VIU Professor Assesses Leisure in the Time of a Pandemic
January 26, 2021
EXPERT COMMENTARY: VIU Recreation and Tourism Professor Joanne Schroeder says the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of access to leisure activities as an investment in the long-term health and well-being of communities. The urgent need to stop people from gathering in close proximity to one another to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus took away or severely restricted most forms... Read more
VIU Nursing Professor Receives Financial Support to Continue Resilience Research
January 26, 2021
Support from BC’s health research funding agency will enable Dr. Shannon Dames to focus on further developing a resilience-focused, psychedelic-assisted mental health therapy program. An innovative psychedelic medicine-assisted therapy and resilience training program developed by Vancouver Island University (VIU) Nursing Professor Dr. Shannon Dames and her team is proving to be very effective... Read more
VIU Media Highlights: January 4 - 15, 2021
January 19, 2021
A bi-weekly roundup of VIU in the News. Top Performing article for the last two weeks AP Newswire: BC Scientists Look at Climate Change Impacts on Aquaculture (picked up by numerous publications). Reach: 25 million people. This story was also featured in SeafoodNews, Saanich News, Haida Gwaii Observer, Toronto Star, CHEK News, Yorkton This Week, eFeedLink and My Climate Change blog. Story based... Read more
Grant Funds Prototype of Resilience Education Video Game
January 14, 2021
VIU Professor Dr. Leigh Blaney receives $10,000 grant to develop Firefighter Edge, a video game that could help firefighters cope with stress and anxiety experienced on the job. Vancouver Island University (VIU) Health and Human Services (HHS) Professor Dr. Leigh Blaney is branching out into the world of video game development. A BC SUPPORT Unit grant of $10,000 will help Blaney and her research... Read more
VIU Joins MasterCard Foundation's Young Africa Works in Kenya Initiative
January 12, 2021
VIU collaborates with Kenyan partner college to establish new electrical trades training program. Vancouver Island University (VIU) has joined the Mastercard Foundation’s five-year Young Africa Works in Kenya-TVET initiative, which is focused on increasing the participation of young Kenyans, and women in particular, in workforce-relevant skills training programs that will result in dignified and... Read more
VIU Culinary Arts Student Cooking for Gold
January 7, 2021
Ottis Crabbe has earned a spot on Junior Culinary Team Canada, which will be competing at the Culinary Olympics in Germany in 2024. The day his parents opened Abbondanza, a restaurant in Ucluelet, BC, Ottis Crabbe knew he wanted to become a chef. His path toward running his own commercial kitchen began last year when he signed up for Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Culinary Arts program... Read more
Reflections on 2020 from the VIU Voices Editor
December 18, 2020
By Alyson Winks, Internal Communications Advisor One of the things I like most about my role as Internal Communications Advisor at VIU is the variety of people with whom I get to work. As such, we have decided to create an editor’s column that will run in every other issue of VIU Voices, which will hopefully reflect some of our shared experiences. This is my first attempt after a crazy year.... Read more
VIU ELDERCOLLEGE: Where Wisdom Meets Knowledge
December 17, 2020
By Regan McKeever, Program Coordinator VIU ElderCollege has reinvented itself! The fall session was an overwhelming success with 45 courses exclusively online, via Zoom. While the technology is still a challenge for some seniors, the opportunities to connect with friends and family during the pandemic provides significant motivation for many to acquire new skills and abilities. VIU... Read more
The Share Drive Podcast
December 17, 2020
Three New Episodes Dr. Kathleen Bortolin, and Anwen Burke, both of whom are Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Specialists in the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) have been hard at work producing three new episodes of the Share Drive Podcast to help enhance, inspire and perhaps provoke some thoughts. Check out the latest episodes below. Evandra Panych: Instructional... Read more
VIU Culinary Arts Program Donates Surplus Food to Salvation Army
December 10, 2020
Extra food prepared by students as part of their program is finding its way to the stomachs of people in need through charitable organization in Nanaimo. Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) Culinary Arts program is donating the equivalent of about 200 meals every week to the Nanaimo Salvation Army New Hope Centre on Nicol Street. VIU’s hybrid model of education delivery has drastically reduced... Read more