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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community mourns loss of Aoki

trevor.kenney — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:57:13 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge community expresses its most sincere condolences to the family, friends colleagues and many former students of Dr. Tetsuo (Ted) Aoki, a respected teacher, school administrator, researcher, sessional faculty member at the U of L and a 1988 Honorary Degree recipient, who passed away August 31 in Vancouver, BC at age 92.

Dr. Aoki was the first Japanese-Canadian teacher in Southern Alberta, and a former school administrator with Lethbridge School District #51. He received his doctorate from U of Oregon and was a professor and Chair of Secondary Education at U of A. He also taught at UBC and at the U of L in summer courses.

The national "Aoki award in Canadian curriculum studies" is named for Dr. Aoki, who was a very influential Canadian curriculum scholar and a wise, humble and thoughtful mentor to many curriculum scholars and practitioners.

He was also a renowned and deeply loved teacher to many generations of students, student teachers, graduate students and professors at the U of L, in Alberta and British Columbia, and beyond.

Dr Aoki's memorial service will take place Sunday, September 9 beginning at 1 p.m. at Oceanview Funeral Home, 4000 Imperial St., in Burnaby, BC.

The family has asked that in lieu of floral tributes that a donation be made in the name of Dr. Aoki to the Department of Secondary Education, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2G5.

Stribbell able to take education abroad

trevor.kenney — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:39:42 +0000

As a teacher, Howard Stribbell (BA/BEd '98, MEd '04) understands you can only make true assessments by comparing apples to apples. Now that he has the perspective of an administrator, he's able to do just that.

Stribbell, the Head of Schools at the International School of Macao (TIS) in China, says he always knew he was getting ahead of the competition by earning his teaching degree at the U of L, but he never really understood by how much.

"When you're in it and you're going to school, you don't realize what you have compared to other places," says Stribbell. "When I was in the program, I got to build great relationships with my professors, both in and outside of class. But I was fairly naïve, I didn't know that wasn't common."

Alumnus Howard Stribbell is the Head of Schools at the International School of Macao. He's back at the U of L for the Faculty of Education Teacher Job Fair.

When he began teaching, he quickly realized other differences between his U of L Faculty of Education experience and the experiences of those who studied elsewhere.

"The structure of the program, with so many practical hours and how they have us in the field, doing the work, all reinforced by workshops and support from the faculty and teacher mentors, makes all the difference," he says. "I didn't realize this until I became a teacher and started to see the differences between student teachers. When I became an administrator and would look at graduates coming out of the universities, then I could really see a difference."

Stribbell will be back at the U of L for the Jan. 19 Faculty of Education Teacher Job Fair (9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the UHall Atrium). His administrative role in Macao is not only a testament to the value of his U of L education, but it also provides him a platform to recruit new teachers for his school. The fact he comes home to bring U of L grads on board speaks to his faith in the program.

"We notice it over here, we've had student teachers from other institutions and we've also had a U of L student teacher, and our second one has just joined us," says Stribbell. "The quality between them is very different, and it comes down to the amount of hours they are able to spend doing the practical teaching."

Stribbell started his teaching career at Erle Rivers High School in Milk River, shortly after earning his BA/BEd degree. He spent eight years there, working his way up from a rookie teacher to vice principal. An Alberta Teachers' Association advertisement trumpeting the establishment of a new international school that was going to implement the Alberta educational curriculum led Stribbell and his family to Macao.

"It's been a world of opportunity," he says. "The whole world of international teaching was opened up for me, and you realize how big the demand is for Canadian teachers."
The school was established in 2002 to provide a Canadian curriculum and accreditation to local and expatriate students. With English as the primary language of instruction, students graduate with an Alberta High School diploma. Located on the campus of Macau ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Science and Technology, close to 900 students from pre-K to Grade 12 currently attend.

Stribbell says parents had to take a leap of faith to trust the teaching methods they introduced.

"Originally, parents just had to trust us," he says. "They really had to suspend their disbelief and trust us when we told them that the Alberta curriculum will be world recognized and that students would be able to get into universities around the world."

