The school semester is coming to an end, which only means one thing: EXAMS.

Oh, how we all love exams–NOT!!

Some students do really well during exam time, but there are also many students who struggle with exams and the stress that surrounds them.

Jen Harold, a tutor at NAIT, tells NR92 about NAIT’s Tutorial Center and its purpose on campus, ” We’re here to help the students from becoming overwhelmed and stressed out during exam time as a result of cram studying. We offer weekly study skills workshops throughout the school semester that give the students tips and techniques to help them manage exam stress and studying.”

Some of the study skills workshops NAIT’s Tutorial Center offers are managing exam stress, exam preparation and writing, meditation basics as well as study skills booths where they offer a few tips  that’ll help the students out.

Harold, encourages all students to take advantage of the study skills workshops, illuminating that “they’re here to help you feel more confident so you know your ready to write your exams. That’s one of the most important things you need: just to believe in yourself and to know that you can do it.”

We’ve all got exams coming up within the next few weeks so here are eight tips we could all put into good use:

1. Believe in yourself. Be confident.

2. Avoid panic – don’t worry – take action!

3. Talk to a friend.

4. Take a break – Exercise – Play is just as important as work.

5. Take a deep breath.

6. Don’t dwell on past exams.

7. Eat some “super foods” like berries, bananas, fish, nuts and brocoli. They boost your concentration, energy and mood.

8. Remember time is of the essence.

It’s been over a month since the Canadian women’s hockey team won Olympic gold, but for local defender Meaghan Mikkelson, the ore on her neck still isn’t any heavier.
Mikkelson and many other staff and athletes from the Olympic and Paralympic Team Canada squads participated in a celebration ceremony at Churchill Square in Edmonton at the end of March.

“It was amazing,” Mikkelson said, a product of the St. Albert Minor Hockey Association, former Edmonton Chimo and Wisconson Badger. “It’s great for the city of Edmonton to have all the (local) athletes and staff that participated in the Games, the fact they wanted to recognize us. It’s a huge honour to represent Canada and your hometown. It was a great day to see everyone to come out and show their support.”

Although the adrenaline was pumping before the women’s hockey team stepped out on the ice in their first round-robin game against Slovakia, Mikkelson credited the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) for its job in making sure all the athletes felt at home and had every need catered to.
And that’s before the fan support. In a speech on Tuesday, curling skip Kevin Martin said that he had never before had the sort of fan-base he saw in Vancouver, where a stadium full of fans in the 10th end of the final game started singing an impromtpu rendition of the Canadian anthem.
Mikkelson agreed that the city was unbelievable.“It’s so hard to describe. Standing on the carpet and being presented with all my teammates, all we’ve been through as a team and individually, the different paths we took to get there. Singing the anthem with them with gold medals around our necks, in Canada, nothing will top that.”
Perhaps former Poet Laureate Alice Major said it best though before the crowd dispersed:
“But now it is their glowing faces… Not the sheen of medals, but the beautiful, inebriating joy. It reminds us all of how the body goes beyond itself. Unfailing. Becoming soul.”

It’s not an April Fool’s joke, on April first it was announced that Ooks men’s hockey coach Terry Ballard has been relieved of his duties.  Ballard had been working with the team for 14 years.  He had a record of 216 wins, 127 losses and 23 ties.

Athletics coordinator Gregg Merropoulis says that his overall record that wasn’t the problem, but his record during playoffs.  Under Ballard the team had 37 wins and 41 losses.  “We’ve gotten close to ACAC Championships, but for a program that’s prided itself with 17 ACAC Championships since the beginning of play back in the ‘70s, we really haven’t got there in the last few years,” says Merropoulis.  The team made the ACAC playoffs this year but was knocked out in the first round in a two game sweep by the Augustana Vikings.

“As the benchmark program in the conference we didn’t think it was living up to our standard that we needed it to so we have an opportunity now to look to change the direction so the decision was made to release Terry.”

