Features | Page 30 | Ontario Agricultural College

Features

Donald Skinner ouside wearing blue coat

Q&A with a swine nutritionist

Donald Skinner is a swine nutritionist with Molesworth Farm Supply and has been in that role since January 2013. He’s a member of the OAC Alumni Association board of directors and sat down with us recently to chat about his role, his love for the industry and highlights from his time on campus.

Head shot of Riley.

Q&A with Chudleigh’s farm manager

During his time at the University of Guelph (U of G), Riley was a busy student. He played 4 years of rugby, while also being on the Dean’s Honours list (academic average of 80% or above). In his senior undergrad years he conducted research trials on the growth of Lupin, a yellow legume, in Ontario. Today, Riley is the farm manager at Chudleigh’s in Milton and we recently chatted with him about his new role.  

A group of older students walk together outside, with an illutration of a storefront and pop-up space floating above them

Making your community POP!

Did you know you could transform your local strip mall parking lot into a radiant community space? Or convert a side walk into an urban garden?

Introducing… the pop-up parklet.

Landscape architects are using colourful and creative ways to reclaim communities’ under-utilised urban spaces to transform them into community hubs. Large cities like Toronto need to rethink their suburban arterials to create high quality community spaces for their growing populations.  Pop-up parklets are an inexpensive, easy and fun solution to this problem.

Head shot of Deron.

One giant leap for plant scientists

Imagine being the first person on the moon. Imagine the adrenaline, the excitement, the sensory overload. You and your colleagues have put years, decades of dedicated hard work into your joint efforts – all knowing that your footsteps would be the first of many to come. 

It may seem like a daydream to most, but for Deron Caplan it’s a reality… so to speak. 

Head shot of Peter.

International ice cream man

Peter Hopps knew from a young age that he wanted to work for the largest dairy in Canada, and that’s exactly what he did. He achieved his goal right after graduating from the University of Guelph by working for Silverwoods Dairy. So he set himself a new goal: to work for the world’s largest chain of ice cream shops, Baskin Robbins.

Head shot of Carol.

Food science humanitarian

Carol Chui lives and works in one of the world’s most secretive states: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or known to most as North Korea.

She moved to the capital city, Pyongyang, two years ago to work with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as a food technologist.

“Every country faces its own issues,” she says. “There are three sides to this country. There is the dramatized media view, there is how the country presents itself, and then there is the real thing. There is food insecurity and under-nutrition, and that’s why we are here.”

Head shot of Erin.

Rebuilding Home

Erin O’Neill was working for the Municipality of Wood Buffalo as a planner, looking after the municipality’s real estate interests, when her world changed.

On May 3, 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, was devastated by wildfires that forced more than 80,000 people from their homes. At $3.7 billion in damage, it was Canada’s costliest disaster, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Erin, with the rest of her community, was evacuated and unable to return home. But on May 15, she returned to Fort McMurray at a city manager’s request.

Head shot of Dave.

Writing his own "Jungle Book"

Looking into the eyes of a tiger, rehabilitating birds of prey, developing formula for a newborn polar bear cub: caring for some of the world’s most revered and dangerous animals under an increasingly critical public eye, is no walk in the park. But for Dave Barney, it was all in a day’s work. 

Des laughs with a class mate.

Showing RESPECT

Desmond (Des) Doran has been a student, husband, father, teacher, researcher, economist, world traveller, equity and diversity champion and activist. At 82, he is also a man of many stories, experiences and reflections.

Here are a few of those stories about a life best summarized by the Jamaican greeting: “Respect.”

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