The Gateway Magazine - January 2018 by The Gateway

On the day I graduated, I wish Iʼd known… You have to pay your parking tickets to get your diploma.

The daily habit that contributes to my success is… Laughter! I engage in a hearty “ha ha ha” multiple times every day for my health.

The last book I read was… Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

One piece of advice I’d give a current student is… Not everything you learn at university should be from a book.

Asked & Answered with Aisha Alfa, ’03 BA, actor, comedian and writer. Read the full interview at ualberta.ca/alumni

My favourite emoji is... I use Bitmoji so my Aisha avatar can annoy my friends and family.

January 2017 Published since November 21, 1910 Circulation 3,500 ISSN 0845-356X Suite 3-04 8900 114 St. NW University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2J7 Advertising www.f-media.ca

The "It's Just January" Issue Editor-in-Chief Jamie Sarkonak

News Editor Sofia Osborne

Managing Editor Raylene Lung

Staff Reporter Nathan Fung

Art Director Alex Patterson

Arts & Culture Editor Victoria Chiu

Graphic Designer Laura Lucas

Opinion Editor Emma Jones

Photo Editor Rosty Soroka

Webmaster Papa Yaw Gyeke-Lartey

Online Editor Oumar Salifou

Cover Alex Patterson

Contributors Atharv Vohra Prachi Shah Navneet Gidda Enrique Marroquin Calvin Chan Richard Bagan Sam Beetham Cleo Williams Ruth Ferrari Kate McInnes Claudia Kulay

Copyright All materials appearing in The Gateway bear copyright of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent. Volunteer Want to write, draw, or shoot photos for us? To get involved visit gtwy.ca/volunteer for more information.

GSJS The Gateway is published by the Gateway Student Journalism Society (GSJS), a studentrun, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization, operated in accordance with the Societies Act of Alberta.

THE SYLLABUS NOTES

THE QUAD

Five Things For...

Q&A

Stuck inside during the cold winter months, you could get a head start on assignments... or check out this stuff instead.

"When you’re having a rough day at school, practice becomes something to look forward to." We talk to Stephane Legault of the Golden Bears hockey team.

What do you get when you put three engineers in a truck together? Ice cream, of course.

Grab your foils and try the Fencing Club.

Spotlight

Beyond the Bachelor

Point / Counterpoint The comments section: Some good laughs, or a swirling vortex of unstoppable negativity?

Worth It or Not Worth It Well, we're all back — here are some January do's and don'ts.

Club Profile

Local artist Tobiasthehomie talks authenticity, self-expression, and his EP Love Letters.

Girls' Club: One in five engineering students are women — we visit their experiences.

DIVERSIONS

Illustration Claudia captures the #relatable feeling of returning to class after the holiday break.

Something to Do We made some sudokus for you to do in class during syllabus week.

Gardens of Green & Gold Correction for the December 2017 Issue In our previous issue of The Gateway, writer Megan Paranich and photographer Teresa McKernan were not credited for the feature "Being Heard: Indigenous Experience on Campus." This mistake occured due to a file being corrupted in the printing process, and we deeply regret this error.

A look at the U of A's community garden and sustainable food growth.

21 JANUARY 2017 | 1

Notes | Five Things For

FIVE THINGS FOR:

Chilling When It’s Too Chilly To Chill Outside BY ATHARV VOHRA & RAYLENE LUNG | ILLUSTRATION BY LAURA LUCAS

Super Mario Odyssey GAME

EXPLORATION RPG

NINTENDO SWITCH

This title was a delight to play. As with most of Nintendo’s franchises, the game is playable and understandable for everyone. The player gets to explore a bunch of crazy and quirky worlds that are not frozen Edmonton. Its two-person mode makes for some hilarious memories, too.

HUMID

CHLORINE

Have you ever longed for a quiet, warm place to sit in solitude and listen to the subtle whirring of the water? Look no further than the West Pool in Van Vliet. The stands are usually sparsely populated and the elevated temperature makes for the perfect spot to catch up on readings (or to slurp up some sweet, sweet Booster Juice).

2 | GTWY.CA

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

COOKING SHOW

This YouTube channel isn’t an ordinary cooking channel. It gives no shits, and the presenter is so relatable. The food they make is easy and fun. The editing behind each video is absolutely mind-blowing and the subsegments about an Egg Homicide can bring some early winter cheer.

Outliers

Idling by the Pool STUDY SPOT

You Suck At Cooking

BOOK

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Malcolm Gladwell encapsulates his observations about people and events to create a paradigm that suggests that the circumstances and backgrounds of people affect their success equally — if not more than — the work they put into their crafts. A great read for curious housebound minds. g

Death Parade ANIME

CONTEMPLATIVE

PHILOSOPHICAL

This anime took me by surprise. The premise? After death, people are sent to a bar where “arbiters” judge them based on games (darts, billiards, etc.) they play. The realism of people’s behaviours are exaggerated in a way that leaves the watcher contemplative of their life decisions.

Beyond the Bachelor | Notes

BEYOND THE BACHELOR: Bubble Cream’s Edmonton expansion is going to be sweet BY VICTORIA CHIU | PHOTOS SUPPLIED BY BUBBLE CREAM

Jason Phung: BACHELOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Steven Chen: BACHELOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING (IN PROGRESS) Vincent Cheng: UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH ALUMNUS; BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING Bubble Cream is bringing Hong Kong-style treats with a twist to Edmonton. While working together in the same industrial and environmental machinery company, Phung, Chen, and Cheng were first brought together by their common desire to deliver products to customers that could directly uplift how people felt. After plenty of brainstorming and experimentation, Phung, Chen, and Cheng created Bubble Cream, a dessert company fusing Eastern and Western tastes with unique sweet treats. Research in New York, London, and other metropolitan hubs revealed that the dessert was quickly gaining momentum in other cities and had not yet been brought to Edmonton, and the trio’s gears began to turn. “We (wanted) to make something that’s ours, that we have control of,” Cheng says. “We all kind of have an entrepreneurial heart — and we know what we want to do.” The company’s name comes from its primary product, the eponymous “bubble cream”: an egg waffle — a common Hong Kong street food typically sold in paper bags and eaten plain — paired with ice cream and decorated with a showering of different toppings, including fruit, sprinkles, and Pocky sticks. The waffles are made using special machines and a custom batter created by the proprietors themselves, and from there, it’s about what will taste best. After debuting the dessert at the Alberta Aviation Museum’s night market in June 2017, Phung, Chen, and Cheng were taken aback by the positive reception to their product, with lines snaking in front of their booth. “We started with just a few machines and were overwhelmed by the amount of support we got from people,” Phung says. Bubble Cream has since brought its product and its miniature adaption, Bubble Cream Juniors, to events like the St. Albert Farmers’ Market and Taste of Edmonton. The company has been expanding into weddings, birthdays, and private event bookings and hopes to debut a full-service Bubble Cream food truck by late spring 2018. g

