People
After Hours
STEPHEN HENIGHAN
Professor and head of Hispanic studies in the School of Languages and Literatures, joined U of G in 1999
“In some ways, it’s hard to draw the line between work and leisure, but in a good way, not in a workaholic way,” says Prof. Stephen Henighan. “All my reading and writing and research are bound up together, but a lot of it is just fun, especially writing fiction.”
Henighan also finds more active ways to have a little fun. When he lived in Ottawa, he was an avid cross-country skier, but he’s been disappointed in the amount of snow Guelph offers during the winter.
“Now I’ve gotten into riding my bike a lot to get around, and I often ride to work,” he says.
But for really getting away from it all, Henighan says travel is his best bet.
“I’m a compulsive traveller. When I was a child, my parents changed countries every 18 months, and something about me feels most relaxed when I’m travelling. I try to learn about the places I travel to so I don’t do it in a superficial way. Yes, I still scribble things in a notebook, but it’s not the same as work — it’s relaxing.”
He has two approaches to travel. “One way I like to travel is as cheaply as possible, with a backpack and just the necessities. In the summer of 2008, I backpacked from Turkey through Bulgaria and Romania and into Ukraine. I have a bit of a bias towards Romania because I studied there and know the language.”
His other approach is an in-depth exploration of a city or community. “This summer, I rented an apartment in Berlin for a month. I spent four weeks exploring the city and improving my German. A very different kind of travel.”
Those relaxing vacations are slightly less so since the onset of e-mail, he adds. “You just feel obligated to drop into an Internet café and check your messages.”
YVONNE SU
Third-year international development student
“When I heard about the effects of climate change on those who are already vulnerable, I wanted to do something about it,” says Yvonne Su. “And some of the most vulnerable are people living with HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa.”
Su found a way to make a difference. For the past two years, she’s been volunteering with LetsStopAIDS (www.LetsStopAIDS.org), a national youth organization with groups of volunteers across the country. She created her own project under the umbrella of the national group and travelled to South Africa this summer with friend and fellow U of G student Sam de Lange to spend a month working with young people.
“Our program was called Spread Trees, Not AIDS,” says Su, “and we did workshops about both HIV prevention and environmental health. The young people who participated were very receptive. They don’t have the resources we have for sexual health education, so they were never formally educated about these issues.”
Two days of the workshop were spent discussing myths about HIV and AIDS, she says.
“We asked them about ways they thought the HIV virus could be transmitted, and after naming the obvious ones, they mentioned things they’d heard such as sharing underwear and wearing another person’s earrings. That gave us a chance to inform them about misinformation. We explained to them that the virus dies when in contact with air, so the risk would be very low.”
As part of the program, trees were planted to provide shade and fruit for the community school, and information about waste management and other ways to protect the environment was shared.
“I had a really good time, made some good connections and had a great learning experience,” says Su, who is a Chancellor’s Scholar. “I’ll probably go back again next summer.”
She also has another trip on the horizon. “This December, I’m going to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. I’m paying my own way. I want to be a Canadian voice at this conference and share what I’ve learned.”
Meanwhile, she continues her involvement with LetsStopAIDS and is the education and promotions co-ordinator for the Guelph chapter of Meal Exchange.
BARRY TOWNSHEND
Manager of the Centre for New Students and a counsellor/therapist, joined U of G in 1999
Barry Townshend is an avid listener of CBC Radio One. “I love the way it makes me think and laugh and connects me with other perspectives,” he says. “I’m a big fan of As It Happens, Ideas, Go and Definitely Not the Opera. I like that they talk about Canadian news, values and experiences.”
For the past couple of years, he’s also attended the CBC’s annual Toronto fundraiser for the Daily Bread Food Bank. “We’re already making plans to go again this year,” he says.
Townshend’s radio listening has been interrupted a bit lately by his puppy, Samwise, a Vizsla he brought home at the beginning of June. “Samwise is high-energy, very affectionate and very smart,” he says. “We’ve been exploring all the walking trails in Guelph.”
Another new responsibility he took on this summer was joining the board of Out on the Shelf, a resource for the queer community in Guelph. He says his goal as a board member is to promote growth and stability in the organization.
“There’s been a history of queer organizations that were formed and then disappeared in the past. Out on the Shelf is building for the long term. It incorporated last year, and we have our first annual meeting coming up.”
Townshend notes that Out on the Shelf “is a place for the queer community that is not about drinking and partying. That fits with my values — community is very important to me. And if we want to have a strong community, we need to invest in it. We need to get involved.”
Editor's note: If you would like to be featured in "After Hours" or would like to suggest someone for the column, contact Rebecca Kendall at Ext. 56039 or r.kendall@exec.uoguelph.ca.