Dr. Ray Sanders brings a broad range of college and university administrative experience to his new position. Most recently he served for five years as the Washington State-wide Campus Director for Chapman University College. Previously he was the Vice President for Economic Development at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Washington.

“I’m very pleased to be given the opportunity to work with the community and to live in Williams Lake,” Sanders, who is an avid fly fisherman said. “I fully understand the ever changing and transformational role that post secondary schools play in the lives of local citizens. I also understand TRU’s unique role in economic development as it partners with business and industry to provide entry level and upgrade training for workers and employers in the Cariboo.”

Dr. Ray Sanders is the new director TRU Williams Lake

“I fully believe in, and support the outreach and continuing education functions of this university.”– Ray Sanders, Director TRU Williams Lake.

“Dr. Sanders has over 30 years of experience at colleges and universities, 25 years as an administrator,” said Cliff Neufeld, TRU Vice President Administration and Finance. “He brings a solid background to the complex dynamics of providing cost-effective and timely services and courses. He has the experience to advance the comprehensive TRU Williams Lake mission.”

The Campus Director is the senior administrative officer of the Williams Lake campus and responsible for the general administration of the facilities, financial resources and support services of that campus, and for the implementation of plans for strategic growth. This position reports jointly to the Vice President Administration & Finance and to the Provost & Vice President Academic, and works closely with TRU Deans and Directors to direct the strategic development of the Williams Lake campus.

Sanders holds both doctorate and masters degrees in Occupational and Adult Education, as well as a bachelor of science degree in Trade and Industrial Education, from Oklahoma State University.  He has also been an active community member, having volunteered with and led in various capacities with Rotary International since 1989.

Shelby (of Kamloops, wearing red), Subhadra (Ashcroft, yellow), Patrick (Courtenay, sunglasses), Amber (Smithers, behind tree), and Cloé (Kamloops, striped shirt) are enrolled in this week's Rebel Writing Camp for youth between the ages of 12 and 16. On Wednesday morning, the group was scouting the campus for still and video images for their New Media production portraying 'Originality'.

Rebels take a stand underneath a tree on the steps outside the TRU Campus Activity Centre. Photo: Matthew Tarzwell

Photo: Matthew Tarzwell

Rebel Writing Camp is presented by the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Arts.

Schedule & Presenters
MONDAY July 12 — Songwriting — Bodhi Jones

TUESDAY, July 13 — Graffiti Art — Martin Tuba

WEDNESDAY, July 14 — New Media — Amanda Buder

THURSDAY, July 15 — Story Telling — Chris Bose

Friday, July 16 — Poetry Slams — Brendan McLeod

The Summer 2010 edition of The Open Standard

Welcome to the Spring 2010 edition of The Open Standard – The Newsletter of the Open Learning Division of Thompson Rivers University.

This edition introduces you to TRU’s newest President as well as gives you the last words of advice Interim President Dr. Roger Barnsley gave to the graduating class of 2010. Also, read about the institution-wide project to change course codes and Open Learning’s new funding for staff and much more.

Read the Open Standard

Learn to take your gardening interests to new heights through the Master Gardener Basic Training starting Sept. 11 and held at TRU.

TRU Friends of the Gardens & Thompson Shuswap Master Gardeners have teamed up to present… Fall 2010 Master Gardener Basic Training Program

When: Saturdays – Sept 11 to Dec 11
Where: TRU Horticulture Building House 10
How much: $500. Includes over $100 of text books and covers the fees of the expert instructors hired to teach the classes.

More info: Leslie Welch—250.828.2321 or plants4@telus.net
www.bcmastergardeners.org

The nuts & bolts
This program will appeal to enthusiastic home gardeners wanting to take their knowledge, passion and love of sharing gardening to new heights.
The intensive training program provides current information and trends on all gardening basics. The program emphasizes environmentally responsible, sustainable gardening practices.
The program combines classroom instruction and volunteer hours (65 hours). Classroom training (78 hours) is provided every Saturday for 3 months (no class on Thanksgiving long weekend). The volunteer hours are individually scheduled over a two-year period.

