Innovative projects lead to award

Alex Beim, founder of Tangible Interaction, was this year’s recipient of the Business Entrepreneur Award at the Inspirational Latin Award ceremony. The Inspirational Latin Award acknowledges remarkable individuals who have made striking contributions to British Columbia’s Latin American community over a significant period of time. Moving for love Beim had no intention of leaving his…

Exploring the notion of a Muslim world

To discuss the idea of a ‘Muslim world,’ a second lecture is being delivered at Simon Fraser University (SFU) as part of the 2018–2019 lecture series. The talk will discuss assumptions about the united Muslim world while looking at how those assumptions became so widespread. “Narratives about the Muslim world evolved dramatically, though this change…

Cooking for a good cause

Coast Mental Health will be holding its very first Guest Chef Night fundraising event on Nov. 26 at Social Crust Café, a social venture café. The event will feature a four-course dinner by renowned chef Scott Jaeger of the Pear Tree Restaurant in Burnaby with assistance from the Coast Mental Health Culinary Program students. The…

DOXA encourages local podcast production

DOXA introduces a new festival – the Vancouver Podcast Fesival – to draw attention to the strength of podcasting as a non-fiction medium from Nov. 8–10. Apple’s podcast platform distributes more than 550,000 different shows. Moreover, other sources estimate the number of episodes at around 18.5 million, in over 100 languages. It is easy to…

Mobile app keeps seniors healthy at home

Caren, a mobile application available on both Android Apps and the App Store, offers families a virtual tool to care for aging parents. The application customizes and stores client medical information and preferences in any language to support caregivers and family members. “People in care often need routine and consistency to reduce anxiety,” says Christina…

Refugees share their stories of struggle and success in resettlement

The Unique Lived Experiences of Refugees in Metro Vancouver, A Public Forum, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m.–3:30 p,m, at MOSAIC located at 5575 Boundary Road in Vancouver. The forum aims to highlight the contributions and resettlement experiences of refugees who put down new roots in Metro Vancouver. “Each refugee who…

How children can make silenced voices heard

UBC Public Scholars Award recipient Claudia Diaz worked as a manager of social education programs in Chilean inner city schools before moving to Canada for graduate school, including a PhD in Educational Studies at UBC. Her current research addresses the silenced presence of Indigenous people in B.C. and proposes ways of making their voices heard…

In/Flux: Art of Korean Diaspora

The Museum of Vancouver and the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Vancouver have joined forces to showcase artwork by three Korean-Canadian artists living and working in Vancouver. The exhibition artfully blends traditional and contemporary concepts as a means of contemplating place, history, migration and identity. In/Flux: Art of Korean Diaspora will be…

Satellite kids: negotiating two worlds

Mainland Chinese people have been emigrating from China for years, and yet, the recent experiences of mainland Chinese immigrant families have been largely ignored, says Henry Li. “[Mainland Chinese] make up the biggest group of incoming immigrants into Canada for the last 10 years,” says Li, a Master’s student in Simon Fraser’s sociology department who…

Cultural intelligence builds empathy

Progressive organizations across Canada engage employees through diversity and inclusion programs. “The business community is motivated to develop intercultural competency (IC),” says Taslim Damji, an intercultural practitioner and core developer and facilitator for MOSAIC, Multi-lingual Orientation Service Association for Immigrant Communities. Understanding cultural diversity and learning to empathize and embrace different behaviours is key to…

Exploring Muslim youth identities and their sense of belonging in Canada

With the growing number of Muslims in Canadian schools, Neila Miled, a PhD Candidate of the Faculty of Education at UBC, explores how Muslim youth negotiate their identities as Muslims and Canadians. She looks at how they express their sense of belonging in Canada, particularly in Metro Vancouver. Miled was born and raised in Tunisia,…

Promoting social change through the media

Joanna Chiu is a journalist who serves as the editor and founder of WAM! Vancouver (Women Action and the Media), a non-profit dedicated to creating gender justice in the media, and NüVoices, an international editorial collective that focuses on self-identified women’s work in China. Chiu will be speaking at the Peace and Conflict Studies Lecture…

A critical conversation

“When you start getting into those scary, emotional and triggering conversations, that’s where the most revolutionary education happens; that’s where you change a person’s perception,” says Maria Ishikawa, program assistant for Friends of Simon Tutoring Program, Simon Fraser University (SFU). Born and raised in Washington State, Ishikawa is half Japanese half Polish. Her article, Validating…