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This program is recommended by:

Summer 2015 1

he university

of Guelph and theToronto Blue Jays teamup to grow a natural turfgrass field in theRogers Centre.

COMIC BOOKCRUSADER

ntrepreneur

Jennifer Haines promotes literacy withcomics in the classroom.

420

2 3 26 30

t h e p o r t i c o s u m m e r 2 0 1 5

College News

The Portico.

See page 18.

— 10 —

BUY IT, BUILD IT, BANK IT

Real estate expert and TV personality Scott McGillivray helps homeowners generate rental income.

— 12 —

HOW SHE ROLLS Photographer Kate Wilhelm’s portraits

of roller derby women explore gender stereotypes and femininity.

— 24 —

TOP CHEF Vittorio Colacitti cooks his way to the top of the culinary world.

PLAN BEEHow Guelph researchers are helping

to protect our pollinators.

2 The Portico

Summer 2015 • Volume 47 Issue 2

ISSN 1714-8731

EditorStacey Morrison

Assistant Vice-PresidentCharles Cunningham

Art DirectionPeter Enneson Design Inc.

ContributorsSusan BubakKevin GonsalvesLori Bona HuntWendy JespersenTeresa PitmanAndrew Vowles, B.Sc. ’84

PhotographyDean Palmer

The Portico is published three times a year by Communications and Public Affairs at the University of Guelph. Opinions expressed in The Portico do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or the university.

We welcome your feedback. Send letters and story ideas to porticomagazine@uoguelph.ca or by mail to Communications and Public Affairs, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1. We reserve the right to edit all submissions.

Send address changes to: alumnirecords@uoguelph.ca or 519-824-4120 ext. 56550, or by mail to Records c/o Alumni Affairs & Development, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1.

Printed in Canada. Publication agreement #40064673.

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: The Portico Magazine, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont., N1G 2W1.

WEBSITE: www.uoguelph.ca/theportico TWITTER: @porticomag

the

1 was happy to read the articleabout the expansion and renovationof the athletic facilities printed in theWinter 2015 issue of The Portico.

The existing Mitchell AthleticCentre is the oldest and possiblymost obsolete athletic facility of anyuniversity in Ontario. As the articlementioned, it was built in 1957 for3,500 students and today it serves16,000 active students, plus multipleintramural clubs, community youthclasses and thousands of summercamp children.

The new 170,000-square-footexpansion will include a 25,000-square-foot fitness centre, socialspaces, new locker rooms and anevent centre capable of hostingsporting and community events.

I am so impressed by the students

who voted to fund this project andcommitted millions of dollars to seeit done, and by the Department ofAthletics’ leadership and commitmentto this project. I believe the differ-entiating elements of a universityeducation are the many meaningfullife experiences and learning oppor-tunities. The pursuit of a degree is atthe forefront, but social development,the arts, music, technology, theexchange of ideas, political aware-ness and of course, physical activitiesand sports, provide life-changingmoments.

This project will elevate ourcampus and be a source of pride andbenefit to alumni and the entirecommunity.

Sincerely,tom heslip , ba ’81, ma ’83

tomheslip@granitereit.com

as you ’re flipping through thepages of this issue of The Portico, youmight notice a few subtle changes— in fact, you’re reading one ofthem right now.

This editor’s note, along with afew new content areas, are a sign ofwhat’s to come for The Portico. Aftermore than seven years in its currentstate, the magazine will undergo acomplete redesign in the near future— our goal is to make The Porticomore modern, and give it a fresh,cohesive look throughout that betterreflects U of G and its graduates.

It’s an exciting opportunity for themagazine and for you as alumni. Now,more than ever, is the time to shareyour thoughts about the magazine:What do you like? What don’t youlike? What do you want to read about?And most importantly, what can we bedoing better for you, our reader? Youcan share your thoughts by emailingporticomagazine@uoguelph.ca or bycompleting our online survey at

uoguelph.ca/theportico/feedback.Along with a new look, the mag-

azine will also begin a new publishingschedule to better capture the mostvibrant times of the university year.Look for your next issue in lateNovember, and following issues inMarch and July.

While we work to build a betterPortico, the foundation of the magazinewill stay the same — we will continueto bring you engaging stories aboutthe professional and personal lives ofalumni, and to showcase how the uni-versity’s innovations are making animpact in the world. We will also keepyou connected to your alma materwith campus news and views.

You can also now find us onTwitter! Follow us for updates, orshare your news or U of G memoriesat @porticomag.

Happy reading!stacey morrison, editor

porticomagazine@uoguelph.ca

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Summer 2015 3

niversities are not only places of learning,scholarship and research, but also places that look

to the future. Far from the “ivory towers” of yesterday, universities

are evolving as their role in society changes. Here at theUniversity of Guelph, we are increasingly engaged withour community and with our world.

Since arriving at Guelph, I’ve had several opportu-nities to speak to local groups about our connectionswith community partners, including business, govern-ment and non-profit organizations.

For example, Grow Guelph brings the Universitytogether with many local players, including the City ofGuelph and the Chamber of Commerce, in an initia-tive to retain and expand local businesses.

Through the U of G Institute for Community-Engaged Scholarship, our students team up on projectswith agencies and organizations around Guelph andWellington County. Recent collaborations have lookedat topics from improving public transit to alleviatingpoverty and homelessness to ensuring food security.

Our campus Centre for Business and Social Entre-preneurship allows students to pursue business ideasand community-based projects with various groups.Students have worked on everything from starting acustom tea business to serving as project consultantswith client companies.

Through these connections, we help and often leadin tackling important issues here and further afield. Weare eager to strengthen those existing ties and to pur-sue further connections that enhance the University,our local community and the wider world.

More and more, those connections require us to looknot just at the needs of the day but also the needs oftomorrow. In our fast-paced world, the gap has shrunkbetween knowledge generation and knowledge appli-cation. New ideas become new products much morequickly today, thanks to factors such as information andcommunications technology, and the democratizationof learning and knowledge.

Effectively, the distance between today and tomor-row has narrowed. That presents challenges but alsoopportunities for universities, including the Universityof Guelph.

Universities are oriented toward the future in a num-ber of ways. Our researchers anticipate problems andopportunities, and develop solutions — including solu-tions to problems that don’t even exist yet. And we teachstudents to be future thinkers by providing the analyt-ical and qualitative skills to look beyond the world today,

and to succeed through innovation and problem-solvingin new and interesting ways.

Yes, we need to keep an eye on today, includingensuring that we look after day-to-day administrationof this institution. But focusing on the immediate issuesof the day should not distract us from the broader oppor-tunities that will shape our future: the opportunities toredefine who we are, to see the future through a broaderlens and be engaged participants in the process.

Universities are among the few places in societywhere a large part of our purpose is to foster ideas andinnovation, to dream and to inspire hope. That’s excit-ing. That’s bold. That’s imaginative.

It’s why I took up the challenge of leading the Uni-versity of Guelph. And it’s a challenge that I invite ourpartners — including you, as our alumni — to join. Weall need to be involved in the discussion.

Together we can continue to reach for a higher senseof common purpose. Together we can look for oppor-tunities to further our engagement with our world, notjust for today but for our shared tomorrow.

Franco Vaccarino, President

WORKING TOGETHER FOR A BRIGHTER FUTURE

4 The Portico

&

he university of Guelph and theToronto Blue Jays will collaborate on

a research project to grow a natural turfgrassfield in the Rogers Centre.

Researchers will undertake a yearlong,intensive study to determine the impacts ofgrowing natural grass in the Rogers Cen-tre. The Major League Baseball (MLB) teamaims to install natural grass with a dirt infieldby the start of the 2018 season.

