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Category: Fun

  • Careers with Animals: Horse Groomer

    Careers with Animals: Horse Groomer

    If you’ve spent any time at all around stables, you’ll know horses require a lot of care to keep them groomed, healthy and happy. Looking after a horse’s needs can sometimes be a full-time job – and, in fact, it is! Horse groomers or equine grooms are the people who maintain a horse’s nutrition, grooming and overall health. If you love horses, the great outdoors, and working with your hands, this could be the job for you.

    Skill Requirements
    First and foremost, a horse groomer should be very comfortable with touching horses and being in their vicinity for extend periods of times. Horse grooming involves a lot of time spent with the horses tending to their needs. Brushing, feeding, watering, tacking, untacking, cleaning the stalls, and exercising the horses is all part of a groomer’s daily routine. Rain, shine, or snow, groomers are expected to perform these tasks. A groomer should also be able to read and understand horse documentation and take care of prescriptions and medications a horse may need at the instruction of a veterinarian.

    Groomers also require patience and strong observation skills. Changes in behaviour or signs of physical injury can only be detected through maintaining a strong bond with the horses and a watchful eye.

    Qualifications and Apprenticeships
    The qualifications needed for grooming can vary and entirely depends on the employer. Some employers won’t require an entry level groomer or an apprentice groomer to have official qualifications. That said, previous experience with horses is almost always a must. Volunteer experience in a stable or barn can help your chances when applying for paid work.

    If you are looking to get certifiable experience, look into basic horse care programs at colleges in your area. There are also universities in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta that offer undergraduate programs in equine studies suitable for those looking for a more technical career in the same field.

    Hours and Salary
    Horse grooming typically involves early mornings and a 40-hour work week. Entry level groomers will earn minimum wage at first, gradually earning raises as they gain more experience. More experienced groomers will earn a starting rate at anywhere from $15-$20 dollars an hour. Depending on the employer, there may also be benefits provided.

  • Rotary Clubs Sponsor Exchange Students

    Rotary Clubs Sponsor Exchange Students

    Very few clubs can claim to span the entire planet Earth, with members from Iceland to Antarctica. Few non-governmental organizations can hold a seat in the United Nations, too. So which club does? Which club is commonly recognized as having the impact and value of an entire nation while spanning nearly all?

    Rotary International (RI) is the world’s first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary members are “volunteers and humanitarians who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, and promote peace,” according to RI President John Kenny. Some of their main focuses include eradicating the Polio virus, promoting literacy, and engaging youth through exchange programs and educational opportunities. Sounds awesome! Want to join?

    As students, we’re actually too young to be Rotarians. However, for us, Rotary offers something even better.

    RI funds Rotaract clubs. Rotaract has the same values and goals as Rotary but is meant for students and young professionals between the ages of 18 and 30. It also partners with Interact clubs, Rotary for high school students, and RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) programs. Rotaract, Interact and RYLA are all fantastic ways to get involved in your community and your world. If you haven’t looked into these clubs yet, now is the time.

    Until this year, RI had four official avenues of service: club, vocational, community, and international. This year, for the first time in a century, Rotary announced a fifth avenue of service: “New Generations”. Rotarians are sponsoring youth on more frequent, new exchange trips, and focusing their community efforts toward our futures and well-being. They’re all about us now, so let’s take full advantage and give back as much as we can.

    Last summer, Rotary hosted their 101st Annual International Convention Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, and I am one of over 20,000 members who attended. They had meetings, workshops, guest speakers, social events, and special performances for all the Rotarians and Rotaractors. We were given speeches on global awareness by Queen Noor of Jordan, current Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greg Mortenson, country music star Dolly Parton, and more. We were also part of a mass volunteer effort that cleaned up some of Montreal’s most beautiful agricultural areas and donated both time and pocket-change to support many charitable initiatives.

    The convention provided great opportunities both professionally and personally. Professionally, Rotary is a great way to build networks of contacts and build leadership skills that can help you reach your school and work-related goals. On a personal level, you can enjoy friendships with hundreds of people from around the world.

    Kelly Mills, a neuroscience major from Alberta’s Lethbridge University, said that Rotary was a great way to bring people together. “It’s a connection,” she explained, “you can go up to anyone and everyone. Just smile and you’re friends.”

    If you want to get involved by finding a Rotaract or Interact club in your community, visit Rotaract.

    Contact your local Rotary club if you are interested in starting your own, and helping your city or high school add to the worldwide service network that is Rotary International.

