Each year thousands of alumni return to Queen’s to reconnect with one another and relive some of their student experiences.

Homecoming 2015, slated for Oct. 23-25, is a time of excitement and renewal for the returnees as well as the university.

Making sure the annual event will be one to remember for both the alumni and Queen’s takes months of planning and preparations, as well as a lot of hard work by staff and volunteers.

With Homecoming mere days away, everything is coming together quite nicely, says Sarah Indewey, Manager of Volunteer Relations and Reunions at the Office of Advancement.

Registrations for this year’s Homecoming weekend have topped 2,700, well ahead of last year’s numbers, she says.

Classes having milestone graduation anniversary years will enjoy special programming hosted by the university. Events are planned for classes celebrating their five-year and 25-year anniversaries, as well as those who graduated 50 or more years ago, better known as the Tricolour Guard.

One of the nice surprises this year is a significant increase in the number of alumni returning for their five-year reunion.

“There’s been some great work done in terms of engaging the younger alumni population. We started a pilot program last year to start recognizing the fifth reunion in a more significant way,” Ms. Indewey says, adding that organizers worked with Colin McLeod (Artsci’10), who is the Director-at-Large, Young Alumni for the Queen’s University Alumni Association (QUAA). “They did a strategic analysis of what it is their classmates are interested in that are coming back to the reunion.”

The result is an event that will be hosted at The Underground ahead of the AMS’ ReUnion Street Festival. There are more than 300 confirmed attendees, while a similar event last year attracted less than 100. Overall, more than 500 members of the Class of 2010 will be attending their first Homecoming, a number never seen before.

“So that committee and that approach really blew things out of the water,” Ms. Indewey says. “And that’s an important group for us to think about in the future when engaging the alumni. It’s a really positive win for this year.”

That positivity also reaches to the hundreds of volunteers who help make Homecoming the best event it can be.

There are over 200 student volunteers who help out throughout the weekend with the signature reunion activities as well as the wide variety of activities hosted by the faculties.

Another important aspect of Homecoming is philanthropy, particularly through class giving. Many classes choose Homecoming as a time to make a difference at their alma mater, usually with direct benefit to students.  For example, BioSci’75 is working to raise $5,000 to purchase a number of one-person bunkies in support of students conducting field research.

“Class giving reconnects alumni with the student experience. It’s another way that they (alumni) can continue to make a difference at Queen’s and contribute to the traditions that were memorable to them as students,” says Tom Harris, Vice-Principal (Advancement), adding that more than 100 volunteers are working on this year’s philanthropy effort. “It speaks volumes about the dedication and pride that surrounds Homecoming weekend. We look forward to welcoming our alumni home, and to a safe and respectful celebration of the Queen’s spirit.”

For more information and schedules visit the Homecoming 2015 website. Also the Homecoming Program Booklet is available online.

Here are 10 tips to help you achieve 150 minutes of physical activity in a week, and to help you live a healthy lifestyle. See how many you can do in one week:

1. Make an exercise game out of your favourite TV show, so every time a catchphrase is used you have to do 10 jumping jacks, etc.
2. Volunteer to be a referee or coach for a local youth sports team
3. Pay attention to recommended serving sizes
4. Start a jogging group
5. Order dressing on the side of salads
6. Go on the haunted walk in downtown Kingston
7. Incorporate games with movement into activities with friends, for example Twister or charades
8. Make easy healthy meals using a crock pot and freeze extra servings for another meal
9. Organize a fun sport tournament with friends
10. Take advantage of the equipment desk at the ARC, whether its sport- or exercise-related 

To mark Open Access Week (Oct. 19-15) University Research Services and the Queen’s University Library are hosting a special panel discussion entitled “Open Access: What it is, what it means for you and why you should care.”

The panel brings together a range of different perspectives on open access, including funders, publishers and Queen’s authors and will be held  Tuesday, Oct. 20 (Lunch: 12:30-1 pm, discussion 1-2:30 pm), in The Peter Lougheed Room of Richardson Hall.

The discussion is expected to be highly relevant to all researchers, whether faculty member, student, post-doctoral fellow, or research associate;

“The ways in which knowledge is created and exchanged is evolving.  Many international funding agencies, including Canada’s federal Tri-Agency have implemented policies requiring awarded research publications to be made freely accessible online to the widest possible audience,” says event organizer, Rosarie Coughlan, Scholarly Publishing Librarian at Queen’s, and a member of the panel. “We are keen to bring all stakeholders to the table in exploring the impact of recent open access requirements and what this means for Queen’s faculty and researchers.” 

Along with Ms. Coughlan, panelists include: Simon French (Rehabilitation Therapy); David Murakami-Wood (Sociology); Kerry Rowe (Civil Engineering); Jeff Moon, Data Librarian and Academic Director - Queen's Research Data Centre; Nasser Saleh, Head, Engineering and Science Library and Ambassador: The Open Science Framework; Jeremey Geelen, Policy Analyst at Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); and Brian Hole - founder and CEO of Ubiquity Press, via Skype from the UK.

