Page 5 - Eureka! Fall 2008

No secret to success

Bertram, an assistant professor
he keys to student success shouldn’t
A Carleton University research field course Tbe a secret. That’s why the Faculty in biology, brings to the centre her centre can play a mentorship role,
in Cuba and a community service trip to
Student success group arrived in Stone Town, Zan- success centre in October, and ap- and instructor in a Minority Access to encouragement to pursue research Student success
helping students utilize the academic
Tanzania, where she worked with children,
experience as a program coordinator
of Science launched a science student
resources available and providing the
have given Felicia St-Louis the travel bug.
Research Careers program at Arizona
pointed Sue Bertram as assistant dean
grants, graduate studies and varied
career paths.”
(recruitment and retention) to oversee
State University and her enthusiasm
the centre.
“We want to increase pride and
for engaging and supporting students.
zibar, where they worked with an
engagement in our community of
“I remember people talking about
Tasked with helping students at all
scientists.”
association for non-governmental
grad school when I was in third year
academic levels achieve their goals,
organizations to make contact with
Bertram, a first-generation univer-
existing study resources, information
agencies and determine their needs,
on careers being pursued by science
sity student. “The faculty mentors
and plan projects that future Global and not knowing what it was,” says the centre will direct students to
Youth Network teams can undertake. that reached out to me when I was alumni, summer job and co-op op- Fast fact...
The Carleton group also got its hands an undergrad student made a world portunities, events within the Faculty
“clean” by helping locals make soap to of difference. They opened my eyes of Science and opportunities for re- Let us know what your science degree is
sell to hotels and tourists in support to science opportunities that I didn’t search scholarships and fellowships. doing for you or volunteer to be a mentor
of the Zanzibar Association of People know existed and helped motivate me “We want students to know we in the Career Connection program by
Living with HIV/AIDS (ZAPHA+), an to reach higher goals. Since that expe- care about them and that there is a logging into the Alumni Café at carleton.
advocacy organization that provides rience, I have been helping undergrad place they can go for help, advice and ca/alumni. Contact the science student
success centre at sssc@carleton.ca.
Summer service counselling and care services. science majors succeed.” opportunities,” says Bertram. “The
“Children at ZAPHA+ painted sym-
bolic stories of their lives, and a boy
eeding gardens, building abundantly happy. I learned to value with fallen trees in his explained it
Wbookshelves, painting. These what I have.” represented his mother’s death,” says Go north, young man
are ordinary tasks for a student dur- While in the northern Tanzanian St-Louis. “What was striking is that it
ing summer break, but for Felicia city of Arusha, working on projects at wasn’t just one boy’s story; all those
St-Louis they became extraordinary. a local school, St-Louis was able to children had suffered loss.” f you suggest tying markers to your musk-deer. Rybczynski has studied
As a volunteer with the Global Youth put her integrated science education “We used our last funds to repaint a I tent strings to make them visible prehistoric beaver and the evidence of
Network, St-Louis travelled to Tanza- into action when she and fellow stu- basketball court there, and play a game in the dark while in the land of the their wood cutting at the site.
nia with a team of Carleton students dent James Hickford were offered the with the children,” says St-Louis. “Most midnight sun, you can expect some The second expedition was to hunt
performing community projects in the chance to teach biology for a week. people think you have to do something teasing. It’s just one of the lessons for fossils at a site on Devon Island.
developing country. “There was no curriculum, so we on a large scale to make a difference, that Travis Mitchell learned during On the group’s first visit they found
“This was an amazing opportunity asked the students what they wanted but really, making a difference is put- his research expedition to the Cana- the missing skull fragment from a
to see a different part of the world to learn,” says St-Louis, who is re- ting a smile on a child’s face.” dian Arctic in July. Another lesson: a fossil carnivore collected the previous
and learn about human values,” says searching the biomechanics of the Since her return to Canada, St- tent, even weighed down with gear, year. “The fossil animal was remark-
St-Louis, who spent four weeks in beaver tail in her last year of under- Louis says she isn’t as stressed out is no match for 80-kilometre-an-hour ably complete, but the skull contains
Africa with the group, which focuses graduate studies. “They had a lot of as she used to be because she no winds. Luckily, the earth sciences stu- a lot of information about how the
on the importance of community, curiosity, and were interested in issues longer takes unimportant things so dent wasn’t in the tent when it was animal might have lived, so we were
faith and social justice through first- affecting Africa: disease transmission, seriously. The experience has also blown into the Strathcona Fjord. there to find the missing piece and
hand experience. “I met people who health, human anatomy.” interested her in further work abroad Mitchell travelled to the high Arctic Earth sciences student Travis Mitchell snaps a self por- prospect for new sites,” says Mitchell.
had very little materially and were After a few days of travel, the after graduation in June. as a field assistant for some of the trait during his weeks in the Arctic. His honour’s project Armed with knowledge from beyond
involves identifying a species of rabbit from teeth and
world’s leading Arctic researchers: ankle bones. Fortuitously, one of his Arctic companions the classroom, an understanding
Mary Dawson, a curator emerita at was Mary Dawson, an expert on rabbit evolution. of the Arctic environment, and an
the Carnegie Museum of Natural His- appreciation for the work, time and
Model student tory; Richard Harington, a researcher solve—was invaluable. I learned how money spent in procuring fossils and
samples, Mitchell has returned to Ryb-
emeritus at the Canadian Museum of
Nature; geochronologist John Gosse to think like a scientist from them.” czynski’s lab at the Museum of Nature,
The Standard Model of particle phys- Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, Ismail Operating in over 150 countries world- from Dalhousie University; and ex- The nearly month-long trip was where he sifts through Beaver Pond
ics describes three of the four known is now pursuing PhD-level research in wide, the Fulbright program has long pedition leader Natalia Rybczynski, divided into two expeditions. The first peat samples looking for bones, rocks
fundamental interactions among the particle physics at Stanford University. been regarded as the world’s premiere BScHon/94, research scientist at the was to collect fossils and a cross-sec- and seeds to help piece together the
elementary particles that make up “Accepting this Fulbright scholarship academic exchange. The Canada-U.S. Canadian Museum of Nature and an tion of the peat layer at the Beaver ancient environment, and waits for the
matter. But its failure to include the gives me the opportunity to build as- Fulbright Program is the gold standard adjunct professor in Carleton’s biol- Pond site on Ellesmere Island for next opportunity to travel to “the most
fourth—gravity—means the model sociations with, and learn from, leading for academic exchanges and intellectual ogy and earth sciences departments. analysis. The Beaver Pond site, thought beautiful place you can imagine.”
falls short. The research of master’s particle physicists while studying in opportunity. Ismail is a past winner of “It was incredible to be around to be approximately three to five mil-
student Ahmed Ismail, BSc/06, focuses the United States, but also to establish the C.A.B. Betts Memorial Scholarship people with such an amount of lion years old, has previously yielded What’s it really like on an Arctic ex-
on identifying which new theories are relations for future collaborations when in Physics at Carleton. knowledge,” says Mitchell. “Being a cornucopia of mammal fossils. pedition? Read excerpts from Travis
worth pursuing in the search for physics I return to Canada,” says Ismail, who with scientists in their element—see- Harington found remains of an extinct Mitchell’s notes online at eureka.
beyond the Standard Model. graduated from Carleton in November. ing how they think, work and problem bear, wolverine, three-toed horse and carleton.ca.
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