JANUARY 2017 | 3

Notes | Point / Counterpoint

POINT / COUNTERPOINT SHOULD YOU READ THE COMMENTS SECTION? A discussion on the pros and cons of reading hot takes.

Point: Read, Love, Laugh

Counterpoint: Avoid, Avoid

BY PRACHI SHAH

BY NAVNEET GIDDA

Whether it be a YouTube video, a Facebook post, or a Gateway article, the comments section is where the action happens. This section can be eye-opening or just downright hilarious (it’s often both). Watching commenters duel it out with witty puns and memes is a favoured pastime of mine. As someone who highly appreciates a good meme, I find the comments to be a goldmine. You can also intertwine it with inside jokes, tag all your friends, and all have a good laugh about it. The comments section is a way to have some fun, especially with content that predicts the grim outlook of our society’s future (like most articles today). We all get so stressed over papers, exams, and finding jobs. If reading the comments amuses you for a bit, it can help relieve the strain on your mind and help you start fresh when you get back to work. On a more serious note, reading the comments can be a great place to see the issue from a different perspective. People often point out gaps in logic or have poignant arguments that the original post had missed. In today’s atmosphere of social movements and political dramas, the comments section is another way to hear what people across the world think of an issue. When people see what others are saying, they engage in the discussion and it can be a great way of fostering connections or finding ideas for a project. This debating hotspot becomes an article on its own through the commentary and multifaceted viewpoints on global issues, that we all witness and experience. Next time you read a thoughtprovoking article or contraversial story don’t hesitate to scroll down and share your thoughts. You might be suprised what you find when leafing through others’ discussions.

Let’s face it — getting involved in a rant on someone’s Facebook status or hot take under a YouTube video isn’t going to fix the world’s problems. In the time you spent watching internet trolls battle it out, you could’ve caught up on all your readings and still had time for a nap in between. Having a good laugh at the negativity plaguing our social media sites isn’t productive and definitely isn’t worth sacrificing your GPA. Most arguments in the comments are repetitive anyways. One person makes a point, someone else rebuts with something unrelated, and another tries to break the tension with a random

4 | GTWY.CA

reaction gif. Then the cycle begins again and the conversation that began as a thoughtful discussion on race relations becomes a full-on debate about who’s a racist and who isn’t. Not a very “poignant” discourse in my opinion. Although comments sections do bring people together from different corners of the world, it’s questionable how many of those people actually take action on the issues discussed. When was the last time your opinions were radically changed by a few emotionally charged sentences on a news article? Frankly, people aren’t influenced by conversations online, they’re influenced by those in power. Conversations that lead to real change are largely held within governments and influential corporations. Instead of telling people to read comments sections for entertainment, encourage them to run for office or apply for positions on voluntary boards — places where decisions about tangible change actually happen. We should be spending our time getting minority groups seats at these tables, not watching them fight ignorant people on the internet. g

Worth it or Not Worth it | Notes

WORTH IT -ORNOT WORTH IT WELCOME BACK EDITION

Two writers weigh in on whether it's worth it to invest time, money, and emotion into the following.

Buying Boots

Standing in Line

BY NAVNEET GIDDA

BY ENRIQUE MARROQUIN

You step out of the LRT and towards Quad, only to feel your feet freezing solid beneath you. Sure, those Converse One Stars and ankle socks look great. But now they’re full of snow, rocks, mud, and are being wrecked by salt. You fool. Please get yourself a goddamn pair of boots. You don’t need ridiculously expensive ones either. Get something waterproof and warm and I will personally compliment you on them. WORTH IT.

I get it, it’s tempting to want to go to Sugarbowl on a Sunday morning. You’re hungover and all you want is that cinnamon bun. Sadly, this is the absolute worst time to go and there will always be a line outside. And you don’t deserve to freeze your dehydrated ass off, even for 10 minutes. Love yourself and go down the street to Farrow instead. NOT WORTH IT.

Getting a Smoothie From That Place in Van Vliet

Taking the Long Way Through Pedways

BY JAMIE SARKONAK

BY ENRIQUE MARROQUIN

There's a small smoothie shop in Van Vliet that has had me addicted to blended fruit since the summer. There are two catches that come with this. First, the shop seems to close whenever the fuck it wants. The "hours" sign says it will be open until 2:30, but I've gone there at 2:18 and the shop was closed up. Second, the smoothies are $8, likely due to the excessive protein powder. You're better off saving your toonies for coffee. NOT WORTH IT.

You can get all the way from SUB to NREF or from Tory to Law without stepping outside. This is the magic of pedways. Most people I know don’t use them though, because it is too much of an “inconvenience” to take the “long” way. To them I say: the air outside is trying to kill you. Take the extra minute and go through the pedways. No one will ever judge you. WORTH IT. g

JANUARY 2017 | 5

The Quad | Q&A

6 | GTWY.CA

Q&A | The Quad

Off the Rink

Q&A with Stephane Legault BY CALVIN CHAN | PHOTO BY RICHARD BAGAN Stephane Legault practically grew up on the ice. The born-and-bred Edmontonian has been playing hockey since he was four, when his father built a rink in their backyard one winter. He was drafted by the Edmonton Oil Kings at the age of 16, made his way to the Western Hockey League final in 2013, and was even invited to the Edmonton Oilers training camp. However, Legault ended up forgoing his final year of junior hockey, despite his overwhelming success. During his first year at the University of Alberta while watching a Golden Bears game, the spark was rekindled, and he joined the team. The business student has now been with the team for four seasons, and they are practically his second family.

