It's easy being green in Whitby - Digilog at UOIT and DC - Durham ...

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The Chronicle November 29, 2011 17
Teaching by example
Kim Moreau
The Chronicle
Kim Moreau
THANKS TO GRANNY: Dan attributes his patience and
demeanour to his grandmother, who taught him many life
lessons through music and food.
As a boy, it’s unlikely that
Dan Walters, practicum coordinator
for UOIT’s Faculty of
Social Science and Humanities
would have understood impact
a heaping spoonful of tuna salad
would have on his life.
His grandmother’s lesson
taught him you can have too
much of a good thing.
A sociology graduate from
McMaster University, Walters
embraces the knowledge and
life experience he has acquired
since graduating in his teachings,
refusing to use irrelevant
material with no real-life counterpart.
“I love teaching,” said Walters,
who recently won the
2011-2012 Cupples Cup Award
for his ‘energy, enthusiasm,
and high social involvement’
in the Canadian Association of
Career Educators and Employees
for this year.
Walters career allows him
to blend roles within the educational
field with roles within
the community, which he enjoys.
He has always been an active
member of the community and
a huge fan of volunteerism, and
promotes the same engagement
for students.
“I think if students simply
focus on academics, they are
really short changing themselves,”
said Walters, recalling
later the challenges he faced
when exiting university and realizing
that the piece of paper
in his hand wasn’t a “guarantee
to great things in life.”
It was Walters involvement
in the UOIT community and his
extra curricular involvements
through his humanitarian activities
that led him to the winning
of the 2011-2012 Cupples
Cup Award.
Walters was the host of the
2009 Songs Revealed competition
for Durham College where
he now serves as a Music Business
Management professor,
was the chair of UOIT’s Accessibility
Committee and continues
to be an advocate for accessibility
within the community,
worked with the Let Them Be
Kids Coalition to build a playground
at Oshawa’s Radio
Park, works with people who
have special needs, and works
hard on his music career as
well.
“I get to be amphibious,”
said Walters who loves that
rather than being stuck in a
classroom all the time he is able
to network in the community
and promote the integration of
UOIT in downtown Oshawa.
His accomplishments and
involvement go back to his
Granny, who he said was the
most influential person in his
life.
Walters, who was enthusiastic
about music as a child with
his “stinky, old records,” spent
much of his time playing the
organ with his grandmother.
He recalls that while others
were puzzled by his eccentric,
troublesome days as a hyper,
young boy, his grandmother
embraced it.
She taught him to play songs
by Buddy Holly, one of his heroes.
At first, when he had a
turn to play the keys he would
smash all the keys at once as
many children do – open fisted
and eager rather than patient
and careful.
It was when his grandmother
shoved a pile of tuna salad in
her mouth that he learnt pushing
all of the keys at once wasn’t
appropriate.
He remembers her shoving
the unmanageable forkful of
salad into her mouth and realizing
that she was teaching him
that too much was not necessarily
a good thing.
Walters says that he keeps
going back to that day with his
grandmother who has since
passed, and adds that his education
has had the same lasting
effect.
Whitby
campus
Phase 3
begins
Cameron
McDonald
The Chronicle
Phase 3 of Durham
College’s Whitby campus
is breaking ground in a
little over two weeks from
now. The new phase will
add a facility for the new
Hospitality and Culinary
programs, and will bring
roughly 950 more students
to the campus.
On top of this it will
provide a full-service restaurant
and lounge and
offer meeting space for
students studying culinary
arts, food sciences, safety,
design and other tourismrelated
topics. It will be located
on the southern end
of campus.
One of the biggest
changes that the new phase
will bring to the campus is
a more equal gender ratio,
which has been dominantly
male up until now.
Darrin Caron, the Dean
of the Whitby campus, is
hopeful that the gender ratio
will even out and make
the campus more diverse.
“With a more even split
between men and women,
the campus will certainly
feel more diverse and welcoming
for our female students.”
The construction should
be complete by the fall semester
of 2012.
Crash course on student insurance
A need to
know for
students
Larissa Frankevych
The Chronicle
Insurance can be hard to understand
especially for young
students trying to figure out
their coverage for medical expenses
like glasses, prescriptions
and the pill. There is a
website called wespeakstudent.
com designed to help explain
DC’s and UOIT’s insurance
coverage to students.
Wespeakstudent.com provides
students with the knowledge
of their insurance policy,
access to the proper insurance
forums. Students can also create
a profile to track the status
of their insurance claims, find
a local medical or dental practitioner
and online assistance
from a live agent.
Full-time students who
chose not to opt out from the
insurance plan are covered
from the start of the year, Sept.
1 until Aug. 31. The policy is
one year, for every year the student
is enrolled in the school
year. Students who graduate
this year in June are still covered
until the end of August.
Students are covered up to a
maximum $3,000 for prescription
drugs. The policy covers
80 per cent of most prescriptions,
insulin injectables, and
insulin supplies up to a maximum
of $200.
Contraceptives like the patch
or oral medication is covered
up to a maximum of $175. Allergy
medication, acne medication
and the Nuva vaginal ring
are also covered.
The policy also offers dental
coverage, and if students
use a dentist from the dentist
network on the site they can
receive up to 100 per cent of
coverage depending on what is
being done.
For example, if a student is
receiving “basic and preventative”
work like one examination
and consultation, that includes
any X-ray, and or one cleaning
and one unit of polishing, the
student is fully covered.
Students who go to their
own dentist not a part of the insurance
policy dental network
will be covered up to 80 per
cent for a maximum of $500
per year.
Extractions and oral surgery
is covered for 60 per cent,
which includes a limit of two
wisdom teeth per policy year.
Other oral surgery is covered
up to 10 per cent for endodontics,
periodontics, and major
restorative surgery.
Students can get a higher
percentage of coverage for extractions
and oral surgery if
they use a dentist from the dental
network.
Orthodontics like braces or
Invisalign is not covered by the
insurance policy.
Students are also covered for
vision care up to a maximum of
$60 for one eye examination
every two years. Students who
are prescribed glasses or contact
lenses are covered up to a
maximum of $80 for every two
years.
Accidental death & dismemberment
coverage is also included.
A student who dies, the
beneficiary will receive $7,500
from life insurance. Coverage
also includes ambulance rides,
transportation of the deceased
up to $2,000 and medical coverage.
Dismemberment coverage
includes any home or vehicle
modification up to a maximum
of $10,000, rehabilitation
coverage up to a maximum
of $5,000, hearing aids up to
$3,000 and accidental dental
coverage up to a maximum of
$2,000, to name a few.
Travel insurance and extended
health care options are
also covered under the policy.
For more detailed information
that students can easily understand,
visit wespeakstudent.
com.