Prof. Eric Lyons, Department of PlantAgriculture and turfgrass expert, will leadthe project.

He will help determine the types ofgrass to grow in the Rogers Centre — theturfgrass will need to grow indoors with thestadium’s retractable roof closed, whichmeans figuring out which type of grass willdo best under artificial light. Researchers

will also need to consider other issues relatedto growing grass indoors such as humiditylevels, air circulation and water, as well as

ensuring the grass will stand up to the wearand tear of a baseball season.

Lyons says he is up for the challenge.“It’s the perfect project for me. I’m a sci-

entist. I love baseball, I love sports and I loveturfgrass.”

Lyons is expected to recommendthe grass species to the Blue Jays in thespring of 2016. Blue Jays staff will deter-mine next steps, including potential timingfeasibility of renovations to accommodateventilation, irrigation, drainage and cost.

If the project proceeds after the initialyear, candidate grasses will be grown onan Ontario sod farm and then tested in asimulated environment under artificiallight. If all goes well, the natural turfgrassfield will be installed in 2018 before theseason opener.

Blue Jays and U of G hope to hit home run with natural grass

Eric Lyons

THE DIRT ON ARTIFICIAL TURF■

■

■

Summer 2015 5

the

U OF G NAMES NEW PROVOST, VICE-PRESIDENTS

Guelph grad Ayelet Tsabariwins prestigious literary prize

Ayelet Tsabari

Charlotte Yates

In addition, alumnus Malcolm Campbell has been named vice-president (research) for a five-year term starting June 1. Campbell comes to Guelph from the University of Toronto, where he has been a professor since 2004 and currently serves as vice-president research for the University of Toronto Scarborough. In March, Daniel Atlin started as U of G's vice-president (external). He was previously vice-president, strategy and college affairs, at Seneca College. He will oversee Alumni Affairs and Development, Communications and Public Affairs, and government and community relations.

Malcolm Campbell

DanielAtlin

W r iter and Guelph alumnaAyelet Tsabari has won the 2015

Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature,worth $100,000, for her debut shortstory collection The Best Place on Earth,published in 2013.

She wrote most of the stories inthe collection as her thesis project forU of G’s master of fine arts in creativewriting program.

“I’m still a bit out of words,” saysTsabari, MFA ’11, of the win. “It’s amaz-ing. It’s changed everything for me.”

It’s also a win for the Mizrahi orArab Jew characters in her stories. Shewrote the stories partly to give a voiceto what she calls a largely overlookedpopulation that she belonged to whilegrowing up in Tel Aviv.

When she received the news, Tsabari

was in Israel on a Chalmers fellowshipfrom the Ontario Arts Council — shewas interviewing Jewish Yemeni womento learn about their stories, dances andsongs for her next project.

Tsabari, 41, grew up in Israel andtravelled in Southeast Asia and NorthAmerica before moving to Canada in1998. She now lives in Toronto with herhusband and two-year-old daughter.

She has taught certificate writingcourses at U of G and the University ofToronto.

Calling herself “an exile of choice,”Tsabari says she appreciates Canada evenas she feels a tug toward the heritage andculture of Israel. “Even writing aboutIsrael is a way back. That’s the trajectory.Leaving and returning: it’s a very Jewishtheme.”

Extensive U of Gstudy hopes to makefamilies healthy

6 The Portico

nivers ity of guelph researchers arestudying how to make biofuels from farm

waste, especially “wet” waste that is typically dif-ficult to use.

Scientists have struggled to find uses for wetand green waste, including corn husks, tomatovines and manure. Dry farm waste, such as woodchips or sawdust, is easier to use for generatingpower. Often, wet farm waste materials breakdown before reaching their destination.

Researchers led by engineering professorAnimesh Dutta, director of the Bio-RenewableInnovation Lab (BRIL) at U of G, have founda solution: pressure cooking.

Cooking farm waste yields compact, easilytransportable material that will not degrade andcan be used in energy-producing plants.

Dutta says the research, published in thejournal Applied Energy, shows that in a lab set-ting, biofuels can produce the same amount ofenergy as coal.

Biomass is highly rich in alkali and alkalineearth metals such as silicon, potassium, sodiumand calcium. The presence of these metals infarm waste damages pipes at power plants dur-ing combustion. The new biofuel product madeby the BRIL researchers produces a product thathas less alkali and alkaline earth metals, allowingit to be used at power plants.

“The next step is to take this outside of thelab. We have a number of industry partners andgovernment ministries interested in this tech-nology,” he says. “Essentially, the agri-foodsector could power the automotive industry.”

hile completing her doctorate workin matrix theory, Preeti Mohindru

accomplished something unusual for a PhDcandidate: she proved a mathematical conjec-ture that had gone without formal proof fortwo decades.

A mathematical conjecture is a statementthat appears to be true but has yet to be for-mally proved. When someone comes up with aproof, that conjecture becomes a theorem, such

as the Pythagorean Theorem relating the lengthsof a triangle’s sides.

Sometimes it can take centuries for a con-jecture to be proved. One of the most notabletheorems in mathematical history, Fermat’s LastTheorem, was proved in 1994 — more thanthree centuries after its conjecture.

That was the same year that three mathe-maticians — Drew, Johnson and Loewy — cameup with another conjecture involving matrices,or arrays of numbers or symbols arranged inrows and columns. Their conjecture was actuallydisproved by other experts, but not necessarily forall types of matrices.

When Mohindru started her doctorate in2012, Prof. Rajesh Pereira in the Departmentof Mathematics and Statistics suggested a fewproblems to tackle, including this Drew-Johnson-Loewy Conjecture.

It took more than a year for Mohindru toshow their conjecture holds for an exotic groupof so-called completely positive matrices, orgrids containing no negative entries.

“What Preeti has done is to show that theDrew-Johnson-Loewy conjecture is actuallytrue,” says Pereira. Her results were publishedrecently in the journal Linear and Multi-LinearAlgebra.

PhD candidate proves 20-year-old math conjecture

Preeti Mohindru

NOTEWORTHY■ Teresa Crease

■ Karyn Freedman,

One

Hour in Paris: A True Story of Rape

and Recovery,

Alison Pick Between

Gods: A Memoir.

■

Sky Gilbert,

■

Tim McAllister

E.coli

In a three-year University ofGuelph-led project, researchers will study

how bitumen exposure affects Pacific sock-eye salmon. They will look especially atcardiac health and aerobic fitness in thefish, particularly vital for migrating salmonthat endure challenging conditions tocomplete their life cycle.

Bitumen extracted from the Canadianoil sands is transported by pipeline forprocessing into petroleum products. Prof.Todd Gillis, Integrative Biology, says thisproject, which is funded by Fisheries andOceans Canada, is important as govern-ment, industry, environmental groups andpolicy makers discuss pipeline trans-portation from the oil sands.

“Not to be too dramatic, butinevitably an oil spill will occur,” saysGillis, who is the study’s principal inves-tigator, working alongside scientists atSimon Fraser University (SFU) and theUniversity of British Columbia. “What

we’re trying to do is understand theimpact so that appropriate managementstrategies can be developed. ”

The researchers will also study howbitumen exposure affects aerobic fitnessand heart condition in juvenile salmon.Sockeye salmon spend up to two yearsin lakes where they are born and wherethey are most vulnerable to oil exposure;they migrate to the ocean to mature.

Last fall, SFU researchers beganexposing salmon embryos to low con-centrations of bitumen.

Previous toxicity research using crudeoil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico showedthat young fish are particularly sensitiveto such environmental contamination.

