Campus News

On Thursday, May 23, from 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM, CCS will be performing maintenance on the business voice mail server. During this time, additional memory will be added to the server as outlined by the vendor for future software upgrades.  Voice mail, call processing and off-campus access to the speech enabled auto-attendant will be unavailable for a short period of time and will be handled by backup systems. If you have any questions, please contact the CCS Help Centre.

Creating more intelligent computers, understanding how fish can live out of water, and improving learning and memory are among University of Guelph projects to benefit from an $8.6-million investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

The awards were announced in Ottawa by Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science and technology. Across Canada, the government will invest $414 million to support 3,808 research projects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Today’s announcement includes the 2013 competition results for NSERC programs, including Discovery Grants, Discovery Accelerator Supplements, and graduate and post-doctoral awards. Most research projects are supported for five years.

Guelph’s 50-odd projects span five colleges and numerous departments. U of G also received 34 graduate scholarships and a post-doctoral fellowship.

"These awards provide our researchers with the equipment, technology and other resources they need to leverage their innovations into new knowledge and practical applications,” said Kevin Hall, vice-president (research).

“One of Guelph’s strengths is our leadership and dedication in supporting research that has tangible impacts.”

Engineering professor Graham Taylor received nearly $220,000 to study “deep learning,” or computer methods that mimic the human brain’s activity. Computers learn to recognize patterns in digital representations of sounds, images and other information, and make decisions based on the processed data.

“It's amazing to be working in the field amid all this excitement about artificial intelligence,” said Taylor, who joined the U of G faculty in June 2012 and had received NSERC support as a graduate student.

“Deep learning especially has received a great deal of attention in the media lately for its success at some of the most influential high-tech companies, such as Google, Apple and Microsoft,” he said.

“Everyone's generating data. Everyone wants to do more with their data. So over the next few years, I hope to collaborate with many different researchers here and tackle more problems with deep learning.”

He called the NSERC grant critical to his research and for attracting and training data engineers “who can satiate the growing demand for highly qualified personnel with deep analytical skills.”

Integrative biology professor Patricia Wright received two grants worth nearly $282,000 to study how animals handle environmental changes. She studies how and why fish and other aquatic animals live in varying oxygen concentration, salinity and temperature, and even changing water availability.

Learning how the brain puts together information from our senses is the purpose of two grants worth nearly $200,000 for psychology professor Boyer Winters. He studies the neurobiology of learning and memory, using rodent models of human memory dysfunction.

“A better understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in this complex function will speak to various aspects of human cognition, such as learning, memory and attention, and may prove fruitful in guiding therapeutic strategies for human cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease,” Winters said.

Anthony Clarke, assistant vice-president (graduate studies and program quality assurance) and a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, said he is “delighted” with his one-year $62,200 grant. Using a planned high-pressure liquid chromatography system, Clarke and other campus researchers will study sugars to improve production of cellulosic ethanol and crop plants and to find new targets for antibiotics.

Paul Martin, Canada’s 21st prime minister, a global diplomat and an advocate for aboriginal issues, will receive the Lincoln Alexander Outstanding Leader Award May 29 from the University of Guelph.

Presented annually by Guelph’s College of Management and Economics (CME), the award recognizes exemplary and dedicated Canadian leaders whose careers have included groundbreaking, socially significant pursuits.

U of G’s highest leadership award was created in 2006 to honour the late Lincoln Alexander, who served as Guelph’s chancellor for an unprecedented 15 years.

Past recipients include Louise Arbour, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; Rick Hillier, retired Canadian general and former chief of the defence staff of the Canadian Forces; and Frank McKenna, former New Brunswick premier and Canadian ambassador to the United States.

This year’s award recognizes Martin’s leadership, his dedication to aboriginal issues and reform, and his national and global outreach work.

"I am delighted to recognize Paul Martin for his courageous and inspirational leadership, especially in indigenous issues,” said Julia Christensen Hughes, dean of CME.