The Gateway: Why did you decide to start playing with the Golden Bears? Stephane Legault: I wanted to get back on the ice again and had heard that the Bears were a really tight team. No egos or anything like that. All the stuff you see: the history, the tradition, the successful championships — the team practically sells itself. So when I was given the chance, I just couldn’t say no. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

a taste of what it was like always pushing to win. One of the really cool things about having played for the Oil Kings is that I now get to play alongside a lot of the guys I’ve seen before, guys that I’ve played against during junior championships. But now I get to play alongside them and we’ve all become best friends. It’s really cool to be able to build those types of relationships. It’s definitely something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

So why hockey? I played a lot of sports growing up; I was really into baseball right up until I was 15. When my schedule got too busy for both and I had to choose one, I was actually leaning more towards baseball than hockey. But then I got drafted by the Oil Kings, so in a way, they sort of made the decision for me. I’m not that great at baseball anymore, so hockey was definitely the right choice.

Did playing a varsity sport help you as a student in any way? Absolutely. Business school is all about group work. It’s just the nature of the business environment. We end up working in teams a lot, so learning to be a team player has been huge. You’ve got to learn to balance what you want and what other people want, and you have to realize that what you think you deserve isn’t always what you’re going to get. A lot of the things we do in sports translates into both school and everyday life. Things like how to stay focused, or how to manage your time.

What was it like transitioning from playing for the Edmonton Oil Kings? I was lucky to play for the Oil Kings. We were pretty successful, so I had already gotten

What do you love about playing for the Golden Bears? Definitely the brotherhood. Getting to hang out with 20 of your closest friends every day isn’t something you can duplicate anywhere else. When you’re having a rough day at school, practice becomes something to look forward to. Any fun facts about Golden Bears Hockey that people might not know about? So, in the dressing room, there’s this set of doors that divide it, creating a bigger area and a smaller area. We call the bigger area Hollywood and the smaller side The Ghetto. Only an elite few get to access The Ghetto and you have to apply to get in. There’s only enough space for maybe eight people and there’s always a battle between the two sides. It’s all in good fun of course. It’s actually a really long standing tradition. It’s cool when you meet an alumnus and you get to ask them where they sat, Hollywood or The Ghetto. So are you in Hollywood or The Ghetto? Oh, I’m in The Ghetto. g

JANUARY 2017 | 7

The Quad | Club Profile

On Guard: The University of Alberta Fencing Club BY SAM BEETHAM | ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX PATTERSON

The University of Alberta Fencing Club provides the opportunity for anyone to fence, whether they’re seasoned at swordplay or have just seen a lot of medieval movies. Anyone can join the club to train or just try out fencing. While most of the members are current students, anybody 17 or older can come to the meetings. The club has an illustrious history, dating as far back as the 1950s, and was quite prestigious for its competitive

8 | GTWY.CA

nature. Today, they focus on the recreational aspect of the sport. “The real goal of the club right now is to just bring fencing to students,” said Cameron Griffiths, a fifth-year virology PhD student who serves as president of the club. “Even myself, like the other students, had never tried (fencing) before coming to university.” “Everybody knows fencing exists, but very few know that you can try fencing in Edmonton or at the U of A.” Members of the fencing club attend many tournaments across Alberta each year. Every March, the fencing club holds its own tournament, the Wetterberg Open, which hosts all age groups and forms of fencing from Edmonton’s various fencing clubs in the Education building’s gym. While the competition can be intense, individuals of all skill levels can attend.

Club Profile | The Quad

The Wetterberg Open started in the 1960s, contributing to the club’s long history. After undergoing a number of name changes, the tournament is currently named after Alberta Sports Hall of Fame inductee and former long-time coach of the club, Fran Wetterberg. The fencing club is one of the longest lasting fencing institutions in Alberta. The objective in fencing is to score points by hitting your opponent with the weapon, while avoiding getting hit yourself. Additionally, players fence within a long rectangular playing field, and stepping outside of this field rewards your opponent a point. Each different fencing weapon (foil, epee, and sabre) has its own permissible areas of contact and result in varying styles of the sport. “Fencing is an interesting sport described, but not by me, as ‘physical chess’ because it doesn’t matter the weapon — half of the battle is with your mind and half of it is ability,” Griffiths said. “You can train to be the physical best in the world, but you can still be outwitted by your opponent.” The club’s current goal is to foster a larger fencing community across campus. “I think it’s just a matter of getting people exposed to fencing,” Griffiths said. “It’s kind of an interesting situations where almost everybody wants to try fencing.” “Fencing isn’t the most popular sport in the world, but overall it’s an interesting one because it’s very well known, with few people who actually do it.” g

FIND OUT MORE: Meeting Times TUESDAYS AT 8 P.M., THURSDAYS AT 7 P.M., AND SUNDAYS AT 1:30 P.M.

Upcoming Event WETTERBERG OPEN – MARCH 2018 For more information on club events and how to get involved, check them out on Facebook.

JANUARY 2017 | 9

The Quad | Spotlight

Spotlight | The Quad

The Authentic Artist Tobiasthehomie on self-expression and doing it for the right reasons BY CLEO WILLIAMS | PHOTO SUPPLIED BY TOBIAS MORGAN

Edmonton rapper Tobias Morgan, known as Tobiasthehomie, stumbled into making music two years ago almost as if it were fate. "All my friends were making weird rap/ trap music and they invited me,” he says of his start. “I made poetry when I was little, so I was like, ‘Oh, rapping should be the same.’” His first track, “DRUNKFREESTYLE,” was released on Soundcloud soon after. “Music has become so much more readily available for kids than it was before because it’s not hard to go and buy a mic; everybody already has a computer,” he says. But with this ease comes people making music simply because they can. “The younger kids that are doing it — I hate the word, but they want the clout,” he sighs. "Let's face it: with the right outfit, a good beat, and mindless lyrics, almost anyone could gain an Instagram following. (But) it’s a lot harder to create something authentic than it is to follow the crowd for attention." The challenge of being an artist in a society that often holds esthetic above talent is to establish a unique voice off of your own experiences, something Tobiasthehomie executes successfully on his latest project, the Love Letters EP. The six-track release is a hot-blooded experience that captures listeners with slow, hypnotic beats and sincere lyrics. The music feels classic and yet current, most likely due to the artist’s own fluctuating tastes.

