Niagara College International Staff Connect |
November 2019 (Vol 5, Issue 2)

A Japanese Tradition on a Canadian Campus

Working in NC’s International Division, we are privileged with the opportunity to learn more about a wide-variety of cultures and traditions from around the world without leaving campus. 

Last month, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Niagara College Canada and our partners from Nagoya College of Foreign Language to explore future partnership opportunities. To solidify the partnership, the College from Japan presented NC with a Japanese traditional doll called a Daruma doll. Believed to signify perseverance and good luck, a representative from each partner symbolically painted an eye of the Daruma doll during the MOU signing to signify the ongoing partnership between the two colleges.

To find out more about NC International’s weekly events, follow our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/ncinternational.

As you probably would have guessed - Madison Smith is a fan of books. Serving her first of four years as a Pelham Public Library Board of Trustees member, more than a decade as a Friends of Maple Acre volunteer member and avid library user, she was asked to write a feature in the Life in Pelham: A Community Guide, 2019-2020 edition. Check out her article on page 22: Read it here
 

Maxine Semple is the newly elected international representative on the Advisory College Council (ACC), joining Laura Fakla who continues in her second term. Congratulations Maxine!
 

As Chair of the St. Catharines Clean City Advisory Committee, Jonathan Belgrave was featured on several media outlets for his work, such as YourTV Niagara and the St. Catharines Standard.

Presidential Search: mandate and job advertisement complete

A message from John FT Scott, Chair, Niagara College Board of Governors:

I’m pleased to share that, following extensive consultations with the Niagara College community in cooperation with The Phelps Group, The Niagara College Board of Governors has completed a mandate and a job advertisement for the next leader of Niagara College.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in this important process. Because of your strong participation, the input and feedback you provided was invaluable in shaping the mandate approved by the Board. The job advertisement and mandate for the new President are available through this link.

KSA Update from Sean Kennedy:

As many of you know, NC KSA negotiated new terms with our partner, Colleges of Excellence (CoE) in KSA over the summer and are thrilled to continue delivering training and education to young Saudi females and males this academic year.  We continue our campus operations at Al Ahsa (female) and Makkah (male), and our ongoing capacity building project with the Madinah College of Technology for Women, and we launched a new campus in Makkah (female).  Our initial campus in Taif is now being operated by the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation as an Arabic-language college, and our former female campus in Al Majma-ah is being managed by CoE.  We have a number of new staff in KSA supporting these vibrant campuses as NC KSA continues to grow.

There have also been a number of changes to the NC KSA Canada-based staff at NCBC.  David Atherton has taken on the role of Dean, Academic & Liberal Studies at Niagara College; Bassem Makzoumi completed his contract overseeing the launch of campus facilities operations; Arely Gomez accepted a position at the Niagara Parks Commission; and Jennifer Smith will be joining the Development and Alumni Relations team this week as the new Database Administrator.  We wish each of them well in these new adventures and are grateful for their years of dedication to NC KSA.  Ashley Kowal and Bashar Alsayyed continue in their roles with KSA and remain based at the NCBC.  A search process to replace David as the Managing Director of NC KSA will commence shortly.

International Finance:

Saddman Zaman’s last day with our services team is Friday, November 15.  He is moving on to a great opportunity in his professional field as a CPA!

All the best to you Saddman.  We will miss you.

In the interim, Daniela will be relocating to the NOTL Student Accounts desk in W015 full-time until Christmas.  You will also see Olha Pashko working in our Welland and NOTL offices supporting the finance team with some of our administrative tasks.  Olha is a current SA in NOTL and an accountant by trade.  
With this support, we do not expect any disruptions or delays while we look to backfill Saddman’s permanent position. 

If you have any questions, please do let me know.

Shawna