“Not only has Mr. Martin kept the spotlight on the treatment of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada's residential school system, but he has also advocated for and supported entrepreneurial skill development opportunities for aboriginal youth."

Martin will take part in a question-and-answer session after a dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Cutten Fields.

After succeeding Jean Chrétien as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, Martin became prime minister on Dec. 12, 2003, and served until 2006. Known as an exceptional leader, he lowered taxes and increased funding for education and research. He worked to improve the health-care system and established a national early learning and child-care program.

Under his leadership, the Canadian government approved the historic Kelowna Accord, which sought to eliminate gaps between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. He continues to advocate for educational reform through the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative.

As minister of finance from 1993 to 2002, he helped eliminate the country’s fiscal deficit by reforming programs including social services.

He served as the Member of Parliament for LaSalle-Émard in Montreal from 1988 to 2008.

Martin has advised the International Monetary Fund and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, and chairs the Congo Basin Forest Fund, which addresses poverty in 10 African nations.

The selection committee for the University of Guelph’s eighth president and vice-chancellor is seeking input and advice from the University community. The committee is hosting a drop-in session Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the library’s Academic Town Square.

Throughout April and early May, the committee has been gathering input from members of the University community as part of the process of developing the mandate and position profile for the University's next president and vice-chancellor.

Members of the University community are invited to meet with members of the committee May 24 to offer their perspectives and feedback in response to a draft profile, which will be posted on the Presidential Search website in advance of the drop-in session.

Input is also welcome through the committee’s confidential email, (presidentsearch@caldwellpartners.com ).

Members of the presidential selection committee are Board of Governors chair Dick Freeborough, chair of the presidential selection committee; Anita Acai, fourth-year B.Sc. co-op student; Graham Badun, a member of the Board of Governors; Prof. Julia Christensen Hughes, dean of the College of Management and Economics; Prof. Cate Dewey, chair of the Department of Population Medicine; Linda Hawkins, director of the Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences; Lisa Kellenberger, a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Sciences; Virginia McLaughlin, Board of Governors vice-chair and chair of the board’s governance committee; Brad Rooney, president of the University of Guelph Alumni Association; and Prof. Byron Sheldrick, chair of the Department of Political Science.

The group will recommend a presidential candidate to the Board of Governors. Under the University of Guelph Act, the board is responsible for appointing a president.

The new president is expected to be in place by summer 2014, when Alastair Summerlee’s second term will end.

This issue has been resolved.

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There is currently an issue with Blackberry synchornization affecting approximately 30 users. The issue is under investigation and we hope to have it resolved shortly.

From approximately 6:30 PM until 8:15 PM our Gryph Mail service providers reported indicators of degraded service.  At 8:00 PM corrective actions were taken and service has returned to normal.  This will be monitored closely to insure that the issue has been fully resolved,

 

The University of Guelph will introduce its third improviser-in-residence, Rich Marsella, during a public event downtown May 25.

Marsella will perform at Musagetes, 6 Dublin St. S., Ste. 103, from 7 to 9 p.m., with Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People.

His three-month sojourn on campus is sponsored by U of G’s Improvisation, Community and Social Practice (ICASP) and by Musagetes, a Guelph-based organization fostering community and culture through art.

ICASP is a seven-year-old collaborative research project on musical improvisation as a model for social change, funded mostly by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

It’s headed by Ajay Heble, a professor in U of G’s School of English and Theatre Studies and artistic director and founder of the award-winning Guelph Jazz Festival. He said Marsella has “a solid reputation for working directly with the community through music impact projects.

“Having Marsella work with the project strengthens our commitment to diverse musical multiplicity and collaboration through the promotion of improvisation and dynamic exchange with the cultural, communal and creative community of Guelph and beyond.”

Marsella, known as Friendly Rich, is a composer and avant-garde musician from Brampton, Ont. Known for his eclectic style, he has composed and produced nine albums and been featured on CBC Radio, MuchMusic, and MTV’s The Tom Green Show.

He runs a record label called The Pumpkin Pie Corp., and records and tours with his ensemble, The Lollipop People, especially in Europe.

