Behind every scoop of chickpea flour, gummy worms, or almonds sold at Bulk Barn is one passionate and determined Niagara College alumnus. 

Jason Ofield, President and CEO of Bulk Barn Canada, and a 2005 graduate of the Business – Sales and Marketing program, will return to campus virtually for the College’s Speaker Series on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Ofield will talk with NC students, staff, faculty and alumni about heading up the country’s largest bulk food retail chain during the event hosted by the Division of Business, Tourism and Environment.

He will also discuss his time at Niagara and how it prepared him for his career, the impact of the pandemic on his business and how it will effect retail long-term. In addition, Ofield will share the importance of sustainability and the story of Bulk Barn’s reusable container program, which is a significant personal and professional accomplishment. 

The event happens at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 16 on Zoom.

The following story was written by freelance writer Deborah Reid:

Wanito Bernadin, a 2003 graduate of Niagara College’s Business Administration – Marketing (Co-op) program, is the person you hire to handle a potential crisis. Even in a casual conversation, the depth and strength of his character are apparent. He’s intelligent, emanates calm, and is precise and measured in delivering a message. Public speaking is integral to his work, and his people skills are rare and exceptional. He manages expectations upwards and wants his staff to enjoy the freedom of focusing on their tasks to function at an optimal level.

As Chief Information Officer for the National Capital Commission of Canada – the largest property owner in Ottawa – his oversight includes heritage buildings, agricultural facilities, infrastructure like bridges and parklands, and the six official residences. His mandate is to ensure the capital is a source of pride for all Canadians.

Cybersecurity is also in his portfolio. “We are stewards of the national assets,” said Bernadin. “Things are going well when no one is talking about it.”

On Saturdays, Bernadin delivers a message of faith to the congregation at the Ottawa Seventh-day Adventist Church. Joy and passion emanate from him as he shares his gift as an eloquent orator. Service to the community is a cornerstone of his life – he counsels church members and feeds and cares for people living in distressed communities in the city.

“I was raised with the understanding that nothing we have is truly our own,” he said. “The resources are for us to manage and leverage to benefit ourselves and those around us.”

His mission at work and church is to get people to imagine what change will look like – to reduce fear and anxiety and help make the way forward clear.

Bernadin asked the computer animation and design team to create a 3-D model of Ottawa’s core to troubleshoot problems related to infrastructure change. In partnership with Carleton University’s Immersive Media Studio, they designed a digital twin of the city centre that allows architects and engineers to test ideas, mitigate bad decisions, improve collaboration among government stakeholders, and use in public consultation.

The project has had a positive impact on hundreds of internal employees and thousands in the consultation phase. It’s been applied to the current LeBreton Flats project and is considered for national asset management in other parts of the country. “It demonstrates the great things that can be done when partnerships arise and people work together,” said Bernadin.

Bernadin’s parents were Haitian immigrants who landed in Montreal in the early 1980s. Until the age of seven, he received an abundance of love and care from his mother. But he had a desire to live with his dad and siblings. When he was 11 years old, his dad went back to school after doing a host of jobs to keep his family afloat. His father earned a master’s degree in sociology and recreation studies. Being a student alongside a parent made a lasting impression – his father modelled the benefits of life-long learning.

To manage his large team, Bernadin employs horizontal learning. He knows enough about each area to collaborate on strategies and report upwards but trusts the in-depth knowledge of subject matter experts. “The idea is to multiply capacity, not limit it,” he said.

When asked about future ambitions, his response demonstrates humility. “I never imagined I would be here, and I enjoy it so much I have trouble looking beyond,” said Bernadin. “There are other roles I could aspire to in the government of Canada with more prestige, but they would have less humanity; given my skill set.”

Seven distinguished members of Niagara College’s alumni community have been nominated for Colleges Ontario’s prestigious 2021 Premier’s Awards. Each week leading up to the awards presentation on November 18, we are sharing stories about our nominees to celebrate their accomplishments. All stories were submitted by NC Development and Alumni Relations and written by freelance writer Deborah Reid.

Related article: Meet this year’s NC nominees for Premier’s Awards

The following story was written by freelance writer Deborah Reid:

As a reporter working at the Winnipeg Free Press, Ryan Thorpe pursued a story that broke his young career just two years out of Niagara College’s Journalism program.

Thorpe, who graduated in 2017, infiltrated a para-Nazi group recruiting in Winnipeg and identified the leader as Patrik Mathews, a combat engineer in the Canadian military. The exposure sent Mathews fleeing to the U.S., and in January 2020, he was arrested by the FBI for planning a terror attack. Thorpe went to Maryland to cover his guilty plea in June 2020 and returned this past October to cover his sentencing: 9 years in U.S. federal prison.

Thorpe’s work landed him on every Canadian national news broadcast and CBC’s As It Happens. He was a guest on an Australian podcast, media in Israel covered the story and a podcast is currently in development with CBC.

