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Graduates 2013 Video

Alumni Profiles – Kay Choi (CMU ’13)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2XqhriU8Q4[/youtube]

Kay ChoiThis video features Kay Choi (CMU ’13) performing Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso Op. 14 at In Gratitude, April 27, 2013, a CMU graduation weekend event at which class members share their experiences through spoken word or musical performance. The event brings together family members, graduates, students, faculty, and staff.

Kay Choi
Bachelor of Music Therapy

Video Production: Laura Tait and Thomas Krause, CMU Communications & Media Students (2013)

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Graduates 2013 Video

Alumni Profiles – Matthew Veith (CMU ’13)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxPX6WntJDA[/youtube]

Matthew VeithThis video features Matthew Veith (CMU ’13) at In Gratitude, April 27, 2013, a CMU graduation weekend event at which class members share their experiences through spoken word or musical performance. The event brings together family members, graduates, students, faculty, and staff.

Matthew Veith
Bachelor of Arts (4 year)
Majors: Communications & Media

Video Production: Laura Tait and Thomas Krause, CMU Communications & Media Students (2013)

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Graduates 2013 Video

Alumni Profiles – Rachel Davey (CMU ’13)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZBiLvvX5lk[/youtube]

Rachel DaveyThis video features Rachel Davey (CMU ’13) at In Gratitude, April 27, 2013, a CMU graduation weekend event at which class members share their experiences through spoken word or musical performance. The event brings together family members, graduates, students, faculty, and staff.

Rachel Davey
Bachelor of Arts (4 year)
Majors: Psychology

Video Production: Laura Tait and Thomas Krause, CMU Communications & Media Students (2013)

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Graduates 2013 Video

Alumni Profiles – David Epp (CMU ’13)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jww3xV3AeuQ[/youtube]

 David EppThis video features David Epp (CMU ’13) at In Gratitude, April 27, 2013, a CMU graduation weekend event at which class members share their experiences through spoken word or musical performance. The event brings together family members, graduates, students, faculty, and staff.

David Epp
Bachelor of Arts (4 year)
Majors: History, Biblical and Theological Studies

Video Production: Laura Tait and Thomas Krause, CMU Communications & Media Students (2013)

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General News

Scholarship Winner Aims to Make a Difference Through Business

‘Business can be about more than just making a profit,’ says Benjamin Shantz

Business is in Benjamin Shantz’s blood. While his friends spent their summers in high school working shifts at local fast food restaurants, Shantz was running his own lawn care operation, Benjamin’s Lawn Mowing and Services.

The business earned Shantz enough spending money during each summer, and while his friends were obligated to work the hours their supervisors scheduled for them, he enjoyed the flexibility making his own schedule afforded him.

2013-11-07 - Ben Shantz [2]But Shantz says one of the biggest benefits of running his own business was relational.

Today, Shantz is in his first year of studies at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). He received a full tuition scholarship for his first year of study from CMU’s Redekop School of Business as well as Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).“Mowing lawns in my neighbourhood allowed me to build relationships and get to know people in the community,” the 19-year-old says. “I always enjoyed that, as opposed to having a job where I didn’t interact with anyone.”

Shantz says he gets his entrepreneurial spirit from his family.

“My grandfather and dad were involved in business, and my dad was big on teaching my brother and I how to manage our money,” he says.

His grandfather, Glen, was an electrician with his own contracting company who also owned a number of rental properties. Meanwhile, Shantz’s father, Rick, owned his own IT consulting firm for a number of years.

Participating in CMU’s Outtatown Discipleship School last year also influenced Shantz to study business, and it gave him a new perspective on what running a business can look like.

While in Guatemala at the beginning of 2013, he and his fellow students worked with a ministry called Solomon’s Porch. The ministry includes a café, and the income generated by the café is used to further the Solomon’s Porch ministry.

“I saw how business can be about more than just making a profit,” Shantz says. “It can also be used to give back to a community – in this case, to finance a missional organization that builds houses for people.”

As a result of his experience abroad, Shantz is working towards a double major in Business and International Development Studies at CMU.

While he’s not sure what sort of business he wants to be involved with after he graduates, he knows it will be the kind of business that reflects the things he has come to value over the past few years.

“It will be a business that’s tied to the community and relationships and helping people,” he says.

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Alumni Profiles

CMU alumnus awarded prestigious $50,000 fellowship

Fellowship supports Rebecca Bartel’s PhD work on faith and finance in Colombia

How are people in Colombia formed by finance? What are the hopes of everyday people in their use of credit cards, bank accounts, as well as alternative economic systems, in a country at war?

