Yukon College O-Week activities immerse students in community stories  

WHITEHORSE—Everyone has a story to tell, and as part of this year’s Orientation Week activities Yukon College is inviting a few Yukoners to share their stories to help strengthen the connection between College students and the local community.

The story-sharing event, which will take place on Tuesday, September 5, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Yukon College’s A-Wing, is based on Human Library events that take place around the world. It will feature stories from: Whitehorse activist Chase Blodgett, BYTE Executive Director Shelby Maunder, bhangra performer and teacher Gurdeep Pandher, and other members of the college and local community.

Training program for older workers accepting applications until Aug. 31

WHITEHORSE—In 2016, Heather McIntyre was between jobs.

“I left the company that I had been with for 33 years, and I didn’t want to just jump into the next thing,” she said. “I always thought I might want to go back to school, but I was at a bit of a loss.”

She heard about Yukon College’s Targeted Initiatives for Older Workers (TIOW) Program, which offers unemployed people between the ages of 55 and 64 training and support in entering or re-entering the workforce. McIntyre took the program from January to April 2017, and soon after she was hired as the Executive Director of the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre.

DAWSON CITY—Yukon College is pleased to offer the Visual Arts program at the Yukon School of Visual Arts (SOVA) in Dawson City in the upcoming academic year.

As of the end of July, the program has sufficient students registered to run.

Interested applicants are encouraged to continue to apply as SOVA will accept applications and registrations through to September 8.

WHITEHORSE—Yukon Energy Corporation (YEC), the Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) at Yukon College and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), a graduate school of the University of Quebec’s network, are partnering to study climate change impacts on the Mayo and Aishihik rivers in Yukon.

This three-year research project combines two grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) with funding from Yukon Energy. The total value of the project is close to $1-million with close to half of that in cash and in-kind support coming from the energy corporation.

The Government of Yukon is working with the Government of Alberta to ensure Yukon College meets established institutional standards as the college moves toward providing made-in-Yukon degree programs. Yukon College currently co-delivers degrees with partner universities.

Through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between Yukon and Alberta, reviewers selected by the Campus Alberta Quality Council, an arms-length agency that evaluates proposed degree programs in Alberta, visited the college on June 22 and 23 for an organizational evaluation. The Council will assess Yukon College’s readiness to deliver and sustain high quality degree programs. This evaluation is the first phase of review for an institution wishing to offer its first degree program.

WHITEHORSE— Sex sells, so we are told, and Yukon College’s Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) is hoping this holds true for science as much as advertising. 

Starting today, NCE is accepting submissions for a contest to find the best slogan to promote awareness of both climate change and safe sex.

Can’t see the connection? Maybe you’re not thinking hard enough. Just look to winners from the previous contest in 2011, including “Stop dangerous emissions” and “Forget your car. Let’s burn some real rubber.”

The winning slogans will be printed on condom wrappers and distributed throughout Yukon this fall.

“Addressing climate change and addressing unsafe sex – both involve adjusting our habits and behaviour to improve our personal health and the health of our communities,” said Holly Bull, Climate Change Research Assistant at NCE. “We hope this campaign and contest gets people talking and leads to positive change.”

WHITEHORSE— Elise McCormick and Joanne Sherrard from Dawson City have won the 2017 Yukon Innovation Prize. McCormick and Sherrard were awarded the $60,000 grand prize today by Stephen Rose, Assistant Deputy Minister, Yukon Economic Development, and Stephen Mooney, Director, Cold Climate Innovation at Yukon College, in a ceremony at Ayamdigut campus.

McCormick and Sherrard’s winning project proposed Aurum Birch Sap Skincare – a line of facial care products made with natural compounds found in raw birch sap. They will now use the $60,000 to further bring their idea to commercialization.

“We are really excited. This support from the Yukon Innovation Prize gives us the opportunity to bring our product to market much sooner than we would have been able to,” said Joanne Sherrard.

PELLY CROSSING – A new program at Yukon College’s Pelly Crossing campus starts with a unique assignment – students will build a raft and use it to travel from Fort Selkirk to Minto Landing.

It’s part of the programming at the Huchá Hudän Field School. The month-long pilot Essential Skills project is a collaboration between the College and Selkirk First Nation.

The land-based program blends traditional and cultural skills with critical discourse, workplace readiness certificates, and additional training.

Students will spend their days working with Elders and instructors to learn Northern Tutchone, make and use fish traps, prepare camps, and discuss topics including decolonization, Indigenous governance, and self-determination. Modules include a moose hunt, wilderness first aid and GPS and traditional navigation.

WHITEHORSE – What impact do you have on your own drinking water? James Storey, local ninth-grader, is going to help find out at the Canada-Wide Science Fair being held in Regina this week.
Storey is one of three Yukon youth taking part in a national citizen project that samples water isotopes from communities across Canada. The opportunity to participate in the study came as part of his win at the 30th Annual Yukon/Stikine Regional Science Fair at Yukon College back in February.

For Storey, it’s the second regional win in as many years.

In 2016, his project, Camping Stove Efficiency For Summertime Alpine Hiking, placed, and he traveled to the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Montreal. This year, his project, A Lasting Bond, tested various types of glue for their torsional, tensile and shear strengths. Storey, who goes to F.H. Collins, designed and built two apparatuses to gauge this.

WHITEHORSE—Yukon-born environmental scientist Nadia Joe will address the class of 2017 graduating students at Yukon College convocation this Friday. Through her work in water management and wastewater treatment Joe helps bridge cultural divides over water governance.

Joe is an inaugural Jane Glassco Fellow (2010-12) who is currently working with Champagne and Aishihik First Nations to design a culturally appropriate traditional knowledge study to assess impacts from the Aishihik Hydro project.

Joe is Nlaka'pamux on her mother's side and southern Tutchone/Tlingit—belonging to the Crow Clan of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations—on her father's side. While Joe lives in Vancouver now, she still considers Klukshu home, and visits often with her elders there.