Produced by the Mohawk College Journalism Program Issue 2

201227

September

P8/Jane Goodall swings by to talk conservation

P4/Ti-Cats coach local teens

P6/New menu choices in Cellar

P.2

www.ignitenews.ca

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.ca NEWS

Students gather at the newly-named Scotiabank Café. Photo: Kelly Kotulak

Scotiabank donates $350k to Mohawk Shawn McGuireIgnite News

As students return to classes for another year, Mohawk College received some financial help in the form of a $350,000 donation from Scotiabank.

Of the donation, $300,000 will go towards the ongoing Fennell Campus Renewal Project, which has seen the addition of a new wing on the college, facilities upgrades and the construction of a new recreation centre. The remaining $50,000 will go towards bursaries for students.

In recognition of the donation, the Col-lege will be naming the seating area in the newly built H-Wing the Scotiabank Café.

“Scotiabank is pleased to support the renewal of Mohawk College’s Fennell Campus with the Scotiabank Café,” said Troy Wright, Executive Vice President of Retail Distribution for Scotiabank. “An important part of the post secondary edu-cation experience is the exchange of ideas and collaboration on projects with fellow students; something we hope will take place regularly at Scotiabank Café.”

Mohawk College Communications Coor-dinator Sean Coffey says the donation will directly benefit students.

“Overall, the money that was contributed to the renovations will allow us to continue the improvements we’ve been making to the campus,” said Coffey. “Another really important contribution is the bursary [Scotiabank] is setting up.”

Awards Officer Myrna Kelly says that con-tributions towards bursaries help students in financial need attend college.

“When money comes into the college, from either a company or a donor, they have to find how they wish that money is to be distributed,” said Kelly. “We en-deavor to get that money to the students as quickly as possible.”

The donation isn’t the first from Scotia-bank to Mohawk College.

“They contributed to the building of the I-Wing 10 years ago, with a $150,000 donation,” said Coffey. “There’s a class-room named in their honour for that.” (With files from Kelly Kotulak)

Mohawk launches a new programStefan PetkovIgnite News

Mohawk College is welcoming a new two-year program. The Community Integration through Co-operative Education (CICE) program provides individuals with devel-opmental disabilities and other significant learning challenges the opportunity to experience college life.

“So far it’s been great, I’m learning about living a healthy lifestyle, to be organized and its just fantastic,” said Stefan Kahn, one student from the CICE program.

A Learning Facilitator, who may attend classes, will accompany students in order to help prepare them for testing and follow-up study skills. Students will be tak-ing at least one college academic course in each semester.

The CICE consists of mandatory classes that the students are required to take, just like everyone else’s timetable. The students will be exposed to class trips and the avail-ability to be placed in an academic envi-ronment of area of their choice with their elective. Classes include TV and Radio Broadcasting from the Media department.

“It’s been an incredible experience so far, the students are most motivated,” said

Ryan Iles, the professor of Recreation and Leisure for CICE. “Seeing them engaged in the campus so quickly and already making an impact, hearing from other professors how great it is to have them in the class is just great.”

The CICE has several goals: putting the students on the road to academic success, enhancing skills through modified programming to meet each individual’s needs; strengthening students’ basic numeric, communications, computer skills and human relations; and enhancing the students’ job related skills and involvement in the community through a work place-ment opportunity.

ignitenews.ca

P.3

www.ignitenews.cawww.ignitenews.cawww.ignitenews.cawww.ignitenews.caNEWSA more convenient commute?

Neil ReyesIgnite News

To encourage commuters to consider al-ternative transportation, Mohawk College is offering students and staff cyclists free memberships to try out its sheltered bike pad.

The Restricted Access Bike Parking Facility is a caged area where cyclists can safely store their bikes. Sitting outside of C-wing, the electronically locked camera-moni-tored shelter protects bicycles from both the elements and thieves. In its inaugural operation, Mohawk is offering 44 eight-month free trial memberships for use of the facility.

“Anybody can give it a try,” says Alan Griffiths, sustainable environment special-ist at Mohawk. “Hopefully we can increase our full-time cycling population.”

In a year with a significantly reduced parking lot and construction on West 5th and on campus, students and staff may be considering alternatives to commuting by car. While public transit and walking are the most immediate solutions to trouble-some parking, biking offers an opportunity to get to campus quickly and to get a bit of physical activity.

“I’m a bit of what you call a fitness fanatic,” says Alex Rogue, a student cyclist at Mo-hawk. He commutes for reasons of “health and fitness”.