If it’s not obvious, Thorpe is driven, intelligent, has steely nerves and tends to detail. The pace of daily news and working to a deadline suits his character. Some of that comes from his training – he name drops professors who conveyed solid lessons. “I wanted to do journalism and get away from the prairies,” he said. “I knew I had a knack for investigative reporting.”

While at school, his interest in social justice issues led him to report as part of a team on food bank use in southern Ontario and student mental health on post-secondary campuses – an award-winning investigation.

The editors at the Winnipeg paper know the full measure of Thorpe’s talents, as do veteran reporters who have been generous with him. He continues to write about challenging public interest stories like residential schools and racism in emergency services. “I’m fortunate to work in a place that still funds investigative reporting because it isn’t cheap and it’s time-consuming,” he said. “I want to continue to do public interest, watchdog journalism.”

He adheres to the credo of the American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh: “Read before you write.”

That’s evident in his six-part series on Stony Mountain prison deaths. For it, he reviewed three years of press releases from Corrections Canada and inquest reports on custody deaths in Manitoba going back two decades. What he identifies is a 15-month period where it was the deadliest prison in Canada. Judges had told Corrections Canada there was an easy fix, but they did nothing. “I kept reading, reporting, and developing sources,” said Thorpe.

There’s no doubt this career will take him to the places he sets his sights on. He lists Canadian journalists he admires like Jana G. Pruden and Robyn Doolittle of The Globe and Mail and Justin Ling. A young reporter will someday add his name to the list.

Thorpe’s commitment to public discourse and creating a democratic society is serious. “I feel proud to work at a newspaper that’s the only publication in the city with reporters at the legislature, city hall, and the courthouse,” he said. “I’d like to think my work has had a positive impact, to put checks on power.”

Seven distinguished members of Niagara College’s alumni community have been nominated for Colleges Ontario’s prestigious 2021 Premier’s Awards. Each week leading up to the awards presentation on November 18, we are sharing stories about our nominees to celebrate their accomplishments. All stories were submitted by NC Development and Alumni Relations and written by freelance writer Deborah Reid.

Related article: Meet this year’s NC nominees for Premier’s Awards

The following story was written by freelance writer Deborah Reid:

Stunning is the word that leaps to mind looking at Priyanka’s sultry pose on the cover of the June 2021 edition of Elle Canada, dressed in a shimmering gown of delicate silver chainmail and crystals. The impact multiplies knowing that beauty has always been inside Mark Suknanan, a 2012 graduate of Niagara College’s Broadcasting – Radio, Television and Film program. It’s obvious, too, in speaking with him that his Guyanese parents did a good job of loving him – he’s human, humble and a whole lot of fun.

Suknanan recalls watching an Oprah interview with RuPaul where she asks the well-known drag personality if there’s a change in character in and out of drag. RuPaul replies, “I am not in drag escaping. In drag, I am myself.”

When Canada’s Drag Race premiered in July 2020, Canadians cheered Priyanka on. During the impossible months of pandemic isolation, she stole hearts, lifted flagging spirits and offered an escape from fear and anxiety. About the audition, Suknanan says, “I knew in my heart my life was going to change.”

That’s not the first time the “Queen of the North” had that feeling either. He can remember in detail when Michael Strachan at “The Zone” asked him to be a correspondent on YTV. A ten-year strong career in children’s television was a solid foundation. He knew how to play to the camera, create storylines and engage with a demanding audience of kids almost daily.

Suknanan’s first dream was to be a Much Music VJ. A couple of “adults” tried to plant seeds of doubt in him about his career path. But he was having none of it. “In the world of show business, people can’t always imagine you in the space,” he said, “so you have to show them.”

Priyanka was the first to win Canada’s Drag Race, but she was also the first queen of Indo-Caribbean descent in the worldwide Drag Race franchise. “One of the reasons I’m so happy to represent the Guyanese community and to be a brown person having success is because I was mostly alone growing up,” said Suknanan.

It was no surprise to his mother or friends when he started doing drag shows in Toronto’s gay village at 26. Now, five years later, he’s headlining Priyanka’s “Taste Test” tour, with shows in Canada and a run in the UK this past summer. There’s a newly released five pop song EP, Cake, with a murder mystery video that Suknanan had a big hand in crafting also.

“There were hard things said to me when I was young about the way I look, and I decided not to take them into consideration, and I decided to work hard and push forward and make all of these things,” he said.

Follow Priyanka on social media, and it’s clear every day is a new adventure. She’s not stopping at being Canada’s favourite drag queen. The world around her is full of wonder and opportunity, and she’s seizing it. This moment, and many beyond it, was made for Priyanka. ‘What’s her name?’

Seven distinguished members of Niagara College’s alumni community have been nominated for Colleges Ontario’s prestigious 2021 Premier’s Awards. Each week leading up to the awards presentation on November 18, we are sharing stories about our nominees to celebrate their accomplishments. All stories were submitted by NC Development and Alumni Relations and written by freelance writer Deborah Reid.

