vic report winter 2016

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winter 2016

Vic Grads Turned Entrepreneurs p. 8

Remembering Ken Taylor p. 11

vic report winter 20162

I would like to begin my first “President’s Message” for Vic Report with my heartfelt thanks to the Vic family. Through your acts large and small, through your fleeting visits or your longstanding connections, our remarkable community is sustained year after year. I feel privileged to help Victoria build on its great strengths, to enhance the distinctive role that Victoria College and Emmanuel College play in Canadian higher education, and to nourish the remarkable community of students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends who appreciate and support our academic mission.

Since taking office in July, my reading has included a stack of recent studies on the state of education in North American universities. Their results provide quantitative confirmation of ideas already well-rooted at Vic. If you ask what makes for a good university education, the

answer, in a nutshell, is this: the well-organized presentation of compelling intellectual content combined with the honing of appropriate skills of analysis, argumentation and explanation. However, if you reach beyond this first level and ask what makes a good university education great, the answer is this: the opportunity for meaningful conversation. It makes sense: conversations among students and conversations between students and their professors create updrafts upon which the wings of the minds soar higher. While it is advantageous to have this new data (doubters and policy-makers are with us always), the catalyzing power of intellectual conversation has been an open secret for centuries. One of my favourite Renaissance writers, the French essayist Michel de Montaigne, admitted that he found reading and study to be “a drowsy and feeble exercise”

compared to personal conversations. At Vic we have understood this experientially for a long time: the curricular and co-curricular offerings at both Emmanuel and Victoria Colleges are predicated upon the power of meaningful conversation.

Montaigne also felt nothing to be more boring than a conversation in which everyone agrees. We all need forums where we can figure out how to discuss complex ideas, even with those with whom we disagree. The small-scale, conversation-based, face-to-face learning environments at Vic cultivate a willingness to be vulnerable, confident, curious and gracious at the same time. Some of this happens in the undergraduate classroom: the Vic One program, for example, has become a touchstone in Canada thanks to its manner of getting first-year students into well-informed dialogues. For Emmanuel College, which has constantly designed its graduate courses to encourage transformative exchanges, such conversations are expanding into new counselling and inter-religious programs as well. Co-curricular activities, such as Ideas for the World, likewise pivot around heady intellectual discussion. At Victoria College plans are afoot to enhance conversation-driven programming for our upper-year and graduating students, and to create more research initiatives where, working shoulder to shoulder with professors, students become active creators, not just consumers, of new knowledge.

Not only is conversation crucial for boosting what educators refer to as “learning outcomes” and “student engagement,” it is also essential for a thriving community. Vic’s academic initiatives have been so successful because they are not designed in isolation; they are just the most visible threads in the fabric of the Victoria community, a community that reaches beyond the classroom to embrace students, faculty, staff and alumni from the past, the present and the future. While I know many academic aspects well from my 19 years as a professor and College fellow—enough to call Victoria home, there are many other aspects of Vic I learn about each day. My aim for the first year of my tenure as president is to be engaged in continual conversations across the entire Vic community about the University’s potential. This issue of Vic Report gives me an opportunity to extend to everyone who feels an attachment to Vic an invitation to be part of these conversations; for it is such conversations that make Victoria University, in its programs and in its community, such a thrilling place to be.

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The Value of Conversationby william robins

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Winter 2016 Volume XLIV No. 2

Published under the authority of the Board of Regents of Victoria University in the University of Toronto.

Publisher: Larry Davies, Executive Director, Alumni Affairs and Advancement

Executive Editor: Alison (Massie) Broadworth Vic 9T7, Director, Alumni Affairs and Advancement

Editor: Jennifer Little Vic 9T5, Manager, Marketing and Communications

Managing Editor: Liz Taylor, Communications Officer

Copy Editor: Frank Collins

Design: Randall Van Gerwen

Cover: (left to right) Deepak Ramachandran Vic 9T1, Linda (Tung) Prangley Vic 0T6, Jas Brar Vic 0T2 by Horst Herget.

Vic Report is sent to all alumni, faculty, associates and friends of Victoria University.

Published three times a year; circulation 24,000; ISSN 0315-5072. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40741521

Send letters and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Vic Report c/o The Victoria Alumni Office 150 Charles Street West Toronto ON M5S 1K9

Tel: 416-585-4500 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 Fax: 416-585-4594 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.vicu.utoronto.ca

Do we have your correct address?

Please send your updated address, phone number and e-mail address to the Victoria Alumni Office.

Please notify us if the graduate named in the address is deceased (enclose obituary or equivalent) and we will remove his/her name from the mailing list.

Victoria University respects your privacy and does not rent, trade or sell its mailing lists.


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The English word genie is derived from the Latin genius and refers to a kind of spirit guardian. Other nouns associated with the term are protector, caregiver and even angel. Common mythology holds that one’s genie or genius follows a person from the hour of their birth until the day of their death. While Joanne Kotsopoulos, a cancer researcher, is far too modest and self-deprecating to ever describe herself as anyone’s guardian angel, she—along with her research team at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto—is nonetheless doing everything she can to protect the lives of women with a genetic predisposition to a deadly and aggressive disease.

Kotsopoulos is a scientist in the Familial Breast Cancer Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute. She focuses her award-winning research on the prevention and management of hereditary cancer; specifically, some 15,000 women who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and are at a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, and who participate in a world-wide study. She is also an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Nutritional Sciences.

If you had asked her about her career aspirations when she was an undergraduate student at Victoria College in 1995, however, she would not have suggested clinical research. “At the time, being 19 or so, I was more excited about the social aspect of undergrad life than I was the academic,” she says. Kotsopoulos immersed herself in campus life, first as a resident of Margaret Addison Hall for two years, and next at the then newly renovated Lower Burwash Houses for her final four semesters. She participated as a frosh leader (twice), joined VUSAC and was named secretary-treasurer of the permanent class executive of her 1999 class. She felt at home at Vic, but struggled with which career path to choose after convocation.