  • The Gap Year: What to Do with Your Free Time

    The Gap Year: What to Do with Your Free Time

    Taking a year off from school before university or college might be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. It could be a year filled with self-discovery and joy. All you have to do is seize the day — or “carpe diem” as they say in Latin. The following are a few ideas to help you make the most of your gap year.

    Learn a Hobby
    It’s never too late to learn a new skill, such as learning how to play the piano, mastering a new language, or trying out photography. Well, now’s the time to do it! During your gap year, when you have a break from school, you’ll probably have a lot more time on your hands — and you might not know what to do with it. As you try a new hobby and add more variety into your life, you might find a life-long passion that will bring you joy for years to come.

    Furthermore, we all need balance in our lives: a balance between work and leisure. During your final year of high school, you were probably busy studying, working, and preparing for university or college. Now it’s time to strike a balance and have more fun.

    Volunteer
    You may be only one person, and a young person at that, but you can make a positive difference in your community (as cliché as it sounds). There are so many not-for-profit organizations that would be happy to have your help. For example, if you love animals you could volunteer at a local animal shelter walking dogs. Although you won’t get paid, you will benefit great deal from the experience – helping others could give your life a deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment.

    If you’re thinking about pursuing a career, such as journalism, but you’re not sure if it’s the right career choice for you, try volunteering at your local newspaper. This will help you get your “feet wet” and decide if it’s your dream occupation, and you’ll receive further clarification about which university or college program you should apply for.

    Be an Intern
    Besides volunteering, taking an internship during your gap year is a great way to try out an occupation that you’re interested in. It’s also a fantastic way to experience the professional world, where you’ll learn all about office culture, proper etiquette, how to dress, etc. The experience could really help you mature into the professional young man or woman you’d like to be.

    Additionally, taking on an internship will help you network and gain professional contacts. If you’re lucky, someone will decide to take you under their wing and mentor you. Then you’ll have the perfect role model to follow — someone who could help lead you to your dream career.

    Spend Time with Your Family
    Enjoying your family’s company might not be on the top of your priority list. Yet, a few years from now when you’re off at university or college and living on your own, you might reminisce about the past and wish you had spent more quality time with your loved ones. So, savour and appreciate your family — go on short trips, play board games, watch movies together, etc. You’ll be glad you did!

  • What I Wish I Knew Before Attending University

    What I Wish I Knew Before Attending University

    Hi! This is Jami and Ben – both fourth year students who attend Brock University. We decided to sit down and collaborate on a list of things we wish we had known before coming to university in the hopes that we can help future university students avoid the frustration and disappointment associated with finding out crucial information a little too late.

    1. Attend campus tours – This helps you to get familiar with the general location of important buildings and departments. It also helps you to know where your classes are so that your first day is not so overwhelming.

    2. Become best friends with your course/program calendar and academic adviser – Program guides are usually available online or as print copies at your university. These documents are useful in ensuring that you meet your degree requirements, but also typically give a list of courses along with their respective descriptions – use this to make sure your courses/program interest you! Your academic adviser can help make sure you are on track towards completing your degree, can provide assistance if you aren’t sure your program is right for you, or can offer you guidance concerning which courses to take – and more!

    3. Visit your Career Centre – We cannot stress how lifesaving a place this can be. From general job search help (including resume and cover letter assistance) to grad school information and career planning, your school’s career centre can help you when making difficult career-related decisions.

    4. Get involved – This can be done in a variety of ways and we suggest doing as many as you can! First, attending your orientation day/week events can help you get comfortable with your new environment and can answer many of the questions you have. Second, join a club or co-curricular activity, such as a mentoring program or students’ association in order to meet new people, provide you with networking opportunities, and make you feel more integrated into your university community. Third, volunteer or intern in your spare time – this looks great on a resume and can make you feel great about helping others! Fourth, attend career fairs and events in order to find exciting opportunities for part-time, full-time, career, abroad opportunities and more!

    While this list is not exhaustive, these are things that we did not think to do until later in our university careers, so we feel like we missed out on some great experiences and are now trying to catch up! Take our advice – ask questions, get involved, get informed. It will make your transition from high school to university much smoother and will aid in making your transition from university to the “real world” a lot easier, too! Good luck!

  • Two Jobs Are Better Than None!

    Two Jobs Are Better Than None!

    My first year of university officially ended on the 21st of April and the time arrived for me to finally think about getting a summer job. As I am an international student with a ears almost as big as my fiscal expenses, I would need to work at least 65 hours per week in order to cover my tuition for the coming school year. That is the equivalent of working one full-time and one part-time job. Now, who would have thought that going to school was the fun part of the year?!