Marsella is the founder and director of the Brampton Indie Arts Festival, and director of the Regent Park School of Music.

For his master’s degree in music at the University of Toronto, he studied instrument construction and parade pedagogy.

At U of G, Marsella will work with local groups and musicians, and will run workshops and ensemble performances to promote community-building and diversity through improvisation.

“It’s a chance to connect with Guelph in a way that I’ve always dreamed of,” Marsella said. “There’s something special in Guelph, and I want to tap into it and celebrate it with this project.”

He plans to study Russian composers during his residency.

He will hold monthly concerts at Silence, 46 Essex St., and a Halloween concert on campus, and will perform at the Guelph Jazz Festival, Sept. 7 at noon, at St. George’s Church.

Previous improvisers-in-residence at U of G were Jane Bunnett, Miya Masaoka, Scott Thomson and Susanna Hood.

A University of Guelph PhD candidate has received a Trudeau Scholarship, the most prestigious doctoral award in Canada. Geography student Chiara Camponeschi won the $60,000 scholarship from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation to study urban governance and environment. She is one of 14 Trudeau scholars named this year.

“This is a wonderful achievement for Chiara,” said president Alastair Summerlee. “It’s a tribute to her academic and research success, and to her dedication to helping change lives and improve life through participatory governance. It also recognizes the support and commitment of her mentors in the Department of Geography and the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences.”

Along with her adviser, geography professor Ben Bradshaw, Camponeschi studies urban sustainability and participatory governance, especially how cities and their residents adapt to climate change.

“I am delighted and honoured to be receiving this prestigious award, and I am looking forward to learning from this incredible community,” Camponeschi said.

“The scholarship will enable me to continue my research, to make valuable connections with thought leaders in the field, and to learn about best practices in innovative resilience planning in Canada and abroad.”

Begun in 2003, the Trudeau Scholarships support up to 15 doctoral candidates studying human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada and the world, and humans and their natural environment.

Besides receiving the three-year, $60,000 stipend, scholars interact regularly with other recipients and mentors, as well as academic and non-academic leaders.

“This cohort of scholars consists of the best minds in the best institutions studying critical and complex issues for Canadians and the world,” said P.G. Forest, president of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Originally from Rome, Camponeschi has worked with international organizations from grassroots groups to the United Nations. She was selected as Italy’s only Oxfam Action Partner for 2010-2013, and was recognized as a Young Agent of Change by Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation in 2011.

She completed a BA in political science and communications studies and a master’s degree in environmental studies at York University.

Two Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) professors are quoted in a Toronto Star story today on the increasing popularity of bengal and savannah cats, a genetic mixture of domestic and wild animals.

Gabriela Mastromonaco, curator of reproduction programs and research at the Toronto Zoo and an adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, discussed the crossover genetics involved in wild-domestic mixing and possible concerns. Cathy Gartley, a reproductive specialist and professor in OVC’s Department of Population Medicine, says humans have been living with wild cats as pets since civilization’s dawn, but that doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea.

An opinion piece by Donna Lero was published Sunday in the Toronto Star. The article, which appeared on Mother’s Day, looked at how and why mothers are still doing less paid work than fathers.

Lero, a professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, studies parental- and family-leave policies, workplace support for families and family care services, including child and elderly care services. She has held the Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work since its inception in 2003. The chair is housed in U of G’s Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being.

A column by Dave Scott-Thomas, head coach of the University of Guelph’s track and field and cross-country teams and the Speed River Track and Field Club, appeared in the Globe and Mail this past weekend.

In the column, Scott-Thomas discusses ways to reboot your spring running routine. He has written a regular running column in the Globe and Mail since 2011. He is one of Canada's most decorated coaches, with 24 national Coach of the Year titles, and has coached more than 30 national team athletes, including five Olympians.

Environmental Sciences professor Rebecca Hallett was featured on CBC’s online news page May 9. A smart phone application she helped develop is part of a story on new technology in farming.