“I like a lot of Nina Simone. I like old jazz music. But then again, my music (taste) switches to really new, ignorant music, too,” he says. It’s the rapper’s particular point of view that makes listening not only enjoyable, but

"...it’s a lot harder to create something authentic than it is to follow the crowd for attention." — TOBIAS MORGAN

emotional. Personal stories are used to cover topics like unrequited love and depression, things that are often experienced but rarely discussed openly. For the artist, sharing himself through his projects is more of an obligation than a choice.

“I feel like everything you do is going to come to (people knowing) anyway, just because of the internet and it’s who we are as people,” he says. The authenticity of this EP is not only found within its content, but in the artist's approach to making it. A busy student at the U of A, Tobiasthehomie currently considers music as “more of a passion” than anything else. “You always have to know that you have to have a backup plan,” he says. “Soundcloud plays don’t really pay the bills.” It’s this creation of music for no other reason than enjoyment and self-expression that give his work a certain intimacy. This intimacy also comes from his solo approach. “There are a lot of people to collaborate with in the city; I just don’t find myself going out to collaborate,” Morgan says. His projects rarely feature other artists. Apart from “Slide Thru,” which features Lux, Love Letters EP is an individual effort. “I’ve collaborated with two to three people in the city, and that’s as much as I want to do,” he says. Music isn’t the only art form that Tobias is exploring — he’s also an avid photographer and sketches when he gets the chance. “I’m just a scatter-brained person,” he says. “I like to do a lot because no one’s always inspired to do music.” g

JANUARY 2017 | 11

Feature | Girls' Being Club Heard

GIRLS' CLUB: WOMEN IN ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA 2017-2018

BY SOFIA OSBORNE PHOTOS BY ROSTY SOROKA AND RUTH FERRARI

12 | GTWY.CA

Girls' Club | Feature

For her co-op in computer software engineering, Bianca Angotti researched robotics at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, the school where 14 women were shot in 1989. On December 6, a 25-year-old man entered an engineering classroom, separated the women from the men and shot all the women. He said he was “fighting feminism” and that feminists had ruined his life. He went on to walk through the building, deliberately targeting females. He shot 28 people and killed 14 women, most of them engineering students. The Place du 6-Décembre-1989 in Montreal is a memorial to the victims of the massacre, and the anniversary of the attack is now called the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. “I’m really glad that I saw the memorial because it put things into perspective,” Angotti says. “It wasn’t that long ago that that sort of injustice happened, so it is still very real.” Margaret-Anne Armour, a University of Alberta chemistry professor and the associate dean of science for diversity, says she will never forget the massacre. Armour started the Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Scholarship, and Technology (WISEST) program. “That for me was something that really pointed out how far we had to move,” she says. “That yes, it was one person and yes, they were completely out of their mind, but it said that somebody believed that women in engineering were taking away his possibilities, they were taking away jobs from him and

they shouldn’t be there. And that, at that time, was not an unusual response.” When Armour started WISEST in 1982, only about 10 per cent of engineering students were women (we’ve now reached 20 per cent) and there was only one female professor who worked there part-time. A year earlier, Gordon Kaplan, the U of A’s first vice president (research) went to a seminar on microprocessors and noticed there was only one woman present. He gathered 20 women at the U of A to take action to change the male-dominated culture. Armour was one of them. WISEST developed the six-week summer research program at the U of A for Grade 11 students, which, among other things, places young women in research positions under female engineering professors. Armour says many students have no idea what engineers actually do, and once they get hands-on experience they get hooked. They have been able to follow the students after they finish the program, and have found that many young women decide to stick with engineering when they enter university.

DECEMBER JANUARY 2017 | 13

Feature | Girls' Club

Maha Adnan

Sandra Agblor

Randi Derbyshire

Willow Dew

Chemical IV

Computer IV

Sandra K. Fahl Mining Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

14 | GTWY.CA

Mechanical II

Bianca Angotti

Rochelle De Omania

Computer Software IV

Civil & Environmental III

Chemical II

Civil IV

Xu Di

Georgia Dunn

Elizabeth Gierl

Eunice(Eunsu)Kim

Abby Lacson

Electrical III

Engineering I

Civil IV

Mechanical II

Girls' Club | Feature

This year, the U of A hired two new female professors who are WISEST alumni, one in physics and one in computing science. Angotti, a fourth-year computing software engineer, did the WISEST summer research program in Grade 11. Working under a female civil engineering professor and hearing from other women in the field, she says she felt more comfortable going into engineering. “(WISEST) showed me that there are women that are already in the field doing great work and they’re fully capable of doing it,” she says.

In her first year, Meghana Valupadas, whose leadership experience ranges from student governance to the Edmonton Youth Council, ran for first-year club president in engineering. When the students running the election put her picture up on the screen, a lot of students wolf-whistled. That didn’t happen for any of the male candidates. “Looking back, I realized that the whistling undermined all my credentials, all my leadership experience, everything that I’ve done,” she says. Valupadas didn’t win the presidency, and she’s always wondered what would have happened if she was male with the same qualifications. “Instead of focusing on the what-ifs, I just want to make things better so that in the future a young girl who looks like me doesn’t have to wonder if things would be different for them in their job or their academics or their career if they were someone else,” she says. At first, Valupadas didn’t want to complain about what she was experiencing but she started talking to other female engineering students and they realized they all had similar experiences: they were talked over in job interviews, they were told they were too pretty to be engineers, and they went into their co-op jobs and saw no other women. “When I started noticing things like that, a lot of people that