“I thought about dentistry and medicine, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. So, I just started talking to people—to friends and professors—just having conversations with people to find out what they were doing. One of my professors suggested that I try a summer studentship at a U of T lab. I really didn’t know anything about grad school, but then another summer student I met suggested working for her supervisor who was looking to hire graduate students; that experience led me to try more research, which ultimately inspired me to apply to the master’s program at U of T.”

Kotsopoulos went on to lead the first studies to evaluate the role of folate, a vitamin essential for normal functioning, in the development of breast cancer. The papers that she published as a master of science student are considered seminal in the field. She graduated in 2002 and left school to work for a year at a drug development company. She looks on that experience as formative because it showed her that she liked the constant challenge and evolution of research.

Under the supervision of Steven Narod, a world leader in breast and ovarian cancer genetics, Kotsopoulos thrived, completing her PhD in 2007. She went on to distinguish herself as a postdoctoral fellow at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. There, she focused on the roles of diet, lifestyle, hormones and gene-environment interactions in the prevention and cause of breast and ovarian cancers.

As the recipient of a Cancer Care Ontario Research Chair in Population Studies, she returned to Toronto in 2009, along with her husband and first child, to accept a position as a scientist at Women’s College Hospital and assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Now, this mother of two boys also supervises numerous students, including at least one Victoria College student, and is involved as a lecturer, a tutor and mentor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. She sits on numerous committees and associations and is the recipient of 24 scholarly awards, to date.

Some of her most meaningful work comes from the mentorship she provides to current students. “I’m so grateful for the mentorship that I had—both as a student and beyond. I have benefitted so much from the conversations I had with my mentors, both the advice and the collaboration. I learned so much from my experiences that I love encouraging others to take any opportunity they can to get new skills, meet new people, collaborate . . . just try new things.”

Kotsopoulos’ contributions to the advancement of women’s health internationally have distinguished her among her peers, and the Alumni of Victoria College is pleased to honour her with the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award for her achievements.

Joanne Kotsopoulos Vic 9T9: A Gene Genie 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner

Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner for Joanne Kotsopoulos Thursday, April 14, Senior Common Room, 6 p.m., cash-bar reception; Private Dining Room, 7 p.m., dinner, $40 per person, register by calling 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775. Register online at my.alumni.utoronto.ca/daa2015.


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Vic hosts an annual Remembrance Day ceremony after the morning events at Queen’s Park and U of T’s Soldiers’ Tower. Students, staff and faculty alike gathered in November to hear the solemn words of the guest speakers, listen to music by the Vic Chorus and share a moment of silence. Laurent-Philippe Veilleux, a student who will be graduating in June, was among the speakers. Veilleux read a poem that was written by his great-grandfather James T. Jenkins, while fighting in France during World War I. Both Jenkins and his wife Maude Zuern were University College grads in 1913 and 1910, respectively; their children, in turn, graduated from UC in 1943 and 1944; Veilleux’s uncle, Alec Seretis, is Vic 7T6; and his mother, Daphne Seretis, graduated with the class of Vic 8T1. Vic Report is honoured to be the first publication to publish this century-old poem.

Victoria’s Remembrance Day CeremonyA Solemn Reminder of Loss

on the shelling of a roadside shrineA mound of earth, a cross above, a Calvary in miniature. Poppies red as sacred dropswitness that faith and love endure.

A sacred figure broken herebeside its little wayside shrine,like victim of the spoiler’s handproclaims their sacrifice divine.

A benediction thou hast given but can that anguished prayer be true:O my Father God forgive themfor they know not what they do.

By James T. Jenkins Laurent-Philippe Veilleux reading his great-grandfather’s poem on November 11, 2015.

Join Chancellor’s Council and the Presidents’ Circle Interesting Events, Engaging Speakers—All for a Great Cause

As a way of saying thank you to donors who give $1,827 or more to help students of Victoria’s colleges, you will receive membership in Victoria University’s Chancellor’s Council and the University of Toronto’s Presidents’ Circle. Chancellor’s Council members receive invitations to special lectures and events, including the annual Charter Day luncheon at Vic and the president’s Garden Party. Names are also listed in the annual donor listing in Vic Report.

For more information, please contact Ruth-Ann MacIntyre at 416-585-4526, toll free at 1-888-262-9775 or [email protected].

President William Robins in conversation with Victoria University’s chancellor, Wendy M. Cecil, C.M., Vic 7T1, at the 2015 Chancellor’s Council luncheon.


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On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk and professor nailed a debating challenge to the wooden door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Saxony. Martin Luther was scandalized by the promotion and sale of papal indulgences to free deceased relations from

purgatory; his biting theses challenged the authority of the pope to remit, or forgive, human guilt before God, or to remit any penalties for sin other than those he had imposed himself. Luther boldly asserted that any Christian who is truly repentant enjoys remission from the penalty and guilt of sin—from God! The posting of the 95 theses marked an historic moment of transition from the late medieval world to the early modern period, and sparked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther never set out to dismantle existing church authority, but sought to correct abuses of the time. He was driven by his own quest to find a gracious God, when the God he knew terrified and angered him. In deepening engagement with the Bible in the original tongues, he made the liberating discovery that “the just shall live by their faith,” that is, faith not in their own spiritual efforts but in God’s sheer grace in Jesus Christ. Thus Luther found love for God and a confident joy, and was launched on his career as a reformer of the church and its theology.

Those who have attended worship services or events in the Vic Chapel may recall the stained-glass Luther medallion in the chancel apse, containing words spoken before the Imperial Diet at Worms in 1521. Commanded to recant his teachings, Luther concluded his refusal to do so by saying, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”

Peter Wyatt Vic 6T6, Emm 8T3, past principal of Emmanuel College, plans to lead a tour to Luther’s Germany (Saxony and Thuringia) in May of 2017. For information, please write to [email protected].