Open Access Week is an annual international event that explores research dissemination, impact and other related topics.  For more information visit library.queensu.ca/scholcomm/open-access/OpenAccess2015.

For many graduate students the next big step is entering the job market. To help them get started the School of Graduate Studies is hosting its second annual Career Week for Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Fellows from Oct. 19-23.

The week is comprised of a series of workshops that focus on how to apply skills acquired during graduate training to various career options and how to best market those skills.

“Graduate study is not only about pushing the boundaries of discovery and deepening knowledge and its application, it’s also about preparing our students for what comes next,” says Brenda Brouwer, Vice-Provost and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. “The SGS Career Week provides a series of workshops and hands-on sessions designed to expose students to the skills and strengths acquired in their academic training that will position them for success in a variety of career settings and to learn strategies for networking, self-marketing, and career planning. It’s a fantastic opportunity to think about the future and where your graduate degree might take you.”

Workshops will cover a wide range of topics including how to utilize online tools to promote your skills in a changing labour market, jobs in academia, teaching dossiers, and identifying your skills.

There will also be special sessions for graduate coordinators and students with guest speaker Anne Krook, who has extensive experience in the post-secondary and IT sectors.

The week will conclude with a networking reception on Friday, Oct. 23 from 4-5:30 pm at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Participants will meet local employers and alumni of Queen's graduate programs to expand their network and explore career opportunities. In this guided networking event, each employer or alumnus will offer up a valuable tip for finding a career that perhaps students and post-docs never knew they were trained to do.

With such a broad range of topics and information, graduate students are sure to find something of value.

A full schedule of the week's events can be found online at queensu.ca/exph/career-week/.

For years Wendy Powley (School of Computing) has worked toward attracting more women to the field of computing, at Queen’s, in Ontario and across Canada.  

A big part of this effort was founding and organizing the Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONWIC), a conference that draws female students from across the province to gain experience, receive support and make valuable contacts.

Ms. Powley, a Research Associate and Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Computing and the Faculty of Education, also continues to play a key role in Women in the School of Computing (WISC) at Queen’s, an informal support and social group for all women, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff, in the School of Computing.  

So it perhaps wasn’t much of a surprise that she was recently appointed as chair of the ACM-W Celebrations committee, a subgroup of the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.

Having organized such Celebrations since 2010, she’s ideally suited for the role.

Ms. Powley will not only coordinate the organization of the Celebration in Canada, but she will oversee ACM-W Celebrations that occur annually worldwide. In the 2015/2016 academic year there are at least 10 Celebrations planned across the United States as well as Celebrations in Europe (2), India (2), Puerto Rico, Cuba and, of course, in Canada. In her new position, Ms. Powley will play a key role in encouraging new Celebrations in an effort to broaden their reach. She will share her expertise with Celebration organizers and ensure that the resources provided by the ACM-W such as funding, swag, web hosting, and emotional support reach each and every Celebration organizer.   

“Communication with my ACM-W mentors was crucial during the organization of our first Celebration. Kind offerings of advice, encouragement, and validation kept me going,” Ms Powley says. “That will be a big part of my role – to inspire and motivate others.  Organizing a Celebration is a huge undertaking, but I want them to know that in the end they will have no regrets. It is incredibly satisfying to provide an inspirational experience that will have a lasting impact on young people.”

It was the ACM-W Celebrations model that got ONCWIC started at Queen’s in 2010 – that along with a very keen group of student helpers from WISC. Each year since 2010 the conference has been hosted by a different university and has been growing in popularity. This year the conference has a new identity – the “Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing” and will become a national annual conference. It is expected to attract more than 500 women from across the country.

Queen’s continues to play a prominent role in the conference through Ms. Powley’s organizing role as well as the number of participants – a contingent of 60 at the most recent event.

This prominence is a positive for Queen’s as well as for the School of Computing.   

“Being visible at the Celebration as a very large group speaks volumes that women are welcome here at Queen’s in Computer Science,” Ms. Powley says. “It’s a way to retain our women as well.  Our first year students who attend find the event very inspiring as they see many positive female role models and learn of the vast opportunities available in the field.   We hope this has a lasting effect”.

So far the efforts have been successful at Queen’s. With approximately 35% of the undergraduates enrolled in computing programs being female, it is believed that Queen’s has the highest percentage in Canada. With the national average in North America hovering around 15%, there is still much work to be done.

She sees the ACM-W Celebrations as a key part of finding a long-term solution. 

“We need to be actively involved in encouraging women to come into the field. We are all consumers of technology. It only makes sense to ensure that there is diversity among its creators,” she says. “Ideally, the way to get more women into the field is to get more women into the field.”

Ms. Powley in her new role at ACM-W intends to ensure this happens.

To learn more about ACM-W visit women.acm.org.