a gymnastics coach who told me that I was too fat, and that I was never going to be any good. I really had both extremes.”

Thankfully, Cajas tends to favour the first approach in her role as a personal trainer, crafting highly specific fitness regimes based on her clients’ individual circumstances, then encouraging them to push themselves until they’re performing at the peak of their abilities.

Though she claims to have been a middling athlete in high school, she’s since racked up an impressive list of credentials, as a Certified Exercise Physiologist (endorsed by the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiologists), a Manitoba Fitness Council Trainer of Fitness Leaders, a CSEP Health & Fitness Program Course Conductor and an NCCP Level III Certified Judo Coach (more on that one later).

Even as a teen, Cajas says she always loved to exercise, which is what prompted her to enroll in (what was then) the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation Studies.

“All I knew was that I felt better when I exercised,” says Cajas, whose muscular frame would make Madonna green with envy. “I felt more confident – like I could do more.”

After graduation, she began imparting her fitness wisdom to others, first in the employ of the U of M’s Target Fitness division, then for the City of Winnipeg’s Parks and Recreation department.

But it wasn’t until a few years later that she started up CORE Training & Therapy (or as it was then called, The Training Firm), fusing her love of fitness with her enthusiasm for one-on-one training.

“Along the way, I always had people saying, ‘You know what you’re doing – can you put me on a program?’” she recalls. “So at first I was doing it for free. Then I had people saying, ‘What are you doing? You have a degree in this. You should be charging people.’”

Though she started out by making house calls to clients’ residences and gyms, demand for her services soon increased to the point that she had to hire and train employees. By 2005, the operation’s growth spurred her to open CORE’s flagship shop on Portage Avenue, where clients can access gym facilities, a therapy clinic and personal training services.

With a staff of 14 or so (all of them CSEP-certified and all of them either holding, or pursuing, degrees in kinesiology), Cajas eschews what she calls “cookie-cutter” training programs in favour of highly individualized regimes that take into account clients’ goals, background and proficiency levels.

“The biggest mistake people make is trying to do what somebody else is doing just because that happened to work for them,” she explains.

“We have to be willing to try what other people are doing, but we also have to be able to say, ‘I like some of this, but the other part isn’t working,’ – to keep the part that’s working, and move on to something else.”

Cajas is no stranger to trying new things. In 1998 – at the age of 36 – she decided to take up judo, ending her teenage self’s “mediocre” streak with a bronze medal at the 2005 Rendezvous Canada competition.

“I’ve always gone hard on weight training, on cardio and balance and stability training … so when I started getting into (judo), because I was already in shape, I could practice the techniques until I was dropping dead,” says Cajas, who retired from the sport after her big win. “They say that in judo, to get good at a technique, you have to do it 10,000 times. And there’s, like, 50-odd techniques in stand-up judo alone – never mind the ground work – so you have to be in shape.”

A passionate proponent of physical activity in all walks of life (in addition to her day job, she’s often quoted in the media on health-related issues, and returns to the U of M each fall and winter to teach the Friday night kids classes), Cajas can’t help but get emotional while discussing the link between active lifestyles and academic success.

“It’s never been this bad as far as kids being obese,” she says. “We have to live in our bodies for the rest of our lives. It is insane to graduate someone from Grade 12 when they don’t even know how to take care of their bodies.”

A sobering statement, to be sure. But as long as there are those looking for guidance on the path to good health, Cajas is only too happy to help them help themselves.

“Success is when somebody feels better about themselves – they feel like they got what they came for,” she says.

“To me, the ideal client is someone who’s receptive, but who gives feedback. They say, ‘I like this, but I don’t like this,’ which makes it so much easier to help them make changes, and discover things on their own.”

Posted in:  Kinesiology and Recreation Management

A chance to make a difference

For dean Harvy Frankel getting into social work was a case of finding the right fit at the right time.

“I grew up in a family that really valued education,” Frankel said. A native Winnipegger, Frankel said both he and his brother Sid were drawn into social work. It probably didn’t hurt that he was growing up in the 1960s.

“Social issues and social consciousness were a very big deal for me,” Frankel said. He was heavily involved in the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) as a kid. The group had a very strong group work component, exposing him to many of the values of social work before he had ever taken a class in it.

“I think also the times were such that traditional professional careers were not all that appealing,” Frankel said. At least not for everyone.

“So law or medicine, those weren’t terribly appealing, if you wanted to make a difference you were attracted to another route. My apologies to the dean of law and the dean of medicine,” he added with a laugh.

“The other thing about social work that was so appealing and continues to be appealing to me is just the range, the vastness of social work; you can do anything from literally direct service to policy development to research, anywhere in the lifespan. You can work with prenatal issues or issues around dying and grief.”

He kicked off his education close to home, completing a bachelor of social work in 1976 at the University of Manitoba and moving into family therapy.

“At the beginning I thought I would be a practitioner for ever,” Frankel said. “These were the days when the family therapy movement was growing.” So when he headed to McGill a few years later to complete his master’s degree the goal wasn’t to get into academia but rather to specialize his skills as a practitioner in marriage and family therapy.

But instead, “I sort of got the research bug,” Frankel said. As a student he dug into questions surrounding the child welfare system and quickly found himself working as a research associate. He also did a lot of teaching as part of the project.