Two graduating classes later, and a host of success stories to tell, have solidified the approach. Emphasizing critical thinking, collaborative working, the ability to formulate an independent opinion and defend it both in written work and orally, are new concepts to traditional Chinese education but they have been embraced. So to has the community atmosphere cultivated by the school, something Stribbell recalls from his time at the U of L.

"The ability to take risks has always been encouraged at the
U of L, as well as the importance of building relationships," he says. "When we live over here, we're a community. Teachers work together, socialize together, play together and you really build a different kind of relationship with your co-workers. The U of L helped instill that sense of community that I hope to try and reflect here at the school."

· Stribbell earned his Masters degree from the U of L in 2004, while still teaching at Erle Rivers High School. He combined online courses with on campus and independent study work.

· Macao is situated 60km southwest of Hong Kong, and, along with Hong Kong, is one of two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China.

· The International School of Macao (TIS) has students representing 42 different nationalities, with about 40 per cent of the student population from the local area.

· Stribbell says he's looking for a special kind of teacher at the Job Fair. "I'm looking for students who are interested in adventure, are open to new things and who can demonstrate they have taken the initiative. We're a young school, so we're always looking for new ways to do things. The status quo is what happened yesterday."

· Stribbell is married to Doreen, and his children Timothy (13) and Rebecca (10) both attend TIS.

· The Teacher Job Fair began in 2000 and currently sees about 40 school boards from across Canada and overseas represented.

This story originally appeared in the January issue of the Legend.

Career Fair opening doors

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:11:37 +0000

It has proven to be one of the most important days of the year for some ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students. By the number of corporate clients that choose to participate every fall, it's obviously a key date on the calendar for them. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's annual Career Fair is the epitome of a win-win situation.

Presented by the Career Resources Centre and specifically the Career and Employment Services office, Career Fair runs Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the indoor track of the 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness.

More than 90 organizations will once again take part in the event, providing U of L students with access to information on careers in government, agriculture, the oil and gas industry, banking, health, human and social services, criminal justice, education, retail fitness and more.

A volunteer contingent of up to 70 students helps co-ordinate the one-day career blitz and with ample evidence of past success stories, organizers are confident in saying it's a must to attend for students beginning to plan their career path.

"The feedback we get from both students and employers is wonderful," says Pat Tanaka, director of Career & Employment Services. "So many of our students have started their careers with this fair, and even for those who have no idea what they are planning on doing in the future, it's a valuable information resource for them to start getting ideas."

Wendy Peters, manager, internships at Alberta Municipal Affairs, has used the Career Fair setting to benefit her organization.

"In my experience, this is the best fair offered in terms of how well prepared the students are and how well the employers are treated when they come to campus," says Peters.

Alberta Municipal Affairs has an already established relationship with the U of L's Geography Department and, combined with their Career Fair presence, received great interest in their internship program for new graduates this past year. A total of 19 students applied, four of whom were hired as interns in the Administrator Program and two others who were accepted to the Land Use Planner program, giving the U of L six interns in total.

This year, it's expected a number of alumni will be back on campus, this time representing employers looking to bring more U of L students on board. Tanaka says they will welcome
18 alumni, with the promise of more to come.

"Simply put, it works for both students and employers," she says.

Tanabe captures essence of landscape

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:08:55 +0000

Takao Tanabe is one of the many outstanding artists featured in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's renowned Art Gallery. The Gallery, located behind the Sorel Etrog Moses sculpture in the Centre for Fine Arts on level 6, houses one of the finest art collections in the entire country.

Takao Tanabe

Born in Prince Rupert in 1926, Takao Tanabe spent the early part of his life interned with his family and other Japanese-Canadians in the B.C. Interior as a result of the Second World War. After the end of the war and having worked several menial jobs, Tanabe decided to go to art school. Sixty years later, Tanabe's work can be found in more than 50 public and 120 corporate collections around the world.

Tanabe was known throughout the '50s and '60s as an abstract painter, studying with such well-known abstract expressionists as Hans Hofmann. Tanabe's artistic development underwent a dramatic shift in the late 1960s when he began to move away from abstraction towards a concentration on landscape painting. The artist sought a simple landscape form, which he could execute in a spontaneous manner . . . one 'go' or one application of paint.

