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Student Profiles – Raven Nickel (2012)

Raven Nickel_webDecember 13, 2012 – For Raven Nickel of Altona, MB, who is working towards an education degree and majoring in French, coming to CMU after high school was the ideal choice to begin post-secondary studies. Receiving a scholarship helped make it all possible.

Upon graduation from Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna two years ago, Raven received a CMU Leadership Scholarship valued at $10,000 over four years.  The award recognizes both academic excellence and leadership, shown in her roles as camp counsellor, lifeguard, and aide to a younger student.

“That money was a huge help,” says  Nickel, who lives in residence at CMU. “The award gave me confidence in myself and sparked my interest in taking initiative to become a Residence Assistant – and helping other students also lets me give back to CMU.”

“I love living on campus, and having my own place to go between classes. I like the activities outside of class time, I enjoy the community of people here, and I like the dynamics between professors and students.”

In particular, Nickel appreciates the focus on theology and faith as part of her daily life.  “I’m looking forward to taking more BTS courses this year,” says Nickel, who hopes to teach, to travel, and to do mission work. “It’s really cool that faith can be worked into everyday things.”

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Articles Student Profiles

Student Profiles – Natalie Vander Zaag (2012)

Natalie Vander Zaag_webDecember 13, 2012 – Natalie Vander Zaag (OT’11) started at Canadian Mennonite University as a participant in CMU’s Outtatown French Africa program and stayed to study at CMU with a major in social sciences.

Vander Zaag had always been interested in psychology, but it was her work at an Aboriginal drop-in centre in Winnipeg’s North End that helped turn that interest into a true passion. “I am so interested in how the human brain works and the methods people use to heal. My work at the drop-in centre has made me even more passionate about healing and therapy,” says Vander Zaag.

“I love psychology because you can apply everything you learn to everyday experiences,” she says.

“The quality of teaching here goes beyond what you’d get at other schools because the faculty here are able to merge academics with an ability and a willingness to nurture the spiritual aspects of their students’ lives,” says Vander Zaag. “This is a genuine, caring place where people are supported and encouraged to grow in all areas of their lives. I have really enjoyed my CMU experience.”

 

 

 

 

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Articles Student Profiles

Graduate Student Profiles – Jose Moraga

005 Jose Morega Diaz WebDecember 13, 2012 – The decision to study at Canadian Mennonite University required a leap of faith for graduate student Jose Moraga and his family, who came to Winnipeg from their home in Santiago, Chile.

“Continuing my studies outside of my country has been a very important step in my spiritual journey. I chose to study at CMU because I identify with the University’s focus on service, leadership, and reconciliation, its program flexibility, and its theology with a strong emphasis on justice and peace,” says Moraga.

Living, working, and studying in a foreign country has been a challenge for Moraga and his family – especially because of the language barrier. Moraga credits the CMU community with helping to ease that transition.

“At CMU, we have found people who have cared for us not only academically, but also on a personal level. Living here among people of different cultures has been an excellent experience for our daughters,” says Moraga. “The professors have been patient and motivating, and a diversity of opinions and experiences is something that is welcomed in the classroom. The staff at CMU have quickly become part of our family.”

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Student Profiles – Kathleen McCullough

December 13, 2012 – A love of basketball brought CMU student and athlete Kathleen McCullough to CMU – and it’s what continues to motivate and challenge this student who is in  her third year both at the school and on the team.

“Our team is like an extended family to me,” says McCullough, who is working towards her Bachelor of Arts Kathleen McCullough_40KBdegree in Social Sciences and Counselling. “As the year progresses, each player develops, both personally and in our athletic ability. My coach really puts the players first and has helped push me to my optimal performance.”

Kathleen started out with less than a full course load, but quickly learned to balance life as a full-time student with her basketball career. “I believe anybody can balance academics and athletics here – and succeed in both.”

CMU athletes are supported by the entire community, cheering on their teams through wins and even through losses. “The fans here never stop cheering,” says Kathleen. “It doesn’t matter which sport is happening, there will always be fans coming out to support their team. That support keeps a team going through tough competition and it’s something I look forward to every basketball season.”

CMU athletes consistently perform well in the league’s scholar-athlete rankings, with nine student-athletes in 2012 achieving grade-point averages (GSPs) of 4.0 and up. Also recognized for academic awards are scholar-athletes with GPAs of 3.0 (80%) or higher – in 2011, 47 members of CMU’s six varsity teams received recognition for academic excellence, representing 69% of all team members.

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Shadrack Mutabazi Maintains Hope for Congo

December 4, 2012 – Shadrack Mutabazi is a Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) student who is doing his best to concentrate on his studies and embrace his family’s new Canadian home. It’s an everyday challenge for him because even oceans can’t separate him from the trauma he’s faced in his lifetime – and the trauma that continues to plague his family  and his country.

Mutabazi was born into the Banyamulenge minority tribe in the Democratic Republic of Congo – which is to say, he was born into persecution and violence. He lived for ten years in exile in Rwanda and five years as a refugee in Uganda,  spending his life as the victim of xenophobic persecution and life threatening circumstances, witnessing unspeakable atrocities, and losing many loved ones along the way.