The team also intends to identifyplasma biomarkers for cardiac toxicityfrom crude oil exposure. Gillis says thesebiomarkers will help in monitoring andmanaging salmon populations in theevent of an oil spill.

Predicting the impact of an oil spill on salmon

Summer 2015 7

Karyn Freedman

Migrating sockeye salmon in a British Columbia river.

■ Jonathan Newman

■ Glen Van Der Kraak,

■ Sarah Wootton,

■ Patricia Wright,

ANIMAL THERAPY

he university of Guelph received nearly$800,000 from the Ontario government

for two new programs aimed at improvingmental health and wellness in young adults.

The initiatives focus on helping aboriginalstudents and assisting incoming university stu-dents with mental health issues. The fundingcomes from the Mental Health Innovation Fundand is part of the Ontario government’s Men-tal Health and Addictions Strategy.

“Identifying issues and providing supportand services as soon as possible is key to helpingstudents manage their mental health challengesin a healthy way,” said U of G President FrancoVaccarino, who is internationally recognized forhis research in psychology and addiction. “Thesenew initiatives will also help promote aware-ness and understanding.”

The first project, which received nearly$600,000, aims to more effectively engage and

support aboriginal learners with identified men-tal health challenges or substance abuse issues, aswell as those entering post-secondary education.

The project will be headed by U of G’sAboriginal Resource Centre and CounsellingServices, and involve Six Nations Polytechnicand Mohawk College. It’s intended to integrateaspects of aboriginal wisdom and worldviewswith western-based therapeutic approaches tomental health.

The second program is designed to helpincoming university students with mental healthchallenges. It involves U of G, Conestoga Col-lege, the Upper Grand District School Board andthe Wellington Catholic District School Board.

These partners will identify factors neededfor a successful summer residence transitionprogram with the hope of helping studentsmanage mental health challenges before startingcollege or university.

In February about 250 students took a break from studying for midterms to take part in

a giant snowball fight on Johnston Green.

Snowball Fight!

HEART SURGERY AT COLLEGE ROYAL

8 The Portico

porticomagazine@uoguelph.ca

@porticomag

Be sure to check your mailbox in November for your new and improved alumni magazine!

is getting a the Portico new

look

10 The Portico

ven home improvement stars encounter unex-pected disasters. Last season while renovating a house

for his television show, Income Property, Scott McGillivrayand his crew discovered the previous owner had dugthe basement floor down so deep that it was actuallylower than the home’s foundation.

“We knew he had dug down a bit, but not how far,”says McGillivray, B.Comm. ’01. “It wasn’t until weremoved the ugly panelling that was glued to the wallthat we discovered the whole building was starting tocollapse.”

Fortunately, McGillivray was there to save the day,but fixing the problem didn’t come cheap. The showhelped cover some of the $50,000 price tag, but thehomeowner was still hit with an unexpected expense.That’s just one of the obstacles McGillivray has experi-enced filming the popular home improvement show,now in its 10th season on HGTV and winner of mul-tiple Canadian Screen Awards.

It’s an impressive track record for a show that wasn’texpected to do well in the beginning.

“People thought the topic was too specific,” says

McGillivray. “But investing in real estate this way res-onates with a lot of people.” McGillivray’s charm andgood looks don’t hurt, either.

His personal income property story began as a second-year U of G marketing management student lookingfor an off-campus house to rent. One of his coursesrequired developing a business plan, so he used theresearch he did for that assignment to guide him as hetook his first step: buying a house on Koch Street nearcampus, fixing it up and renting it to fellow students.

Building on that success, he bought two more homesthe next year and realized he could make more moneyas a landlord than working a regular job. Along the way,he became a licensed contractor, and developed experthome renovation and carpentry skills. It was his talentas a carpenter that landed him his first TV job, workingon Facelift, hosted by designer Debbie Travis.

Today, McGillivray, 37, has more than 100 rental prop-erties, many of them multi-units, including 15 in Guelph.On Income Property, he’s helped more than 150 homeownerscreate their own rental units in both Canada and the U.S.He’s also appeared on other shows such as All AmericanHandyman, Flipping the Block, Canada’s Handyman Challenge,Holiday Battle on the Block and From the Ground Up.

While his career has flourished, so has McGillivray’sfamily life. He married his wife, Sabrina, in 2011 andthey now have two daughters, ages one and three. Thefamily splits their time between residences in Torontoand Fort Myers, Florida.

“My wife and daughters are the best things ever,” hesays. “They put things into perspective for me — I stillwork very hard and I still work a lot, but my family isnow a priority. I want to spend time with them, so I focuson working smarter, not harder, and being more efficient.”

Last fall People magazine named McGillivray its “SexyMan of the Week.” He was excited to share the newswith his wife, but she had a different reaction.

“She said she was surprised! I told her, ‘You shouldalready know this.’” He adds that working with con-struction crews meant there were also plenty of jokes athis expense.

McGillivray’s latest business project is teaching othersabout real estate investing — he offers seminars and haswritten two books.

“It’s amazing to look back and see that this all startedwith a school project and the decision to make it realby buying that first house,” says McGillivray. “There arealways opportunities out there. Sometimes they areharder to find, but they are there.”

TV PERSONALITY HELPS CASH-STRAPPED HOMEOWNERS GENERATE RENTAL INCOME

Planning your own renovation?Scott McGillivray offers these tips onwhere to save and where to splurge:

SAVE:■

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SPLURGE:■

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Summer 2015 11

12 The Portico

hotographer kate wilhelm’ s latest projectincludes 25 portraits of mothers, daughters and

wives. Or, if you’re going by their roller derby personas,Gender Bend’her, Mandy Maggotbone and Suzy Slam,to name a few.

Wilhelm, BA ’00, photographed these derby “warriors”not at the rink but at home, complete with costumes, bodyart and the odd bruise or two.

“I want to show something to peoplethey wouldn’t otherwise notice or see,”she says. Who’s going to see derby girls inoutfits in their homes?”

For some viewers, posing these warriorsat home and often with their familieshighlights the theatricality of the derbygirls’ appearance. Their “boutfits” areoften hyper-sexualized — fishnet stock-ings, tattoos, short skirts — and there’s acampiness about their appearance andtheir derby handles. But rather than justplay voyeur, Wilhelm aimed to portray thetension between her subjects’ sport sidesand their domestic lives.

“I’m not documenting a subculture,”says Wilhelm, who marked her first soloshow when the series, called Yes TheseBones Shall Live, was exhibited at U of G’sMacdonald Steward Art Centre (MSAC) earlier this year.“I’m trying to pose questions about gender, identity,performance and home. I want to know who thesewomen are.”

Dawn Owen, acting director and curator of con-temporary art at MSAC, recommended Wilhelm forfunding under the Ontario Arts Council exhibitionassistance program.

“I thought her work was strong,” says Owen, com-paring Wilhelm’s work with that of American photog-raphers Sally Mann and Nan Goldin in the tradition ofthe photo-narrative essay. “Family and motherhood arecentral to her work. That narrative is part of the show.”

Wilhelm grew up on a hobby farm near Oshawa,Ont., and planned to pursue veterinary studies. Findingshe liked the arts more than science, she switched herstudies to English. She first picked up a camera in 1998for a course with Prof. Susan Dobson in the School ofFine Art and Music.

After graduation, she continued to train her lens onvarious subjects, sharpening her eye andher aesthetic sensibility. Viewers compli-ment Wilhelm for capturing the essenceof her subjects, but she’s not so sure. “I don’tthink there’s one essence of a person. Youcan catch a fragment.”

No derby girl herself, the Guelph-based artist became interested in thesubject after photographing a few mem-bers of a regional derby league five yearsago. The subjects in Yes These Bones ShallLive belong to the Tri-City Roller Girlsand the Royal City Roller Girls.