Throughout his career, Takao Tanabe has received numerous awards, including Doctor of Letters (Hon.) from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Doctor of Fine Arts (Hon.) from The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and the Order of British Columbia. His work and the example set by an esteemed career as an artist, art educator and administrator were recognized by the Governor General in April of 1999 when Tanabe was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2003, Tanabe was the recipient of The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Since 1980, the artist has lived and worked in Errington on Vancouver Island.

Tanabe will be one of the featured artists at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Main Gallery in A Little History on the Prairies, opening in January 2011.

Lasting Images - Takao Tanabe

trevor.kenney — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:14:52 +0000

Born in Prince Rupert in 1926, Takao Tanabe spent the early part of his life interned with his family and other Japanese-Canadians in the B.C. Interior as a result of the Second World War. After the end of the war and having worked several menial jobs, Tanabe decided to go to art school. Sixty years later, Tanabe's work can be found in more than 50 public and 120 corporate collections around the world.

Tanabe will be one of the featured artists at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Main Gallery in A Little History on the Prairies, opening in January 2011.

In every corner of the globe

trevor.kenney — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:44:00 +0000

When you think of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's global reach, you might not initially think of a connection to the current war in Afghanistan.
However, that's just where some members of the U of L student and alumni community are right now, based in Kandahar, Afghanistan, literally and figuratively one of the world's hot spots.

An on-site Tim Horton's provides some measure of familiarity, as does regular e-mail and other contact with friends and family, but there is no question that for these young men and others serving in the Canadian Forces overseas, the war is more than a 30-second clip on the evening news.

In this submitted photo, Bombardier (Bdr) Keenan Geiger (l) is a current fourth-year Edmonton campus management student majoring in Human Resources. Now taking a break from school, he is on a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan as a reserve member of the Canadian Forces. His unit is part of the 20th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, based in Edmonton. Geiger is the nephew of Naomi Cramer, an administrator in the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience.

Geiger shows off a U of L flag with Cpl. Andrew McDonald (middle) who graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and (right) Calgary police officer and Lt. Kevin Collier, who holds a Bachelor of Management degree in Accounting, which he obtained in 2004. As well, U of L alumnus Tyler Paynton (BA '07) a member of the 18th Air Defence Regiment in Lethbridge, is also serving in Afghanistan but was not able to be in the photograph.

To send a brief message to Keenan Geiger or his colleagues in Afghanistan, e-mail communications@uleth.ca and the notes will be forwarded.

Ptycia scores with U of L degree

trevor.kenney — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:15:46 +0000

On frozen ponds or in heated arenas, Canadians love their hockey. Dale Ptycia (BASc '85) also has a passion for the game, but he took it one step farther, turning it into a career as senior manager of licensing and merchandising for Hockey Canada (HC).

Ptycia's love of the game started in Lethbridge where he grew up playing minor hockey. While he admits he loved playing hockey, it never got in the way of his education.

"My dad quit school in Grade 9 to work on the family farm, so my parents always taught us how lucky we were that we had a chance to complete high school," remembers Ptycia.

Within two years of graduating from Catholic Central High School in 1976, Ptycia apprenticed as a carpenter, attended the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge part time and married his high school sweetheart.

"With the economic downturn, I decided it would be a good idea to pursue a post-secondary education to follow a new career path," says Ptycia. "I enrolled at the U of L as a mature student in 1980."

In his second year, Ptycia focused on physical education classes and entered the Faculty of Education, but by his third year, he decided not to become a teacher. His passion lay in the administrative and coaching side of sport. In his last two years at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, he participated as a student representative with the Salary, Tenure and Promotion Committee, and the General Facilities Planning Committee for the Department of Physical Education.

"That experience was great. It gave me a lot of insight into administration, with respect to strategic planning, and has led me to some of the components that I now exercise with HC," says Ptycia. "I am in awe of the knowledge and expertise of the professors and faculty at the U of L and how the information they imparted helps me in my day-to-day responsibilities."

After graduation in 1985, Ptycia worked as the administrator for Lethbridge Hire-a-Student, before moving to Calgary in 1987 to become a program coordinator at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Calgary, however, was not to become his new home.