A new head coach is just one of the changes Merropoulis would like to see.  He says money needs to be invested in the facilities to keep up with NAIT’s biggest competitor, SAIT that has recently made some major upgrades to its facilities.

Merropoulis says the new head coach will have to be well-rounded.  “We want somebody to engage the community and that was an area we thought needed a little bit of extra work,” he says.  “You have to be able to retract good people so, a recruiter…we need somebody who can recruit from a local and provincial level and get us the athletes that we need.”

A new head coach should be in place by May.

Last year the Make-A-Wish foundation’s Edmonton office decided it had a problem, it needed a new lobby. Their current lobby was plain with a few pictures, and they wanted to better reflect the attitude and work that the charity does. They still had one big problem though, being a charity, they didn’t have the money to hire a designer, or to complete the redesign. So they approached NAIT Interior Design instructors to ask for their help. The “Design Dilemma” was built into the curriculum for this year of the course, and yesterday the designs were unveiled and the winner was chosen from 12 submissions by students of the course.

“We were ecstatic, thrilled, we only wish that we had enough lobbies to do all of the designs. They all had wonderful ideas that we could pull from, and it was a very difficult decision to choose one winner,” says Cathy Gabucci, executive director of the Northern Alberta Make-A-Wish foundation.

That does still leave the other half of the “Design Dilemma” though, getting the job done. “We had given the students a budget of $5000, and we’re confident that the design that they created should come in within that budget.” The charity still needs to find someone to do the work, and a way of getting the money, before the students “dream lobby” can become a reality. “As soon as we go out there and pitch our idea to a sponsor hopefully we’ll be able to find somebody who will come forward and take the project on.”

As far as working with the instructors and student designers Gabucci says it was a pleasure, and that she would recommend it to other charitable organizations in the city. “It fit a need for both of us, we got the design that we needed, and they were able to contribute to a charity and learn from a real life scenario.”

Make-A-Wish is hoping to get the new lobby completed as soon as possible.

Being a student, and moving out on your own can be a bit nerve-wracking especially when you need to cover the costs of a place to live which for students in most cases constrains the bank account.

Financial advisor, Derek Weisbeck’s thinks your first step to moving out on your own should be to check classified ads as well as websites.

Here are a few websites to check out:

-       Craigslist

-       Rent Canada

-       Places 4 Rent

-       Gotta Rent

-       Facebook Marketplace (You must have login for this site!)

When looking for places to rent or buy, it helps to share accommodation. Derek Weisbeck says it’s very likely students won’t be able to afford a place of their own and most likely will have to rent. In terms of affordability you want to consider one or two roommates to make it easier on your bank account.

If you do decide to take on roommates you must ensure that the person you’re renting with is reliable, because they could move out on you, and you would be responsible for 100% of the rent or mortgage payment.

Covering the financial cost of a place is much easier said than done. Weisbeck also says its best to find a job in the field you’re pursuing, if not you may have to take an internship or pick up the slack else where till something more permanent comes through.

If you don’t have the time to take on a job you could also take out a student loan but in the end it’s money you have to payback. And being a student you don’t have that money to begin with so taking on debt is not the smartest idea.

UFC 111 is this Saturday, and while the main card is stacked with plenty of need-to-watch matchups, most Canadians will be watching the title fight between Quebec fighter Georges St. Pierre (GSP) and Englishman Dan Hardy.

St. Pierre has won his last six fights including three title defences against Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn and most recently Thiago Alves at UFC 100 in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Hardy has won his last seven contests including four since his UFC debut, defeating Akirho Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. Many believe that Hardy has been fast-tracked to the title and as a result, most NAIT students believe that St. Pierre will beat Hardy on Saturday.

“GSP because he’s pretty much the best out there,” said one automotive student at NAIT.

“GSP guaranteed, he has good take-down defence. Dan Hardy doesn’t have the experience he does. And GSP is Canadian,” laughed a carpentry student.

