Mount Allison University Video Project Featured in Academica's Top Ten

This morning the video project I've been working on this summer was featured on Academica's Top Ten list. If you're not familiar with the list here's a little snippet from the website:

Our team of researchers scours thousands of news sources every day – college and university media releases, wire services, government announcements, new statistics and research reports, national and international media, blogs, and more – and hand-picks the ten most relevant, interesting and important stories affecting university and college professionals in public affairs, recruitment, marketing and advancement.

You'll receive a single email first thing each weekday morning, containing bite-sized digests of the top ten stories, with links to original sources. Our goal is to keep you abreast of the news that affects post-secondary education marketing and advancement in Canada – branding, recruitment, retention, alumni relations, youth culture, and emerging technology.

If you haven't subscribed in some form I highly recommend that you do. Thousands of higher education professionals read the top ten every morning and so should you. (As always I would recommend the RSS feed using Google Reader. You can see the mention here or you can go directly to the information page, or see the videos released so far in the player below.

The tips posted so far are listed below. There will be a new video posted every weekday on YouTube. I hope everybody continues to enjoy them. We would love your feedback and encourage you to post comments on our Facebook Page or you can e-mail them directly to me at gbcampbell {at} mta.ca.

#1- Make the most of Orientation.

#2- Choose clubs that match you

#3- Experience Theatre

#4- Get some inside information

#5- Get involved in Athletics

#6- Adapt to Academics

#7- Adjust from Abroad

#8- Transition to University Life

#9- Find a Quiet Place to Study

#10- Stay fit on campus

Career Services Events at Mount Allison University

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share a little information about upcoming events related to career services and internship opportunities at Mount Allison via Student Life and the Ron Joyce Centre for Business Studies (RJCBS). As you may know, Scott Yorke was hired for a dual role as Career Counselor for Student Life and Student Internship Program director for the RJCBS last year.

In between other projects I contacted him about what career-related events are happening this year. It just so happens that there is a RJCBS Career Week from October 24th-28th. Some details have yet to be finalized but there will be some events meant to help all students prepare for life after Mount Allison.

These include:

Cover Letter/ Resume Writing Workshop - Tuesday, October 25^th, 2011 (3 sessions held; morning, afternoon, evening)

Commerce Society Career Fair- date to be confirmed: Businesses and various organizations from the Atlantic Region will be invited to campus to speak on various employment and/or education opportunities

Dress for Success Gala – Thursday, October 27^th, 2011: Students are invited to attend an entertaining evening of fashion with a Career oriented twist! From ‘sport casual’ to ‘black tie formal’, take a crash course in the world of formal attire and dress codes, gaining confidence when heading into a presentation, career fair or that ever so exciting (yet nerve racking) interview! 



In addition to the Career Week, there will be more events throughout the year including workshops, graduate school visits, and employer information sessions on campus. So be sure to check the Upcoming Events page on the Mount Allison website to keep informed about events you may be interested in (or be told by your helicopter parents to attend).

20 Tips for first-year students: #10- Stay fit on campus at Mount Allison University

Tenth on our list of 20 video tips for incoming Mount Allison University students is how to stay fit and healthy on campus. Fourth-year environmental studies student Avery Wheeler discusses Mount Allison’s athletic facilities and why you should use them to avoid the dreaded and “very real” freshman 15.

There is a focus on staying healthy at Mount Allison and the school offers among the best fitness and recreation facilities I’ve seen. From the Athletic Centre (indoor swimming pool, weight room, and gymnasium, the aforementioned intramural and club sports, and the fitness centre (which I use regularly) there is ample opportunity to burn off all the food from meal hall you will inevitably overindulge in.

There are also various dance societies (whose instructors will teach beginners) as well as aerobics, yoga, meditation, and martial arts groups. The newly refurbished pool is a great place to de-stress and burn off steam around exam-time.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Mount Allison University Video Playlist for New Students

If you read this blog regularly you no doubt are familiar with Mount Allison's newest video series: 20 Tips for first-year students. Below is a convenient player that has all of the videos to date. There are 9 posted so far and 11 to come with 1 posted every weekday morning until the first full day of orientation on September 2nd. If you have a reaction, positive, negative, or neutral please share it in the comments below or, if you have a YouTube account, on the video page itself. Enjoy.