Hallett developed the app with Tracey Baute, a field crop entomologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and a U of G graduate, and Christie Bahlai, a U of G grad student in environmental biology. Read more

Early this morning between 3:00am and 4:00am there was an issue in the CCS data centre which caused some services to go offline.   Many of the services restored on their own, however some returned with degraded service levels, these have been addressed as they were discovered.  The root cause is under investigation.

For the second year in a row, a women’s rugby player at the University of Guelph has been named the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) female Athlete of the Year. Britt Benn received the honour at the 2013 OUA awards banquet Thursday night in Gravenhurst, Ont.

Benn, a fifth-year student from Napanee, Ont., was also a finalist for the prestigious Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Athlete of the Year award this season. She was the fifth University of Guelph athlete to be nominated for the CIS honour.

She shared U of G’s female Athlete of the Year award in 2013.

Jacey Murphy, another women’s rugby Gryphon, received the OUA award in 2012. Male OUA Athlete of the Year for 2013 was Kyle Quinlan, quarterback with McMaster University’s football team.

Benn ends her varsity career with five selections as an OUA all-star, four OUA scoring titles and four all-Canadian nods.

In 2008 she was named the OUA Russell division Rookie of the Year. Since then, she has led Guelph to the podium in four trips to the CIS championships, including three bronze medals and one gold.

This year, Benn helped lead the team to a 6-0 record in league play, its fifth consecutive OUA title and a CIS championship silver medal.

In 2013, she was named CIS Player of the Year, CIS all-Canadian, CIS tournament all-star, OUA MVP, OUA all-star and the Gryphon team MVP. She led the conference in scoring with 80 points on 16 tries, eight more than the next highest player.

On Tuesday, May 14th between 6:00am to 8:00am CCS will be performing maintenance on the CCS Change Your Password and Directory Publication utilities.  Both utilities may be intermittently unavailable during this time.

The CCS Change Your Password utility will be upgraded to allow for passwords up to 14 characters and will enforce a stronger password policy.  The Directory Publication utility will be migrated from using Sun Access Manager for authentication (SSO) to Oracle Access Manager.

Environmental Sciences professor Rebecca Hallett is featured today on CBC’s online news page. A smart phone application she helped developed is part of a story on new technology helping the farming industry.

Farmers can use the app — Aphid Advisor — to decide whether or not to use insecticide to control aphids on soybeans, based on numbers of aphids and their natural enemies.

Hallett developed the app with Tracey Baute, a field crop entomologist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and a U of G graduate, and Christie Bahlai, a U of G grad student in environmental biology. It’s based on research conducted in the School of Environmental Sciences and the Department of Plant Agriculture. Read more

Novel ways of treating bacterial diseases such as meningitis and some bloodstream infections may one day result from a new discovery by University of Guelph microbiologists.

Uncovering a key piece of bacterial machinery that helps pathogens don a surface coat to outwit the body’s natural immunity might give physicians a new way to treat microbes causing serious illness and even death, said Lisa Willis, a PhD student in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB).

“It would be a new kind of antibiotic,” said Willis, lead author of a new paper published online last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Her co-authors are her adviser -- MCB chair Prof. Chris Whitfield -- and scientists at the National Research Council of Canada and the University of Alberta.

Willis said the team’s discovery promises a way to disrupt the protective surface coat of virulent bacteria. That would allow the body’s immune system to remove the pathogen normally.

“The bacteria can survive fine without this virulence factor in the lab – they just can’t cause disease,” she said.

The researchers cautioned that it may take years to develop treatments. Said Whitfield, “This identifies a good target for therapeutics, but drug discovery is a long process, followed by clinical trials of any new antibiotic.”

Using viruses that attack bacteria, Willis isolated and identified a critical component on the surface of many bacterial cells. Those microbes include pathogens causing meningitis and infections of the bloodstream and urinary tract in people, as well as bacteria that cause various livestock diseases.

Because the molecule is found in bacteria but not in humans, drug companies might target treatments without harming human cells, said Willis.