500th Anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses

TIME TO NOMINATE!The Victoria College Emerging Leader Award was created by the AVC Executive in 2014. This award recognizes recent graduates, 35 years of age or under, who have excelled professionally or who have notable accomplishments in their volunteer service such as community work, humanitarianism and philanthropy. It is presented annually at a reception to a maximum of three Victoria College alumni. Visit www.vic.utoronto.ca/alumni to nominate someone by April 30, 2016.

VICTORIA COLLEGE EMERGING LEADER AWARD

2016 VIC BOOK SALE25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION!Need a great read? Don’t miss the silver anniversary of the Vic Book Sale and help support Friends of the Library. The sale is in Old Vic, 91 Charles Street West. Proceeds go to Victoria University Library.

Thursday, Sept. 22 – Only day with admission fee: $4, students free with ID 4 p.m.–9 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 23 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 24 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 25 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 26 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Blog: library.vicu.ca/friends/blog E-mail: [email protected] Want to volunteer? 416-585-4585 or 416-585-4471 Want to donate? Books on all subjects and vinyl records are welcome.

Where There’s a Will…Victoria University can be designated as a beneficiary in your will. Here’s an example of a suggested wording:

I give and bequeath to the Board of Regents of Victoria University, Toronto, Ontario, the sum of $ or % of my estate.

If you wish to designate a specific bequest (a scholarship, the library, etc.), please contact:Sharon Gregory Telephone: 416-813-4050 Toll-free: 1-888-262-9775 E-mail: [email protected]

MAY 27–28, 2016

CELEBRATING THE HONOURED YEARS 3T6, 4T1, 4T6, 5T1, 5T6, 6T1, 6T6, 7T1, 7T6, 8T1, 8T6, 9T1, 9T6, 0T1, 0T6 AND 1T1

REUNION GIVING 2016ALUMNI SUPPORTING STUDENT EXCELLENCE WITH DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR MATCHING

You have the opportunity to contribute to the Victoria Alumni Reunion Scholarship and double the impact of your gift. Reuniting classes have contributed over $350,000 through the years. With your help, the honoured years of Vic Spring Reunion 2016 hope to increase this total to support an even greater number of scholarships for deserving Vic students. Please visit www.vicu.utoronto.ca/alumni/springreunion for more details on the matching program and to contribute to your Class Scholarship.

We look forward to seeing you back on Vic’s beautiful campus!

SEND IN YOUR MEMORABILIAPhotos of Friends and Classmates Beanies and Blazers • The Bob Invitation Cards • Programs Tickets • Dance Cards The Strand • ACTA Victoriana

Send any memorabilia from your undergraduate years to the Vic Alumni Office, 150 Charles St. W., Toronto, Ont. M5S 1K9. If you would like your items returned, please clearly attach your name and address information to the item(s).

Curious about what people have been up to since graduation? Come back to Vic for Spring Reunion and find out! Get together with fellow alumni to remember and relive your Vic experiences, accomplishments and friendships. Reunite with former classmates, catch up with friends, visit the old haunts and make some new connections.

Registration opens March 2016. Visit springreunion.utoronto.ca to see all events and to register. For questions about Vic events, please call 416-585-4500.

FRIDAY, MAY 27CLASSES WITHOUT QUIZZES11 A.M–11:45 A.M., ISABEL BADER THEATRE

Spin: How Politics has the Power to Turn Marketing on its Head with Clive Veroni Vic 8T0

If you think marketing and politics seem to have a lot in common, you’re right. For decades, political strategists tapped into the world of marketing and advertising to uncover new ways of persuading voters. Now the tide is turning. In the age of social media, mass marketing as we know it is dead. Today, marketers are having to learn how to communicate in a whole new way. And they’re taking those lessons from the world of politics.

CHANCELLOR’S LUNCH 12 P.M. RECEPTION, 12:30 P.M. LUNCHChancellor Wendy M. Cecil, C.M., Vic 7T1 hosts honoured-year graduates at a celebratory lunch in Alumni Hall, Old Vic. Chancellor’s medals will be presented to alumni celebrating 55 years or more since graduation. Tables will be organized by class year.$28 per person

VIC CAMPUS WALKING TOUR2 P.M. The tour will operate rain or shine and depart from the A.B.B. Moore Foyer, Old Vic. Featured buildings include the Goldring Student Centre, E.J. Pratt Library, Annesley Hall and Burwash Hall.

U OF T CHANCELLOR’S MEDAL CEREMONY 3:30 P.M.

All U of T alumni who graduated 55 years or more will be presented with medals at Convocation Hall. A reception will follow. Please visit springreunion.utoronto.ca for details.

SATURDAY, MAY 28VIC 5T6 60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION 11:30 A.M. Sixty years since graduation— time to celebrate!

VIC 6T6 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION12:30 P.M. Fifty years since graduation! Catch up with friends, classmates and reminisce.

VIC CAMPUS WALKING TOUR 3 P.M. From Old Vic

80s + 90s PUB8 P.M. NED’S CAFÉ AND CAT’S EYE PUB, GOLDRING STUDENT CENTREThe DJ will spin a special set that will take you right back to your Thursday nights at the Vic Pub.

STAY IN RESIDENCE!Space has been held in both Margaret Addison Hall and Burwash for alumni to live like students, including full breakfast in Burwash Dining Hall. $54 per person, per night

VIC BEER FEST4 P.M.–6 P.M. Help President William Robins select Vic’s private-label beer! Sample the best of Toronto’s local breweries; enjoy tasty apps, live music and a cash bar. The party will take place in the Goldring Student Centre. Everyone welcome!

Early-bird price by May 1 $15 per person, $20 per person after, includes drink ticket. $10 for 0T6 and 1T1 grads, includes drink ticket.