Riding a bike to school may not be for everyone, especially on busy Hamilton streets.

“Always keep your eyes everywhere,” cau-tions Rogue. “That’s the only drawback about commuting on a bicycle, it’s the traffic.”

Though a tricky ride may deter commuters from biking to campus, the convenience of a bike free shelter and avoiding traffic could potentially convert motorists into cyclists.

Lunch choices at the cafeteria: What did you have today? Photo: Sarah Aitchison

Fighting the “Freshman Fifteen”Sarah AitchisonIgnite News

As students move into their dorms, away from Mom and Dad for the first time, studies show many of them pack on the pounds when they transition into a college environment.

“I gained about 15 to 20 pounds my first year and I’m still living the freshman 15 dream two years later, “ said Mohawk student Brittany Lancaster. She believes the ‘freshman 15’ is the real deal.

“I was living on residence for a year, and it’s really tempting when you just have a meal plan. What’s realistic, a pizza or a salad?”

At Mohawk College there are many cafeteria options, but it’s ultimately up to the student to make the healthy choice. And this September, students may find it easier to eat healthy. Rob Morosin, Food & Beverage Manager for Mohawk’s student association, reevaluated the menu of Mohawk’s popular food outlet, The Grill, which is now called The Urban Fork.

“We took a look at what items we were offering on campus,” said Morosin. I think

there’s a huge focus in the food industry on not only freshness, but also healthy alternatives. We wanted to change some of the items.”Beyond the cafeteria, Mohawk students can beat the ‘freshman 15’ by using the college’s gym. Alex Paris, Mohawk Athlet-ics & Recreation Officer, encourages stu-dents to get active and join the free fitness classes, Monday through Thursday.

“There’s a difference between exercising and being active. The example I always use is “do they take the stairs or do they take the elevators in residence to get to their room on the third floor?”

At the end of the day, students are in charge of their destiny, but Mohawk College has made it easier for them to live a healthy lifestyle on campus.

With files from Courtney Macdonald and Bryan Naylor

P.4

www.ignitenews.ca

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.ca SPORTS

From Ivor Wynne to help students win

Diego FlamminiIgnite Sports

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be sharing their gridiron knowledge with area high schools this month. 

High schools in Hamilton, Burlington, and St. Catharines will receive three visits from Ticat players, who’ll be helping the coaches with drills and advice as part of the Canadian Football League’s high school mentorship program.

Ancaster’s Bishop Tonnos Titans welcomed Tiger-Cat linebacker Jamall Johnson. Johnson said the community initiative is a great way to give back to those who support the league.

“It’s a great thing that the CFL is doing this,” Johnson said during a break in practice. “Having guys going out to local high schools and giving back a little bit here and there.”

Bishop Tonnos coach Trevor Knoll said he appreciates having a player of Johnson’s caliber work with his players.

“For him to come out and be with the kids I think is just a fantastic idea,” he said. “The boys are absolutely pumped about this. It adds a lot of energy.”

Titans players said they practice with a little more intensity knowing they’re under the watchful eye of a professional athlete.

 “(It’s a) real motivation for our team,” said Titans player Jaycey Lewczuk, 18. “Everyone seems like they’re happy to be out. We like him here.”

Ti-Cat kick return specialist Chris Williams visited Governor Simcoe Secondary School in St. Catharines and said working with the high school players pays respect to his mentors.

“None of this (football) really means anything if you don’t have people who support you,” Williams said. “We all had support groups, we all had people helping us out and anytime we can give back and offer that same type of support to the younger generation, it definitely makes a

difference. None of us would have made it here all on our own.”

 By the end of September, 24 high schools around the Golden Horseshoe will have been visited by members of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Tiger-Cats linebacker Jamall Johnson works with football players at Bishop Tonnos Photo: Glen Cuthbert

Titans players were inspired by the pros during practice. Photo: Glen Cuthbert

(with files from Glen Cuthbert and Lee McConnell)

the game really well to step in at this time. However, if anyone wanted to come and check us out we practice daily at Hillfield Strathallan from 5 to 7 pm.”

The men’s and women’s soccer, fastball, and rugby teams have already started play-ing for the year.  Tryouts for these teams and others are finishing up, however there is still a way for students to get involved in

the schools ath-letics through intramural sports. Paris also pointed out that intramurals are a great way to stay active and involved with the athletics de-partment within the school.