    Luckily, I had already landed one job at a certain casual Canadian restaurant; the second job came soon after at a local convenience store thanks to the efforts of a well-built network of friends. The first thing I was grateful for is that both the jobs I landed required the same base skill set. I worked as a cashier at both the restaurant and the convenience store and my job required me to do the following tasks on a day-to-day basis:
    1) Take customer orders
    2) Manage any and all numerical transactions
    3) Talk to customers and solve their problems
    4) Clean the restaurant/store from time to time
    5) Do not spill anything on the boss’s pants( one of my co-workers had the unfortunate pleasure of doing so)

    Much to my surprise, I had mastered the base skill set in under a week without much difficulty. My first job had me working mostly overnight shifts and, as bad as it may sound, it was actually the ideal situation for me to work. This is because I would work from 11 pm to 7 am every night (or day; honestly working overnight really messes up your perspective of time), go home, have breakfast by 8, take a 2 hour nap and go to my second job (which would start at 11 in the morning and would go on until 3 pm).

    So the days passed and I continued with my daily exploits. I will not lie to you – it was hard. But the work itself was not bad and I enjoyed most of it. I made some great friends and went through some very hilarious experiences.

    So here is my final pieces of advice for anyone who wants to make the most out of working two jobs:
    1) Find two jobs that essentially are similar in nature and require the same basic skill set. Doing so will allow you to improve on those required skills and perfect them.
    2) Find jobs that are close to your house. Doing so will save you a long commute to work and will also save you time that you can utilize to do other things – like sleep!
    3) Make the most out of every situation. As clichéd as this may sound, it does work. Try and make new friends at work. Broadening your horizons will also widen your network of contacts that may help you later in life.
    3) You do not want to physically and mentally over-exert yourself. If you cannot handle two jobs then it is better to just have one. You will avoid making mistakes and potentially being let go from both your jobs this way. Instead, focus your energy on looking for scholarships/bursaries/loans to help pay for school. Also, ask your employer for help as many companies have educational benefit plans for student workers.

    Working two jobs is a strenuous task but it is possible. So if you find yourself in a situation like this sometime in the future then hopefully you shall remember my advice for you!

  • The Benefits of Volunteering in High School

    The Benefits of Volunteering in High School

    High school students, it’s time to get motivated! Volunteering while still in high school provides you with the framework for your future career path, as well as instills in you the importance of giving back to others. It may seem difficult to fit in volunteer hours with such a busy schedule of classes, studying and extracurricular activities, but with a little planning you can achieve your volunteer goals. Many not-for-profit organizations only require a few hours a week of your time. For example, the Ottawa Humane Society has a dog walking program that requires a commitment of 2 hours per week. If you love dogs, that is a very easy commitment to make! Even though you may not be reimbursed financially for your time, volunteering is something that can be put on your resume that will help impress future employers and university admissions officials alike. Below, a list of just some of the benefits that volunteerism can provide you:

    Impress Admissions Officials
    You’ve got the great GPA and amazing standardized test scores. But what makes you stand out from students with similar grades? The answer is what you do in your spare time. Volunteer hours and part-time jobs listed on your application will really make you shine. Volunteerism is a great way to show admissions officials that you not only care about the community, but are able to manage your time well enough to balance a volunteer job with your other commitments. By all means, don’t spend every spare minute working on your volunteer hours – you need to balance volunteerism with your personal life, too. But a sustained commitment to one particular cause over a year or two shows that you are willing to stick to something that you care about. This will be very impressive to admissions officials and work in your favour.

    Get Involved Outside of School
    Volunteering allows you to meet people you may not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise, especially if you are volunteering outside of school. If you have heard the term “networking”, that is essentially what you will be doing! You are forming a network of contacts that can help you get to where you want to be. If you already have a good idea of what you want to study in college or university, you can volunteer your time in that field. For example, if you want to study psychology, why not volunteer your time with the Canadian Mental Health Association? You can find volunteer opportunities for almost anything that interests you, so spread your wings outside of your school and gain immeasurable benefits!

    Earn Academic Credit and Scholarships
    Some high schools require you to put in volunteer hours in order to graduate. Others offer extra credits or scholarship opportunities if you do volunteer your time. Check with your high school’s administration office to see if any of these opportunities are available to you. If they are, take advantage of them! A scholarship will help you to cut down on your student loans when you reach university, and extra credits will look great on your transcript to help you land the university placement of your dreams. Check out studentawards.ca to find all of the different community service scholarships that are available – your volunteerism won’t only impress your university of choice, but also the officials who will be deciding whether or not you obtain your scholarship!

