Niagara College International Staff Connect | July 2019

(Vol. 4, Issue 11)

Although her warm welcome will be missed by all who walked through the doors of the Welland Campus’ International Office, NC International would like to congratulate Sue Gerow on her retirement. After 28 years of service at NC, her last day was on July 10.

“Sue has cheerfully supported our entire department through exponential growth in the last 5 years,” shared manager of International Student Services, Shawna Luey. “With such growth comes challenges and I am very grateful to Sue for her positive outlook and knowledge sharing, particularly with our Student Assistant crew. All the very best in a well-deserved retirement!”

Before joining NC in 1991, Gerow was working at the St. Catharines Hotel Dieu hospital as a supervisor for a data entry system, transferring their records from index cards to a computer. As her position was temporary, one of Gerow’s co-workers shared a Niagara College job posting with her. Gerow ended up applying for this position and began her NC story at the Welland Campus as a Clerk C in NC’s Continuing Education (CE) Department.

Providing customer service and micro labs support for the CE Department, Gerow helped respond to student inquiries in addition to other office assistant work. After four years in the positon, Gerow transitioned into the role of technical support liaison. She helped anyone in the department having computer issues in an era of floppy disk drives.

“Also, my responsibility was taking care of computer labs at Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake Campuses,” shared Gerow. “I would install software and fix any problems with the computers. Four years later I produced the Continuing Education website and their course booklet including night course offerings, in addition to helping those with computer problems.”

One of Gerow’s proudest moments at Niagara College was when she was working in CE and transitioned the department from the Vax system to Peoplesoft. She shared that nothing was setup in PeopleSoft for her department. “Right from the start working with Maria from the IT department we looked at each process to put in place processes of how we could work around what needed to be done with our jobs,” said Gerow. “I continued this process working closely with IT, Financial, Marketing, Registrar’s office and Continuing Education staff to change processes, create the Continuing Education course booklet, create and maintain the information on the website for Continuing Education, create manuals and train staff members on the new processes.”

After 12 years in technical support liaison role in CE, she joined Liberal Arts and Science at the NOTL campus. Gerow worked as the program secretary and then moved to the role of administrative assistant for Liberal Arts and Science. She then moved to The English/Math department which is part of the Liberal Arts and Science department as an administrative assistant before her last move to the International Department in 2012.

The environment and global partners of NC’s International Division were familiar to Gerow as her ex-husband had started an international business in 1990, allowing her to gain experience working internationally.

One of her most memorable moments working at NC was helping onstage for Niagara Day and the Awards of Excellence. “I was the Vanna White of the College,” Gerow shared. “I did this for twelve years with nine years of being Vanna; Sean Coote was my partner.”

Helping so many students from around the world, Gerow hopes she made a positive impact to better their experience in Canada. “I also continue to keep in touch with previous students and international student assistants,” she said.

After her retirement, she is planning to contribute to charities and help people be healthy, financially stable and to travel the world with friends and partners. Building her business with Max International is a large component of her future retirement plans. “Our company has the only glutathione by pill that will get into your cell and being the most powerful antioxidants out there, glutathione is needed in every cell of your body,” explained Gerow. “There are 74 diseases that are known related to low glutathione. Published articles on pubmed.org range to 145,000 which is twice as many studies than vitamin C.”

Two days after retiring from NC, Gerow will travel to Montreal and in September, she going to the Dominican Republic for her company’s convention. She also has plans to travel to Nigeria in October and Ecuador in February.

“Working in International has made me a better-rounded person and I have learned many things about the countries that the students have come from,” Gerow imparted. “I will miss the great staff members and students I have met during my time at NC. I am very grateful to have worked at Niagara College.”

Click here to check it out!

The 2019 issue is now available both online and in print, sharing stories about some of the people, programs and initiatives that make NC second to none.

To read NC International: Bringing the world to Niagara, check out page 22.

Print copies are available at the Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake campus Info Centres.
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• Looking for a free family-friendly event this summer? The Clean City Advisory Committee is hosting Moonlight Flicks at Rennie Park, St. Catharines on August 1st featuring a FREE screening of Wall-E.
  
  For more informartion about this event and Moonlight Flicks visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/674521869654090

Starting Monday (July 8), we will be launching the International Salesforce CRM system. Training of key stakeholder groups will take place over the coming weeks, as each group prepares to go live.