Wilhelm’s work has been exhibited aspart of curated group shows locally andinternationally, including the Centre forFine Art Photography in Colorado andA.I.R. Gallery in New York City. But hav-ing her debut solo exhibit not just in herhometown, but also at her alma mater,

held special meaning.“It definitely felt good to have the show there. When

I started the project, my dream was to have it on those[MSAC] walls, especially so lots of derby girls couldcome to the opening.”

One visitor to her spring exhibit said: “It’s like you’reletting me see into their windows with no curtains.”The notion of being an observer is what Wilhelm lovesmost about photography.

“I like to find moments of drama in people’s lives,”she says. “I notice things. I make up stories about peo-ple’s lives. I love the details that suggest a story.”

KATE WILHELM PHOTOGRAPHSDERBY ‘WARRIORS’ AT HOME

Summer 2015 13

14 The Portico

Summer 2015 15

How researchers

and alumni are working to keep

the bee populationbuzzing

Plan BeeSTORY BY ANDREW VOWLES

eing the daughter of a hob-byist beekeeper dad, Alison VanAlten helped out with the honeyharvest each fall. But it was only

after she began her studies at U of G that shestarted keeping bees of her own. She raisedcolonies on a farm and extracted honeyfrom the hives on the front porch of herrented student digs in Guelph. Today she stillraises bees for honey, but her expertise israising queen bees for other beekeepers.

As the owner of Tuckamore Bee

Company in Freelton, Ont., Van Alten sup-plies queens to beekeepers across Canada.Once a full-time researcher, she still works withother beekeepers and scientists, including biol-ogists at U of G, on solutions to a range ofproblems plaguing bees and other pollinators.

About one in three mouthfuls of food weeat depends on pollination by bees and otherinsects. Pollinators also help to maintain plant

diversity — eight in 10 flower species needpollinators to set seeds and fruit.

Declines in pollinator numbers inOntario and across Canada have beenblamed on various factors, including diseaseand parasites, pesticide exposure, shrinkinghabitat and apiary management practices.Those factors worry U of G researchers,including Prof. Ernesto Guzman, School ofEnvironmental Sciences (SES), although he’scareful to distinguish between annual lossesand an overall decline in bee numbers.

“More than 30 per cent of bee colonieshave been lost every year over the last sevenyears,” he says. “But we still have more hivesin Canada than 10 years ago.”

Beekeepers have made up those losses bysplitting colonies and importing bees eachyear, but that’s an expensive solution.Researchers are attempting to understandwhat’s driving annual losses and how to helppreserve our pollinators.

Paradoxically, as pollinators have declined,the number of apiarists has grown, includ-ing urban beekeepers maintaining one ormore hives in their backyards.

Van Alten, B.Sc. ’95, M.Sc. ’00, has beenraising bees full-time since 2010, producingqueens as well as nucleus (or starter) colonies.Her husband, John Van Alten, has been a bee-keeper for three decades and produces honeyunder his Dutchman’s Gold Honey label.

Beekeeping runs in the family for VanAlten, who grew up in Newfoundland. Herbiologist father kept backyard bee colonies,and her sister, Andrea Skinner, B.Sc. ’98, runsthe Newfoundland Bee Company, the largestoperation in the province.

After completing her undergraduatedegree in apiculture, Van Alten went on toobtain her master’s degree in environmen-tal biology with Peter Kevan, SES professoremeritus, as her adviser. Kevan alsodirected the Canadian Pollination Initiative(CANPOLIN), a five-year strategic networkbased at Guelph that ended last year. For hergraduate degree, Van Alten worked on trachealmites, which can hinder bees’ respiration andtheir ability to keep the hive at the righttemperature.

After graduating, she continued thatresearch with the Ontario Beekeepers’Asso-ciation (OBA) technology transfer program.There she tested treatments and breeding

16 The Portico

Beekeeper Alison Van Alten at work

collecting queen bees.

programs for controlling both tracheal andvarroa mites. The OBA researchers foundcertain queens and offspring that are lesssusceptible to tracheal mites, and the resultsare being used by keepers to breed bees withmore natural resistance to the parasites. Theyhope to replicate that success with varroamites, which have developed resistance tochemical treatments.

At U of G, a colony of researchers is alsostudying pollinator declines. Among them,Guzman studies the effects of parasites andpesticides on honeybees. He and his researchteam are looking at natural products to con-trol the fungus Nosema ceranae, known tohamper colony growth in the spring. So far,they’ve found several compounds that canknock down Nosema levels by more than half.

They’re also studying the use of naturallyoccurring fungi to control varroa mites, withmixed results. Combining fungi and thymol— a natural plant oil — can control mitesmore effectively than fungi alone, saysGuzman. He’s also looking at boosting bees’immune system.

Parasites are only one threat to pollina-tors; crop pesticides are also an issue.

“Pesticides historically have killed beesby the hundreds of thousands,” says Guz-man. “Bees are insects and insecticides aredesigned to kill insects. What’s the surprise?”

Bee behaviour and pesticide impacts areon the research agenda for SES professorNigel Raine, who arrived at U of G last yearas the inaugural holder of the Rebanks Fam-ily Chair in Pollinator Conservation, the firstresearch chair of its kind in Canada. Aninternationally recognized expert in polli-nator conservation and ecology, last year hepublished two papers about the effects ofneonicotinoid insecticides, which have alsostirred controversy in Canada. In 2012,Raine’s study published in Nature was thefirst to show that combined pesticide expo-sure affects bumblebee behaviour, and colonygrowth and survival. Those findings led theEuropean Union to ban three neonic insec-ticides used for treating seeds of cropsfavoured by bees.

“The weight of scientific evidence sug-gests that we should be concerned aboutinsecticide impacts on bees,” says Raine. “Evenat comparatively low exposure levels as canbe found in the field, I have seen negative

effects of these chemicals on bumblebee for-aging behaviour and colony growth.”

In contrast, a large-scale field study byProf. Cynthia Scott-Dupree, SES, and holderof the Bayer Crop Science Chair in Sustain-able Pest Management, suggests there is nolink between canola grown from neonic-treated seeds and honeybee deaths. In otherfield studies, she has found that bumblebeeschoose not to forage for corn pollen, mean-ing that they are spared exposure to neonicresidues in corn grown from treated seed.

Amid the growing concern over the useof pesticides, the Ontario government isproposing to reduce the use of neonicotinoidseed treatments for corn and soybeans byimplementing a licensing system for growers.Health Canada is also reviewing its assessmenton the safety of neonics for bees, with a finalreport expected in 2016 or 2017.

Other stressors on honeybees includefarmers planting more corn and soybean,which are undesirable for honeybees, andtrucking bees across great distances to

Summer 2015 17

pollinate crops, which can disrupt beesduring the growing season and often exposethem to simple monoculture diets that mayhamper their health.

“We move one-third of Ontario coloniesto New Brunswick every year,” Guzman says.“Some 30,000 hives from Ontario are truckedto New Brunswick to pollinate blueberries.”

Despite the ongoing studies and discus-sion, Guzman wonders if researchers arefighting a losing battle.

“Diseases will be with us for a long time.I doubt growers will stop using insecticides,”

he says. “What’s killing bees are modernpractices of beekeeping and agriculture.”

Back in Freelton, Alison Van Alten isdoing her part to renew bee populationsevery year, and she’s raising a potential newbeekeeper: her six-year-old son Yuri alreadyhelps identify and raise queens, and helpsship them to beekeepers during the busyspring season. Van Alten suggests the hiveholds a lesson for farmers, apiarists,researchers and other stakeholders lookingto solve the pollinator problem.