    Above are the curricular advantages to volunteerism. But let’s not forget the personal advantages that come from it, too. Giving back to your community and contributing positive energy to the world will do wonders for your self-esteem and self-worth. Volunteering is the way to go!

  • Tree Planting as a Summer Job

    Tree Planting as a Summer Job

    The most common summer job field for teens is the food service industry followed closely by the retail trade industry, according to the American Bureau of Labour Statistics. That means that most of us spend our summers flipping burgers or folding t-shirts, honest work that feeds and clothes the capitalist masses. But for some, the call of consumer culture falls on deaf ears. 17 year old Sam Krawec has decided to earn his summer income while serving a greater purpose; tree-planting in Northern Ontario.

    Sam is a freshman in St. Francis Xavier University’s Development Studies program. He has always been environmentally conscious, thanks to a family that values sustainable living and global citizenship. “My mom inspired me to care about the world when I was very young,” he explains. “I always felt that it was important to give back.”

    By planting trees, Sam will be helping to filter pollutants from the air, reducing carbon dioxide levels in a community and producing healthy oxygen in a renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable way. Summer tree planting jobs generally coincide with the planting season; between six and eight weeks beginning in early May and ending in late June/early July. The average worker ends up planting upwards of 20,000 trees in that time, making a substantial impact in removing large quantities of the major greenhouse gases involved in global climate change.

    Tree planting is ‘piece work’, wherein you are paid according to the amount of trees you produce. This means that the income you earn is a direct reflection of your productivity. In Ontario, agencies generally pay planters between 8 and 12 cents per tree, with first year planters averaging between $2500 and $5000 in gross pay for the season. This varies depending on several factors, including whether or not your agency is unionized. Unionized agencies typically have better health and safety options, and may pay slightly more. The Ontario Forestry Safe Workplace Association produces written packages to educate planters on their health and safety rights.

    Joanna Gillies of Lakehead University compiled “A Qualitative Pilot Study of the Physical Demands of Tree Planting”, outlining them as specific areas of concern for any wishing to apply to a tree planting program. She claims that, “factors affecting a planter’s performance include flexibility, grip strength, balance and agility, back strength, hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, strength endurance, mental toughness, aerobic fitness, and body fat percentage.” There are tests online to see if your general health is cohesive to the demands of life as a tree planter. If so, you are ready to start digging and making a difference in your environment.

    For Sam, every little bit he can contribute is worth the physical demands and summer time commitment. “The pay is good, and it’s something tangible that I can do to help the planet. The world is a beautiful place, and I want to have a positive part in maintaining that”.

    If you are interested in working with a tree planting agency, check out http://www.tree-planter.com/, http://www.replant.ca/ or http://hardcoretreeplanters.com/.

    Maybe your summer working in tree planting will encourage you to continue working in this in-demand trade for years to come!

  • The Do’s and Don’ts of May Long Weekend

    The Do’s and Don’ts of May Long Weekend

    May long weekend may be a time to kick back and relax but there are a number of important things you can do, not do, and keep in mind during this brief break.

    When a person first thinks of May Long one of their initial impressions will probably be, “party time!” That of course is not wrong – May Long is meant as a time to relax and take it easy, but it is not necessarily correct either. Do relax, do attend a party or two, but try to keep these few things in mind.

    First and foremost, now is a good time to either gets some work done on or complete any assignments or papers you have been given so far. Do your work at your own pace and, with any luck, you will be able to extend your May Long. Imagine the peace of mind you will have as others scramble last minute to finish work you completed over the long weekend.

    Secondly, the long weekend is a good time to consider your future. What courses will you take next year? Course selections for your next year will be soon and, if you act now, you will be ready to pick your courses on day one and not lose out on something you really wanted.

    Another thing to consider is what can you do to make some money this summer. May Long and beyond is the time that employers will begin posting summer job ads, so it is a good time to get a leg up on your peers. If you make the mistake of putting this off until the summer actually begins, you may find all the jobs are gone!

    Speaking of money, now is a time to save it. Sure, have some fun and hang out with your friends, but do you really need to go on a road trip to some far flung place? You can have just as much fun at home all while saving a considerable amount of money. If you do end up going on a road trip, be careful; just because you are far away from home doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply!

    If you keep these things in mind you can ride out the relaxation of the long weekend straight through to the summer and you will be all the richer for it.

    Have fun and stay safe!

