Team learning is both maddening and miraculous

by Christine Gross, alumni relations manager

This week, I’ll finish my final residency in the Graduate Program in Public Relations Management at RRU. If I find time to study, pass the exams, write one more term paper, get good feedback from my team members - and pay some outstanding parking tickets - I may even be allowed to graduate.

I’m fairly confident my team members like me and that I can pay my parking tickets but the rest of it has me sleep-deprived and anxious.

Throughout my program, I’ve been both chagrined and strangely delighted that my approach to academic deadlines has not changed since my undergraduate days. I had hoped that studying as an adult would somehow find me better organized, and diligently starting projects weeks in advance.

Unfortunately, it seems I just truly work better under deadline, surrounded by piles of paper and panicking at the thought of everything I haven't yet read. The only differences between now and then have been my full-time job I have struggled to stay on top of and the fact that most of my graduate papers haven’t been written with a hang-over.

Actually, there has been one more difference.

As an undergraduate, I never had a team of people I could call on to commiserate with, complain to or congratulate, on every project. In my previous life as a student, I was on my own dealing with deadlines. When I thought I wasn’t smart enough to make it through, there was nobody to tell me I was wrong or to step up to make things easier when life got in the way.

Sometimes maddening and other times miraculous, the team learning experience at RRU is what’s got me this far, and now the rest will be up to me.

Find time to study, pass the exams and write one more term paper – I’m on it.

Not right now though…I still have some procrastinating to do.

Which may not be a good idea when it comes to paying the parking tickets because I think the RRU's parking services unit may know where to find me.

ALUMNI UPDATES

The 9th Annual Royal Roads University Homecoming is scheduled for Sept. 11 - 13, 2009. This Alumni Weekend is open to all alumni, faculty and staff from Royal Roads University and Royal Roads Naval and Military Colleges. The reunion and celebration starts Friday with a day sail aboard HMCS Regina and a welcome reception that evening. There's a trail run planned for Saturday along with garden and Castle tours. Meet, and be inspired, by artist Robert Bateman then join friends for a gala dinner dance with live entertainment. On Sunday, walk the ceremonial circle, enjoy the Pipe and Drum Band and join in a morning farewell reception. Online registration begins in June. If you'd like help arranging your class reunion, please e-mail homecoming@royalroads.ca

The board of the Calgary Alumni Branch invites alumni and guests to attend a Business Diagnostics Professional Development Workshop and lunch with Allan Cahoon, RRU president, on Friday, May 1, 2009 at the Nexen Auditorium, 801-7th Avenue S.W., Calgary. Cost is $75.00 for workshop and luncheon or $35 for luncheon alone. Safe, secure registration for all Calgary alumni events is available through our branch web site, managed by Royal Roads.

Fred Kaustinen, who recently graduated from the MBA program in executive management - leadership, has been appointed executive director of the Ontario Association of Police Services Boards. A former Army officer who was decorated for leadership and courage leading international rescue operations in Kuwait in 1991, Fred is well known within the police community, having been executive director of the Region of Durham Police Services Board for seven years and an associate professor in Humber College's Police Leadership Foundations program for the past two years.

Want to spread the good word? Peter J. Kletas and Isabel Prosper, both graduates from the BCom program, are working to raise $50,000 for Clean Water For Haiti. The campaign, scheduled to end July 31, 2009, has the potential to impact 15,000 lives. “The World Health Organization considers Haiti the most water-impoverished nation in the world,” says Prosper. Listen as Kletas explains what inspired him to spearhead this campaign, visit the blog and join Together We Can Change 15,000 Lives group on Facebook.

RRU grads are influencing major changes in the delivery of emergency medical services in Alberta. Derek LeBlanc, program manager, EHS Nova Scotia trauma and simulation programs, has been in touch to let us know that Darren Sandbeck, director, regional EMS and emergency preparedness for the Peace Country Health Region of Alberta Health Services and Howard Snodgrass, regional manager of emergency medical services for the Palliser Region of Alberta Health Services, are featured in the current issue of Canadian Emergency News. The two are co-leading a project that will change the way ground ambulance services are governed, funded and administered in Alberta. All three – LeBlanc, Sandbeck and Snodgrass – are graduates of RRU’s MA degree program in Leadership and Training with a specialization in Justice and Public Safety Leadership.

Hey alumni! Your willingness to talk with prospective learners is appreciated! Enrolment advisor Valery Saunders says learners are always impressed that there is someone they can speak to who has taken the program. "I’m also always surprised at how many prospects have doubts about their capabilities, despite having successful careers and I know it helps them to talk with folks who have survived a return to university".

Do you have a Mother's Day angle for a potential feature for InRoads? The editor would love to hear from anyone who used their maternity leave to further their education at RRU. It's about putting the MA in motherhood. Send a note, if you'd like to take part, to inroads@royalroads.ca