“I love watching the bees — how well

they work together and how efficient theyare,” she says. “Maybe they can teach us howto solve our pollinator problems — we needto work together to find a solution.” ■

■

■

■

■

■

■

18 The Portico

“Bees are insects andinsecticides

are designed to kill insects.

What’s thesurprise?”

PROF. ERNESTO GUZMAN

Summer 2015 19

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20 The Portico

Jennifer Haines combines her love of teaching and comic books to promote literacy

STORY BY SUSAN BUBAK • PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEAN PALMER

Summer 2015 21

22 The Portico

E very wednesday afternoon

after school, The Dragon comicbook store in downtown Guelph

starts to fill up with kids and parents for itsweekly Pokémon League. The game day isso popular, additional tables are set up out-side the storefront to accommodate groupsof players, who huddle with heads down,flipping, shuffling and “attacking” opponentswith their game cards.

For Liam Robertson, 10, the organizedgames are just one part of the store’s appeal.

“I like how they have an adult section anda kids comic book section,” says Robertson.“I used to go to another store where thecomics were all mixed together, and I like thatat The Dragon they aren’t mixed together andI know where to find the comics for kids.”

A welcoming atmosphere and happy cus-tomers of all ages is just what storeownerJennifer Haines, BA ’98, was hoping toaccomplish when she opened The Dragon17 years ago in Guelph’s Quebec StreetMall. At the time, The Dragon was not theonly comic book store in town.

“I would not go into that other store,”Haines says of her now-defunct competitor.“It was dusty and dirty and inhospitable, andit just wasn’t anything that I wanted for mycomic store. I didn’t feel welcome there.”

That’s true of many comic book stores, sheadds, which typically cater to male customers.When she and her husband visit other stores,a staff member usually approaches her husbandand ignores her. “I wanted to bring a betterexperience to the people of Guelph.”

Unlike traditional comic book stores,which she describes as “dungeon-esque boys’clubs,” The Dragon appeals to readers of allages, genders and interests. Brightly lit andeasy to navigate, the store is filled with boardgames, toys, graphic novels and about 10,000comic books that cater to a broad audience— from children to adults and to more spe-cific audiences like the LGBTQ community.

Women are also regular customers of thestore. Gender preferences among comicbook readers tend to mirror those of movie-goers, says Haines. A growing number ofwomen are reading comic books, particularlythose that are character-driven, whereas men

gravitate toward superhero comics becausethey’re more action-packed. “A good storyis a good story,” she says, and her staff canhelp readers find the right fit.

At 16, Haines went through a Star Warsand Star Trek phase, which drew her to herlocal comic book store to buy magazinesand trading cards. “The comics just keptcatching my eye,” she says. When she pickedup her first comic — Batman — she washooked. “The combination of words andpictures was unlike anything I had ever readbefore,” she says. “It really fascinated me.”

As an undergrad at Guelph, she spent fiveyears studying history and classical studies —including nine semesters in a row — becauseshe “just wanted to take so many courses.”Instead of sending out job applications whenshe graduated, she developed a business plan,applied for a loan and scoped out locationsto open her own comic book store.

“I was 23 when I opened the business,”says Haines, who previously worked in acomic book store in Oakville, Ont., forthree years. “You have to be kind of youngand foolish to go into self-employmentbecause it’s a huge gamble no matter whatthe business is.”

Three years after she opened her store,Haines went back to school to earn a mas-ter’s degree at the University of Toronto. Inher second year, she moved to Toronto andmanaged the store from afar betweenclasses and at night. Although she wishedshe could have cloned herself like a comicbook character, she did the next best thingand hired store manager Amy Chop, BFA’03, to handle the day-to-day operations.

After graduating from U of T, sheaccepted a part-time teaching position at aprivate girls’ school where she taught Latin.She later completed a bachelor of educationand taught full-time for several years, allwhile running her business.

Haines now lives in Guelph with herhusband, Robert, and two young children,ages three and 10 months. She works in thestore full-time on weekdays and spendsweekends with her family. Balancing it all isa constant struggle.

“I never quite feel like I finish everything,”

she says. “As the owner, everything comesdown to me.”

Although comic books are becoming morewidely accepted as a form of entertainment,and their literary merits are making them morepopular among parents and teachers, there arecommon misconceptions — for example, thatthey lead to delinquent behaviour or promotea lower reading level — that Haines hopes todebunk by promoting their academic value.“It’s a far more intelligent medium than it hasbeen given credit for,” she says.

Combining her love of teaching and comics,she launched Comics in the Classroom, a pro-gram that helps schools incorporate comicbooks into their curriculum. She helps teach-ers and librarians pick comic books that areage-appropriate for their students, reinforcethe school’s values and meet the Ministry ofEducation’s guidelines. She also leads graphicliteracy workshops for teens to teach themhow comic books use words and images to tellstories. For younger children, she hosts super-hero workshops on how to be a good citizen.

Haines says comic books can be especiallyhelpful for children who are struggling toread.

“The biggest benefit from reading comicsis the text is broken up into manageablechunks,” she says. Speech and thought bub-bles are less intimidating for young readersthan full pages of text, and pictures can helpthem understand difficult words and concepts.

The Dragon now employs two full-timeand five part-time staff, and plans are under-way to expand into a neighbouring unit inthe mall. In 2012 the store won the WillEisner Spirit of Comics Retailing Award,which recognizes excellence in merchan-dising and community engagement. Hainescredits much of her success to the timelessappeal of comic books.

“Comics have always been a way for thevoiceless to have a voice,” she says. “Theyare unique — that combination of wordsand pictures is not possible in any othermedium.” ■■

Summer 2015 23

Haines says comic books can be especiallyhelpful for children who are struggling to read.

Store manager Amy Chop, left,

and owner Jennifer Haines.

24 The Portico

he challenge: make a creative and tasty dishfocusing on the science of cooking by using

kitchen gizmos such as circulators, sous vide machinesand chemicals that turn foods into foams and bubbles.The reward: $10,000 and a spot in the finale of TopChef Canada.

Rather than breaking out the liquid nitrogen likesome of his competitors, Vittorio Colacitti took a dif-ferent approach and attempted to transform the humbletomato into a spectacular salad.

“I chose to do a deconstructed tomato saladbecause it was August, and tomatoes were in season andfull of flavour,” he says.

In the end, his “simple” smoked burrata and heir-loom tomato salad with tomato consommé and curedcucumber wasn’t enough to keep him in the competi-tion. He was eliminated, ending up in fourth place inseason four of the Food Network Canada’s culinarycompetition. He has no regrets.

“The experience was amazing and I felt I accom-plished a lot,” says Colacitti, B.Comm. ’04. “My friendRene eventually won, and they brought me back forthe finale to be his sous chef. If it couldn’t be me, I’mglad he won.”

Colacitti almost didn’t make it onto the show. Hesubmitted an application for season three, but was reject-ed for being “too serious.” He tried again the followingyear, along with 800 other applicants, and got the call.Filming lasted 34 days; even those who were cut had tostay until the very end.

“It was a phenomenal experience,” he says. “It wasmentally very taxing though, since we were so isolated —no phones, no Internet, no TV. And the pressure is immense— you’re working 17 or 18 hours each day and wake upthe next morning with video cameras in your face.”

When the show finished, it was time for Colacittito take the next step. He opened his restaurant, TheGood Son, on Queen Street West in Toronto. He is com-mitted to offering locally sourced food and describeshis menu as “very natural, simple, clean cooking.”