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VIC GRADS TURNED ENTREPRENEURS by kerry clare vic 0t2

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Linda (Tung) Prangley Vic 0T6, Jas Brar Vic 0T2 and Deepak Ramachandran Vic 9T1

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With the possibilities offered by expanding technology and a job market that’s long

been rife with uncertainty, there has never been a better time for promoting a culture of entrepreneurship. But what does this have to do with universities? Does academia have a role to play in turning scholars into entrepreneurs? And what kind of a foundation is an Arts and Science degree for an entrepreneur anyway?

One answer, as evidenced by the experiences of these Victoria College alumni, is that a liberal arts education

makes for a solid entrepreneurial foundation. In fact, two of these three alumni actually began their studies intending to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce, migrated to a B.A. or B.Sc., and found their way to entrepreneurship all the same.

It turns out that the room to wander—and wonder—afforded during undergraduate years is valuable in setting students on a path to entrepreneurship, as are the critical thinking skills developed through academic work and the practical skills acquired by extracurricular involvement.

Together these factors give young entrepreneurs a deep and complex understanding of not only of how the world works, but also—and this is crucial—of how it doesn’t work, the entrepreneur’s role being to see what’s missing and determine how the gaps can be filled.

How are universities to present entrepreneurship as a viable path and inspire students to take it? Solutions lie in supporting networking and mentorship opportunities, and sharing more stories like the ones that follow.


While Entripy is firmly established as a remarkable success story, being one of Canada’s top providers of custom clothing, with clients including Tim Hortons and Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, the company is less celebrated for its rare distinction of being the most successful business venture ever to originate from Margaret Addison Hall’s fifth floor. And if such beginnings seem inauspicious, it’s important to note that its founder and president Jas Brar Vic 0T2 could not have been more perfectly situated to put his entrepreneurial skills into action.

“I had a reputation as someone who knew how to source things,” Brar explains how his company began in 1998, when the internet was still new and he had the knowledge to use it to make things happen. Helping friends and classmates who were looking for custom t-shirts for campus events and organizations, Brar soon identified a gap in the market with respect to quality custom apparel and excellent customer service—a gap he would close using his own talent and skills.

As an undergraduate, Brar found himself with enough free time to pursue his entrepreneurial interests in addition to his academic work, and the university community would turn out to be the perfect market to tap into. By his second year at Vic, Brar was already known as the go-to guy for t-shirts and hoodies. That year he purchased his own custom branding equipment and moved out of Marg Ad, back to his family’s home in Oakville, where he began operating his company out of the basement. As Entripy grew, eventually becoming his prime focus, Brar continued commuting downtown for his classes at U of T.

He never considered putting his academics aside. “My family would have disowned me,” he says. Education was always the objective, the attainment of his degree being as important as his business success. He’d started out pursuing a commerce degree, but eventually ended up majoring in geography, finding himself in the fortunate position of being able to pursue learning for learning’s sake, following his interests rather than having to focus on career prospects—

because long before graduation, his career was already established.

Of course, growing a business would not be without challenges. Being young, Brar had to work hard to be taken seriously as an entrepreneur. Gaining access to capital was also a struggle, although a good relationship with the Business Development Bank of Canada allowed Entripy to buy new equipment and keep growing. And such growth would prove essential; it was always clear that Entripy’s success would result from serious innovation, including the focus on online business that has been part of their identity from the beginning—although, as Brar points out, his company’s online identity initially served to compensate for his storefront’s being a university residence room.

Over the years, a focus on innovation would set Entripy apart from its peers in the custom clothing industry, as the company grew to include in-house production, becoming a one-stop shop and gaining the competitive advantage of cutting out the middleman. These days innovation remains a huge priority—the company employs 70 full-time staff members, including six developers focussing on technology, development and innovation to make Entripy’s product and customer experiences even better.

And now, after 15 years of long days and sleepless nights, Jas Brar’s hard work has paid off. Entripy has grown every year, but these days Brar is able to work more on strategy than on day-to-day operations. His business has afforded him a comfortable life and the freedom to focus on his family. When he names the accomplishments he’s most proud of, he cites Entripy’s excellent national reputation and its happy employees in particular.

In the future, Brar envisions doing volunteer consulting work with young people interested in entrepreneurship, fostering in them the same kind of can-do spirit that has enabled his own success.

Linda (Tung) Prangley Vic 0T6 describes her route to entrepreneurship as a product of “happenstance.” She hadn’t planned on changing her career and her

whole life when she went on maternity leave in 2012. Her job as recruitment and outreach coordinator at Victoria College’s registrar’s office was one she loved and to which she had every intention of returning. But, the birth of a child has a curious way of creating other possibilities.

Happenstance, however, is only part of the story. In order for happenstance to happen, significant factors need to be in play, which in this case were Prangley’s eye for opportunity and an ability to articulate her vision. Not long after moving to Toronto’s Liberty Village she had noticed that while the neighbourhood was home to many other new families like her own, local shopping options for babies and children were limited. Inspired by the possibility inherent in this situation, Prangley created a business plan and, after a trip to the bank, was pleased to discover that she would have financial support for her venture.

Prangley’s store, Love Me Do Baby and Maternity, opened in 2013 and, unsurprisingly for someone who spent nearly a decade fostering community at Victoria College, both in student politics and in administration, her business is more than just a retail location. While Love Me Do sells everything one would expect of a baby and maternity store—baby gear, maternity fashion, books and toys—one of the pillars of Prangley’s operation is it is also a gathering place for local families.

“We offer CPR courses, weekly music classes, and other family programs, but it’s also how we approach customers,” Prangley explains. “We make an effort to get to know who they are, get to know their kids. A lot of them we’ve known as expectant parents, and then all of sudden they come in with their new P

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“ It’s really important to empower the people you’re working with and not feel like you have to be one to dictate everything they do.”