Related article: Meet this year’s NC nominees for Premier’s Awards

A group of College volunteers and alumni put the ‘NC’ in ‘making a difference’ at a recent community event aimed at environmental sustainability at Twelve Mile Creek.

On the morning of Sunday, October 17, they gathered on a Pelham property to participate in a Bring Back the Brookies initiative. Hosted by the Niagara chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada (TUCN), Bring Back the Brookies is a learning and restoration program focused on preserving and protecting aquatic habitat in Upper Twelve Mile Creek. The education and planting event was one of eight Bring Back the Brookies ‘Days of Action’ planned during the month of October, funded with support from the Great Lakes Local Action Fund.

The event was organized by TUCN Project Coordinator Kerry Kennedy, who is an alumna of NC’s Ecosystem Restoration program (2009) and wife of College president Sean Kennedy. She reached out to the College’s Office of Sustainability for volunteers to participate in the initiative as an opportunity to learn about brook trout as an indicator species of overall watershed health.

“If brook trout can survive, it means the key components of a healthy ecosystem are in place to support a diverse cold water community,” she said. “It’s also an opportunity to take action to improve resilience and mitigate climate change impacts on the watershed and the community. Planting trees and increasing forest cover help to address increased water temperatures and flood damage in the region.”

Kerry was inspired to enroll in NC’s Ecosystem Restoration program after moving to the Niagara region from Alberta and wanting to learn more about Niagara’s unique environment.  She noted that a large component of the program focuses on stream dynamics and aquatic ecosystems, which helped her to understand the potential impact of built environments on watershed health, along with opportunities to find solutions to these challenges.

Kerry became a member of TUCN and a volunteer on the chapter’s education committee before taking on the role as Project Coordinator in April. Passionate about activities that combine nature and education, she has also led the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation Youth Crops for the past two years, is President of the Niagara Falls Nature Club, and will be working part-time with the District School Board of Niagara Outdoor Education Centres throughout the school year.

Kerry applauded NC’s student volunteers who attended the Sunday morning event “with enthusiasm and an all-in attitude.”

“They were uber positive, friendly and ready for some fun before tackling the challenging planting conditions in this meadow,” she said. “We’re very appreciative that they chose to support the Bring Back the Brookies project and we hope they spread the word about Upper Twelve Mile Creek issues and solutions with their growing audience. They are proud and eloquent ambassadors for Niagara College.”

Amber Schmucker, Sustainability Program and Outreach Coordinator, was thrilled that NC students were invited to participate and issued a call for volunteers through the Office of Sustainability.

“Over the past 1.5 years, there have been limited opportunities for students to get involved with environmental work in their community,” she said. “Now that it is safe to do so, community initiatives like the Bring Back the Brookies are great opportunities for students to practice and hone the skills they learn at NC, outside of the classroom.”

Second-year Environmental Technician student Lindsay Taylor valued the opportunity to get involved and noted that the initiative provided her and her peers with a good sense of what sustainability looks like at the community level. Taylor has not only been working with NC Sustainability as part of her co-op placement, she also recently formed ncStewards, a club of environmentally focused students on campus which has been collaborating with NC Sustainability for various initiatives.

Once the participants arrived, they had a chance to walk the property and take in the information displayed on multiple, easy-to-read signs about the Twelve Mile Creek watershed and the importance of particular water quality parameters for brook trout. They watched a demonstration on how to use planting equipment before they set forth to begin planting smaller vegetation on a nearby field.

Before the planting began, the group had an opportunity to participate in a fun Frisbee activity. Equipped with a series of Frisbees which featured a brief description of the life-cycle phase attached to one side and a representative image of the brook trout on the other, the team was tasked with putting the Frisbees in order, from the beginning of the life-cycle to the end.

“I appreciated how Kerry Kennedy, the event coordinator, organized an all-ages fun activity for us to play before getting our hands dirty,” said Taylor. “It helped to raise our spirits and create a sense of camaraderie among people we were meeting for the first time.”

The event also captured the interest of NC President Sean Kennedy, who embraced the opportunity to assist as well as participate alongside the students.

“He was interested in seeing the work I’d been planning and helping out with this initiative,” said Kerry. “When he learned Niagara College was coming, this seemed like the perfect day to tuck his pants into his socks, put on some work gloves, get dirty and have a chance to connect casually with this engaged group of Niagara College students and the many alumni who were working to support the project.”

The October 17 morning event drew six student volunteers from NC, the College president and five Ecosystem Restoration alumni — three who assisted with the project leadership and two who volunteered as participants.

Other sessions were also organized on October 16 and on the afternoon of October 17 involving other groups from the community. More than 230 participants have registered for the overall series of Bring Back the Brookies events.

Bring Back the Brookies

For information about Bring Back the Brookies visit bringbackthebrookies.ca.

ncStewards

ncStewards represents a group of environmentally focused Niagara College students. Their goal is to promote and engage in practices that further the objective of sustainability on campus and within the Niagara community. NC Sustainability and ncStewards went on to collaborate for various events and activities. Visit ncstewards.ca or follow the group on Instagram at @ncstewards.