Atlantic International Studies Organization at Mount Allison University

As we're moving closer to September I'd like to include a mention feature from the Mount Allison University website regarding the Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS). Because ATLIS is such an important and longstanding group on campus the school agreed to feature a story about the group on the main page. Due to my (relatively minor) role in the group this year and with the IR program at large, I was able to connect with the outgoing Journal Editor Rebecca Ann Dixon, incoming President Alex Dalton, and faculty advisor (and International Relations Program Head) Dave Thomas about publication and about the organization as a whole. After interviews and editing this was the result. I think it gives a good idea of what the group does and its importance on campus. I would strongly encourage you to learn more by visiting their website (which I help maintain) at http://atlismta.org.

Mount Allison students launch ninth annual ATLIS journal
2011-06-29 10:40:13

The Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS), a student-run organization based out of Mount Allison University, recently published its ninth annual academic journal. Entitled “Alternative Solutions for a Sustainable Future,” the publication features academic papers written and peer-reviewed by undergraduate students from across the Atlantic region. The journal is the only exclusively undergraduate academic journal of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

ATLIS was founded with the purpose of fostering informed undergraduate participation in international issues through holding a yearly academic conference and producing an academic journal. With the support of the Mount Allison’s international relations (IR) program and the Centre for International Studies, ATLIS welcomes students from across the region each year to participate in a conference, featuring experts on international issues, and submit papers for the journal.

2010-11 ATLIS journal editor and honours IR student Rebecca Ann Dixon credits a high level of student involvement on campus for the group’s lengthy success. “ATLIS is unique because it is a forum for students to share and discuss their academic work and interests outside the classroom. The conference and journal are entirely student-driven. Having this support and enthusiasm behind the projects makes ATLIS a success year after year.”

Dixon sees ATLIS as an extension of the work she does in the classroom. “I think it is important to encourage students to learn from their peers and to showcase the diversity of topics and disciplines that are part of international studies and ATLIS certainly does both.”

Dr. Dave Thomas, Mount Allison international relations professor and faculty advisor for ATLIS agrees. “ATLIS is important for students interested in IR because it provides them with an opportunity to formally present a research paper, contribute to the ATLIS journal, or simply attend the conference and learn a great deal from others. In particular, it provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to go through the peer review process and publish a piece of academic work.”

Dixon adds, “With the journal specifically, I am always excited to see the number of people who volunteer to be peer reviewers — it is a quiet but essential role and an easy way for many students to be a part of ATLIS. Almost everyone who reads or reviews an article for ATLIS comments that they learned a lot about the topic and about writing techniques.”

Alex Dalton, the group’s President for this upcoming year is looking forward to carrying on the success of ATLIS. This year’s conference and journal theme is ‘Revolution: Reforming Structures and Rethinking Perspectives.’ She says this year’s theme reflects the change and instability seen around the world.

“While the title may immediately bring to mind the ongoing events in the Middle East and North Africa that is not the only focus. We strive to have a global perspective and welcome presentations on various topics related to the idea of drastic change, from the war on drugs to the global struggle against political repression and from economic to social upheaval.”

The Spring 2011 Journal is available on the ATLIS web site here. The 2011-12 ATLIS conference will be held January 13-15, 2012 on the Mount Allison University campus. To learn more about ATLIS of if you would like to get involved please visit http://atlismta.org/, contact ATLIS@mta.ca, or follow them on Twitter (@ATLIS).

The Argosy, Mount Allison University's Independent Student Newspaper releases archived issues (PDFs) from 2009-2010

As Online Editor of the Argosy, Mount Allison University's Independent Student Newspaper (since 1875) my job has been, among other things, to help migrate the website to it's new platform (with a lot of technical assistance from outgoing IT Manager and incoming Vice-President Finance & Operation for the SAC Patrick Losier) and prepare the new site for this year.