"David McDowell, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's first hockey coach and a former instructor of mine, led me to my present career with HC. He put me in touch with people in Ottawa, and I was fortunate to be offered a job there in 1988 with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, now recognized as HC," says Ptycia.

Over the years, Ptycia's job evolved from program manager to senior manager of licensing and merchandising. In charge of creating revenue streams for HC, Ptycia sets up licensing contracts that allow companies access to intellectual property and trademark designs. Royalties generated from merchandise support grassroots hockey programs across the country. He is grateful to be a part of an organization that gives to so many people.

"I see myself as coming full circle, working in the field of hockey as a result of my academic career and then giving back to the community whether by volunteering as a hockey coach, mentoring interns or donating to the U of L," says Ptycia.

Recently, Ptycia and other alumni gathered with U of L President, Dr. Bill Cade, and MP Rick Casson in Ottawa.

"It was a great opportunity to gather as alumni and talk about some of the opportunities that lay ahead for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and to learn about the incredible growth and evolution of the campus," says Ptycia. "It is a priority for my family to give back to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ that gave me the ability to work in a field that I have such a passion for."

U of L's global imprint seen in Hong Kong

trevor.kenney — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:51:16 +0000

We often think of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's global imprint by the number of international students we have studying here on campus. Often forgotten is the impact a U of L educated student makes once leaving campus and applying that knowledge in the real world.
Hong Kong is one place where the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ has made its mark, as evidenced by the recent alumni reception that tapped into the more than 400 U of L alumni in the area, the largest such concentration of graduates in one place outside of Canada. Bringing those people together to celebrate their alma mater represents a step toward keeping them connected to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.
"We have found that there's a really strong bond between the folks who graduated from the U of L who are in Hong Kong," Laurel Corbiere, director of the International Centre for Students, says. "They want to hear from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and they want to get together so we were really happy to be able to put together an event that facilitated that."
Two attendees of the gathering, Jimmy Chu and Howard Stribbell, offer completely divergent stories from their experience at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, but today they are connected by the similarity that their educations are making a significant contribution to the Hong Kong area.
Stribbell (BA/BEd, MEd), who grew up in southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan, is the vice principal of secondary at the International School of Macao in Macao SAR, China.
"My master's program was essential in pushing me to grow in my professional life," Stribbell says. "I absolutely loved teaching. I delighted in the community that we were able to foster within a classroom. Through my master's program, my goals began to broaden. I saw the value of extending that learning community across the school and among schools. As such, I began to move into more administrative roles."
During his time at the school, the student population has grown from 350 to 800 students, they have moved to a new campus and are, just now, graduating their first students. All the while, the school is the first outside of the province of Alberta to use an all-Alberta curriculum, with their students writing the same exams as Alberta students. Stribbell also has two other U of L graduates working with him on staff.
"As an administrator in Alberta, I knew that U of L grads had spent more time in the classroom. This gave them an edge when it came to starting their careers," he says. "Now that I am in Macao, we recruit from all over the province and I would love to see more U of L grads apply."
Chu (Mgmt '91) came to the U of L as an international student, beginning his studies with an English as a Second Language class in the spring of 1989. Over the next two and a half years, he'd complete a management degree and begin his career in Vancouver, B.C. Two years later it was back to Hong Kong where he would begin the development of a number of business pursuits. Today, in partnership with his wife, he runs four companies, two each in compact disc manufacturing and leather finishing and handbag manufacturing.
"Inside the campus I built my personality and beliefs through communication and interactions with classmates and teachers from different cultures and countries," Chu says of his time at the U of L.
"Academic training of course is important, but the most important is the cultivating environment and encouraging atmosphere the campus offered for me to learn how to express myself, listen to objections, cooperate to solve problems, build my confidence and so on."
Both alumni appreciated the reception and look forward to further initiatives that will help the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ carve out its niche in the Hong Kong area.
"The establishment of an alumni chapter will be essential in enhancing the U of L's presence in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia," says Stribbell. "It will also provide us, as alumni, one more vehicle for networking and staying in touch."

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