“It has taken over my life at this point,” he says ofthe restaurant. I’ve been there every day. I check every

single plate before it leaves the kitchen. I want to showthat the people who trained me did a good job — I don’twant to disappoint them.”

As a child, Colacitti travelled frequently becausehis father worked for an airline, so he discovered thevaried tastes of good food from around the world. Helived with his family in Toronto most of the year, andoften spent summers visiting relatives in Italy or hisgrandparents’ rural farm in Lowville, Ont.

When he enrolled at the University of Guelph, heinitially majored in economics. After spending a summerin British Columbia working at a restaurant owned byhis cousins, he realized that hotel and food administra-tion would be a much better fit for someone with hispassion for food and cooking. His first food chemistrycourse convinced him that he wanted to become a chef.

After graduation, Colacitti added another layer oflearning by attending culinary school in Thailand forfour months.

“I’d been to Thailand about five times prior to that,and real Thai food is unique. I wanted to learn to createthose flavours,” he says.

Colacitti went on to gain kitchen experience byworking for several well-known Toronto chefs, includ-ing Lorenzo Loseto at George restaurant and ScottWoods at Lucien. Both restaurants won awards duringColacitti’s time in the kitchen.

He also worked at Didier for chef Didier Leroy,one of only 400 French “master chefs” in the world.

“I think he was the most talented chef I have everworked with,” says Colacitti. “He taught me that the keycomponents of being a chef are courage and finesse.”

With one restaurant under his belt, Colacitti hopesto open a second in Toronto’s downtown. He credits hisU of G experience for playing a big role in his success.

“Unlike many chefs, I can see the big picture,” hesays. “We were taught about the financial side, budgetsand marketing, and this is information most chefs justdon’t have. I learned to manage my time and to workwith others. I wouldn’t have my own restaurant todayif I hadn’t gone to U of G.”

TOP CHEF SLICES AND DICES HIS WAY TO CULINARY SUCCESS

Summer 2015 25

art of the University

of Guelph Alumni Association’s(UGAA) mandate is to engage

and support U of G grads. One waythe association does this is by using itscollective bargaining power to securebenefits and discounts for alumni. Withsummer vacations approaching, it’s theperfect time to showcase some of thespecial offers available.

Families will appreciate alumni dis-counts at theme parks and attractionssuch as Great Wolf Lodge, Ripley’sAquarium of Canada, the Royal OntarioMuseum, Canada’s Wonderland, CNTower and the Ontario Science Centre.For a full list of all the options available,

visit the Services and Benefits web pageat www.alumni.uoguelph.ca.

June is just around the corner andthat means Alumni Weekend is almosthere! The UGAA is pleased to introducethe new Awards of Excellence Gala,which will kick off the weekend on Friday, June 12. The rest of the weekendwill be filled with class reunions, campustours, an alumni celebration dinner, concert and family picnic. Everyone iswelcome and we hope to see you oncampus next month.

Have a great summer!

OVCAA HOLDS INAUGURAL SYMPOSIUM

ixty years ago the Class of ’56 started at Kemptville Agricultural School.Meeting for their reunion last fall at the Chamberlain Homestead east ofPeterborough were (front row, from left) Edward Tobin of Madoc, Harvey

Graham of Port Perry, Jim Cruickshank of Sault Ste. Marie, Thomas Haffie ofMallorytown, (back row, from left) William Chamberlain of Guelph, Larry Rosevearand Robert Brewser, both of the London area, and Archie Kerr of Picton.

26 The Portico

Summer fun for alumni

COMING EVENTS

June 12-14

June 26

Richmond Hill Golf Course

July 9

Sept. 11

Victoria Park East Golf Club, Guelph

Sept. 19

Nov. 7

he School of Engineering

recently hosted a career night in theatrium of the Thornbrough Building.

Almost 50 alumni from a wide variety ofindustry attended and shared career advicewith more than 150 students. Picturedabove, Kate Northcott, B.Eng. ’08, from the

City of Toronto, shares career advice with astudent. The annual HAFA/HFTM careerand networking night was also a success.Held at PJ’s, it featured rotating sessions androundtable discussions, allowing students tomeet with alumni from all sectors of hospi-tality management.

pring is a time to celebratenew beginnings, and while thecampus may seem quiet over the

summer months, there are new andexciting developments in the works —all of which will shape the future of theUniversity of Guelph. Alumni are animportant part of this visioning.

U of G president Franco Vaccarinorecently announced the University ofGuelph will launch a strategic planningprocess — a consultation and learningexercise that will guide us into the nextchapter of our history. With a commit-ment to the principles and beliefs thatformed a strong foundation and identity,the University will ask alumni andfriends to contribute their ideas and feed-back about ways to ensure long-termsustainability, global reach, excellence andinnovation.

As the University considers long-term priorities and develops strategiesto strengthen its position, alumni par-ticipation is important. Sharing yourideas and lending support will help tostrengthen U of G and, in turn, recon-nect you with your alma mater.

GRADS GATHER FOR FLORIDA REUNION

Summer 2015 27

New beginnings

Join alumni and friends to celebrate the University of Guelph. More than 35

reunions are planned! Whether you are celebrating a class milestone or

want to reconnect with classmates on campus, this fun-filled weekend offers

something for everyone. Visit www.alumni.uoguelph.ca for details and registration.

SATURDAY, JUNE 13

■ Alumni hospitality tent

■ President’s Milestone Lunch

■ NEW! Great Gryphon Race

■ NEW! Let’s Get Crafty! – Beer Tasting and

Food Pairing

■ Alumni Celebration Dinner

■ NEW! “Rock the Hall” concert and dance featuring

God Made Me Funky

■ OVCAA welcome breakfast and annual general meeting

■ CBSAA breakfast and annual general meeting

■ UGAA annual general meeting

■ CSAHS alumni association annual general meeting

■ EAA annual general meeting

CAMPUS TOURS:

■ OVC featuring the Small Animal Hospital

■ Macdonald Institute

■ Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship (CBaSE)

■ Biodiversity Institute of Ontario

■ Insect collection

■ Macdonald Stewart Sculpture Garden

■ Ice cream technology

■ Honey Bee Research Centre

■ Mona Campbell Animal Cancer Centre

■ Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation

(GRIPP)

■ Macdonald Hall

■ School of Engineering

FRIDAY, JUNE 12 ■ NEW! UGAA Awards of Excellence Gala

SUNDAY, JUNE 14 ■ Alumni family picnic

28 The Portico

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

Alumnus of Honour Karl Stensson, BLA ’73President, Sheridan Nurseries

Alumni Volunteer Award Ken (BSA ’50) and Marilyn (B.H.Sc. ’55) Murray Supporting their alma mater through decades of volunteer service

Alumni Medal of AchievementSarah Rothwell, B.Sc. (Eng.) ’07Senior Program Engineer,Orbis International

University of Guelph alumni are living and working around the globe, attaining extraordinary achievements, and contributing to their professions and communities in remarkable ways.

This year we recognize four exceptional alumni for their outstanding achievements and commitment to excellence.

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f G u e l p h A l u m n i A s s o c i a t i o n

Awards of Excellence Gala, June 12, 2015, 6 pm Alumni Concourse, Rozanski Hall

Please join us for a special celebration of alumni achievement at the new Awards of Excellence Gala on Alumni Weekend. The evening will feature a gala dinner, awards presentation, silent auction, and much more!

For tickets and information, visitwww.alumni.uoguelph.ca/awardsofexcellence

Congratulations to this year’s Awards of Excellence winners!You make your alma mater proud.Read more about these distinguished alumni at

www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/awardsofexcellence

30 The Portico

1940■ Ivan Stinson, BSA ’49, andhis wife Margaret receivedCar ing Canadian Awards,presented by Governor GeneralDavid Johnston. The awards rec-ognize volunteers who have madea difference in their communities.The couple has dedicated theirtime largely to environmental andhorticultural causes.