I talked to said, ‘Well that’s the way engineering is,’” she says. “I didn’t like that phrase because it implies that we as engineers who are supposed masters of change and innovation on the technological side are incapable of change on the social side.” Valupadas is now a fourth-year civil engineering co-op student. In November 2016, she and Salma Elmallah, an engineering graduate student, had the idea to start Diversity in Engineering, a student group with the goal of making engineering more inclusive. They began meeting informally in January and received official student group status this summer. The group itself is inclusive, and anyone can join even if they aren’t a minority or an engineering student. Valupadas wants to create a supportive network for underrepresented engineering students and host lectures on information that isn’t taught in engineering classes, like how to deal with conflict, identify harassment, or dress as a female engineer in the workplace. Valupadas also wants to share students’ stories to make it clear why this group is necessary. Women from the group will talk about their experiences, and they are also conducting a survey this semester where students can comment anonymously on engineering culture. With these stories out in the open, she hopes students will realize they aren’t alone. “My advice to young people who may feel underrepresented is to be yourself,” she says. “Fitting in is so important, and it’s hard when you’re a young person and you want to fit in but you are never alone, other people are sharing your experiences and if you’re able to talk about what you see that’s the first step to making change.” While Angotti has done volunteer work with WISEST as an undergrad, she was drawn to the Diversity in Engineering group because instead of focusing on recruiting women to engineering, the group wants to change women’s experiences as undergraduates. “It’s nice to know that there’s this network, and talking to Meghana especially, she’s very passionate about the issues that there are and wanting to shed light on them and fix them,” she says. “I’m so happy to be in a group where there are these girls.” Not all women, or visible minorities in engineering in general, are struggling with sexism. “You could be a student who is underrepresented in engineering but you might have an amazing undergraduate experience with a lot of support,” Valupadas says. Angotti doesn’t feel she’s experienced discrimination in the workplace, but she has heard inappropriate comments around

JANUARY 2017 | 15

Feature | Girls' Club

Lianne Lefsrud Assistant Professor

Chemical II

Eunice Luu

Engineering I

Taylor Mah Civil IV

Ruvimbo Maranga

Lyndsay Matesic

Sara Mokhtari

Cassidy Mrazek

Dorsa Nahid

Janine Pedregosa

Tamara Quinteros

Civil IV

Christina Radyo

Electrical III

Computer III

16 | GTWY.CA

Jennifer Long

Engineering I

Mechanical II

Engineering I

Civil IV

Girls' Club | Feature

campus. She remembers when one male student posted on Facebook, questioning why women should be allowed into engineering, since they’re “too dumb to succeed.” “I know there’s also girls in engineering who don’t think there’s a problem,” she says. “(The Diversity in Engineering group) is trying to show that there is but it’s so systematically hidden that you may not notice that you’re facing something that’s unfair to you.”

Ania Ulrich is the first engineer in her family. She had no idea what engineering was until her dad introduced her to an environmental engineer. Now, as the first associate dean (outreach) of the Faculty of Engineering, a position that started this summer, she’s determined to dispel myths about engineering. She says that if a student doesn’t have a close relationship with an engineer, they’ll be influenced by the field’s stereotypes: that you need to be introverted, or that you need to be male. In reality, she says, engineers do more than build bridges and roads — they can help people, the environment, and society. Ulrich started out as an undergraduate student in chemical engineering at the U of A in the 90s. She didn’t have a female professor until three years into her degree when two female professors were hired in her program. “All of a sudden you see somebody who’s like you who’s up there,” she says. “That role model effect is huge.” Ulrich went on to follow their example and, after completing her PhD at the University of Toronto, was hired to teach at the U of A. The hardest part of her career was moving up the ranks to become a tenured professor. She heard sexist comments and she was talked over in meetings, but she wasn’t allowed to speak up for herself. “I felt like I had to stay quiet because to get tenure there is a process where you don’t want to be seen as a troublemaker,” she recalls. “What was I going to say? I was worried it would jeopardize my chances.”

When she did become a full professor, even that decision was questioned. “To be frank, I did have colleagues say to me that the only reason I got the job was because I’m a woman,” she says. “Then you feel this need to overdo it, to excel so much that there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that you deserve to be here because of your credentials as opposed to your gender, and that’s exhausting.” Ulrich thinks this sort of imposter syndrome, a feeling that you don’t really deserve to be in a certain position, is permeating all levels of engineering. Even if female high school students are strong in math, they’re less likely to enter engineering than men of equal or lesser mathematical ability. She wants women to understand that they can excel in engineering. While only 12 per cent of engineering professors at the U of A are women, they are even less represented in leadership positions. As an associate dean, Ulrich is one of two female academics in the faculty’s administrative roles. “I will always comment when there are other women in the room because quite often I’m in meetings where there are no other women at all,” she says. “It’s been so part of my life for so long you kind of become used to it.” One of her top initiatives as associate dean is to look at how to get more women into leadership roles. Most women, including Ulrich, have to be asked to apply. Because of her ingrained insecurity, she doubted whether she was cut out to be associate dean. When she got over that fear, it paid off. “It’s so inspiring to be in this position and I feel like I finally have gone through the ranks, I don’t need to prove anything to anybody anymore,” she says. “I really feel this freedom to make a true difference.” At the undergraduate level, Ulrich is looking to evaluate and improve student culture. She wants to know if students, particularly minorities, feel included in engineering. Working with Valupadas’ Diversity in Engineering group has given her the most momentum to do so. When Valupadas approached her about the group, Ulrich immediately agreed to support them as a professor. Now that she’s an associate dean, she has a bigger platform to help. After hearing about the female students’ experiences, she says she’s excited to work with the group. Initiatives like these are the reason she wanted to work at a university in the first place.