In addition to looking forward with the new website, we also had to look back to ensure we weren't losing anything in the transfer. Unfortunately, due to some incredibly frustrating technical issues stemming from the fact that the Wordpress installation and the new OpenPublish installation are incompatible there is no technical way in which to transfer all of last year's individual articles from Wordpress and appear correctly on the new site.

However, after a somewhat laborious process of finding and splicing together dozens of documents I've done one better: we now have the original pdfs of two years (2009-2011) of the Argosy available online. As until this upcoming year, the vast majority of students consumed the Argosy only in its paper format so the PDFs are the most familiar way for people to navigate all of the stories.

Below are the 2009-2010 issues on Scribd. They're also now on the Argosy website as well. If you visit the Argosy site you'll notice it has a much cleaner appearance and it's much easier to find what you're looking for. Starting this year the Argosy will also be actively engaging with all members of the Mount Allison community via social media to showcase important stories and solicit input for the Online Only section of the website which will feature your written, photographic, and video submissions. I'll be providing more details in the weeks to come. For now, enjoy some archived issues of the Argosy:

Shinerama at Mount Allison University

I just wanted to make a small mention of a really important cause at Mount Allison: Shinerama. It's an effort that raises money for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, a nonprofit organization that funds scientific research, treatment & patient services, and education and public awareness of Cystic Fibrosis (CF), the most common fatal genetic disease affecting Canadian children and young adults.

Shinerama is the college and University arm of Cystic Fibrosis Canada which last year contributed $1 million to total revenues for the organization.

For a number of years, Mount Allison has been recognized nationally for it's involvement in Shinerama. Currently, Mount Allison teams make up five of the top 10 teams nationally.

Consider Mount Allison's (≈) 2250 undergrads to Dalhousie's (≈) 12,000 and all five teams surpass them. That's really impressive and due to all of the hard work that Beth Whitfield and the rest of the Shinerama team have done already over the summer in fund-raising efforts around the area.

If you want to get involved in helping an organization that improves the quality of life for patients and strives to find a cure for CF you should get involved with this group. For more information contact Shinerama Chair Beth Whitfield at shinerama@mta.ca or in the SAC office in the Student Centre. You can also like the group on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, or visit their website for more information. Here's a video from the group talking about their work:



From Cystic Fibrosis Canada:

Cystic fibrosis causes a build-up of thick mucus
in the lungs leading to severe respiratory
problems. Meanwhile, mucus and protein build-
up in the digestive tract results in extreme
difficulty in digesting and absorbing adequate
nutrients from food.
The effects of cystic fibrosis are most
devastating in the lungs. Ultimately, most CF
deaths are due to lung disease.
It is estimated that one in every 3,600
children born in Canada has cystic fibrosis.
Approximately 3,800 Canadian children,
adolescents, and adults with cystic fibrosis
attend specialized CF clinics.

20 Tips for first-year students: #9- Find a Quiet Place to Study at Mount Allison University

In the 9^th video in our 20-part tip series, fourth-year honours psychology student and Orientation Chair Aleka Maclellan discusses where she goes to find a quiet place to study. 

Personally, I have always favoured the 2nd floor of the library because it’s generally quiet and it’s where people go when they really need to get work done, so the atmosphere is fairly serious, especially around exam time. There’s also, as Aleka mentions, empty classrooms (especially Avard Dixon) that can be used by students after class. 

For non-music students, if you want to get away from everything and really get down to work, there’s the music library in the Music Conservatory. It’s always quiet there and it’s a spot almost nobody outside of the music program knows exists. Some other people are able to be productive at Bridge Street Café, but for me it’s too loud and busy, but could work with casual group work or meetings. If you are doing group work, there are lounges in each residence that are really good for this purpose. Wherever you choose to study, try to stay focused on your work, and not on Facebook.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

20 Tips for first-year students: #8- Transition to Life at Mount Allison University

In this video, fourth-year psychology and English student James Barth and fourth-year biochemistry student Erin Stewart give their take on adjusting to university life at Mount Allison.

