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

Campus
The Chronicle November 29, 2011 33
Kielburger
inspires youth
of Durham
Hillary Di Menna
The Chronicle
The sudden quiet in Sinclair
Secondary School’s cafeteria
was noted immediately when a
Janet Edwards, superintendant
of the Durham District School
Board, approached the microphone.
Craig Kielburger, the speaker
of the 20 th annual Parents as
Partners conference, had arrived.
This year was the first in
the event’s history where children
aged 12 and over could attend.
“A special thank you to the
students who woke up early on
a Saturday,” Kielburger said
with a smile.
He commanded the stage
with animated movement and
exaggerated enunciation, a
long way from his youth where
he struggled to overcome a
speech impediment.
Before sharing his thoughts
on raising socially responsible
children, echoing much of what
was said in a book he co-wrote
with his brother, The World
Needs Your Kid: Raising Children
Who Care, he made sure
to thank “those providing our
children with an education.”
He noted both his parents, both
sets of aunts and uncles and all
his cousins but one is a teacher.
The one cousin pursued a career
in IT.
Having founded Free the
Children at the age of 12, Kielburger
knows first hand that a
child can make a positive impact.
“Don’t believe kids turn
18 and magically develop a social
conscience,” he warned.
Instead of forcing our children
to complete 40 hours of
mandatory community service
or create CVs for junior kindergarten,
he suggested encouraging
the talents in children, be
they the ability to make people
laugh or being computer savvy.
In fact, he said, a 10-year-old
co-op student who had been
kicked out of previous placements
due to reported behavioural
problems does computer
programming for Free the Children.
Kielburger encourages
what he calls the three Cs: compassion,
courage and community.
These are referenced in his
books The World Needs Your
Kid, and Me to We. He spoke of
seeing bumper stickers saying,
“My kid is on the honour role”
but none saying, “My child is
happy” or “My child is a concerned
citizen.”
The 14 th Dalai Lama told
Kielburger, “We’re raising a
generation of passive bystanders.”
He asked the audience,
“How do you expose [children]
to the violence and suffering of
the world? How do you start
the conversation?” In a world
where adults experience donor
fatigue, he shared these concerns
with Archbishop Desmond
Tutu. “College boy,” Tutu
said, “what do they teach you?”
He went on that God’s to-do
list arrives at our doors in the
form of the daily newspaper. It
was when flipping through the
pages of the newspaper, looking
for the comics when Kielburger
stopped to read about a
12-year-old boy, the same age
has him, who was murdered
after speaking out against child
labour, having gone through
the horrific ordeal himself. This
is what inspired Kielburger to
found Free the Children with 11
classmates. The original group
name was The Group of 12 12
year Olds, until one member
turned 13 weeks later.
Through research he learned
children want to be famous in
order to help issues such as
poverty and environmental
change. He put photos of the
Parliament building, Barack
Hillary Di Menna
CRAIG KIELBURGER: Kielburger spoke at the 20th annual
Parents as Partners conference in Whitby
Obama, Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie and Bill Gates on an overhead
behind him as said people
think they need to be wealthy to
make a difference. This is not
so, he reassured.
What adults can do is lead
by example, he said. They can
go through the paper with their
children, discuss issues they
encountered over family dinner.
He shared memories of
his childhood, when he and his
brother would go to Toronto
with their mother. Though they
were excited to visit the Eaton
Centre, far from their Thornhill
home, their mother would stop
to spare some change for the
homeless. If they grew impatient
or tried to rush her along,
she would bring them in to a
small conversation with the individual.
She would ask a simple
question like, “May I have
your name?”
The brothers later learned
she did this half out of kindness,
having experienced being
homeless herself as a child,
sharing a tent with her family,
and half to guide her children.
They later realized she made a
point of bringing extra change
on such excursions.
“We [as Canadians] are
more than Timbits, hockey and
beer,” he said to the audience.
Later in an interview with The
Chronicle, he said, “There is a
great sense of idealism in young
people.” He remembers as a
child in school being pushed
into lockers, because saving the
world, along with glee clubs,
was the lamest thing. Nowadays,
he joked, “the coolest
thing is to change the world,
and glee clubs.”
“There will always be the
voice of cynics,” Kielburger acknowledged
but he encouraged
young people to gain credibility
through experience and
research. He himself went to
South Asia to witness child labour
conditions in order to gain
first-hand knowledge.
The packed ACC for We Day
illustrate the compassion and
solidarity in today’s youth.
“The only place you will find
Justin Bieber and the Dalai
Lama talking social issues.” His
advice, “Knowledge is power.”
This sentence was reiterated
many times throughout the interview.
He wants children to
not only see an issue, but to respond
to it.
UOIT
loss of
staff no
issue
Angie Doucett
The Chronicle
UOIT has begun the
search for professors in the
faculty of Business and Information
Technology.
After losing four professors
to other institutions
worldwide, the university
remains optimistic about
the change and assures
students that they will still
receive the same high standard
of education.
Professors Raymond
Cox, Tripat Gill, Jill Lei and
Suhaib Riaz each left UOIT
within the last two years to
work at other institutions,
including UNBC, Wilfrid
Laurier, University of Melbourne
and the University
of Massachusetts.
Pamela Ritchie, dean of
the Business and IT faculty
of which the professors
were a part, says UOIT
has always been about its
people.
“We all reaped benefits
while they were here but
life’s reality is that family
comes first,” Ritchie said.
“Being as mobile as they
are in their fields, you’re
going to have people moving
around. We encourage
them and help them
and make sure everything
works as best it can for everybody.”
With the exception of
Tripat Gill, who was selected
to be a tier one Canada
research chair, professors
Cox, Lei and Riaz left to be
with their spouses or families
pursuing their own
academic careers.
“Finance faculty are
incredibly mobile. There
are few of them around so
there’s always a position
open for a good finance
person,” Ritchie said.
The faculty of Business
and IT remains optimistic
about its potential new
staff and each candidate
must go through a meticulous
hiring process that includes
a formal interview
along with a presentation
on course material in front
of students.
This process is repeated
for each course.
“That process is an indicator
of the quality of our
faculty and of the quality
we go out to look for,”
Ritchie said.