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By Brad Quarin

As the semester draws clos-er to an end and Christmas break approaches, SAIT stu-dents may be feeling the pres-sure, counsellor Terri Sco-ville says.

In November and December, many students re-alize time is running out for assignments to be completed.

“For those students who have to keep catching up, those are the ones that we see a lot of. They’re at the end of the semester and ev-erything comes crashing in at the last minute,” Scoville said in an interview Nov. 17.

As a psychologist with SAIT’s counselling ser-vices, Scoville said she com-monly sees students not only grappling with studies at this time of year but also with fi-nances and Christmas prepa-rations.

“What I have heard a lot of students say is that they don’t have a lot of mon-ey at the end of the semes-ter,” she said, noting many students also have family de-mands, or may feel lonely or

stressed. Counsellor Marta

Edgar believes some students may not even be aware that counselling services and oth-er resources are available at SAIT.

Edgar, who has been at SAIT for six years, said it is difficult to tell how common such problems really are, but there is some anxiety.

Sometimes, their concerns may be exaggerated, Edgar said. However, other stu-dents may have the opposite problem and are in more trou-ble than they realize.

Such problems may result from procrastination. Edgar noted some programs are strict with mandatory courses.

Scoville said programs with seven or eight courses can be particularly difficult.

However, both counsellors agreed a major factor that can lead to these problems is the student’s per-sonality.

“It’s not so much the pro-gram as it is the student in the program,” Scoville said.

According to Scoville, the best way to avoid a stressful

last two weeks of the semes-ter is to “stay prepared all se-mester. Don’t leave all of that to the last minute.”

It may be too late to acquire learning skills at this point in the semester, but resources are available to a struggling student, Edgar said. Specifically, there are the counselling services at Heritage Hall and the student success centre in the Heart building.

The main thing counselling can provide is “someone that will listen to the struggle,” Scoville said. Beyond this, the office may suggest strate-gies.

“It’s going to be important to re-prioritize carefully,” Ed-gar said, suggesting that stu-dents draw up a plan for the rest of the semester with dates and deadlines.

“If they want to be success-ful in school, then school has to be a priority,” she said. As well, if the student has a small child, this priority cannot be ignored.

However, other items may be dropped from a student’s to-do list. The student has

to consider each thing and ask whether it must be done soon or whether it can be del-egated.

A schedule can also make room for free time.

“We are going to need a break or we’ll burn out,” Ed-gar said.

By Travis White

Snow sport enthusiasts, from near and far braved the cold on Sunday, Nov. 20 to attend Mountain Equipment Co-op’s first annual Snowfest.

The newly popular festival is a celebration of all things related to winter sports in-cluding ski/snowboard equip-ment, apparel, out-door ad-ventures and so on.

It gives people involved in the snow sport community a chance to check out the latest gear and promotions as well as trade in any used or un-wanted gear.

Many visitors from all across Western Alberta and B.C. came to kick off the

events and to take advantage of the numerous deals being offered by exhibitors at the event.

Among the number of dif-ferent companies setting up shop and promoting their latest toys were representa-tives from K2 Snowboarding Company who began the fes-tivities with an alpine touring and cross-country ski com-parison in the store’s park-ing lot at 10th Avenue and 8th Street S.W.

The parking lot was set up with a handful of promotional tents showcasing enticing offers, but the most popular tent was the one filling up the crisp air with the scent of waffles: the Wannawafel tent.

After guests were able to pull themselves away from the delicious Belgian waffles, they were greeted by a sea of promoters.Atlas Snowshoes, the Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors, the Canadian Avalanche Centre, Yamnuska Mountain Adven-tures, Kananaskis Country Public Safety, Kastle Ski equipment, Black Diamond equipment, and SPOT Sat-ellite Messenger all put on highly informative and enter-taining demonstrations.

The real action, though, was not in the busy parking lot but inside the two-storey Mountain Equipment Co-op building where all the deals were being offered.

“I hope they continue to do this every year,” says Chris Dorsch, a 24-year-old ama-teur snowboarder.

They have all kinds of amazing deals. And if you’re a less than wealthy student, like I am, you can trade in your old gear and use it to-wards something new.”

Dorsch’s enthusiasm was echoed by other people in at-tendance.

The automatic doors to MEC remained open due to the constant flow of cusom-ters, the four checkout lines extended all the way to the doors and people of all ages were crammed into every cor-ner of the store.

For proprietors of small

businesses like Chris Espinel of the secluded and quaint Ta-lus Lodge, in the high country just across the Alberta-B.C. border from Kananaskis Country, the big turnout was exactly what he needed to get his resort’s name out there.

“We offer an amazing ex-perience at Talus Lodge. But part of its beauty is that it is extremely secluded, being that our lodge is located at 7,600 feet on Alpine Moun-tain. So it’s been hard reach-ing new clientele,” said Es-pinel.

“But after the crowd we got here today, I doubt we’ll have to worry about attracting new clients for quite some time.”

Mountain Equipment Co-op hosts First Annual Snowfest

End of first semester means extra stress for students

November 17th- Marta Edgar, a psychologist with SAIT’s Counselling Services, sits in her office.

Photo by: Brad Quarin


By Tim Finnigan

SAIT Polytechnic offers many clubs and extra-cur-ricular activities to curious students who want to fur-ther their passion or try new things.

Newly introduced to the school is curling for those who enjoy the sport and like to stay active.

“SAIT Polytechnic has not had a curling team for four or five years now,” says Mike Roy, a 1st year civil Engi-neering Technology (CVT) student who has launched the club.

Roy has obtained his Level one club coach certificate and will be serving as the coach

for the SAIT curling club.“Many fellow SAIT stu-

dents have now joined forces with me to make this possi-ble, and we are bringing back the curling team.”