The school’s golf team is currently looking for new members. The team won a sil-ver medal at last years OCAA

championships, and are looking

to do just as well this year. The season in-cludes two one-day invitational tourna-ments, and the OCAA championships. The team is especially looking for female players, so any girls with a handicap of 25 or less need to try out. Any men looking to try out need a handicap of 12 or less.

www.ignitenews.ca

P.5

ignitenews.ca

SPORTS

Mountaineers gear up for varsity seasonTaylor AblettIgnite Sports

Mohawk College is part of the OCAA – Ontario College Athletic Association – and competes at the varsity level with thirteen different teams; Basketball, Soccer, Vol-leyball, Rugby, Fastball, Badminton, Cross Country, Golf, and Curling.

The success of the varsity sports pro-gram is attributed to the Athletics and Recreation Department here at the college. Alex Paris, the fitness and facilities of-ficer at Mohawk College, has his own idea on what he thinks is a fac-tor in the success.

“It’s the leadership from the various coaches we’ve had throughout the year. We’ve gone through a really in depth process making sure we have good coaches,” says Paris. “What they do is recruit, first and foremost, student athletes. So we know that they are going to be academically suc-cessful, which means they’re going to be here longer. From there, they are able to develop a good athletic program.”

The men’s basketball team had success in their season last year, winning a gold

medal at the OCAA championships and the CCAA national championships, along with a handful of individual awards won by members of the team.

This year the college welcomes two new head coaches, Andre Simon and Bill Stuart. Simon will be coaching the Cross Country team, and Stuart will be coaching the Rugby team.

“I am very excited to be the new varsity head coach of the men’s rugby team and looking forward to the season,” says Stu-art. “Our team happens to be very young, made up of mainly first year students or players who have not played college rugby before.”

Although tryouts are officially over, Stuart points out that ”any player wishing to try out would have to be a player that knows

Photo: Elia Koolsbergen

Local MMA fighter poised for shot at greatnessMike BlackIgnite Sports

Despite only picking up Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) five years ago at the age of 20, Stoney Creek’s Josh Hill is now undefeated in his professional career with nine wins. Now he is a veteran of the Score Fighting Series (SFS), and sees himself gaining his way into the UFC in the next few years.

“The people that I am surrounding myself with are people that are just amazing fighters, amazing trainer, amazing training partners. There is no reason why I can’t. I am young still.”

Hill fought for the first time professionally in October of 2009 for the SFS without any experience as an amateur fighter, but quickly realized that MMA was something that he had a passion for.

“I knew I wanted to fight. I didn’t have any amateur fights or anything like that, but my coach came up to me and told me somebody got injured and asked me if I want to fight, and I said yeah.”

Still perfect in his young career, the ban-tamweight brawler Hill is yet to feel the sting of defeat, but is busy savoring the glory and satisfaction of victory.

He is aiming to fight again before the end of 2012.

P.6

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.ca

P.6

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.ca ENTERTAINMENT

Forks! The Cellar finally grows up

If you haven’t been to the Cellar yet, you’re missing out. The mediocre pub grub is gone. Instead, there is a selec-tion of classier options, from a team platter with five appetizers for $15, to the spinach dip. With the dip, get the chips. The pita is dry and falls apart in the dip – not good for scooping.

There are four new poutine options including a delicious vegetarian option and the “ Cellar Dweller,” with pulled pork, chicken and bacon. The fries are cut on site instead of frozen. All of them come in under $10.

The Cellar is now serving on plates instead of those awkward baskets. In-stead of plastic forks in a pile, students will find red fabric napkins with real metal forks and knives. Service is little slow to start but management is quick to fix mistakes.

The real star is the Monster Burger. This behemoth comes with 6 patties

on a bun the size of a serving tray, tons of cheese, the usual toppings, and a massive order of fries. The $25 price tag is steep but if you and a friend can finish it in 25 minutes, you don’t have to pay. This has been attempted three times, once successfully with 15 sec-onds to spare. Participants say the bun is bone dry.

These changes are the work of Rob Morosin, the MSA’s Food and Bever-age manager. Hired on in June, Mo-rosin saw an opportunity for a full service restaurant on campus and ran with it.

“So far the response from everybody has been overwhelming,” said Moro-sin. “By the end of September we’ll have all of our systems refined, and hopefully we’ll be a well polished and well oiled machine.”

Despite setbacks, this new, grown-up Cellar is a big improvement and a long-overdue addition to the student centre.

