Visitors from India

Last week -  during one of my "pre-working-for-Seneca" visits to meet with some of my new colleagues at Seneca - I attended the hosting of a group business people from Gujarat State in India. 

Seneca's President David Agnew welcomed the delegation and spoke a few words of his recent visit to their State earlier in 2014. Joy McKinnon afterwards led the discussion together with two members of the international projects team. Joy is very knowledgeable on doing business in India and did her PhD studies on this topic. The visitors were pleased to hear - during the more informal part of their short visit - that this Dutchman had met his future wife Mary in their country.....

The gift exchanges between Joy and the visitors at the end of their visit.

My last "Niagara Day"

Today was my 19th and last time that I attended "Niagara Day" at Niagara College. This day is always organized in late August to start the new academic year and originally it was called the "Welcome Back Day". Increasingly many of us (especially in the international department) worked all throughout the summer months with special summer ESL groups, and we suggested a name change. "Niagara Day" is always a fun half day kicked off by college President Dan Patterson:

His message was positive but always with a few cautions of challenges on the road. Colleges in Ontario went from 70 % to now 40 % funding from the provincial government and that will probably become even less. Students therefore pay higher tuition fees and for NC the almost 25 % of overall revenues through international student tuition fees and special international contracts has become a very important part of the financial health of the organization. I am very proud to leave such a well run team at Niagara International behind now that I will focus soon on my new job at Seneca.

The morning has a variety of award ceremonies for health & safety, best support staff, best professor and best administrator of the year. Updates are given on the sustainability plan of the college (the "greening"  of the college's  operation with respect to reducing electricity and water use, reducing the carbon footprint and slowly but surely becoming close to "paperless"). This is followed by a speaker and this time it was all about "work & life balance".

A very dynamic presentation with good food for thought about the pillars of exercise, nutrition, stress management and enough quality sleep. She was thanked by the President of the SAC (Student Administrative Council) who this year is an international student from Jamaica.

I still have to pinch myself that this is almost it after 19 years at Niagara College. One more week here and then a two  week work trip  to Brazil, and then it will be September 22 and my Seneca work adventure starts. I am ready....

Getting ready for Seneca

This will take some getting used to.  After living almost 20 years in "Niagara stuff" now I have to wear the "Seneca colors". Yesterday I spend a day at Seneca in Toronto meeting some of my new colleagues and taking over my new office (ready for me to start in on September 22)...

A large institution with close to 30,000 students of which about 20 % come from around the world. More updates when I start there later in September.

Leadership training

This week I facilitated a session at the 1st International  Leadership Academy organized by "Colleges and Institutes Canada" (CICan), the national association for Canadian colleges formerly knows as the ACCC,  the  Association of Canadian Community Colleges. I worked with the 19 participants on a number of aspects on international development projects and contracts based on my experiences.

The course was hosted a bit outside of Ottawa and attracted international education leaders from west to east of the country. These photos are from yesterday evening's dinner during which all participants introduced each other through observations they had made during the week.  Lots of good laughs...

A week in the cottage

We just came back from a very nice week in a cottage with Mary's family as we have done for the past 7 or 8 years. Mary's sister Sue, her husband Ralph and their daughter Fiona, Mary's brother Joe, his wife Marcy and their sons Spencer, Parker and Wil, and the four of us get together for a week in a large cottage near Fenelon Falls on Cameron Lake (not far from Peterborough).  This week Mark could only come for one weekend because of his work and a math exam next week. Hilary came in between two weekends of work.

The few photos are from the last evening (Friday) when Mary and Hilary had just left. On the photo above Marcy and Fiona taking a foot bath in a cooler..... creative use of things....

Sue gives her feet the full treatment and earlier in the week I noticed Mary did the same....

The cottage has six bedrooms and a large sitting area plus open kitchen. Weplayed lots of rummikub and the kids wrote their journals each day. Here Spencer reading and Wil  and Fiona debating their journals...

Parker reading his journal entry to his Dad (Joe)...... and Joe takes a nap afterwards....

Outside you can see the lawn with the dock on the river leading to Cameron Lake. Ralph catching up on the news outside on the deck. And Marcy will kill me for posting this photo....

From Niagara to Seneca in September

On September 22 I will start a new professional challenge as Dean International at Seneca College in Toronto. After 19 years at Niagara College it was time for a change and a wonderful opportunity was presented. Long story short: last week I was offered this position after an extensive selection process and I am very excited. From a very small international operation at Niagara College in 1995 I helped to build an impressive team now located in brannd-new offices servicing about 2,000 international  students at NC from about 60 countries. I walked this morning early through the offices and made a few photos for memory sake. Above the office where I have been the past few months...

This is the front office at the Welland campus where about 2/3 of the international students are serviced. The view from a bit further away:

The hallway to the right seperates some of the offices and if you walk to the end:

The NC campaign of "Be World Ready"  is advertised together with study & work  abroad options. These outbound activities are coordinated by one of the team members.

The hallway features a creative world map and some info screens on social activities:

NC services about 350 ESL (English as a Second Language) students at any given time. During the summer months a variety of additional part-time and contract ESL teacher assist us in an open space office area next to where the desks of the full-time permanent ESL teachers are located...

There is a corridor with student services staff right next to the front desk...

The area - used since May 2013 - has been designed as accesible and inviting for the international students as possible. We  came a long way with the Niagara International team.....

Now I am getting prepared to see how I  can lead some diversification and expansion at Seneca College, an institution about three times the size of NC with some 4,000 international students.

Stay tuned for those stories as of late September.....

World Cup 2014 completed

Today we watched the final game of the World Cup 2014 at the big screen in one of the auditoriums at Niagara College. A beautiful  scenery in one of  the most famous soccer stadiums of the world.....

W had some German supporters, some Argentinians and several Colombians who hope to see their team in that game in the future. I think the strongest team of this year won the trophy.

For me the most special player of this tournament was Klose. Not many players manage to be selected for four consecutive tournaments. What a great athlete!

Thank you Brazil for hosting such a wonderful event............ Russia in 2018........