JANUARY 2017 | 17

Feature | Girls' Club

Karina Sapelnikova Mechanical V

Megha Sharma

Mia Thomas

Victoria Thomsen

Chemical IV

Electrical II

Mining V

Joanna Tian

Ania C. Ulrich

Meghana Valupadas

Aaiza Yahya

Cai Lin Yang

Shawna Yuan

Mechanical II

Civil III

18 | GTWY.CA

Associate Dean (Outreach)

Mining V

Civil IV

Civil & Environmental IV

Girls' Club | Feature

“I get to work with young adults who want to tackle this stuff, aren’t afraid of change, and want things to move forward,” Ulrich says. “It’s so inspiring and I’m honestly here to just move the barriers so they can do it.” Ulrich is helping the group apply for grants and conduct their climate survey, as well as getting feedback from the group on her outreach to prospective students. “We (in Alberta) employ a ton of engineers and the earning potential here in this province is the highest in Canada,” she says. “It’s incredibly empowering for our women to have a career where she’ll never have to worry about money or rely on anybody else for her future.” Lianne Lefsrud, an assistant professor in chemical engineering, is also a mentor and supporter of the Diversity in Engineering group. Having done all her degrees at the U of A, she says she faced the same issues back in the early 90s that Valupadas and the other women still experience today. “There’s been no change,” she says. “A lot of folks don’t think there’s a problem, but the fact that 20 years later undergraduate women in engineering are facing these same barriers leads me to believe that these are systemic.” Ulrich approached Lefsrud about helping Valupadas and Elmellah because of her expertise in business strategy and her work on diversity issues for WISEST and the Canadian Coalition of Women in Science, Engineering, Trades, and Technology. Lefsrud is supporting the young women in their climate survey of undergraduate students, and connecting them with other researchers who can help them formulate questions and measure things like implicit bias. She believes the Diversity in Engineering group is in the best position to make a difference because they’re focused on creating change from within. Valupadas and her peers are the ones being affected by the undergraduate engineering culture at the U of A, she says, and are therefore in the best position to make a case to the university administration that something needs to change. To Lefsrud, Valupadas and Elmellah are examples of how female engineering students should reach out to their professors if they’re struggling. She says there is “more support available than they could possibly imagine.” “A lot of people think asking for help is a sign of weakness but in fact it’s not. I would suggest it’s a sign of strength,” she says. “It’s a sign of recognizing that we have the ability to do things differently, to remake the world that we find ourselves in.”

“I’m continuously inspired by Meghana and Salma and how much sheer determination and energy and focus they have to make a difference.”

When Angotti told her friends she would be going to the École Polytechnique for her winter co-op, they asked if she was sure she wanted to, given its history towards women in engineering. She told them she needed to go to prove that women can be engineers and that she isn’t afraid. “The moment we are fearful we stop and we let them win and there’s going to be fewer women in engineering because they’re afraid,” she says. “Then they’ve won." g

JANUARY 2017 | 19

2017-18 HOME GAME SCHEDULE

JAN 6 JAN 12 JAN 13 JAN 27

vs CALGARY vs REGINA vs REGINA vs MACEWAN

FEB 9-10 FEB 15-18 FEB 22-25 MAR 2-3 MAR 8-11

JAN 19 JAN 20 FEB 2 FEB 3 FEB 16 FEB 17

5:00PM 6:00PM 5:00PM 5:00PM

7:00PM 8:00PM 7:00PM 7:00PM

CANADA WEST PLAY IN SERIES CANADA WEST QUARTER-FINALS CANADA WEST SEMIFINALS CANADA WEST FINALS U SPORTS FINAL 8 REGINA HALIFAX

vs CALGARY vs CALGARY vs SASKATCHEWAN vs SASKATCHEWAN vs BRANDON vs BRANDON

FEB 22-25 MAR 1-4 MAR 9-10 MAR 15-18

6:00PM 6:30PM 6:00PM 6:30PM 6:00PM 6:30PM

7:30PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 5:00PM

CANADA WEST QUARTER-FINALS CANADA WEST SEMIFINALS CANADA WEST FINALS U SPORTS LAVAL MCMASTER

JAN 12 JAN 19 JAN 20 FEB 2 FEB 3

vs CALGARY vs REGINA vs REGINA vs SASKATCHEWAN vs SASKATCHEWAN

7:00PM 7:00PM 5:00PM 7:00PM 5:00PM

FEB 16-18 CANADA WEST QUARTER-FINALS FEB 23-25 CANADA WEST SEMIFINALS MAR 2-4 CANADA WEST FINAL MAR 15-18 U SPORTS UNIVERSITY CUP @ UNB

JAN 5 JAN 6 JAN 13 JAN 26 JAN 27 FEB 9 FEB 10 FEB 16-18 FEB 23-25 MAR 2-4 MAR 15-18

vs MANITOBA vs MANITOBA vs CALGARY vs LETHBRIDGE vs LETHBRIDGE vs UBC vs UBC

7:00PM 2:00PM 5:00PM 7:00PM 2:00PM 7:00PM 2:00PM

CANADA WEST QUARTER-FINALS CANADA WEST SEMIFINALS CANADA WEST FINAL U SPORTS FINAL 8 @ WESTERN

CMY

HOCKEY - CLARE DRAKE ARENA

BASKETBALL & VOLLEYBALL - SAVILLE COMMUNITY SPORTS CENTRE

2017-18 TICKET PRICES

FREE

REGULAR SEASON CONFERENCE GAMES Bears Hockey, Volleyball, Basketball UofA STUDENT | FREE ADULT | $16 STUDENT | $10

Pandas Hockey UofA STUDENT | FREE ADULT | $10 STUDENT | $5

Soccer | FREE

Ticket discounts are also available throughout the season via season tickets, weekly ticket specials, 8-game ï¬&#x201A;ex packs, and more! Visit uab.ca/gbptickets or call 780.492.BEAR for more information.

INTERACT WITH US THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

UofA students get FREE admission to all regular season conference home games, when a valid ONEcard is shown at the gate on game day. Restrictions apply, visit uab.ca/freetix

@BEARSANDPANDAS

GOLDEN BEARS & PANDAS MERCHANDISE STORE 1 CHOOSE YOUR TEAM 2 SELECT YOUR ITEM 3 CHOOSE YOUR LOGO 4 CHECK OUT OR KEEP SHOPPING 5 COMPLETE SHIPPING INFORMATION 6 YOUR ORDER WILL ARRIVE IN 5-7 BUSINESS DAYS

Gardens of Green & Gold | Feature

GARDENS OF

GREEN & GOLD BY KATE MCINNES DESIGN BY ALEX PATTERSON

JANUARY 2017 | 21

Feature | Gardens of Green & Gold

Your Tim Hortons coffee is worth more than $1.70.