Those are the questions at the heart of the dissertation Rebecca Bartel is writing to fulfill the requirements of her PhD program in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Center for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto.

Bartel-[2]“My dissertation is about the soul of finance—the good, the bad, and the structural,” says Bartel, who graduated from CMU in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Theology, with a minor in Political Science. “I am convinced that a road to peace and justice will necessarily consider economics, and more specifically, our financial system.”

This past summer, Bartel became one of 16 inaugural recipients of a Weston Fellowship. Presented by the University of Toronto and The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, the fellowship is dedicated to international experience at the doctoral level. Each recipient was given $50,000 to further their research and broaden their skills and networks in a global setting.

Bartel is currently in Bogotá, Colombia for a year of fieldwork and teaching at the National University of Colombia. She is no stranger to the country, with more than a decade of academic and life experience in Colombia.

During her last year at CMU, Bartel became curious about how “the politics of Jesus” could be, and were being, practiced in the face of armed conflict and the deep injustices in the world.

“I became very concerned with the question of war, why it happened and how it could be resolved, and I decided I wanted to pursue graduate studies in armed conflict resolution in a place where an armed conflict was currently going on,” she says.

Close friends who had spent time in Colombia encouraged Bartel to consider studying there, so she did.

“The experiences of the Colombian Anabaptist churches as beacons of light for justice and peace in the midst of structural and physical violence were an inspiration that I wanted to learn more about,” she says.

Bartel received a Master’s degree in Political Science, which was focused on the political economy of war, as well as a graduate specialization in armed conflict resolution from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.

During and after her studies, she worked for two years with the Colombian Mennonite Foundation for Development (MENCOLDES) as a Mennonite Church Canada volunteer, and then for four years with Mennonite Central Committee as Policy Analyst and Educator for Latin America and the Caribbean.

For Bartel, studying at CMU was foundational academically as well as personally and spiritually.

“CMU pushed me to take the gospel seriously, put it into action, and seek out the face of Christ in places where darkness and violence seem to prevail,” she says. “CMU taught me that community, simplicity, and critical thinking can pull back the veil of darkness and reveal the illuminating hope of liberating action.”

Bartel hopes to graduate with her PhD in 2015. She would like to land a tenure-track position in a university, begin a study-abroad program to Latin America, and continue writing and teaching on religion and economics.

Bartel realized at CMU that while she may not see the fruits of all the acts of resistance and liberation that churches and communities in Colombia live out each day, her life must be a testimony to the faith that one day, peace with justice shall reign.

“This faith is what pushes us to believe, indeed know, that war will end, and God’s promise of equality, justice, and a life without fear will be real.”

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Face2Face: On Campus – Community in Conversation Video

When Cheap is Costly: Sweatshops and the Clothes I Wear with Dr. Ray Vander Zaag

In this, the third of 2013/4’s Face2Face series, Dr. Ray Vander Zaag is joined by alumni, students, and special guest Bob Silver. The global clothing industry, working conditions in places like Bangladesh, and the impact of Western governments and markets have had in developing countries form the discussion.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-k2_2jX9To[/youtube]

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Face2Face: On Campus – Community in Conversation Video

Germinating Seeds: Eating Together at the Table with Kenton Lobe

Featuring CMU’s Kenton Lobe, Instructor of International Development Studies, this is part 2 of the 6-part Face2Face Conversation Series.

Eating is one thing that all people have in common, but what do we eat when we are together? Who grows it? How did it get to our table? What was the impact on the land? Does it nourish? Is there enough? Does it taste good? Does any of this matter? How might these questions be informed by our faith?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GPaVVeYrDM[/youtube]

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Events News Releases Uncategorized

Conference Inspires Youth to Pursue Peace and Seek Justice

‘The great adventure we get to be on is following Jesus,’ speaker says

How do we practice peace and justice in our daily lives? That was the question acclaimed activist Shane Claiborne explored at Peace It Together (PIT) 2013, Canadian Mennonite University’s (CMU) conference for youth focusing on biblical and Anabaptist themes of peace.

Shane Claiborne at PIT 2013
Shane Claiborne at PIT 2013

Over the course of three worship sessions, Claiborne challenged the more than 100 youth, youth sponsors, and pastors from across Canada who gathered at PIT to see that being a Christian isn’t about what happens to us in the afterlife, but rather, it’s about the way we spend our time on Earth.

“Jesus didn’t come just to prepare us to die, but to show us how to live,” Claiborne said.

Claiborne, author of a number of books, including The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, told stories from his various ministry experiences, including working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India; a trip with a Christian Peacemaker Team to Iraq in 2003; and living with The Simple Way, a community he helped start in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighbourhood.