1950■ Jean Norry, B.H.Sc. ’52reports her class had itsreunion at the Elmhurstrestaurant last September.

1970■ Stephen Jeffery, BA ’70, is retired, and his kids “havelaunched.” Son Cameron, 22,is living in Toronto and working

for RBC, and daughterStephanie, 25, works in com-munications for various federalgovernment departments.■ Robert Harvey, B.Sc. ’74,moved to a two-acre propertywith a trout pond. The familycontinues to breed Schapen-does dogs.■ Paolo Serventi, M.Sc.’78, is retired and living near

Parma, Italy. He would love tohear from former classmatesand can be reached atedredrone@gmail.com.■ Patricia Vanderkooy,B.A.Sc. ’78, says she has workedin almost every sector of dietet-ics. She says, “This job is a greatplace to land — lots of oppor-tunity for advocacy on issues ofnutrition and food policy!”

MAKING PEOPLE LAUGH FOR A LIVING

atalie Metcalfe used to beterrified of comedy. Although she’s

been performing since she was eight andattended U of G’s School of English and Theatre Studies, comedy wasn’ta natural fit.

“It’s what you find funny,” says thesketch comedian. “You’re throwing itin front of other people and just hop-ing that something lands. You thinkyou’re funny, your friends think you’re

funny, but who knows if the outsideworld will think the same way?”

Fortunately, Metcalfe hasn’t heardmuch silence from her audiences, butwhen a joke falls flat, “you just want tocrawl into a hole and die,” she says witha laugh. Just because a joke fails the firsttime doesn’t mean it can’t be reworkedinto something funnier — some of herfunniest jokes started off as cricketchirpers. Knowing your audience is

also key. “If you can make a group ofcomedians laugh, you killed it.”

A coupon for comedy lessons atSecond City gave Metcalfe, BA ’06, the courage she needed to take her first step towards a comedic career.After graduating from Second City’sconservatory program, she began performing in bars.

Three years later, she’s still makingpeople laugh as part of two sketchcomedy groups: 2 Humans, which hasbeen nominated for NOW Magazine’sReader’s Choice Award for Best SketchTroupe, and O Dat Dum.

She refers to O Dat Dum as a “supertroupe” of six comedians (Metcalfe isthe only female performer), includingdrama grad Matt Kowall, BA ’05, whoshe met in second year at U of G.

Metcalfe says she enjoys playingcharacters that allow her to use her“huge facial expressions” to convey herfeelings without saying a word.

“I’m not necessarily the physicalcomedy type, but it’s taken me out ofmy shell entirely into doing things Inever ever thought I would do,” shesays. “Sketch comedy lets you put yourwhole heart out on stage.”

1980■ Gervon Fearon, B.Sc.(Agr.) ’81, was recentlyappointed president of Bran-don University in Manitoba.■ Lynn Robinson Johnson,B.A.Sc. ’82, is looking forwardto new adventures and oppor-tunities when she retires inJune after 30 years of teaching.■ Marc Hurwitz, B.Sc. ’83,

published his first book, Lead-ership is Half the Story: A FreshLook at Followership, Leadershipand Collaboration (UTP-Rot-man Press), which he co-wrotewith his wife Samantha.Together they spent more than10 years researching the book.Hurwitz co-founded FliPskills,an HR thought-leadershipfirm, and is a full-time lecturer

at the University of Waterloo.■ Drew Byford, OAC Dip.’85, has been farming inPrince Edward County since2006.■ Greg Keefe, DVM ’88,MBA ’02, has been appointeddean of the University ofPrince Edward Island’sAtlantic Veterinary College.Keefe has worked at UPEI

since 1996 and became a fullprofessor in 2005. His areas ofresearch include milk qualityand mastitis, dairy productionmedicine, infectious diseaseepidemiology and Johne’s disease.■ Dave Scott-Thomas,B.Sc. ’88, M.Sc. ’91, is the headcoach of the Guelph Gryphons

Summer 2015 31

GUELPH GRAD TO PLAY IN UNDERWATERHOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

e re used to seeing Canada

excel in ice hockey, but thisAugust, for the first time, Canada willsend a team of women to the worldchampionships in underwater hockey,and one of the players is a U of G grad.

Michelle Yu Hua Chan, B.Comm.’14, was a first-year student in hoteladministration when a friend persuadedher to try underwater hockey.

“I agreed to give it a try and I’vebeen playing ever since,” says Chan, whois now based in Vancouver. “I love thethree-dimensional aspect: you have towatch for other players not just to yourleft and right, but above you and belowyou as well. Game strategy is complex.”

Teammate Nadine Perron also has aU of G connection — a former U of Gstudent, she is originally from North Bayand now trains in Guelph.

U of G has had an underwaterhockey club for more than 25 years.The sport involves two teams with sixplayers on each side. A lead and brasspuck is placed at the centre of the poolbottom and a gong signals the faceoff.Wearing snorkeling gear and carrying

30-cm-long sticks, players score byshooting the puck into a three-metre-long trough to score goals. Timing is animportant part of the game becauseplayers have come up for air regularly.

The game is intense: Chan says youcan often spot underwater hockey playersby the scattering of bruises on their armsand legs, and the occasional black eyes

caused when someone hits their masks. Team members are scattered across

Canada, so getting together to play as agroup is challenging, but Chan says:“We’re pretty motivated to stay fit, andsome of us are able to train together.”

The competition runs from Aug. 6-15 in Castellón de la Plana, Spain. Formore information, visit uwhehteam.ca.

Spread Your Wings

Post your jobs today! (519) 824-4120 x52323www.recruitguelph.ca

Alumni: recruit from Guelph!

Get a head start on hiring for the fall

- Post your jobs now!- Students available for 4 or 8 month work

terms (program specific)

- Interview as early as May 28th

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32 The Portico

Summer 2015 33

Ralph Nader, the American crusading lawyer, came to U of G in March 1972 to address

an audience of about 1,800 people. Nader spoke for two hours without notes on

several of his current projects. Prior to his public talk, he held a press conference

attended by some 40 representatives of radio, TV, newspapers and magazines.

1972

award-winning track and fieldteam. Along with assistantcoach Chris Moulton,B.Comm. ’05, he organizes theNew Balance Inferno Trackand Field Festival, which willbe held at U of G’s AlumniStadium May 30. A community race called the DowntownRoad Mile is open to every-one, and alumni can register atspeedriverinferno.com.■ Sandra Vandervalk,B.Sc. ’88, is working on her

master’s degree in culturalanthropology.

1990■ Joseph Mutunga, M.Sc.’91, recalls his college-day dis-cussions with Prof. GeorgeBrinkman about land-useconflict around St. Catharines,Ont. These talks came back toMutunga in Nairobi earlierthis year, when he noticed theagricultural land he onceknew had turned into a leafy

suburb and later a block ofoffice buildings.■ Glenn Wagner, M.Sc. ’94,was one of 50 internationalfinalists for the 2015 GlobalTeacher Prize. Wagner is ascience and math teacher atCentre Wellington DistrictHigh School in Fergus, Ont.He has won eight teachingawards and scholarships, andhas developed more than 30workshops and presentationsfor educators, among other

accomplishments.■ Patricia Wong, B.Comm.’98, recalls the fun times shehad in the hotel and foodadministration program. Shesays the client-based skills shelearned are useful in hercareer in the talent field.

2000■ Kelley Powell, MA ’00,has written her first book, TheMerit Birds (Dundurn Press).