On a plantation 6,000 kilometres south of Edmonton, workers spend hours on end picking coffee cherries off trees in Risaralda, Colombia. Because these trees take four years to blossom, each coffee cherry — equivalent to a single coffee bean — will consume about three tonnes of water before it is even harvested. After being picked, cherries are washed and dried, which uses more water. They are then shipped by truck to the Caribbean Sea. Before leaving Colombia, one pound of coffee will generate about four pounds of carbon emissions. After arriving by boat in North America, that pound of coffee will be transported to a warehouse in Oakville, Ontario, where it will be roasted at 300ºC for several hours, which produces another 10 pounds of CO² emissions. The coffee bean will be driven 3,300 kilometres to Edmonton, and, at the Tim Hortons in CAB, the coffee beans are freshly ground and run through a coffee maker, which adds 11 pounds of emissions. Whether you savour it for the duration of your morning, or take two sips and toss it in the trash before heading into your 10 a.m. lab, your coffee has consumed at least 25 pounds of CO² emissions, several dozen tonnes of water, and an incalculable amount of energy. But your cup is only a fraction of the massive carbon footprint produced by what Canadian supermarkets and food retailers import. Coffee will never be a local product to Edmontonians, just like most of the 47,000-orso products offered at local grocery stores, including bananas from Ecuador, olives from Greece, and blueberries from California. Though Canadians pay a lower percentage of their income for food than citizens in any other country in the world, the price tag comes with an enormous human and environmental cost.

The way our food is grown and harvested continues to decrease the likelihood that it will remain cheap and plentiful for us in the global north. Soil is eroding in all countries in the world at an alarming rate, and within a generation, the demand for fresh water will exceed supply by over 60 per cent. Adding to that is the fact that the food industry is, literally and figuratively, swimming in oil at every

22 | GTWY.CA

stage of production, from fertilizers to farm equipment to distribution to refrigeration. This oil dependency continues to drive conflict worldwide. Though the kinds of products offered at our grocery stores remain relatively constant throughout the year, food security has increasingly become a major topic of geopolitics. This decade has thus far seen riots in Haiti, Bangladesh, and Egypt as markets were hit with price increases of 130 per cent for wheat, 87 per cent for soy, 74 per cent for rice, and 31 per cent for corn. As the world’s population continues to grow and consume resources faster than they can be replaced, future food shortages and price hikes are inevitable. But the fight against food scarcity is not just a problem reserved for political science majors. In a recent study by University of Alberta researcher Haoluan Wang, four of the eight “food deserts” in Edmonton — areas which lack easy access to affordable, nutritious food based on proximity to supermarkets — are located in some of Edmonton’s poorest neighborhoods. Not being able to access healthy food is synonymous with nutrition deficiencies, and this serves as a gateway to alternative lifestyles. In Edmonton’s food deserts, you can buy every kind of fast food, malt liquor, illegal drugs, and even semi-automatic weapons, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an organic tomato. Looking at the big picture, it is clear that we need to change the system that delivers food to our plates three times a day. And for many people at the University of Alberta, the first change we need to make is growing our own food, not just on farms in the countryside, but all over our cities.

[ The Green and Gold Garden sits on two acres of land beside the environmental sciences facilities at South Campus. As is usual in these gardens, there is someone around who loves to talk, even at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Today, it’s Patti Hartnagel, a retiree who has been volunteering with the Green and Gold Garden since its creation in 2009. “It’s crucial to support these gardens,” Hartnagel said. “Food sustainability, like water, is the key issue for the future, and if we don’t do something to develop and retain the farmland we have, we’re going to be in real trouble in a few decades.” “Those $50 Caesar salads in the dead of winter take so much fuel and resources to import, and in our climate, there are so many other possibilities.” Community gardens aren’t a new phenomenon — they typically emerge in periods when people feel threatened by food insecurity. The Green and Gold Garden is no different: by growing over 60 different vegetables, from staples

Gardens of Green & Gold | Feature

like potatoes and peas to specialty items like mizuna and Jerusalem artichokes, the garden seeks to bring local produce to Edmonton’s southwest as an alternative to the carbonheavy methods used by supermarket chains. But gardens are more than a resource for food production. People embrace community gardens because it gives them a chance to care for something, do something positive, and witness the fruits (or vegetables) of their labor. Even those who can’t provide hands-on help reap the benefits of these gardens: Hartnagel recalled an elderly man who, in the last days of his life, delighted in sitting in the garden and being surrounded by people.

“Gardens are something that brings life to communities,” Hartnagel said. “Everyone here is so different, but compatible. Everyone enjoys everybody else’s company, and it’s just fantastic.”

The Green and Gold Garden’s influence extends even further than Edmonton’s city limits. All the proceeds from their Tuesday and Saturday markets go to the Tubahumurize Association in Kigali, Rwanda, which serves over a thousand female survivors of the 1994 genocide. The funds raised by the Green and Gold Garden — which, since 2009, total over $45,000 — help fund trauma counselling, microcredit loans, skills training, and sewing school. Jeanne Mwiliriza, the founder of Tubahumurize, visits the U of A once a year to meet with the volunteers of the Green and Gold Garden. “Nothing’s free here — every cent goes to the project,” Hartnagel said. “And it’s a grassroots project, it’s not some global agency with a top-down approach.” “It’s almost like a family connection now. There is accountability, but it’s really a people-to-people network that makes it so special.” Hartnagel’s biggest worry, given the plans for developing South Campus, is that the garden will soon be turned into a parking lot. Her fear is not unfounded: in the past 40 years, Canada has lost over 5,000 square miles of fertile soil to urban development. The university is under enormous pressure to expand its facilities, and Hartnagel acknowledges that it is difficult for administration to give a nod to urban agricultural users. But gardens serve a number of purposes, like providing communities vulnerable to mental illness or crime with

healthy activities, education, and socialization. Though finding space for community hubs like the Green and Gold Garden is getting easier as their benefits become better known, their futures are always uncertain. It is important to ensure these gardens remain constant forces in their neighbourhoods: without local gardens, we can’t have local food, and the vicious cycle of global food production will continue.

