Newsletter - May 1999
First WEAO/WEF student chapter started
The future of our association depends on attracting people entering the field,
particularly students enrolled in environmental courses across the province. It was,
therefore, a happy event when the WEAO board recently approved the application of Mohawk
College in Hamilton to create a student chapter. This is the first college or university
chapter of WEAO and WEF to be set up in Ontario, but we expect that it will lead to
similar developments in other locations.
The instigators of the chapter are Dr. Ayaaz Pirani who is a member of the faculty at
Mohawk in the Chemical and Environmental Technology field, and Grace Pasquale the founding
President of the section. Grace is a third year student just entering her last co-op
semester. She will be spending the summer with Peel Region working in biosolids
operations. During the summer the Acting President will be Chris Hutchinson who is
standing in for Grace.
The Mohawk student chapter has over 15 members, almost all of them from the third year.
The Chapter executive will be actively recruiting in the first and second year at the end
of the summer. One first year member, Erica Held is the daughter of one of our OPCEA
directors, Heinz Held, and it was through Heinz that the idea of a student chapter at
Mohawk first came into being. We are grateful to Heinz for his initiative.
The Mohawk chapter has already had several meetings and adopted three field projects to
be carried out throughout the summer and fall. It is expected that the Mohawk chapter will
take advantage of WEAO and WEF facilities and connections in order to advance their
research and learning activities. In the same way WEAO will be able to benefit from the
enthusiasm and new thinking which will come to us via this important new addition to our
resources.
Other student chapters are in the planning stage. Durham College has already entered
into discussions with our Membership Committee with a view to starting a chapter later
this year, and we have had contact with a couple of other community colleges and
university departments specializing in the environmental field. This looks like a
wonderful opportunity to expand all WEAO activities, as well as support our membership
growth in future years.
WEAO members may wish to suggest to the Environmental faculties at colleges and
universities in their areas that they establish a relationship with our association. A
framework for all of the administrative details such as constitution and by-laws is
already in place in www.wef.org. The process is very easy and not at all time-consuming
for students and faculty advisors to implement.
Paul Grenfell, Chair, Membership Committee
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