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babies and they want to introduce us to their growing families, and we get to watch them grow. That’s what makes it really meaningful at the end of the day. The store is a store and that’s well and good, but it’s the getting to know people that gives it more meaning.”

At Vic, she earned an undergraduate degree in history and political science (after starting out in commerce), but Prangley sees no disconnect between her undergraduate work and where she is today. She credits her academic work with having taught her “to work hard, be diligent, to prioritize, be organized,” and her extracurricular experiences with having underlined the skills that make her an effective employer. As VUSAC president, she says, she learned fast that “it’s really important to empower the people you’re working with and not feel like you have to be one to dictate everything they do—it’s about finding common ground and working together.”

A great benefit to having her own business, Prangley says, is that she’s able to control how she spends her day, which enables her to spend more time with her daughter—“I do my work at night after she goes to bed.”

Prangley also recognizes that a day in the life of an entrepreneur can be controlled only so far. Every day is different, and she can never anticipate what challenges each new one might hold, but it’s this unexpectedness, she says, that makes running a business so interesting and exciting. Prangley enjoys meeting the inevitable challenges

too, and has discovered she’s particularly effective at doing so.

“Being an entrepreneur, when things don’t go your way, you find a way out,” she says. “You find a solution. It’s what you have to do.”

Deepak Ramachandran Vic 9T1 defines entrepreneurship as the role of “a change agent, a person who can see the world today, see the world as it should be, and take steps to close the gap.” With his current venture, the technology-driven online lender FundThrough, the gap was the scarcity of big banks’ small-business lending since the financial crisis in 2008.

“Small businesses are, of course, the engine of our economy,” Ramachandran says, explaining the ramifications of that situation. He and his business partners saw not just the problem, however, but also an opportunity. Together they created FundThrough, an online platform where small businesses can access up to 90 per cent of the value of their outstanding invoices in 24 hours, with a single click of a button. This gives them easy access to the working capital they need to order more inventory, hire more staff or take on new challenges. Importantly, the funding is put up by established entrepreneurs and investors, to help other entrepreneurs grow. Part of a trend of start-ups bringing together the worlds of finance and technology, FundThrough has therefore emerged

as a smart and practical way for entrepreneurs to play a role in keeping the economy’s engine running.

Since graduating from Victoria College with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and chemistry more than two decades ago, Ramachandran has made entrepreneurship a cornerstone of his career, applying his skills also as a venture capitalist and angel investor. He has a passion for promoting entrepreneurship among young people, and great ideas about how to do so.

He explains, “What we need to cultivate in the education system is building a cadre of young people who think and understand that it’s their responsibility to find ways to improve their world . . . not to wait for someone else to give them a job, or tell them what to do.”

Universities, he says, do a terrific job of teaching critical thinking, but there needs to be a focus on empowering students to take that next step after identifying a problem, and then begin engineering solutions.

Ramachandran’s own skills in this area were cultivated during his time at Vic, partly through his wide-ranging academic studies, which permitted him multiple perspectives on understanding the world, but also through what he calls his “unofficial major” at university: administration. Ramachandran cites his experiences on Vic’s Board of Regents and Senate as instrumental in shaping his approach to entrepreneurship. His role models were Victoria College Principal Alexandra Johnston Vic 6T1, President Eva Kushner and Bursar Larry Kurtz, “people who were very much trying to change the environment they were working in.”

He gives the example of a Senate committee on which he served with Johnston. The committee’s goal was to launch Vic-specific academic programs. “Ultimately the committee’s proposal was turned down, but I learned: don’t take things as they are. Think about how they should be, and then think about what you can do to change things. Make a prototype, do something small and in your control; and then show people why it’s exciting. You can galvanize people.” P

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Deepak Ramachandran Vic 9T1


in memoriam

In the spring of 1998, shortly after Ken Taylor was installed as chancellor of Victoria University, my office phone rang.

“Larry? Ken Taylor. Do you have any plans for lunch?”“No, I don’t think so,” I answered. “Meet me at noon at Barberian’s.” The moment I hung up, I called my wife. “Denise, guess

what? I’m having lunch with Ken Taylor!” “Why does he want to have lunch with you?” Denise teased.

Actually, I was wondering the same thing.When I arrived at Barberian’s, Ken was standing at the bar

casually sipping a glass of wine, engaged in quiet conversation with the maître d’. He waved me over and, for the next hour or so, we stood there chatting. About what, I really can’t recall. All I do recall was my awe-struck awkwardness and, since I had a meeting scheduled for 2:00 p.m., the time it was taking to get to our lunch.

Mercifully, we finally sat down at our table. The waiter brought us menus, but Ken said we weren’t ready to order yet. I almost blurted out that I was ready, but caught myself. Initial excitement over having lunch with Ken Taylor was turning into my growing anxiety over running late for my meeting.

As we ate, Ken casually quizzed me about Victoria. He listened intently and asked many questions about Vic’s plans and how he could play a helpful role. He was also unexpectedly curious to know about me. I kept checking the time.

After our plates were cleared, the waiter offered us coffee and dessert. “Not for me,” I said. “I have to be getting back. I have a meeting in 10 minutes.”

“Wait a second,” said Ken, sounding mildly exasperated. “You mean you agreed to have lunch with me and now intend to rush off as soon as you finish eating? Surely you can re-schedule your meeting.”

Sheepishly, I got up and made the uncomfortable call to request a postponement. After I returned, our lunch and conversation continued until mid-afternoon.

Just as I was about to get up again to leave, two of Ken’s business associates appeared out of nowhere and joined us. Ken urged me to stay a bit longer and together we all pleasantly whiled away another couple of hours.

“Any dinner plans?” Ken asked. “Well, I thought I might head home,” I replied.“Call Denise and ask her to join us,” said Ken. “You go ahead without me,” she said. “Call me if you need

a ride. It’s not every day you get to have lunch with Ken Taylor.”We took a cab to a popular restaurant on Prince Arthur.