He told listeners that there are a variety of ways to pursue peace and seek justice in their daily lives, and that everyone is invited to do something with their gifts that contributes to the redemptive work God is doing in the world.

He added that ultimately, more important than what you do or accomplish in this life is who you are becoming as a child of God.

“In the end, the great adventure we get to be on is following Jesus,” Claiborne said.

On Saturday afternoon, youth participated in a variety of different workshops to put into action the things they learned from Claiborne.

Youth had the option to visit a L’Arche community; visit Cedar Lane Farm, an organic farm located in a house-barn in rural Manitoba; spend the afternoon at Neechi Commons, a supermarket, bakery, and fish market in Winnipeg’s North End that fosters neighbourhood revitalization; visit House Blend Ministries, an intentional community in downtown Winnipeg; build instruments; or create and distribute a broadsheet newspaper with recent news stories rewritten from the perspective of peace

PIT also included times for small group reflection; opportunities to play sports or create art; and social events like square dancing, karaoke, and a talent show.

Robbie Friesen, a Grade 12 student from Vineland, ON., said the conference gave him a new understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ

Shane Claiborne addresses youth at one of his three speaking sessions
Shane Claiborne addresses youth, youth leaders, and pastors at one of his three speaking sessions

“When Jesus said, ‘Give up everything and follow me,’ there are different ways you can look at that,” said Friesen, 17, who traveled to Winnipeg with his youth group from Vineland United Mennonite Church. “I’ll definitely remember Shane’s stories of active peace and following Jesus.”

Hannah Thiessen, a Grade 11 student from Cambridge, ON., agreed.

“Shane makes it easy to wrap your brain around actually doing these things,” said the 15-year-old, from Wanner Mennonite Church. “I hope that I can act on what I’ve learned and contribute to my community in some way.”

Lois Nickel, Director of Enrolment Services at CMU and one of PIT’s organizers, said that was the goal of the conference.

“We wanted to show youth that you can live out peace wherever you are,” Nickel said. “We hope youth pastors and leaders will be taking ideas and inspiration from this weekend to go and try new things with their youth groups.”

CMU will host the next Peace It Together youth conference in October 2015.

Categories
Events Lectures News Releases

Discussion Led by IDS Professor to Explore Sweatshops and North American Clothing

“When Cheap Is Costly” is the third of seven Face2Face events hosted by CMU

The April collapse of the Bangladeshi clothing factory, which produced for Loblaw’s Joe Fresh label, and which killed more than 1,100 workers, raises important questions about where our clothes come from, and what conditions they are produced in.

JF1With the publicity given to garment factories, like the Loblaw contract-location in Bangladesh, how can North Americans show concern in their consumer behaviours for workers overseas?

Are we too concerned with fast fashion? Do constantly changing fashions trends encourage us to buy too many ‘cheap’ clothes that only need to last for a fashion season?

What is the ethical responsibility of business people in how they source the goods they produce, as well as how they market and advertise them

And how does social change happen for complex, diffuse problems like this?

Ray Vander Zaag, Assistant Professor of International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), will discuss those questions and more during CMU’s next Face2Face event exploring the intersection of faith and life.

Vander Zaag will host a conversation, titled “When Cheap Is Costly: Sweatshops and the Clothes I Buy,” on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7:00 PM in CMU’s Great Hall (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.). Admission is free, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Vander Zaag says he is interested in the topic because it links to Haiti, where he worked with his church’s development agency  from 1985 to 1993. Garment factories, some with poor working conditions, are common in the Caribbean country, and are still  being promoted as a key development strategy for Haiti.

“The topic of sweatshops affects my day-to-day life here in Winnipeg, because I do think about things like how many shirts I need to have in my closet,” Vander Zaag says. “It’s also interesting linking this topic to places I’ve lived in and care about, like Haiti.”

Vander Zaag hopes his talk will lead to a nuanced discussion about the topic, because it is a complex issue with no easy answers.

“At the same time, it’s pretty clear that there are people being hurt,” he says.

A lot can be, and is being done, to work toward solutions.

“There are fair trade clothing shops in Winnipeg, there are advocacy groups working in solidarity with labourers in the global south, and Loblaw is concerned about this,” Vander Zaag says. “There are many pieces to the puzzle of a fairer global garment industry, and all these initiatives can slowly make that ocean liner move in a new direction.”

“When Cheap Is Costly: Sweatshops and the Clothes I Buy” is the third of seven Face2Face events CMU will host during the 2013-14 school year.

Face2Face events are a series of conversations with CMU faculty designed to engage the community on a wide variety of current events and issues at the intersection of faith and life. For the complete Face2Face schedule, please visit www.cmu.ca/face2face.