It’s more than just beer ... but there is still beer (whew!) Photo: Joanna Ward

NHL13 … possibly your only lockout option

The Players’ Association may be locked out, but you don’t have to be. EA Sports has just released its newest instalment of the NHL series on Sep-tember 11 and it is the most innovative to date.

EA has many special features for their 20th anniversary product including a Stanley Cup Collector’s Edition, and multiple new features.

The most innovative feature is EA’s True Performance Skating. It turns NHL13 into one of the most realistic sports simulations of all time. Al-though, as Ryan Strome of the Niagara Ice Dogs tweeted, sometimes “turning in NHL13 is like turning a Boeing 747 airplane.”

Another new feature, GM Connected, allows up to a whopping 750 people to play in an online league. This mode will definitely be a favourite for those NHL fantasy warriors that are missing out on the beginning of the 2012-2013 NHL season. Coupled with the new NHL13 Companion App, you can now run your team from your iPhone just like a real GM.

The AI in NHL13 has gotten a revamp as well. Defence men now learn from your moves and predict your plays. Another noticeable revamp is goalten-ders. They no longer allow the infa-mous “glitch goals” and notorious 2-on-1s, sliding across making acro-batic saves. Accordingly, game scores hover around a more realistic 5 goals per game.

Ken Fox Ignite Entertainment

Joanna Ward Ignite Entertainment

P.7

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.ca

ignitenews.ca

www.ignitenews.caENTERTAINMENT

Cinephiles rejoice! While the Toronto International Film Festival may be over, the reels are still rolling as Hamilton hosts its very own World Film Festival. The Art Gallery of Hamilton’s fourth annual World Film Festival is running from September 21 to September 30, at various venues across the city, culminating with an awards ceremony on the 30th that chooses the best films of the festival.

Annette Paiement, director of this year’s AGH BMO World Film Festival says that it’s a long process to get movies into the festival. The process of finding films for a festival in-cludes Paiement reading reviews, checking Metacritic rat-ings, watching movie trailers, talking to others in the field and attending the Toronto International Film Festival.

A committee composed by Paiement includes local “filmo-philes” and is responsible for finding new films each year. She also says that whether a film will show in Hamilton theatres is a major factor, saying, “Hamiltonians deserve to receive access to good film.”

Matthew Crandall, a film critic from the Waterloo area said

that smaller, more localized film festivals like WFF are “more about the filmmakers and smaller movies getting an audience and getting discovered,” and calls TIFF “the Holy-wood hype machine.”

Ultimately, though, TIFF does have final say when the WFF committee chooses movies: if TIFF is showing a particular film the WFF can’t have it.

The Festival will also offer panels on topics like storytelling and the correlation between architecture and filmmaking. Experts from their respective fields will participate in dis-cussing their studies in everything from the architecture of the Harry Potter sets to urban renewal across Canada.

As for “the one that got away”? Paiement says that she wanted to open the festival with Hockey: the Musical, but at the last minute TIFF directors chose it for their opening picture.

Tickets, which are $10 per film, have out-sold last year’s ap-proximately 6500 attendees, but are still available at www.aghfilmfest.com (With files from Andrew Roebuck.)

A film festival for Hamilton Lauren Smith Ignite Entertainment

Hamilton was crawling with art as people went to James St North to enjoy Supercrawl. The annual festival showcases and celebrates the diversity of art in the Hamilton commu-

nity, through artists, vendors, unique businesses, musicians and other creative people.

Mark Townsend, an anatomical drawing artist, described the festival as a party that gives people the opportunity to make good connections and networking.

“It’s like a party that exploded,” Townsend said. “It’s all about meeting people, getting exposed and networking. It’s so good for the arts community. This is the best festival in Hamilton for the arts.”

The festival gives people the opportunity to make connec-tions as it brings out a variety of people from different arts. The two-day festival brings people of all ages out to James Street North to enjoy this event.

Stephanie Brooks, a resident of Hamilton and Mohawk graduate, attended the festival and said Supercrawl was one reason for her move back to Hamilton.

“I’m from here but I’ve been living in Toronto for the past few years. Coming to Supercrawl last year actually played a part in my decision to move back here. I missed all this,” said Brooks.

Supersized SupercrawlKatie Stoneman and Stephanie Slye Ignite Entertainment

Hamilton artist Mark Townsend showcases his art at the annual Supercrawl Festival

Photo: Stephanie Slye

ETC.