Currently the club has 15 members and is always open to new entries.

With the SAIT club curling team growing at such a rapid pace, the only question is whether SAIT’s curling team be added to the list of ACAC teams?

“Because of the many years SAIT has not com-peted in curling at the ACAC level we have lost our spot in ACAC sanctioned events,” said Roy.

“This means that we must

first start as a club and show that we compete at a competi-tive and professional level.”

The SAIT’s club curling team will compete in local leagues to prove they are worthy to represent SAIT at the ACAC level.

Practice and repetitions are no issue for the team as they practice at least twice a week depending on ice availability.

“By proving this the ACAC will recognize us as viable competitors for their competitions and SAIT will once again have an official curling team.”

If you are interested in join-ing the new curling club, you can contact Roy by email: [email protected] .

Going for GoldBy Dan Rudakoff

All Alberta hockey fans want this holiday is World Junior Hockey Championship gold.

The tournament, which is open to players under the age of 20, will take place in Cal-gary and Edmonton begin-ning on Dec. 26.

Canada will be aiming to recapture Gold after back to back disappointing losses in the championship game the past two years.

“Those last two years were very disappointing,” says Bob Nicholson, president and CEO of Hockey Canada.

In 2010 in Saskatoon, Team U.S.A. won 6-5 in overtime to snap Canada’s streak of consecutive Gold medals at five.

Last year, in Buffalo, N.Y., Canada led Russia 3-0 after two periods.

But the Russians stormed back, scoring five unan-swered goals in the third to win Gold 5-3.

“We’re definitely look-ing to right the ship this time around,” said Nicholson.

This year’s tournament will mark the 10th time that the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Juniors is being played in Canada, and the third time in the last four years.

It’s also the second time that Alberta will play host.

In 1995 in Red Deer, Can-

ada won Gold while Russia received Silver and Sweden took home Bronze. Former Calgary Flames for-ward Jeff Friesen and current Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Smyth were both part of that Canadian team.While Canada’s 15 Gold medals are more than any other country has won, Rus-sia has the most total medals with 29.

This year’s version of Team Canada will be made up largely of fresh faces, with only three players from last year’s team invited to the se-lection camp.

“Last year was pretty much a blue collar team,” said head scout Kevin Prendergast.

“This year, we’re going to be a lot smaller, but we’re also going to be a lot more skilled.”

The selection camp was to take place in Calgary from Dec 10-14 and pre-tourna-ment games were to be held in nine cities throughout Al-berta from Dec 19-23.

Although Canada won’t have a roster stacked with players with WJHC experi-ence, the brass at Hockey Canada feels the players have more than enough time play-ing against very high calibre opponents.

“Many of these players have already received the experience necessary to deal with high-paced international

competition like the World Juniors,” said Prendergast.

Canada is part of Group B along with the U.S., Finland, Denmark and the Czech Re-public.

All Group B round robin games will be played at Rex-all Place in Edmonton.

Russia, Sweden, Switzer-land, Latvia and Slovakia make up Group A and will play all their round robin games at the Scotiabank Sad-dledome.

The tournament will open on Boxing Day with Canada playing Finland at 1:30 p.m.

Canada’s highlight game of the round robin will be on New Year’s Eve when they take on the Americans.

The medal round will take place entirely in Calgary, beginning with quarterfinal games on Jan. 2.

The winner of each pool gets an automatic bye into the semifinals that are played the next day.

Then all four teams will get a day off before playing for medals on Jan. 5.

The loser of both semifi-nals will play for Bronze at 1:30 p.m. while the semifinals winners face off for Gold at 6 p.m.

Although the tournament is sold out, tickets for all games are still available on from www.stubhub.com.

By Danica Cifani

Can’t get enough hockey this holiday season?

If you crave some good college hockey action this New Year’s, the SAIT Tro-jans will be hosting the fifth annual Challenge Cup on Jan 2 and 3.

Some of the top Canada West men’s hockey teams will be on hand to play against the Trojans and kick off the sec-ond half of the season.

Among the invited teams, the Trojans will have to take on the University of Alberta Golden Bears, who are cur-rently in first place in the Canada West division this season and have dominated university hockey in Canada for many years.

The fourth place Univer-sity of Calgary Dinos, along with the University of Leth-bridge Pronghorns will also be attending the tournament.

Although the tournament is a great way for the play-ers to stay in game shape after the Christmas break, it also works as a showcase for SAIT.

Head coach of the Trojans

Ken Babey says it’s tough to compete with a school of 40,000 people, like U of A, but the Trojans are still up to the challenge each time the tournament comes around.

The Canadian Interuniver-sity Sport (CIS) has always been known to have great athletics, on top of good edu-cational programs, but that doesn’t mean SAIT must take a backseat.

“SAIT uses this tourna-ment to promote itself as a school,” said Babey.

The school uses this tour-nament to introduce athletes to new career opportunities that other schools might not offer, such as Professional Cooking, or EMT, while also offering a good athletics pro-gram that can compete with CIS level teams.

The Trojans will play Leth-bridge on Jan 2 at 7 p.m. and will face the U of C Jan. 3, beginning at 7.

Tickets for the tournament are available at the Campus Centre box office. An adult day pass is $10, with kids under 12 admitted free of change.

Challenge Cup

Join the club!

November 25th 2011- Jack, a rescue pet of Little Mutts Foster, settles into his new adoptive home in Calgary after being adopted out of the program.

Photo By: Alexandra Turner

story story: story you can find · friday, dec 2, 2011 5. 6 friday, dec 2, 2011. friday, dec 2,...

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