  • “Esperanto” – The Beginning of a New Language

    “Esperanto” – The Beginning of a New Language

    Invented languages can be fun. Have you ever used a language like Pig Latin with your friends and watched as other people struggled to understand you? When you use these kinds of invented languages, your purpose is usually to keep other people, such as your parents, from understanding what you say. However, what if an invented language could actually help strangers from around the world to understand each other? That’s what a man named L. L. Zamenhof hoped when he invented the Esperanto language in the late nineteenth century.

    L. L. Zamenhof was born in the city of Bialystok, Russia (now Poland) in 1859. He later moved with his family to Warsaw, the capital city. When he was growing up he learned several languages, including Russian, Polish, and Latin. He became a doctor but dreamed of inventing a world language that would allow people of all countries to speak with each other. In 1872, he began to invent a language which he called Esperanto or Eo; the name “Esperanto” means “hope”. Zamenhof hoped that Esperanto would eventually overtake all other languages and gave it a third name, “La Lingvo Internacia” or “the international language.”

    In 1887, Dr. Zamenhof published a book outlining the grammar and vocabulary of his new invention. To make his new language easy to learn, L. L. Zamenhof designed it to be as simple as possible. He used many of the words that already existed in languages like German, French, and Spanish but simplified the spelling and pronunciation. He used the same alphabet as these languages (with a few additional letters) but reduced the number of words in the vocabulary.

    Instead of having a different word for everything, Esperanto uses a smaller number of basic words. These words then have extra letters called affixes added to the beginning or end of the word for different meanings. For example, “mi” means “I” and “mia” means “my.” “Mal” means “bad” and is used to change almost any word to its opposite. For example, “granda,” meaning “big,” becomes “small” with the word “mal” at the beginning. The language also has its own rules for how to put sentences together, much like English and other languages. It has fewer rules than most other languages, and the rules are generally easy to learn and follow.

    The idea behind Esperanto was to make sure that everyone has an equal chance to learn and use the language of communication. So far, Esperanto has spread to 115 countries, including Poland, where it first started. Eastern Europe has the largest population of Esperanto speakers, although many parts of Asia and South America also have people who use the language, and some in North America. By 1999, about two million people had learned to understand and speak Esperanto.

    Why would anyone want to learn a language like Esperanto? The language has never reached the kind of acceptance that its inventor hoped it would. However, if more people begin to learn it, who knows what might happen in the future?

  • Learning to Cook!

    Learning to Cook!

    When you’re busy with essays, homework and final projects, sometimes you forget that there are great life skills that most schools do not teach. One of them is cooking. Whether it’s to cut down costs, to impress a date or just for your own amusement, cooking is something you’ll always be glad you learned.

    It’s easy to start – just pick a simple meal that you like. It can be anything: soup, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, eggs… You already know how to make a sandwich, but grilling some of the ingredients can make it extra tasty and once you know how to do it, it won’t take very long. If you’re feeling ambitious, pick your favourite meal and see if you can make it. Ask people for help. Someone in your family will probably love to give you a few tips and walk you through some recipes. If not, pick up a cookbook or find a recipe on the internet. It can be hard at first, but it can also be a lot of fun if you’re willing to learn.

    Whether you’re moving out for college this fall or you’ll be at home for another few years, now is a great time to start cooking. When you get to college, it’s expensive to eat out even if it’s just one meal a day. You can stay home and make Kraft Dinner all the time, but that gets old pretty fast. You’ll save so much money and feel a lot better if you learn to make things yourself. Once you know how to make a few meals, you’ll start to pick up some general techniques and you can start to substitute things and add the spices that you like. Before too long, you’ll start to have your own cooking style and specialties.

    If your cooking style involves more than peanut butter sandwiches, it will be a really great tool for impressing people. If you start dating someone who comes over to your house, think how stunned they’ll be with a casserole or a homemade soup or whatever else you want to make. And it doesn’t just work for dates! Every time you have a party, you can buy a bag of tortilla chips and some canned salsa or you can make your own salsa and guacamole. There’s nothing wrong with canned salsa, but it’s a great feeling to have people eating and complimenting something you’ve prepared yourself.

    The best reason of all to learn to cook is that it can be a lot of fun! You might set off the fire alarm once or twice and that’s always stressful, but it will be worth it. It’s easier to get going now when you have the time to learn than to get thrown into an apartment one day with a pan and no idea what to do with it. So just start making something you like. Offer to barbeque for your family or work on perfecting a batch of cookies. Once you start to cook, you can only get better!