The after-work crowd was gathering and it seemed as though everyone in the busy bar knew Ken personally. Those who didn’t know him, wanted to know him. The man next to me nudged me. “Is that Ken Taylor you’re with?”

“It is,” I said, nonchalantly.

“Would you mind introducing me? He’s my hero.” “Let me see what I can do,” I answered, sounding every bit

as though I were Ken’s long-time confidant and gatekeeper.“Thank you, thank you. Can I buy you a drink?” the

stranger asked me as I leaned towards Ken.“Ken, this man wants to meet you,” I said.Ken shook his hand and they chatted amiably for the next

five to 10 minutes as though they were old friends.And so it went whenever we were together in Toronto,

New York or elsewhere. Ken would inevitably be approached by strangers who wanted to shake his hand and chat. He never refused, never hurried, and never spoke about himself or the event for which he was most famous. He had time for everyone and was genuinely curious about them.

That first lunch in 1998 defined our almost two decades of close friendship—memorable experiences that inevitably turned into laughter-filled conversations extending late into the afternoon, and, by evening’s end, great gatherings of an assortment of fascinating friends and strangers alike.

I could not have anticipated that lunch with Ken Taylor would be a life-changing experience, one that would lead me to an expanded circle of friendships and a new appreciation of time and, of course, lunch.

Lunch with Ken Taylor, O.C., Vic 5T7A Lesson in Time

by larry davies, executive director, alumni affairs and advancement

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Ken passed away on October 15, 2015. If you would like to make a donation in memory of Ken, please visit Vic’s webpage my.alumni.utoronto.ca/kentaylor to support the Kenneth and Patricia Taylor Distinguished Professor in Foreign Affairs, part of Vic One’s Lester B. Pearson Stream.

Larry Davies (left) and Ken Taylor at Vic’s 175th Anniversary Gala in 2011.


Grace Ji-Sun Kim Vic 9T2 has published a book in 2015 entitled Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.). Working from a feminist-Asian

perspective, Kim develops a new constructive global pneumatology that works toward gender and racial-ethnic justice. She draws on concepts from Asian and indigenous cultures

to reimagine the divine as “Spirit God” who is restoring shalom in the world.

Kim’s 2016 publication, Making Peace with the Earth: Action and Advocacy for Climate Justice (World Council of Churches), gathers the expertise of activists, theologians and faith-based organizations to inspire and encourage churches everywhere in grassroots work and advocacy for climate justice.

Bruce Meyer Vic 8T0 has been awarded the Barrie Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts. This is a civic award that recognizes lifetime achievement and contribution to the arts, and is given annually by the Department of Culture for the City of Barrie. Meyer is a visiting professor at Victoria College and is the instructor in two Vic One Hundred seminars.

Megan (Duffin) Mueller Vic 8T8 has published a volume of poetry entitled Colour Theory (Guernica Editions, 2016). A letter of apology to Van Gogh, a flat-footed dialogue with Bernini’s Pope Gregory, a searing glimpse into a young dissident’s life between the wars—Colour Theory investigates how

the mind deconstructs and regenerates events. The poems speak to each other and paint a visceral and highly emotive picture of the universal desire to find meaning, compassion and belonging.

CAREERS, AUTHORS, HONOURSKatherine Arnup Vic 7T5 has published her newest book, “I don’t have time for this!” A Compassionate Guide to Caring for Your Parents and Yourself (Life Changes Press, 2015). The book is based on Arnup’s experiences of caring for her sister and her parents, as well as her many years as a hospice volunteer. Katherine is the sister of Carol Arnup Vic 6T7, daughter of John Arnup Vic 3T2, and granddaughter of Jesse Henry

Arnup Vic 1909. Arnup completed her PhD in history at the University of Toronto in 1991 and taught in the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University from 1992 until 2013.

In his latest book of poetry, A Serious Call (The Porcupine’s Quill, February 2015), Don Coles Vic 4T9 brings to life a series of everyday moments, objects

and relationships in a touching reflection on the passage of time and the power of memory. An earlier collection, Forests of the Medieval World, won the Governor General’s Medal for Poetry in 1993.

Brain Injury (Exile Editions, 2015) by Alan J. Cooper Vic 6T9, Emm 9T7 has been re-launched in soft-cover

and e-book format. Originally released in 2006, Cooper’s story relates his own experience of the complex journey of recovery after being struck by an impaired driver.

Gordon Coyne Vic 5T6 has published a personal memoir entitled My Story: 80 Years and Counting, a copy of which has been placed in the Victoria Archives. Coyne’s memoir traces his 40-plus years in the investment and life insurance business. These years spanned postings in Canada, the United States and Ireland. In retelling his life experience, he has emphasized the twin themes of giving and gratitude; and he relates the story of doing a pilgrimage on El Camino to celebrate his 80th year. His previous book, Fulfilling the Dream: A History for the Millennium, tells the story of Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church.

Congratulations to Judy Goldring Vic 8T7 for being voted one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women for 2015.

Jessica Dee Humphreys Vic 9T7 has published her second book, Child Soldier: How Boys and Girls Are Used in War (Kids Can Press). This graphic novel for children ages 10 to 14 tells the harrowing and inspirational story of Congolese-born Canadian Michel Chikwanine, a current U of T student.

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Edward (Ted) James Kersey Vic 4T9, Emm 5T2 has been awarded France’s prestigious Legion of Honour, the country’s highest national order. The WWII veteran, who has been knighted, received the medal at Glen Abbey United Church in Oakville, Ont., for his part in liberating France and western Europe from the Nazis. In 1943 at the age of 19, Kersey served as a dispatch motorcycle rider with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. He was released from the Canadian Army on March 18, 1946, and returned to Canada where he attended Victoria College. After graduating, he attended Emmanuel College and was ordained in 1952 as a United Church minister. Kersey had felt a call to ministry and has spoken about how his faith helped and comforted him following the war.


in the Holocaust takes him through the establishment of Israel, immigration to Canada and finally to an emotional return to Auschwitz as a guest of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Daniel Matthew L. Storisteanu Vic 1T1 has been included in Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” for Europe’s Social Entrepreneurs for co-founding Simprints, a non-profit tech company that develops mobile biometric scanners.