“I have lost many relatives – parents, uncles, brothers, cousins, colleagues, and friends – and I have narrowly escaped life threatening incidents myself. I grew up with no peace, no hope for stability,” he said.

While he’s been victimized, Mutabazi is anything but a victim. In Africa, he became an ordained pastor and founded the HOPU Organization to bring hope and peace to hurt and suffering people – both those who have been persecuted and the persecutors themselves. “Deep inside, we all have interest in finding reconciliation and forgiveness. Even the perpetrators don’t live in peace,” said Mutabazi. “HOPU uses music to repair and restore, building bridges between groups of people who have been fighting for their entire lives. We want to see reconciliation. And we will get there someday. But first, we focus on just getting people sitting in the same room together and finding some common ground – through music, poetry, and other cultural activities.”

This married father of six children has moved his family – including some of his siblings, for a total of eleven people – to Winnipeg in search of the peace and stability he’s been looking for his entire life. At CMU, he is studying Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies and he also attended CMU’s Canadian School of Peacebuilding this past summer. He hopes that advanced education will help him continue to lead his people in healing and restitution.

“One of the most important things I’ve learned during my time at CMU so far has been the power of love and forgiveness,” he said. “It sounds so simple, but I’ve discovered that you must go inward first to find love and healing so that you can help others to do the same. This truth has been profound in my life.”

His work has continued here in Winnipeg, through Shalom Christian Outreach and Heritage Outreach, and Mutabazi plans to use his degree to continue promoting peace, unity, and social justice as both a church and a community leader.

When asked about his home country and the atrocities that continue there today, Mutabazi – holding onto his innate strength and optimism – said, “I see great possibilities for peace and reconciliation in the Congo.”

“The complexity of the real situation has been unrecognized – or undermined – by the organizations that have been trying to help there,” Mutabazi explained, “but God knows what is happening in the Congo. From my experience, I know that with deep spiritual maturity, we can remain positive and learn the process that can support resolution.”

“I am one of many who have experienced this extremely challenging journey,” he said. “What has happened in my life – the killing, the fear – surpasses all human understanding. But we can still preach the message of peace, love, and justice. God promises us, in John 14:27, a ‘peace that the world cannot give.’ Peace comes from God, and God has a wonderful plan for the Congo.”

This past week, increased tensions in the eastern Congo have sent some of the remaining members of Mutabazi’s family fleeing for their lives. Some are safe for now, but have been separated from their families and fears run high. Mutabazi is looking for ways to bring more of his family into Canada.

Article written by Lindsay Wright for CMU

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CMU Business Grad Heading to Zambia

April 25, 2012 – One of the first graduates of CMU’s new Redekop School of Business has a placement in Zambia. Christina Scheerer graduated from CMU on April 22, 2012 with a four-year degree in Business and Organizational Administration. And, in a few months, she’ll be heading to Zambia to work with a local church-based organization that assists people living with HIV/AIDS.

It’s a one-year placement through Mennonite Central Committee’s year-long cross-cultural service program called SALT. Scheerer will work with an organization called Compassionate Ministries run by the Zambian Brethren in Christ Church. She expects to use her new business skills to help improve programs doing HIV/AIDS prevention and providing home-based care, education, counselling, and training.

She’ll also help the organization develop new programs in the areas of agriculture and water and food security.

Scheerer said the job posting intrigued her because it called for applicants with a background in business or international development studies. “The whole position just seemed very relevant to what I had just spent the past four years studying and it seemed like unique and challenging opportunity,” she said.

At CMU, Scheerer took a concentration of international development classes together with her business studies. “I learned a lot about leadership and management and implementing programming,” Scheerer said.

Scheerer will live with a Zambian host family in the town of Choma, halfway between the capital city, Lusaka and Victoria Falls, a popular tourist destination. Scheerer has never been to Africa before. She says she expects to come home changed.

“I’m really excited for the experience,” she said. “I know I’ll have a different perspective when I finish the program.”

Scheerer is from Brunner, Ontario, near Kitchener. She came to CMU because it was one of the few schools she could find that offered both business and international development studies in a Christian context.

After her year of service in Zambia, Scheerer says she hopes to continue working with non-profit organizations.

“She’s an absolutely wonderful student,” says CMU Instructor Craig Martin, who teaches economics, finances, and accounting classes at the Redekop School of Business. “She cares about her work and about people around her. This will be an opportunity for her to have a great adventure and learn about business management.”

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Alumni Profiles: Chris Thiessen (CMU ’05)

Being a firefighter or a paramedic is difficult work – and it is work that everybody appreciates. Everyday, people in our communities are being helped by others who have this type of specialized training. But what is it that drives firefighers and paramedicas to seek out such tough careers? What drives them to go to work every day, when each time brings with it the real possibility of difficult circumstances and risking one’s own life helping others?