The researchers looked at enzymes needed to make the cell surface component, which is part of a larger sugar molecule.

“Without these enzymes, the cell can’t make these complex sugars and can’t assemble the surface coat,” said Whitfield. “If you’re able to target the initial enzyme, you turn the entire process off.”

Finding such a crucial target may help combat drug-resistant bacteria, he said. “This step is essential for these bacteria to cause disease. There is no secondary route that we know of that might fill the gap.”

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and by Whitfield’s Canada Research Chair in Molecular Microbiology.

Two University of Guelph football players were selected to play in the Canadian Football League during Monday’s 2013 CFL draft.

Jake Piotrowski and Cameron Thorn will play for the Montreal Alouettes and the B.C. Lions, respectively.

Piotrowski, a 6-foot-5, 293-pound offensive lineman, was selected 41st overall in the fifth round. Originally from Shanty Bay, Ont., he spent the 2012 season recovering from shoulder surgery. During the 2011 season, Piotrowski was named lineman of the year, playing in seven of eight games for the Gryphons. In 2012, he played in the East West Bowl at Western University.

Thorn, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound defensive lineman from Midhurst, Ont., was selected 58th overall in the seventh round. This past season, he played in eight regular-season games for the Gryphons and was involved in 19 tackles (14 solo, 10 assisted). He also recorded a sack for 11 yards and one breakup. Thorn also played in the 2012 East West Bowl.

 

 

May 10th update - Our service provider continues to investigate intermittent issues people have been having with Gryph Mail login.  One symptom is an extended wait for a Gryph Mail session to start on login followed by an error message: "500 Internal Server Error".  Root cause is unknown at this time and this issue has been escalated to Zimbra technical support (Zimbra is the provider of the email software technology used at Guelph).

As a workaround - some users have had success with closing their web browser and trying to login again.

Two new donations worth $700,000 will help a new University of Guelph institute tackle the world’s most important food issues through research, innovation and action.

The donations from Longo Brothers Fruit Markets and Darcy and Cathy Rector will support the U of G Food Institute. The gifts were made through the BetterPlanet Project, the University’s $200-million fundraising campaign for teaching and research in food, environment, health and communities.

“We are grateful for these critical foundational and leadership gifts,” said president Alastair Summerlee.

“They will allow Guelph experts from across the disciplines to engage with other bright minds worldwide in addressing our global food challenges.”

Besides being a powerful economic force and cultural symbol, food affects environmental sustainability and consumer health, Summerlee said.

Spanning all seven colleges at U of G, the Food Institute is believed to be the first such group addressing global issues in all aspects of food production, safety and security, as well as the impact of food on culture, economies and the environment.

The new institute will help the University to share its strengths in food education and research with food producers and processors, consumers, non-governmental organizations and other partners locally, nationally and internationally. It will involve faculty experts across campus as well as undergraduate and graduate students.

Longo’s $500,000 gift will establish the Longo’s Food Retail Innovation Fund and help create a research team to study grocery retailing and food service, technology, and health and wellness. The fund will be overseen by the College of Management and Economics.

"This unique opportunity to support new innovation in the food and grocery retail industry is very much in line with our own values of food, family, health and community,” said Anthony Longo of Longo Brother’s Fruit Markets Inc.

“We are very excited to be able to establish this new fund to support the new Food Institute, Guelph’s students, and, ultimately, the betterment of our communities."

A $200,000 contribution from Darcy and Cathy Rector is the first private gift to the Food Institute’s Founder’s Fund.

Darcy Rector is a successful food industry entrepreneur and an “ambassador” for Canadian food production and handling. He founded Rector Foods in Brampton, Ont., in 1978 before selling the company to Kerry (Canada) Inc.

“Cathy and I are excited to be part of a concept with the potential to realize a strong positive impact on our students as well as the Canadian food industry,” he said.

“The Food Institute represents a new way of looking at things – of sharing and collaboration, co-operation and problem-solving between the best minds in science, business and other vantage points.”

The Food Institute will include an international advisory panel to be led by Rob Gordon, dean of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College.