201227

September Managing Editor

Joanna Ward

News EditorSteve Spriensma

Sports EditorGlen Cuthbert

Entertainment EditorNoah Salo

Layout Editors

NewsKelly Kotulak, Shawn McGuire

Contactignitenewsca@gmail.com

Produce by the Mohawk College Journalism Program

As I write this I am having a Facebook ar-gument with someone who truly believes that homophobia doesn’t matter. He says that gay kids should just let the slurs roll of their backs and the world should stop wor-rying about all of this ‘gay homophobia’ business. I’m angry but not surprised.

 The argument stems from Yunel Escobar’s three-game suspension for playing the Jays’ September 15th home game against Boston with a homophobic slur written on his eye-black stickers. Escobar’s response, when confronted with what he had done, was that it was a joke; he’d not meant to offend anyone. In combination with his suspension, Escobar will take part in sen-sitivity training. His pay from the missed games will be given to two gay rights orga-nizations, including You Can Play, a group meant to end homophobia in sports, cre-ated by the son of Leafs general manager Brian Burke.

 Most people were satisfied with how the Jays handled this situation and so am I. Education is the only way to stop preju-dice. Words can and do hurt . Until we all stop and think about what comes flying out of our mouths, or finger tips, the world will continue to be a scary place for anyone who is not a straight, white, male Chris-tian, living in the middle or upper class. As I said to the guy on Facebook, you can say they’re just words because it isn’t about you. You don’t know what these kids are going through, what it’s like to hide your life from your friends, family, and co-workers for fear that you’ll be alienated and mocked, because that’s what people do when they don’t understand things.

 If you can hold your tongue for one com-ment, for one little word, maybe you can help someone else feel like homophobia is a thing of the past because until it really is, you are the only thing standing between the ‘different’ people and the edge.  Make a difference.

Internationally renowned conservation-ist Dr. Jane Goodall was on hand for the fourth annual Imprints Youth Environ-mental Conference in Burlington, and it’s not an understatement to say that the crowd went ‘ape’ over the keynote speaker.

Held at the Burling-ton Performing Arts Centre and organized by local environmen-tal group Burling-tonGreen, the event was aimed at high school students in the Halton region. More than 700 students and teachers from 72 schools took part in workshops designed to educate students about the environment, and hear Dr. Goodall speak about her life and her work.

Throughout her speech, Dr. Goodall touched upon her youth, her work with famed archaeologist Louis Leakey, and her journey to Africa, but her main focus was on her groundbreaking work with chim-panzees in Tanzania.

“All chimpanzees are different, just as all people are different.” said Goodall, after revealing to the crowd that she had indi-vidually named all fifty chimpanzees she observed.

“No matter how big a school is, every student has a name,” she said. Her observa-tions noting the vast similarities between humans and chimpanzees changed the way she saw the world and the place of humans in it.

“There is not a sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom,” she said.

Steve SpriensmaIgnite News

Jane Goodall inspires at Burlington conference

Photo: Steve Spriensma

Goodall and Mr. H charm the audience

“They [the chimps] have helped me under-stand that…we humans are a part of this amazing, incredible animal kingdom.”

At 78, Dr. Goodall doesn’t let her age slow her down- she still spends more than 300 days of the year touring the world and speaking to the many groups and events affiliated with the Jane Goodall Institute.

And it was this busy schedule that made her such a catch for the annual Imprints conference.

“She was actually our number one choice for the past four years,” said Kale Black, Burlington-Green’s Youth Pro-gram Coordinator. “And we were finally able to secure her.”

It was not just Good-all’s celebrity that made her the number one choice for the event organizers; Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots is a program specifically aimed at youth, and is one that is very close to her heart.

“Out of all the inspirational environmen-talists out there, her message is directed specifically toward youth,” said Black. “The Roots and Shoots program really is her main passion, and it is all about youth em-powerment and youth engagement.”

And if student volunteer Vanessa Green is any indication, the youth are just as pas-sionate about her. One mention of Jane Goodall to Vanessa brought out a reaction more like a Justin Bieber fan than one of an environmentalist.

“Jane Goodall’s my inspiration,” said the grade 12 student. “She’s so amazing. I love the connection she makes about helping the economy, helping society, and helping the environment.”

Editorial:It mattersEditorial, Joanna WardManaging Editor

www.ignitenews.ca

SportsDiego Flammini, Lee McConnell

EntertainmentDayna Palmer, Nadine Nock

P.8