I think an important point to make is that it is completely normal to feel a bit out of place and nervous at first — everyone feels that way. Mount Allison is an extremely welcoming community and there is no reason to worry that you won’t find where you fit in. Sometimes it takes a while for you to find your niche, but in the meantime just try to relax and enjoy the ride. Everybody will be in the same situation as you, so don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to new people. It is completely socially acceptable to find a group of strangers, both first-year and upper year students, and introduce yourself. Oh...and once again, remember to pack rain boots.


Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

20 Tips for first-year students: #7- Adjust from Abroad to Mount Allison University

In the 7th video tip in our 20-part series, third-year religious studies student Oudai (OD) AlTabbaa from Damascus, Syria  gives his advice on how new international students can adjust to life in Canada and at Mount Allison University. 

Speaking as a student who spent his youth growing up mostly in suburban Chicago, I didn’t experience culture shock or have trouble adjusting to Canadian life, but that’s not the same for everyone. I know that the International Centre offers all kinds of help with common issues like off-campus work permit applications, post-graduation work permits, filing taxes, health insurance, and a range of other services. 

Mount Allison also offers a mentorship program to incoming international students to be paired with an upper-year student to help them adjust to Canadian culture and Mount Allison in particular. Before you arrive there is also a 45-page handbook for international students with important information for international students. and there is even a service available for someone to meet you at the airport when you arrive.


Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Vizualize.Me, the future of the résumé?

Last Monday I had a 10-minute Skype chat with Eugene Woo, the founder of start-up tech company Vizualize.Me, a service/app/website that turns your LinkedIn data and turns it into a beautiful infographic.

Vizualize.Me won first prize in Toronto Startup Weekend and has been featured on various tech blogs including Mashable.

I was able to talk to Eugene because I had heard about the service, signed up and invited many friends who signed up and are waiting for the public release. I contacted the company about using the private beta and Eugene responded personally to me with the invite code and then asked me to answer a quick survey and if I had time to discuss any feedback I had.

I agreed to a brief chat and a few days later we talked about what I could eventually see myself using the site for and what additions to the interface and design would be useful.  I know they're working on upgrading a lot of the functionality but it's looking pretty good right now. I'm really looking forward to the upgrades and using it to give people a simplified and colorized version of my information on LinkedIn.

Here's the my LinkedIn Profile the data is pulled from and the resultant Vizualize.Me infographic. LinkedIn is a great service for professional networking, recommendations, and knowledge sharing but it doesn't allow for much color or very much customization for people to stand out in a crowd.


I think that with the death of the paper résumé and the rise of LinkedIn, infographic-style résumés will eventually (5-8 years) become the norm first for creative professionals and then most others as companies look for the next big thing. What do you think?

For more context, here's him discussing the new project.



What do you think?

Feedback on videos for first-year students

As we are rolling out the 20 video tips we'd like to know what you think of them. In order to find out what kind of videos you find most useful, Mount Allison is soliciting feedback on the videos on our Facebook Page. If you have a moment please let us know what your favourite video is so far and any feedback you have on our poll. If you haven't seen all of the videos so far they're all available at YouTube.com/MountAllison. Thank you in advance for your valued feedback.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant

20 Tips for first-year students: #6- Adapt to Academics at Mount Allison University

In this 6th out of 20 video tips for incoming Mount Allison University students, fourth-year environmental studies student Avery Wheeler returns to discuss the academic transition from high school to university.   

As I wrote on my blog back in September of my first year, “The main difference between high school and university is that there is nobody there to hold your hand or spoon feed you. You can come to class or not, you can read the book, or not...the only person it will affect is you.” 

In high school you probably had your parents and teachers reminding you to stay on top of things. In university classes, there’s no hand-holding. Professors at Mount Allison are very supportive and accessible, but you have to put in the work yourself. What you make of this great opportunity is entirely up to you.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University