Its scientific director will be food science professor Rickey Yada, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Food Protein Structure and former scientific director of the Advanced Foods and Materials Network, previously based at U of G.

A business plan under development for the new institute will reflect fiscal challenges facing the University and the higher education system, said Rene Van Acker, OAC’s associate dean (external relations). “It’s important that we establish the institute with a sustainable business plan. It’s intended for the long term.”

Ken McEwan has been named director of the University of Guelph – Ridgetown Campus. McEwan’s five-year term began May 1.

The announcement was made today by Rob Gordon, dean of the Ontario Agricultural College. “I am extremely excited, as is the entire Ridgetown Campus community, by Ken’s vision and commitment to excellence for the Ridgetown Campus,” said Gordon.

“It has certainly been a pleasure to work closely with Ken in his interim role over the past 16 months, and I look forward to his leadership as director.”

McEwan has been acting interim director since Jan. 1, 2012. Earlier, he was research co-ordinator at Ridgetown.

As Ridgetown’s tenth director, he will oversee 120 faculty and staff and an annual budget worth more than $18.5 million.

McEwan joined the Campus in 1990 as a college professor in production economics and agribusiness, and is an adjunct professor in U of G’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics.

“Ken is a well-respected leader in the Ontario agriculture industry, and has clearly demonstrated ability in partnering with government and industry to enhance our important sector,” said Gordon.

Known as a strategic innovator, McEwan conducts applied research in agricultural economics and policy. He completed a master’s degree in agricultural economics and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture at the University of Guelph. He is a professional member of American and Canadian agricultural economics associations.

“I look forward to working with all our community stakeholders in this special leadership position,” McEwan said. “It is a privilege to have the opportunity to work with such dedicated educators and research scientists to advance Ridgetown Campus’s applied mandate that is so valued by our many industry partners, clients and alumni.”

McEwan succeeds Art Schaafsma, who served as director from 2007 to 2011. Schaafsma teaches and studies integrated pest management, and manages Ridgetown’s Centre for Agricultural Renewable Energy and Sustainability.

Five University of Guelph representatives received honours from the 18th annual Women of Distinction Awards Thursday night.

The awards were presented by the YMCA-YWCA to Guelph women who are inspirational leaders. U of G's Food Laureate, Anita Stewart, acted as the Honorary Chair of the event.

This year's recipients are Gayleen Gray, director of IT strategy and partnerships in Computing and Communication Services; Linda Hawkins, director of the Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship (ICES); Lynda Slater, an education specialist in the Centre for Students with Disabilities; Shawna Smith, a U of G student and former director of Student Volunteer Connections; and Julie Yager, a professor emerita in the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC).

They were among 39 women nominated for achievements in nine categories: arts and culture; business and entrepreneur; education and training; health, wellness and recreation; public sector; science and research; voluntary community services; information and technology; trades; young woman of distinction; and the Turning Point Award.

Gray, who is also the staff representative on U of G’s Board of Governors and University Senate, received the information and technology award for helping developing information technology policies and solutions. She volunteers for Action Read and the Guelph Humane Society.

Hawkins received the science, technology and research award for co-founding and directing ICES, and for serving as executive director of U of G’s Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being. She has served with World Vision International and Rural Women Making Change.

Yager was recognized for lifetime achievement in science, technology and research. As one of only seven women in her graduating class, she has been a role model and inspiration to women entering veterinary medicine. She was a professor in OVC’s Department of Pathobiology for more than 25 years. Her world-renowned research in veterinary pathology has been published in more than 100 books and research publications.

The voluntary community services award went to Slater for her work with adults and students with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, anxiety and depression. As a volunteer and leader with Habitat for Humanity, she chairs the women’s building committee, which raises money for housing.

Smith received the young woman of distinction award for outstanding scholastic achievements, leadership and community involvement. At U of G, she served as director of Student Volunteer Connections, organized the Do So Much Weekend conference, served on the U of G committee of World University Service of Canada, and organized a student challenge to raise money for refugees.