“So yeah, suddenly there were two of the three foci of an academic position – teaching and research – and I have to say I just really enjoyed the academic environment,” Frankel said.

Pursuing a PhD was a more complicated question. Doctoral programs in Canada were few and far between and the University of Toronto, the primary program, was not a good match for Frankel’s interests.

“I looked at the big three in the United States: Columbia, University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago.” California did have nicer weather, he noted with a laugh, and overall Berkeley felt like a good match.

There was a long tradition of Canadians heading to Berkeley to study social work, so Frankel had Canadian peers when he arrived and even ended up being joined by his brother while he was there. As with any move outside the country, half the education came simply from being in a new environment.

“It’s interesting, most Americans they assume we’re like them, because we speak the same language and share some of the same geography but the differences become clear in terms of them – and this is a gross generalization – having more of an emphasis on individualism and us on collectivism,” Frankel said. “But Berkeley is really an interesting community. It’s a lively somewhat leftwing community in an island of conservative California, like most American cities it was absolutely segregated which was our first real experience with that and that was probably the most jarring part.”

The cohort of students, however, were drawn from around the world, making the classroom a lively meeting place for ideas and approaches.

“It was really a nice exchange. We learned a lot from each other. We stay in touch to this day,” Frankel said. But as much as he enjoyed the experience, he was also in a hurry to get on with his academic career.

“I didn’t like this sort of albatross of a dissertation lying over my head and that kind of stuff. So I worked really hard and I finished in three years, which was the record at the time, I don’t know if it’s been beaten.”

Frankel and his wife Sandy Loewen – she was in social work as well and is now a social work manager in the health care system – had originally anticipated going back to Montreal after graduation. But a phone call from the U of M’s Peter Hudson tilted them to Winnipeg.

“We thought we would stay two or three years,” Frankel said. Instead they’ve been here over 20 and have had two children, Jessica, 16, and Julian, 20, a science undergrad at the U of M. It probably didn’t hurt that Frankel ended up being joined at the U of M by his brother Sid.

“He did his bachelors and masters here and PhD at Berkeley, we overlapped by a year,” Frankel said. “His area is really more research in social policy, focused on poverty reduction. We make a really good research team. Our interests and our strengths are different enough that we complement each other so we collaborated on a number of projects. I’ve become much more interested in poverty reduction as a result of our work together and he’s become more interested in the clinical.”

Frankel said coming back to the same school where he did his undergrad was a little nerve-wracking at first. But almost as soon he walked in the door one of his old professors was there to greet him as a colleague and he quickly settled in.

“Once I was tenured I began to flirt with academic administration, I directed a research group for a while and acted as associate dean when various associate deans were away, and then became associate dean,” Frankel said. Last year he took up the dean’s job. It was a chance to make a difference at the faculty level.

It’s a complicated faculty, teaching students at the bachelors, masters and PhD level, delivering certificate programs with the help of Extended Education, and teaching directly in rural communities through distance education and satellite programs.

“We’re also the only accredited social work program in the province. So we feel we have an obligation to serve the entire province,” Frankel said.

“Right now we’re reviewing both bachelors and masters programs. It has been at least a decade since they’ve had a review and social work, in some ways, has changed a lot in a decade. The importance of indigenous practice and aboriginal people in social work has intensified tremendously,” Frankel said. “We have more Aboriginal students than any other faculty, but we also have to have content and curricula that acknowledges Aboriginal practice and ways of thinking.”

The faculty also continues to debate how it should think about social work.

“We’re emphasizing anti-oppressive practice and social justice more than we have in the past,” Frankel said. “And that continues as we bring on new faculty members who have that sort of orientation, social work has always struggled with what in the professional literature is called the cause or function debate. Is social work about helping people adjust to the challenges of living in this society or is social work about social change?”

Some faculties choose sides and say broadly that they’re interested in social policy and social change. But given the University of Manitoba’s role as the only social work program in Manitoba, Frankel said they need to be balanced.

“We’re a faculty that says both, that we have an obligation to work on social change but we also have an obligation to work with people that are really effected by the current social structure.”

One of the current projects the faculty is looking at – along with a range of partners in the field – is creating a social work strategy to map out Manitoba’s needs. It would be similar to nursing strategies that the province has undertaken over the last few years that have seen the number of nurses graduating in the province expand.

“We think it is now time for a social work strategy, because a large number of social work positions are underfilled especially in the Aboriginal services,” Frankel said.

Beyond that, there are the day to day tasks of running the faculty, a job that Frankel said is made easier given the quality of staff and faculty members he has working around him.

“Being an internal dean can sometimes be really difficult but I have to say both faculty and staff have been incredibly welcoming, very enthusiastic, and everyone is working very hard,” Frankel said. Being dean has meant his research work has taken a hit. But he still keeps engaged in projects.

“I think a dean has to be prepared to speak on behalf of the faculty, the profession and if you’re in social work that means you need to be involved in what’s going on, you need to be current,” Frankel said. And while it’s generally as a favour for friends, he still engages in clinical practice on occasion, which means meeting directly with clients: the sort of direct engagement with people that attracted him to the field.

Posted in:  Social Work