On campus in ’72• The University of Guelph Alumni

Association establishes the AlumniMedal of Achievement to honour theexcellence of recent graduates.

• The three-tower East Residencesopen and construction begins on theUniversity Centre.

• The Macdonald Steward Art Centreopens as a public gallery and a spaceto feature the 4,000-piece Universityof Guelph and art centre collections.

• The Guelph Alumnus reports thatfaculty members with professionalranking at Guelph earn an averageof $17,081 annually.

• Enrolment reaches 8,500.

Off campus in ’72• The first handheld calculator goes on

the market for $395.• Hockey player Paul

Henderson scores the “goal of thecentury” to give Canada the win inthe Summit Series, the first-ever top-level hockey showdown betweenCanada and the Soviet Union.

• The first female FBI agents are hired.• Canadian singer Neil Young’s album

Harvest is the best-selling album of theyear.

• The Godfather is the highest-grossingmovie of the year.

ALUMNIJames Anderson, B.Sc. ’13,

May 29, 2014Larry Argue, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’58,

Jan. 13, 2015Joan Budd, DVM ’50,

Feb. 14, 2015William (Bill) Campbell,

BA ’55, MA ’57, Dec. 26, 2014John (Jack) Cote, DVM ’51, Feb.

16, 2015Don Franco, OAC Dip. ’57,

Jan. 31, 2015Kenneth Just, DVM ’63,

March 3, 2015Marian Morgan, OAC Dip. ’51,

Jan. 12, 2015Merlin Wilson, DVM ’55,

Jan. 20, 2015

FACULTY, STAFF AND FRIENDSJohn Eccles, OAC Dip. ’40, former

director of public relations andaccommodations, Feb. 17, 2015

William (Bill) Garner, farm oper-ations coordinator at the NewLiskeard Agricultural ResearchStation, Feb. 14, 2015

Ron Harris, former chair of theDepartment of EnvironmentalBiology and professor emeritus,Dec. 9, 2014

Harold Muller, designer of U of G’s ceremonial mace, March 5, 2015

Tom Powers, former director ofthe School of Hospitality, Foodand Tourism Management, Jan. 11, 2015

Leslie (Les) Thomas, former professor in the Land ResourceScience Department (now theSchool of EnvironmentalSciences), March 3, 2015

To honour alumni who have passedaway, the University of Guelph AlumniAssociation makes an annual donationto the Alumni Legacy Scholarship.

PASSAGES

34 The Portico

ike Fan hit the right notes whenhe recently won the gold medal for the

highest mark in Grade 10 Voice from theRoyal Conservatory of Music. He began

piano lessons at age six and received an asso-ciate diploma from the Royal Conservatoryin Piano Performance at age 17. He alsostudied the flute and euphonium, a brasswind instrument, in grade school.

After graduating from biomedical scienceat U of G in 2014, he pursued his love foropera by taking classical singing lessons.

“What I love about classical singing is itscomplexity and the amalgamation of art,music, language, history and culture,” he says.“I am currently singing in six languages andI speak three fluently with a few in progress.”

Taught by Tannis Sprott, Fan is currentlycompleting his second associate diploma invoice performance with the Royal Conser-vatory of Music. He also tutors and teachesmusic in Guelph, and hosts a monthly operaevent called Opera@Guelph at U of G.

“I have aspirations to continue trainingmy voice and hopefully become a professionalopera singer,” he says. “I am auditioning toreturn to university to continue my voicestudies.”

Science grad pursues opera career

he sight of Mount Everest

is something that Dan Gillis willnever forget. The computer science pro-fessor and U of G grad (B.Sc. ’00, M.Sc.’02, PhD ’10) trekked to the mountain’sbase camp in December 2014 to raisemoney to help those who are blind orvisually impaired. To date, he has raisedmore than $2,300 for the CanadianNational Institute for the Blind. Hisgoal is to raise $5,361 — one dollar tomatch every metre of the mountain’sheight above sea level.

“Everest is another three kilometresup from base camp,” he says. “You’relooking at this mammoth piece of rock,and it never seems to get smaller. You’regoing up and up and up, and it still towers above you.”

Although he began the journeywith his friend Rick Chin, B.Sc. ’05,M.Sc. ’07, Gillis completed the 130-kilometre round-trip hike without himafter Chin had to be airlifted out dueto altitude sickness.

“We both love being in the moun-tains,” says Gillis, adding that he andChin previously climbed together inthe Rockies.

During the Everest trek, Gillis says heoften felt like he was having an asthma attack due to the lack of oxygen, whichis 50 per cent less than at a lower alti-tude. “The steepness of the inclinesstarted becoming even more of a chal-lenge because you’re just not gettingenough oxygen,” he says. “Even whenwe were walking at a slower pace, you’rebreathing almost as if you’re running.”

The cold also posed a challenge, he

adds, because it was often -20 C outsideand not much warmer in the unheatedlodges he slept in at night. His sleepingattire included multiple layers of thermalclothing covered with blankets, hot waterbottles and a sleeping bag. “There werea few moments when I thought, ‘Whatam I doing? Why am I doing this?’”

Undeterred, Gillis wants to climbmore mountains. “I still want to gohigher.”

Summer 2015 35

Mountain climbing for a good cause

A blend of action, suspenseand humour, the book tells thestory of a teenager who movesto Laos with his mother andis falsely accused of a crime.■ Kevin Shughnessy, B.Sc.’02, received a master of sciencedegree from the University ofNew Brunswick.■ Mary Wyga, BA ’03, hasheld progressive roles at theOntario Ministry of Agricul-ture, Food and Rural Affairs.Currently, she is a projectanalyst and designs fundingprograms to match political

platforms, assesses applicationsand manages client contractswith the province. She is alsoa professional belly dancer andchoreographer with Guelph-based Ishra & InvoketressDance, and is a freelance editor.■ Tyler Sharp, B.Sc. ’04, is anepidemiologist at the U.S. Cen-ters for Disease Control andPrevention. He is based in SanJuan, Puerto Rico, where hestudies tropical infectious dis-eases and conducts outbreakinvestigations around the world.

■ Christopher Kay, B.Comm.’07, and Elyse Kay (neeMcKenzie) BA ’08, wel-comed their first Arctic baby,Jakob Wendel, on Oct. 17,2014 in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Thecouple has been living inIqaluit since 2011.■ Lisa Maldonado, BA ’11,passed the exam to becomecertified as a Spanish-to-Englishtranslator and a French-to-English translator with theAssociation of Translators andInterpreters of Ontario. ■ Minahil Akhtar, B.A.Sc.

’14, is enrolled in York University’s master of socialwork program. As part of theNew Opportunities for Inno-vative Student Engagementproject, she works with youthfrom the Jane and Finch community to enhance theiracademic success.■ Andrew Hand, M.Sc. ’14,works as a scientist at Med-Releaf, a licensed medicinalcannabis producer, along withcolleague Juan Gutierrez,B.Sc. ’13.

36 The Portico

earlier this spring, the varsity men’s hockeyteam defeated the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières Patriotes (UQTR) 4-0 on home ice infront of a sold-out crowd to win the Queen’s Cup.

It’s the Gryphons first Ontario University Ath-letics hockey title since 1997, and it marked thefirst time in 21 years that the competition was heldat U of G.

The win was the culmination of an impressive

comeback for the team. Earlier in the season, theGryphons were ranked last in the West Division,winning just three of 16 games, before sweepingthe division final against defending champions theWindsor Lancers.

Advancing to the Canadian InteruniversitySport championship in Halifax, the team won itsfirst medal since 1996, taking the bronze in an over-time 3-2 thriller against UQTR.

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