Herb Swartz Emm 7T1, 8T8, has published My Loyalist Origins (Friesen Press) exploring what America was, what it became and what it is now and asking the question, “Do we, as Christians have an obligation to offer an alternative to the claim that in order to ‘have peace’ we must go to war?” For Loyalists, this meant leaving home for life in a new place.

Solomon Nigosian Vic 6T8, research associate emeritus at Victoria College, has published a new book, The Middle Eastern Founders of Religions: Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, and Baha’u’llah (Sussex Academic Press.) Nigosian is a historian of religion specializing in Biblical and Near/Middle Eastern Religions. The book presents an academic introduction to the life and teachings of five Middle Eastern founders of religion—five individuals whose systems of faith, thought and action have won the allegiance of millions. It discusses the similarities in their religious outlooks, but also explores how the differences between the five pervade their approach toward society and culture, with issues of law, war, women, morality, ethics, the kingdom of God, life after death and eternal judgment, distinguishing their respective beliefs.

I Am a Victor: The Mordechai Ronen Story (Dundurn Press) is the latest book by author and broadcast journalist

Steve Paikin Vic 8T1, 1T1. The book tells the story of Ronen, born in Hungary in the 1930s, who, at age 11, was one of the millions of Jews shipped to a Nazi death camp. Ronen’s journey, which began

Grad Year: Vic Emm

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milestonesAlumni are invited to send information for inclusion in Milestones. For marriages please indicate, if applicable, whether you prefer to be known by your married or birth name. An obituary must accompany notices of death.

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ATTENTION, VIC SCARLET AND GOLD FOOTBALLERS!REUNION JUNE 28, 2016

All Victoria College Scarlet and Gold footballers are invited to reunite in June 2016. If you are interested, please contact Aarne Kartna Vic 7T1 at [email protected].

June 28, 2016 at 1 p.m. – Betty’s, 240 King Street East, Toronto


Emeritus Professor Robert Taylor Vic 5T9 has published Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Troubadours and Old Occitan Literature (Medieval Institute Publications). Taylor’s book provides a definitive survey of the field of Occitan literary studies—from the earliest enigmatic texts to the fifteenth-century works of Occitano-Catalan poet Jordi de Sant Jordi—and treats over two thousand recent books and articles with full annotations.

MARRIAGESAnaia Shaw Vic 1T0, married Alexander Shave Vic 1T1, on August 29, 2015, in Guelph, Ont. In attendance were many Vic alumni, including Alex’s mother, Catherine Moorfield Vic 8T0, and grandparents, Jack Moorfield Vic 5T4 and Maureen (Watson) Moorfield Vic 5T4.

IN MEMORIAMRobert S. “Bob” Allison Vic 6T8, in Penetanguishene, Ont., October 23, 2015.

Cindy L. (Stevenson) Auwaerter Vic 9T3, in Toronto, October 20, 2015.

Richard P. “Dick” Baine Vic 4T8, in Toronto, September 2, 2015.

Charlotte I. (Henderson) Catford Vic 4T1, in Toronto, December 10, 2013.

Murray Corlett Vic 6T1, former chair, Board of Regents (2007–2010), in Toronto, February 14, 2016.

Jean M. (MacInnis) Dancey Vic 5T1, in Oshawa, Ont., September 27, 2015.

John A. Geisler Vic 5T7, in Olds, Alta., December 12, 2014.

Joyce E. (Bower) Hall Vic 5T1, in Toronto, October 19, 2015.

Ruth F. (Andrew) Hammond Vic 4T3, in Toronto, October 16, 2015.

Robert E. “Bob” Hetherington Vic 6T4, Emm 6T7, in Edmonton, Alta, May 24, 2015.

Irja E. (Aho) Hughes Vic 4T0, in Sudbury, Ont., December 2, 2015.

Kenneth W. Inkster Vic 5T7, in Alliston, Ont., December 6, 2015.

Douglas C. Irvine Vic 8T2, in Waterbury, CT, November 15, 2015.

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Kent W. Roach Vic 8T4 and Helen Vari Vic 1T1 have been appointed members of the Order of Canada. Roach was appointed “for his steadfast defence of the rights of Canadians, both as a scholar and as a litigator.” Vari was awarded for her extraordinary philanthropic and volunteer contributions through service to the arts, education, heritage preservation and health care.

Donna (MacBain) Johnson Vic 5T2, in Hagerstown, MD, December 11, 2015.

Jacquelene G. “Jackie” (Knowles) Larendowicz Vic 7T0, in Toronto, April 28, 2015.

Harold I. MacKay Vic 5T4, in Vancouver, B.C., October 18, 2015.

Helen (Miscevich) Mandarich Vic 4T0, in Toronto, January 23, 2015.

John A. McNulty Vic 5T6, in Halifax, N.S., December 5, 2015.

Ann G. (Tyrrill) Mills Vic 5T8, in Toronto, October 25, 2015.

Richard F. Newman Vic 5T7, in Toronto, February 14, 2016. Gifts in memory of Richard can be directed to the Victoria College Bursary Fund www.vicu.utoronto.ca/alumni.

Oliver Pocknell Vic 8T9, in Toronto, September 11, 2015.

John E. Rhame Vic 5T1, in Naples, FL, December 10, 2015.

Joan M. (Bratty) Thompson Vic 5T0, in Nassau, Bahamas, September 5, 2015.

Margaret E. (Smith) Waite Vic 4T8, in Winnipeg, Man., August 22, 2015.