Program Content:
Classroom component covering a full range of gardening topics such as:
Botany and plant identification
Soils, amendments and composting
Lawns and their alternatives
Right plant, right place
Trees, shrubs, fruit trees, berries, roses, and perennials
Sustainable landscape design
Xeriscaping
Organic vegetable gardening
Diagnosis and management of pest, disease and weed problems
Propagation and pruning
Basic entomology and integrated pest management.

Volunteer Component: comprised of 65 volunteer hours over two years.
On successful completion of the classroom component, students share their knowledge and passion about gardening with the community, through volunteer hours, supported by experienced Master Gardeners.
Following the completion of the volunteers hours, the Master Gardeners in Training will receive their Master Gardener qualifications. Thereafter, 15 volunteer hours and 5 hours of continuing education will be required annually to maintain qualifications.

TRU Service-Learning 100 introduces students to volunteering, the importance of being a community-minded person and how volunteering not only benefits the community they live in, but themselves as well.

The course can be especially beneficial to international students wanting more opportunities to apply English outside of the classroom as well as for those wanting a greater experience of Canadian culture.

What students say about TRU Service-Learning 100
improves communication skills
boosts confidence
more comfortable in non-campus environments
builds strong friendships

Students from the TRU Service-Learning 100 Winter 2010 class. Joining them is instructor Wendy Krauza (far right, wearning black sweater).

In a real and meaningful way, students apply academic course work with one of 13 community organizations Service-Learning 100 has partnered with. Partnerships are with: Big Brothers & Sisters, Canadian Cancer Society, St. John’s Ambulance, Desert Gardens, Kamloops Food Bank, Canadian Red Cross, Kamloops Special Olympics, SPCA, Interior Community Services, Kamloops Immigrant Services, Volunteer Kamloops, Venture Kamloops, and the United Way.
Students demonstrate service learning through reflective oral and written assignments.

The course’s primary focus is the service/volunteer experience of the students. Most leave the course saying volunteering has truly changed their lives for the better.

Through topics such as workplace culture and career exploration, students broaden their personal, cultural, academic and professional knowledge.

The camp is geared towards Aboriginal students and is a multi-year partnership sponsored by TRU Aboriginal Education Centre, TRU Faculty of Science, TRU Eureka! Science Program, and School District #73 Aboriginal Education.

Students are here from Terrace, Prince George, Telkwa (near Smithers), Chase, and Kamloops.

Among the activities this week: learning how atoms expand and contract when exposed to different temperatures, how to make best guesses based on knowledge at hand, swabbing for bacteria, analyzing bacteria, understanding the need for good hygiene, and observing birds around hoodoos in Brocklehurst.

Kayla, from Kamloops, is absorbed by a demonstration of the principle behind fireworks. Students learned that a flame changes colour depending on the metal compound interacting with the flame. In this case, a copper and water solution was sprayed into the flame of a Bunsen Burner and the green flame was the result.

Campers participate in the black box experiment of making a best guess based on knowledge at hand. In this example, students not only are attempting to guess the contents inside the box, but also how the box has been partitioned internally. A list on a nearby blackboard provides students with possible objects and partition options. Much like trying to guess the contents of a wrapped Christmas or birthday present, guesses are based on how the contents move within the box and the sounds the objects make when in motion.

David, of Prince George, takes a turn at the chalk board as students discuss their guesses from the black box test. Some of the partition options are pictured on the chalk board.

Two-year-old Taylor Neustaeter volunteers as a garden tour guide for her dad (CSOM student Nolan Neustaeter off-camera). Tours of Thompson Rivers University’s campus or gardens are available all summer long.

Summer on the Thompson Rivers University campus: lawns, the brilliance of flower-blooms, panoramic views of the rivers and valleys, and the sound of laughter; it certainly isn’t all about classes in the summer.

Campus Tours
High school students and graduates wanting to get acquainted with the campus before classes start in the fall may take a campus tour any weekday. No prior registration is required: just show up House 9, across from the Campus Activity Centre, at 10:00 am or 2 pm Monday to Friday. Groups may book a tour at another time, or anyone wishing to find out more about the campus or campus tours may call 250-828-5006 or email tours@tru.ca.

Garden Tours
Next door, in House 10, TRU Friends of the Gardens offer tours of the BC Interior’s largest botanical collection. Tours are each Wednesday evening at 6 pm from through to the end of August. For more information, call the FOG line at 250-377-6057 and leave a message.

