By Katie Fedosenko
Genevieve Barrons: Working at Jacaranda School for Orphans
Arts student Genevieve Barrons
This summer Barrons, a fourth-year student in International Relations and Honours English, ran day camps for children who have lost either one or both parents to HIV/AIDS in the African land-locked country, Malawi.
I wake up in the dark and cold every morning to prepare for another day of summer camp. My five counselors, one hundred campers and I spend the day playing sports, practicing dance, making art, studying math, reading books, going on field trips and eating phala (porridge). It is like any other summer camp, except for two crucial differences: it is the dead of winter here in Chem’boma village and all of my campers have lost either one or both parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Kai Nagata: Quitting Canadian media
Alumnus Kai Nagata
Nagata (BA ’07), former CTV’s Quebec City Bureau Chief and CBC News reporter, got hundreds of comments and plenty of media attention when he posted his blog Why I Quit My Job in July with the plan to travel westward on a journey of self-discovery. Read his story where:
Until Thursday, I was CTV’s Quebec City Bureau Chief, based at the National Assembly, mostly covering politics. It’s a fascinating beat – the most interesting provincial legislature in Canada, and the stories coming out of there lately have been huge. The near-implosion of the Parti Quebecois has kept the press gallery hopping well into summer. If you’re not from Quebec, it’s hard to explain the place the National Assembly holds in the popular imagination – but suffice to say that within francophone journalistic circles it carries more prestige than Parliament Hill. I had the privilege to be working next to several of the sharpest reporters in the country.
Ira Nadel: A Summer’s Day with MI 5
Department of English Language & Literature professor Ira Nadel
English Professor Nadel visited the archive of Britain’s spy agency this summer to examine recently released files on Ezra Pound. Here’s an excerpt from his story:
Acting on a tip overheard in London this summer, I trained to Kew, home of the largest collection of living plants in the world. The subject of an 18th century poem and a short story by Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens is internationally known and a World Heritage Site. But I was headed to a different destination: Britain’s National Archive also housed in Kew and where I spent a day with MI 5, part of my on-going pursuit of Ezra Pound.