The transition and adoption of the new CRM system marks an important milestone in our international growth. This new enterprise CRM system will have key data and contact information accessible through a centralized system that has been custom designed for our division, allowing for more effective communications with contacts. As we make the transition, we will certainly experience efficiencies and new ways of doing business in relation to client management.

Although the launch next week is behind schedule, we have been assured that the delays are the result of our development team wanting to roll-out the best product possible for our division. In each of your working groups you will be discussing how Salesforce will be implemented into your on-going work cycles and we encourage you to continue to build on the power and functionality that Salesforce provides. As part of the training over the coming weeks, Austin will continue to be the lead contact for Salesforce.

Thank you to Claire, Tracy, and Austin for their on-going commitment and leadership in getting us to the Salesforce launch. We are certainly excited to start using Salesforce and to learn from their many hours of work on this project.

As you may recall, starting in September 2019, full-time students have the opportunity to opt out of certain non-essential ancillary fees through their fee payment process. This initiative is called the ‘Student Choice Initiative’.

Full-time students will have the ability to opt out of the non-essential fees until August 21, 2019 for the Fall 2019 term. For any future terms, they will be given another opportunity to opt out in a similar way as those terms approach.

The website below and attached documents have thorough information about the Student Choice Initiative, so please take some time and review them. https://www.niagaracollege.ca/mync/help/student-options-initiative-opt-out/

If you or students have any questions or concerns, please submit all inquiries to NicoleSOS@niagaracollege.ca

Please be advised that Teresa Chordash will be assisting with advanced standing and transfer credit coverage at the Welland campus, now that Martina Finnegan has transitioned to her new role as ESL Advisor.

Teresa will be working at Corey Daigneault’s desk in S102 on the following Mondays:

July 8th, July 15th, July 22nd, July 29th

The Summer English Program is growing, and we want to ensure that our students have a safe, positive and culturally integrated experience. We have hired three new staff this summer to support students and ensure they have an amazing time at NC. We would like to welcome:

• Quinn Robson, Summer English Program Team Lead

Quinn recently returned to Niagara after three years abroad in S. Korea and Vietnam where he taught English and helped support extracurricular activities and field trips for groups of students. His organization and leadership skills will bring value to the team as the point person for chaperons and students to go to if they face any challenges in the program. Quinn is registered for the TESL program for Fall 2019.

• Bilal Karsli, Summer English Program Student Engagement Assistant

Bilal is a recent graduate from the Mechanical Engineering Technician Program at NC. He will be a familiar face to many as he has worked with us as a Student Assistant and Peer Leader where

he has assisted with social activities and triaging students for accessing different services at the college. His experience working in International will help ensure that students receive the support needed should any issues arise.

• Keron Knowles, Summer English Program Student Engagement Assistant

Keron just finished his third year of the International Commerce and Global Development Program at NC. He has a strong background in hospitality having worked for four years at the Walt Disney Cruise Line. His experience in coordinating activities and engaging people will help bring the students from around the world together to interact and have fun on the cultural and social activities in the program.

Please help me in welcoming Quinn, Bilal and Keron for the summer. They all have great positive energy and will bring a lot of value to the Summer English Program.

After 25 years of providing the college with expert human resources advice and support, director of human resources Nicole Perreault has decided to retire from the College effective March 31, 2020. Nicole’s optimistic demeanour and insightful perspective will be greatly missed by the entire college community. She personifies our NC DNA in her welcoming approach, her passion for the students and the staff of the College, and her trailblazing approach as she readily seizes opportunities to embrace new ideas and approaches, and overcomes challenges with tenacity.

“This trip taught me about interacting respectfully and mindfully with people from different cultures. India is, in general, much more conservative of a culture than here in Canada, so learning how to dress, speak, and act appropriately for their culture has prepared me for interactions with people from other cultures as well. I feel as though I am more “work-ready” because I was able to successfully work alongside professionals from many disciplines, thus preparing me for my future as a dental hygienist where I will be engaging in inter-professional communications daily.”

-Alma Fuentes (Front Centre)
(Dental Hygiene)
International Field Study: India 2019

The Be World Ready program at Niagara College prepares students for global success through education, exchange and international experience. This program offers the opportunity to experience culturally diverse learning environments, understand different perspectives and connect practical skills with a global mindset to help students launch their career.