Julia Kaczkowski gets ready for September and the start of her Bachelor of Science program with a TRU campus tour from Reta Langlands, Student Recruitment Officer.

Summer Camps
The university campus has become the ideal spot for a dozens of day camps appealing to fledgling athletes, novice detectives and Rebel Writers.

There are still sessions available for the popular EUReKA! camps. The non-profit, student-run organization based out of TRU strives to increase elementary student’s interest in and excitement towards science and engineering, and to help teachers brings science into the regular classroom. To fulfill our objective, EUReKA! summer camps emphasizing fun, challenging, hands-on, problem solving activities. Children ages 7-14 may come and join EUReKA! for a week-long fun-filled science camp.

Gardens offer tours of the BC Interior’s largest botanical collection

To find out more about EUReKA! Science camps, call (250) 371-5534 Email: eureka@tru.ca or check the web at www.tru.ca/eureka.

Young athletes get a chance to hone their skills at WolfPack Summer Camps. The WolfPack is offering many new programs this summer, among them chaperoned Resident Camps and High-Performance Day Camps. There are 12 different sports and a French Language Sport Camp. For fun or development there is a variety of sports camps offered all summer.

Children aged 5 to 13 may also engage in a variety of camps and activities that span an entire day in the All Day Menu. If a child wishes to participate in one sport then they can do that, and if they want to try a few sports they also can do that. Mix up the camps: the options are endless!

The TRU WolfPack offer many different summer camp programs for children and young athletes

Anyone interested in finding out more about the camps, or wishing to register, may check out this website or email sportcamp@tru.ca. Camp coordinator Duncan Olthius is also available to answer questions by phone at 250-377-6116.

Whatever the age, and whatever the interest, there’s something to suit at TRU this summer.

Eligible qualifying categories include foreign language study or other course work with a distinct cross-cultural or international focus, as well as participation in student exchange programs, field schools, and international volunteer opportunities. (Read detailed overview here.)

Global competency is best understood as a body of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that reflect a capability for global citizenship—that is, a capacity to engage effectively in an international environment. In today’s globalized world, where economies and societies interact with one another on a multitude of levels, this capacity is ever more in demand.

“The opportunity to create their own, unique university experience is attracting students from across Canada and around the world to Thompson Rivers University, and the international aspect has become a very important part of that experience,” reports Josh Keller, TRU’s director of recruitment and school liaison. “The employers of tomorrow want individuals with a global perspective, and TRU’s new Global Competency distinction will give our graduates the advantage of being able to demonstrate this in a meaningful way.”

TRU is a Canadian leader in internationalization in higher education, and the new Global Competency qualification reflects both the university’s commitment to global citizenship and its capacity to establish institution-wide internationalization initiatives. “The working group was drawn from throughout the university,” says Lian Dumouchel, a faculty member in the School of Tourism and chair of the Global Competency Working Group. “Each member consulted extensively with his/her department or faculty. We agreed on some fundamental values early on – student accessibility, affordability and program flexibility – which provided us with a good framework to build the program requirements.”

The Global Competency distinction is available to all students at TRU, regardless of their program or field of study, and those who meet the criteria will have it recorded on their official university transcript.

Vera Wojna, an executive with TRU World—the university’s international division—and the chair of TRU’s Senate International Affairs Committee (SIAC), notes that this institutional perspective is key. “The new Global Competency qualification is made possible by the university’s broad engagement, at the highest levels, with important internationalization issues. TRU’s Strategic Plan, for example, explicitly sets out a number of pan-institutional goals to increase international opportunities for students and faculty, internationalize our curricula, expand services for international students, and expand training for faculty and staff.”

TRU’s history of international engagement dates back over 30 years. International projects and linkages currently extend to more than 45 countries with students from more than 70 nations enrolled at the main campus in Kamloops, British Columbia.

TRU Friends of the Garden society offers free garden tours at Thompson Rivers University

Summer company? Join TRU Friends of the Garden society for a free walking tour of the beautiful horticulture gardens in and around campus.

When: May 12th – August 25th Wednesdays at 6:30pm
Where to meet: Back of House 10.

View Campus Map

Contact 250.377.6057 for more information.

Dianthus Cultivar

Pyrethrum Daisy

Wild Strawberry

Aquilegia (Columbine) Cultivar