Well, it was another successful weekend for our girls. Lots of fun had by all the girls who participated in the SGIS tournament. Over dinner Friday night there was talk that our strategy should be to psych out our opponents by going on the court with war paint and sacrificing a goat. The girls had a amazing team spirit from start to finish. We started off with going to the tournament with only two or three practices on the beach volleyball court and only one practice on a hard court, but that practice included a pro volleyball coach for 30 minutes. The girls used the drills learned that evening throughout the tournament. Their play improved each match. All participated in encouraging each other on and off the court. Delaney, Carly, and Hanna (played with injuries on day two), our more veteran players, took strong leadership roles on the court. Marina (our most vocal cheerleader), Jaz, Fiona, Emma, Meg T. and Meg G. all put in a 100% effort and each made contributions in each match, I must say there were some amazing plays and saves. All the girls wanted on the court to participate in each match of the tournament. This culminated to our last match of the tournament where we strongly believed we could win a match if not a set. The match was against ISL2 and we were up and down several time in the first set. The match was the first to 20 points. We were leading 17-15 then lost ground to 19-18 ISL2, but managed to tie 19-19. All of us on the edge of our seats knew we needed to win by two points, if we were to win this set. There were very dramatic rallies at this point and we were up 20-19, and then it happened- we scored that 21st point on the next serve. We all stormed to court screaming N-J-C!!! A very memorable moment. We fought very hard in the second and third set, but could not get over top for the match win. Nonetheless it was great event. We do have photographic evidence of us and our championship trophy, which we subsequently lost on the way home. It is a long story of which they are several versions.

Today sees the end of the first month that the graduating class of 2012 has been at NJC. What a month it has been! The nerves seem to be settling and students are more comfortable with their new school and living environment. One word that I always use to describe our students is brave. Imagine making the decision to spend what is the most important academic year in a new school, with new teachers who have different teaching styles and expectations. Add to this mix making new friends and living in a foreign city with a family that doesn’t speak your language. I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to have done it when I was 17! This year’s group is already seizing every opportunity being given them and there is such a vibrant and positive energy around the school.

Now that the students are more settled, academics and university applications are at the forefront of their minds. We’ve had a busy few weeks in Guidance. Last week we had a visit from Maria Brawand from the University of the Arts London where NJC has had a number of alumni attend in the past few years. It is Europe's largest provider of education in art, media, design, fashion, communication and the performing arts.

This week we were happy to see our good friend Dr. Darren Meister HBA Program Director and Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business who met with 13 of our students. Every fall, Darren makes a point of taking the time out of his busy travel schedule to come and see us and he always enjoys his time discussing the Ivey programme and business programmes in general with our students.

On Tuesday of this week 35 students and myself boarded a bus to travel to the CIS College/University Fair at the International School of Geneva. This was a great event and our students met with representatives from Canadian, US and European universities.  The fair provides a great opportunity for networking and information gathering.

The students all attended their first PSD (Personal and Social Development) session this week, which is the guidance class at NJC and the topic was an introduction to university applications. The students will begin applying in November and are encouraged to be researching and compiling a list of where they will apply. University admissions continues to be very competitive and it is so important that students do their research and find the programme and school that is going to be the best fit for them.

I’ve been meeting with many students individually and am thrilled to see that many of them are going to be applying to schools in the US, UK and other parts of Europe. Those applying to Canadian schools have already been enquiring about semester or year abroad programmes. That’s the NJC student – brave and wanting to explore the world!

Heather Grant
Director of University Guidance and Counselling at NJC

Jennifer Rowell (NJC class of '93) spoke briefly at a recent assembly about her work with CARE Canada in Afghanistan. Following that, in an informal presentation in 2 of my classes, she talked about what women's lives are like in that country and the difficulty of trying to reinforce women's rights to education and to equal status in that culture. She also talked at length to students about how one becomes involved in International Relations work; she emphasized that "marks and  public service extra-curricular involvements really ARE important, so students must get involved!"

Fourteen NJC students and two NJC faculty recently returned from an incredible experience volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in the town of Miskolc, Hungary.  We departed from Budapest not knowing what to expect, and soon found ourselves in a small but comfortable hotel in a quiet part of town.  We were welcomed by our two site supervisors, Sandor and Levi, who essentially became our tour guides, construction coaches, supporters, and friends for the week.  It is safe to say we all benefited from their superb organisation of the week's events, as well as enjoyed their friendliness and sense of humour.

 

We reached Phaplu airport in the early afternoon today. Everybody is in good health and spirit, proud of having made it. We had a farewell dinner with the porters today and tomorrow morning we fly back to Kathmandu. The weather finally improved -- today was mild with less wind and we finally caught a glimpse of mighty Mt. Everest!

Ni Hao from China!

We had a great time in the community of Guiyuanhua (pronounced Gwee-oo-ha!) where we spent time digging trenches for where the new school will be built and preparing the new playground area for all the students. Currently the school serves middle school students, and the new school we are helping to build will support both primary and middle school students from this community.

We had a fun time preparing and running English lessons, activities and teaching the middle school students about their culture. Not only are our students teaching the students here, but they are learning so much from the local students in return!  Every day we talk about each student’s highlight of the day and these continue to be the time they spend meeting, learning and playing with the local students.

We have been volunteering in all sorts of weather: warm, dry, cold and rainy. The North Eastern Provinces in China like Liaoning provide diverse opportunities for students to experience different weather, food, people, cultural practices and understanding some of the key social issues here that are connected to education for young people in China. 

 On the weekend, we said goodbye to the community of Guiyuanhua and flew to Henan close to where the Shaolin Temple is situated. So far the time at the Shaolin temple so far has been incredible!! We’ve had great weather, so we also took a hike up one of the local mountains where the first monk in history brought meditation to China. The whole group meditated. It was awesome! We saw a special performance by the Kungfu monks and had a chance to try kung fu ourselves. The group also did a tour of the Shaolin Temple and the Pagoda Forest and had the opportunity to share a meal with the monks in complete silence. What an incredible experience!

 

We arrived in Beius yesterday, after travelling 5 hours through beautiful Hungarian & Romanian countryside. Beius is the gateway to the Carpathian mountains and has a lot of Romanian tourists travelling through it. Our first day on site involved putting up 6 walls of the first house and making up roof trestles- apparently we used close to 10,000 nails. Everyone is exhausted but feeling good about our project.

NJC trekkers have reached Paatle village yesterday (Thursday) after the entire group had successfully summited Pikey Peak (4200m altitude, the highest elevation on their hike) on Wednesday.

This morning, the village people from Paatle surprised the trekkers with an amazing welcome ceremony. There was music, dance, and flowers. Around 200 people came and some of them walked for 2 hours to join this ceremony! Today, it was sunny in the morning, now the fog has settled back in.

The rest of the day today and tomorrow will be spent on installing LED lights in as many homes as possible.

We will probably leave Paatle on Sunday (17th) already, so we have a good three days left to hike the rest of the trek until we reach the airport in Phaplu from where we will fly back to Kathmandu on Wednesday (20th).

We wanted to send a note to everyone to let you know that we are all enjoying our time in China right now! We had a great time in Beijing visiting some of the famous sights: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden and of course the incredible Great Wall. During one of our evenings, we had the chance to enjoy a traditional Peking duck mean for dinner. Everyone has been taking lots of photographs; here is a photo of our first night in Beijing. More pictures soon!