For firefighter Chris Thiessen, who graduated from CMU in 2005 with a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in History, what inspired him to fight fires and help people as a job was his time at CMU and his practicum at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg.

At Grace Hospital, Thiessen worked in the Emergency Room helping out in any way he could.

Though his degree doesn’t exactly fit in with his career, Thiessen said it was the community at CMU that shaped his worldview and his practicum that allowed him to take the step into his career.

“Being at CMU was a very formative time in my life,” Thiessen said.

Because he has a passion for helping people, being at CMU was a perfect place for Thiessen. “It’s a culture of people who are always doing something for others. The people at CMU are very involved and informed. They want to be active and make a difference. They are very motivated. That inspired me to be active and to make a difference,” he said.

Thiessen now works as a firefighter in Abbotsford, BC. But he has had to use his life-saving skills off the clock as well.

While on a hunting trip with his father last year, Ken, Thiessen’s quad broke down on a trail. At that moment, a man came running down the trail and begged for assistance.

The man’s friend’s had gotten into a quadding accident and had fallen off a cliff onto an embankment, leaving him badly wounded and in a serious condition.

Thiessen sent the person asking for assistance back to the camp, where there was cell reception, to call 911.
Thiessen then ran to the embankment with his first-aid kit and bandaged the injured man, stopping the bleeding. He then waited by the man’s side for more than two hours for the helicopter to arrive and take the injured man to a local hospital. The man survived.

“It was one of those situations where everything had to work out just right. It was God working in mysterious ways,” Thiessen said.

Looking back, seven years after completing his degree at CMU, Thiessen feels thankful that the career choices he made and the experience and skills that he gained let him help someone in difficult circumstances.

Text by Rachel Bergen

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Alumni Profiles – Megan Klassen-Wiebe

Practicum experiences sometimes take students outside their comfort zones into new territory and new environments, giving them opportunities to do something they otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to do.

CMU alumna Megan Klassen-Wiebe’s practicum took her to Cedar Lane Farm, a small, mixed, family-run farm in Coles Island, New Brunswick for five months in 2009. There, she was involved in a wide variety of activities, including gardening; feeding and watering animals (pigs, chickens, turkeys); butchering chickens and turkeys; milking cows; collecting eggs; stacking hay bales; making granola and granola bars; and selling goods at the market.

Klassen-Wiebe graduated from CMU in 2009 with a general BA, and at first wasn’t too sure about her professional future.

“This experience gave me a chance to explore a passion in myself that I had only just discovered at CMU,” she says of her practicum. “It was a way for me to begin to look beyond the community of CMU and to see into the greater world. It made me aware of issues that I wanted to think about further in life and gave me a purpose beyond my CMU graduation.

“It was through this practicum that I decided that I wanted farming to be a part of my future, and led me to studying Agroecology at the University of Manitoba,” say Klassen-Wiebe.

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Student Profiles – Peter Dueck

Current CMU student Peter Dueck, who will graduate in 2012 with a four-year BA in Biblical and Theological Studies with a Philosophy minor, says his practicum experience was beneficial in a number of ways.

Dueck completed his practicum assignment during 2010-2011 as a Grade 7/8 teacher aid at St. Aidan’s Christian School, a private Christian school in Winnipeg that accepts students who are no longer welcome or no longer feel safe in the public school system. There, he tutored students while serving as a positive male role model for them, many of whom had none. 

“My placement challenged me to think seriously about the role of a Christian institution in a non-Christian neighbourhood, and what that role should be,” says Dueck, who is currently volunteering at the school once a week during his last year at CMU.

Dueck says his practicum complemented his academic studies and helped prepare him for an education role. However, he adds that his practicum was also about growing personally and professionally.

“CMU, as a whole, has taught me less about what I should do professionally and more about daily experience and how to work my way through it,” he shares. “CMU and my practicum experience guided me along the journey of discovery within the world; I have developed a greater understanding of how to live and work as a disciple of Christ.”

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Alumni Profiles – Cindy Bass (CMU ’09)

CMU alumna Cindy Bass’ practicum helped her to create a new job position and employment for herself.

As part of her practicum experiences, Cindy, who graduated from CMU in 2009 as a mature student with a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree, volunteered her services at Extendicare Tuxedo Villa personal care home in Winnipeg, where there was no music therapy program in place. She ended up with a permanent part-time job.

She now works as a Canadian Association for Music Therapy-accredited music therapist at Tuxedo Villa and at another personal care home. As well, she runs her own private-practice business for children with special needs, which she plans to expand in the future.

Cindy also fulfilled practicum assignments in Winnipeg at Riverview Health Centre, St. Amant Centre, and several elementary schools, giving her a taste of working with different clientele.

Cindy credits her practica to giving her hands-on experience and figuring out which populations and environments were a good fit for her.

“The practicum experience was definitely one of the greatest parts of the whole learning experience,” says Cindy. “There is nothing quite like hands-on experience that prepares you for the working world. It also gives you a very good idea of knowing whether it is the right profession for you or not.

“CMU definitely prepared me to get out there and do the work,” she adds.