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Crystal Martin-Lapenskie Named Alumni of Distinction Community Services Recipient

Posted on Friday, September 24th, 2021

Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Community Services Award Recipient Crystal Martin-Lapenskie. To register for the Alumni of Distinction event, click here.

President and CEO, Okpik Consulting

Social Service Worker, Class of 2013

When Crystal Martin-Lapenskie was first pondering her choice of career, social work wasn’t the first option on her mind. Her early goal was police work. Her family knew and were friends with many RCMP officers and when she expressed interest in pursuing similar work, the officers were very encouraging. “They’d say, ‘You want to be a cop, you can be a cop right here in your community,’” she says.

But life intervened in the person of her guidance counsellor at Opeongo High School near Pembroke, who reminded her that in order to graduate from Grade 12 she would have to complete 40 hours of community service. It so happened that she was heading home for a time: “I wanted to explore. I wanted to see family, reconnect and see where it was I belonged.”

Born and raised in Sanirajak in Nunavut, Martin-Lapenskie divided her time between the North and the Ottawa Valley through her teenage years. On this trip to the Arctic, she used the opportunity to do her community hours in a local school. She functioned as a teacher’s assistant, working with students her own age who were – because of differences in education in the North – in much lower grades. She helped with their schoolwork and volunteered at a hockey camp. What she learned in the process was both distressing and inspiring.

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Michael Wood Named Alumni of Distinction Business Recipient

Posted on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Business recipient Michael Wood. To register for the Alumni of Distinction event, click here.

Former Chief Marketing Officer/Managing Partner, Ottawa Special Events

Travel Counsellor – Class of 1997

From playing rock ’n’ roll in stadiums across North America to appearing before the federal finance committee during the pandemic, Algonquin College Professor Michael Wood has maintained a simple philosophy.

“My whole thing is that kindness matters, and everything happens for a reason. I am really just motivated by people being happy,” said Wood, one of Algonquin’s Alumni of Distinction Award winners for 2021.

After graduating from high school, the only career pursuit that appealed to Wood was becoming a rock guitarist and touring. His parents offered encouragement but wanted him to focus on school first.

“Because there was no music program at Algonquin back then, I went into the Travel and Tourism program. I thought that would be a way to get on a cruise ship and become a musician or learn how to book tours,” said Wood, who graduated in 1997.

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Algonquin Grads Compete in Ottawa International Animation Festival

Posted on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

The Ottawa International Animation Festival, which starts today and runs until October 3, is North America’s oldest and largest animation festival, featuring thousands of entries from across the world.

This year, Algonquin College will be represented in the festival’s Canadian Student Competition with a short film by recent grads Noah Henman and Isaac Lyons. Their entry, Mammoth Gorge, is one of 23 official selections in the competition, alongside films from Sheridan College, Concordia University and Emily Carr University, among others. This is the first time in years Algonquin has had a film in the running.

Mammoth Gorge, which features Ice Age hunters seeking out a mammoth, was Henman and Lyons’ final year project. It is two minutes long and traditionally animated, meaning every cel is drawn by hand.

Since the advent of computer animation, drawing by hand is no longer the norm in the industry, but it’s a skill Henman and Lyons were grateful to learn in the three-year animation program at Algonquin. Indeed, they say the first two years of their studies were focused on fundamentals, such as drawing on paper, a skill they’d like to see more of in the industry.

Henman, who is from Colorado, and Lyons, who is from New York State, came to the program at Algonquin due to its stellar reputation. Henman heard about the program from friends he’d met online, and Lyons heard about it through Henman, who he’d met and befriended online while he was in his first year for animation at a school in New York. Lyons felt the New York program was lacking, so when Henman sent him a demo reel from Algonquin, he decided to make the switch.

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Adam Vettorel Named Alumni of Distinction Apprenticeship Recipient

Posted on Friday, September 17th, 2021

Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Apprenticeship Recipient Adam Vettorel.

Co-Owner and Chef, North & Navy and Cantina Gia

Cook Apprentice, Class of 2007

As a young man, Adam Vettorel’s intended goal was law school. Restaurant jobs were just what he took on to pay the bills along the way.

Vettorel began working in restaurants in high school, and continued working his way up the line while taking a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies at Carleton University and then a second degree in political science. “I loved working in kitchens, and I had a proficiency for it,” he says, “so I was able to pay my way through university without taking out a student loan.”

But as his political science course load grew heavier, Vettorel was compelled to step away from the kitchens. He had a mentor at the time, a lawyer to whom he confided that the kitchen was where his real passion was, not the law. He gave the younger man the life-changing advice he wanted to hear: if he was passionate about cooking, that is what he should pursue.

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RE/ACTION: Virtual Applied Research Showcase on August 13

Posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2021

The Algonquin College Office of Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship will be hosting its RE/ACTION: Virtual Applied Research Showcase on Friday, August 13, 2021, from 11 am to 12:15 pm.

At the event, Algonquin students exhibit forward-looking research and technology projects produced in collaboration with industry, institutional and community partners to offer innovative solutions to everyday problems.

From a joint effort with CHEO on a web application that connects parents of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit patients to hospital research studies, to an online tool that allows you to calculate home renovation costs before you hire a contractor, these projects offer a glimpse of the future.

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Perth Campus Alumni Crucial in Shaping Community (Part I)

Posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2021

When Amy Ayers graduated from Perth Campus’ Personal Support Work program in 2018, she had no idea she would soon find herself on the front lines of a raging pandemic. As a Personal Support Worker in an Almonte long-term care home that was one of the first in Ontario to suffer a widespread, deadly outbreak of COVID-19, Ayers played a critical role in the battle against the virus.

Since those first chaotic months, she has dedicated herself to raising awareness about the pandemic’s impact on the mental health of PSWs and health care workers in long-term care. Ayers says there can be a culture of silence and stoicism in the field that keeps many PSWs from seeking help. She has encouraged co-workers—and, by sharing her story publicly, all PSWs—to seek counselling, stressing the risk of PTSD.

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Algonquin College’s “rocket man” fired up by India’s moon mission

Posted on Friday, September 6th, 2019

Gokul Das Balachandran, a research associate in Algonquin College’s Data Analytics Centre, expects to spend most of Friday in front of a computer screen, watching the live streaming of his native country’s first attempt to land on the moon.

Sometime around 4 p.m. Ottawa time, the landing module of India’s unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, will touch down on the moon’s southern polar region. If all goes well, the Asian nation will be the fourth country to successfully reach the moon after the United States, Russia, and China.
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Rogers Hometown Hockey setup: parking options and transportation solutions

Posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2018

Algonquin College is excited to be the host venue for Rogers Hometown Hockey!

The two-day hockey festival is heading to our Ottawa Campus for a celebration of hockey on Nov. 3 and 4.
Everyone is invited to join us this weekend for a free event celebrating all things hockey!

More information on the event can be found on the Rogers Hometown Hockey Facebook Event page. Continue reading →