[ Having grown up in a town in rural Ontario that she describes as “80 people over three trailer parks,” Destyni DeLuca knows that, for many, gardens are the difference between eating and going hungry. “I grew up doing backyard gardening, and working as a community to make sure all of us got fed,” DeLuca said. When she came to the U of A, she began volunteering at Sustain SU’s Campus Community Garden, nestled between the dilapidated houses in East Campus Village. For DeLuca, who now works as Sustain SU’s campus garden assistant, working with her hands after spending hours studying is exceptionally therapeutic. “We get really wrapped up in being our academic best, so to have that time in the garden was a great experience for me,” DeLuca said. “It’s an incredible atmosphere and an incredible community. People don’t go there and come out feeling any other way.” Sustain SU’s Campus Community Garden was created together with the Alberta Public Interest Research Group (APIRG) and the Garneau Community Garden in 2003, making it one of the oldest gardens at the U of A. Volunteers, which include students and community members alike, have committed to growing food through organic and sustainable production, without the use of pesticides, chemicals, or genetically modified plants. But simply having gardens on campuses isn’t enough — if they don’t provide students with fresh food, they serve only a communitybuilding purpose. Because most gardens on campus only start up once the school year had ended, Sustain SU created the

JANUARY 2017 | 23

Feature | Gardens of Green & Gold

university’s first farmers' market in 2012, which gives more than 20 vendors from around Edmonton — from jewellers to winemakers to apothecaries — the opportunity to sell local food and artisanal products every Thursday of fall and winter semester. Before the market was established, the Office of Sustainability and the Sustainable Food Initiative held irregular fairs throughout the year. But four years ago, an Agriculture and Resource Economics (AREC) 410 class conducted a study to see if a farmers’ market would be business-feasible at the U of A. The study found the U of A was one of the biggest universities in Canada without a farmers’ market, and that 80 per cent of respondents would be interested in having one at the university. “The thing (the researchers) cited the most was access to healthy food on campus,” DeLuca said. “The market really developed in response to that need — the stuff you find at the market would not be available anywhere else on campus.” To ensure the food sold at the market is locally and sustainably grown, Sustain SU joined the Alberta Farmers' Market Association, which requires 80 per cent of vendors to make, bake, or grow their products within the province.

We are welcoming new patients!

MAKE YOUR APPOINTMENT FOR

TEETH

CLEANING

today!

11728 104th Avenue NW OLIVER SQUARE WEST PLAZA (between London Drugs and Staples)

Family & General Dentistry • Cosmetic Dentistry • Zoom Teeth Whitening Dental Implants • Sedation Dentistry • Emergency Dental Care

DR. NATHANIEL A.WONG 780-756-8080 | affinityoliversquare.ca

Since its inception, Sustain SU have always kept their numbers at above 90 per cent. While the feasibility study conducted by AREC 410 found the majority of respondents would be willing to spend at least $20 at the market, one of the biggest criticisms of retailing local products is the massive gap between hungry people earning a low income and the luxury of local food, which is more expensive than the produce one would find at No Frills. And while Sustain SU’s farmers' market is among the cheapest in Edmonton, there is much more our university could be doing to ensure all of our students, staff, and faculty have access to fresh, low-cost food.

[ Changes to unsustainable food systems can come from anywhere. Provinces are the jurisdictions that can make the most difference because they control policy levers that can protect agricultural land. Provinces can also do the most about getting healthy local food to marginalized communities, which saves the public the costs of dealing with malnutrition. When people beset with mental illness,

Student Admission: $10 ($8 Matinée)

addiction, poverty, and homelessness are fed healthy food, they are less violent, their health improves, their drug use declines, and their pull on emergency health services and court time goes down. A shortage of local food is the biggest obstacle to improving food security in Alberta and around the world, and developing governmental policies that gives our population access to reliable, diverse sources of affordable food should be our goal. But, ultimately, these changes start with individuals making daily choices that lead to accessible, affordable, healthy, fresh, and sustainable food for all. Many people at the U of A are already taking big steps in combating destructive food systems through the creation of community gardens and farmers' markets, and as these initiatives grow in size and strength, we will begin to feel their influence beyond the boundaries of our campus. g

Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society devoted to the exhibition and promotion of Canadian, international, and independent film and video. metrocinema.org

The Many Faces of Nicolas Cage

January 7 - 18

Nicolas Cage is a polarizing figure in modern cinema. Is he a genius or a crazy person? Come find out, with screenings of: Adaptation, Vampire’s Kiss, Raising Arizona, Face/Off, and The Wicker Man. Note: The Wicker Man is a Turkey Shoot! screening, featuring live comedic commentary.

The Final Year

Jan 19 @ 9PM, Jan 20 @ 7PM, Jan 21 @ 1PM, JAN 22 @ 9PM

This unique account of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during their final year in office features unprecedented access inside the White House and State Department, and offers an uncompromising view of the inner workings of the Obama Administration.

Altered States

Jan 20 @ 9:30PM

A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically. With live music in the lobby at 9PM by Private Investigators.

Metro Cinema at the Garneau

Metro Cinema receives ongoing support from these Arts Funders:

8712-109 Street | metrocinema.org

Big night.

small price. EMERGING ARTISTS.

theatre shows * live concerts * mainstage gallery exhibitions *

Details:

www.ualberta.ca/artshows Twitter: @UofAFineArt

Diversions | Illustration

26 | GTWY.CA

Work with leading mentors UBC attracts $580 million per year in research funding through 8,800 projects. With more than 2,000 academic faculty members as potential supervisors for graduate students, the research possibilities are endless. Find your supervisor www.grad.ubc.ca/supervisor-search

Diversions | Something to Do

Here are some sudokus. This one is sorta easy.

8 1

3 9

7 7

6 8

8 3

2 3

5 5

This one is a bit harder.

5 9

2 7

4 2

7 4

9 7

6 4

Solutions will be posted online at gtwy.ca.

Get your social work degree in Edmonton From Canada’s largest school of social work. Oﬀering degrees in Edmonton for over 40 years.

Find out more at our upcoming Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) INFORMATION SESSIONS:

Faculty of Social Work

Edmonton Campus 3rd Floor, 10230 Jasper Ave Enterprise Square, (the old Bay building) En

Thursday Jan. 11, 5 - 6 p.m. Tuesday Jan. 30, Noon - 1 p.m.

ucalgary.ca/fsw/central -and-northern-alberta

$10.99

www.subprint.ca subprint@su.ualberta.ca loweR level sub

fast & affordable printing and binding