Isobel R. (Allan) Waugh Vic 4T3, in Toronto, October 26, 2015.

H. Glenn Wylie Vic 4T9, in Winnipeg, Man., December 1, 2015.


faculty forum

As a writer, I’m interested in the transformative possibilities of narrative. That interest takes me in a number of different directions: the literary, the psychological and the political.

Literature holds a mirror up to us, revealing something of our interior selves, perhaps something we have never shared with another. On other occasions it transports us into other worlds where, as different as they might be from our own, we recognize the parallels in our very basic human struggles to create meaning and attachment in our lives. At a minimum, literature is in the good habit of reminding us of our common humanity across time and space.

Fiction offers an immersive experience, not just intellectual, but a visceral and emotional point of contact, both with our own lives and the lives of others. Through making imaginary leaps, we can access another world or point of view. Is this an empathic act? Or can it cultivate greater empathy? These are questions that interest me.

There are plenty of studies that suggest that reading literary fiction increases our understanding of the feelings of others. Neuroscientists have taken a particular interest in these studies. Jamil Zaki, director of the Stanford Neuroscience Lab, cites a recent study that found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years.

It’s impossible to pinpoint why empathy has declined more generally, but it’s not impossible to speculate. Greater social isolation seems one likely suspect. But so does the decline in reading. The number of American adults who read literature for pleasure sank below 50 per cent for the first time ever in the past 10 years, with the decrease occurring most sharply among university-age adults.

What interests Zaki and other neuroscientists like him about that study is that it seems to conflict with studies that suggest empathy is a fixed trait people are born with. If it is in fact malleable, then it should be possible to encourage more of it.

When I teach creative writing, I insist my students read as much as they write. With creative non-fiction, we look at how we make sense of our experiences largely by constructing a story of ourselves, a narrative that provides cohesion and meaning. We know that memory is subjective and selective, but there’s probably social and psychological value in this: if we didn’t impose order on our experiences, we’d have

difficulty finding any thematic continuity and cohesion in our lives and we’d struggle to communicate our experiences to others, a critical basis upon which relationships and community are built. We are, it has been said many times, the storytelling animal.

Trauma is often spoken of as the disruption of the narrative of our lives. An occurrence of such psychological magnitude that our lives are no longer recognizable to us. I’m interested in both the therapeutic role narrative plays in reconstructing events in order to make sense of them, and the political role that might be played when these reconstructions are shared. Witness literature, or testimonials have become an increasingly common way to begin uncomfortable conversations for the purposes of redressing human rights abuses.

The issue of the generational drop in empathy and the question of its malleability really lead me, as someone with an interest in both the humanities and social sciences, to the question of how we ourselves become and how we cultivate and engender engaged and socially responsible citizens in successive generations.

In teaching social justice, I use witness literature, testimonials and novels as a means of connecting students with events that might be far removed in time and space from their own life experiences. My hope is to equip them with a history, framework and language for interpreting global conflicts that occur in their own lifetimes.

Camilla Gibb is the June Callwood Professor in Social Justice. Her most recent book, a memoir, This Is Happy, has been shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize.

The Stories We TellImposing Order on Experience

by camilla gibb

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It’s impossible to pinpoint why empathy has declined more generally, but it’s not impossible to speculate.


Alumni Calendar of Events

The E.J. Pratt Library has created an online exhibition called Vic in China which explores the role Victoria College graduates played in China from 1891 to 1949. For more than six decades, Vic grads and their families worked as missionaries in Szechuan where they evangelized, taught, practised medicine, raised their families and, albeit briefly, cared for a panda. The original photographs, taken by missionaries and supplied to the library by their descendants, help illuminate what life would have been like in pre-communist China. You will find wonderful photographs of landscapes, families, students, and various buildings that were constructed for the use of the missionaries. Documents have also been scanned to reflect these decades and support the photographs. Victoria College graduates left a lasting mark on the province of Szechuan and in its capital city of Chengdu, one can read the motto “The Truth Shall Make You Free” on Hart Memorial College at the West China Union University. Visit library.vicu.utoronto.ca/exhibitions/vic_in_china to learn about a time long past from a unique perspective.

on cyber campus

Take a Virtual Trip to China

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March 22Friends of the Victoria University Library Annual General Meeting and Hoeniger Lecture SeriesAGM, Room 101, Old Vic, 6 p.m., all welcome. Lecture, “J.H. Fleming and the ROM: An Astonishing Gift of Birds” with Julia Matthews, Alumni Hall, Old Vic, 7 p.m., r.s.v.p. to [email protected] or call 416-585-4471, if attending.

March 23VWA“Current Issues in International Politics” with David Wright, Kenneth and Patricia Taylor Distinguished Professor in Foreign Affairs, Alumni Hall, Old Vic, 2 p.m.

April 14Distinguished Alumni Award Dinner in Honour of Joanne KotsopoulosSenior Common Room, Burwash Hall, 6 p.m. cash bar; 7 p.m. dinner, Private Dining Room, $40 per person. Call 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775 to register. Register online at my.alumni.utoronto.ca/daa2015. See page 3.

April 20VWA Annual Luncheon“When Fiction Fails a Novelist” with Camilla Gibb, June Callwood Professor in Social Justice, Alumni Hall, Old Vic, 11:45 a.m., $35 per person. Advance registration and payment required by April 12. The AGM follows. Visit www.vicu.utoronto.ca/alumni/VWA for more details.

May 27–28Spring ReunionSee pages 6 and 7.

June 2Gate House ReunionVic 6T7 and earlier, 5 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. dinner, Goldring Student Centre. Call 416-585-4500 or 1-888-262-9775 to register.

Translating early Christian documents, Chengdu, circa 1938.

Visit the Vic website for the most up-to-date event information and news at www.vicu.utoronto.ca. To subscribe to Vic’s e-newsletter, contact [email protected].