According to one Las Vegas bookkeeper, St. Pierre is a 13-1 favourite to win. The UFC is listening to street accountants: they have Hardy currently training with Serra, who pulled off an upset defeat over the Canadian in his first title defence at UFC 69 in April 2007.

UFC President Dana White has gone on record saying a win over Hardy would pretty much clean out the welterweight division for St. Pierre, who may go back to his wrestling roots and train to compete for Team Canada at the 2012 Olympics.

For the latest on everything mixed-martial arts, visit MMAJunkie.com

NAIT and the Ledcor Group have teamed up to create the Ledcor Group Research Chair in Oil Sands Environmental Sustainability.  It’s the first Chair of its kind at a Canadian college or technical institute and the first ever research chair for NAIT.  Each group contributed 1.5 million dollars to the project.

The Chair will research practical solutions to environmental problems in the oil sands.

Media Relations Coordinator Rayne Kuntz says the “practical applications” of the research are what are so important.  “It’s being done and decided on with what the industry wants,” she says.  “This is coming from industry saying we’ve got a problem, we want it solved, what can academia, what can NAIT do about it.”

The scientist who’s chosen to be the Chair will decide on the actual research based on his or her specialty.  “They have their areas of expertise, when you talk about green chemistry and environmental sustainability in the oil sands that’s really broad, there’s many different areas that you could focus on for research,” Kuntz says.  A board of NAIT and Ledcor panelists are reviewing the applicants and hope to have one chosen by July first with research starting after that in the summer.

One area that may be focused on is water.  “One of the big criticisms in the oil sands is the amount of water that’s used…tailings ponds, reducing wastes in the tailings ponds maybe extracting some of the stuff that goes into the tailings ponds.”

Students taking green chemistry courses such as environmental sciences as well as those in the Bachelor of Technology program will be able to touch on the research that will be done.

Most of the research will be done at NAIT’s South Campus research centre.

The Ledcor Group Research Chair in Oil Sands Environmental Sustainabilty is a NovaNAIT initiative.

The Canadian dollar is almost on par with the US dollar. This means that the price of goods imported from the United States will go down significantly. It is also a very good time to invest. Derek Wisebeck, Business graduate of NAIT says that if you’re on a student budget there are still investments better to put your money into than others.

“Given students cash flow needs, and regular occurrence and recurrence of their bills, they really should be sticking to GIC’s or Money Market Funds, anything that would be able to turn into cash fairly quickly and with no loss in principal.”

With the dollar so high, vacations to the United States are as inexpensive as they have ever been. Wisebeck says it would be beneficial to buy trips now rather than waiting.

“With the US dollar where it’s at, whether you’re looking at somewhere like Florida or Vegas for your spring break, it’s certainly much cheaper and you’re going to look at saving yourself perhaps 10 maybe f15 per cent over what you would have perhaps six months to a year ago.”

Wisebeck says that most things that Canadians buy are priced in Canadian dollars, and even with the Canadian dollars so high they will not be affected. Students could see a price decrease in a major part of their school fees.

“The textbooks that you purchase now as students are by and large printed and manufactured in the United States. The US dollar being close to on par with the Canadian dollar should drop the price of your textbooks in Canadian dollar terms.”

Lately the US dollar is experiencing some of the lowest exchange rates of the year while the Canadian dollar is showing no signs of slowing down. Like Wisebeck said if you are planning to invest or vacation in the States it would be wise to do it now.

As the Edmonton Rush were getting set to host the Boston Blazers, they also were playing host to one of the greatest athletes in his respective sport, Randy Couture.

Back in December of 2009 the Edmonton Rush entered into a very unique partnership. The Rush announces that the Rush had reached an agreement with UFC Hall of Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture.

Part of the partnership was the fact that Randy Couture attended this past weekend’s game against the Blazers. He also was able to participate in the Rush shoot around, which happened on Saturday afternoon.

Couture, who had never seen a lacrosse game live, was excited to get on the turf.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Couture, during a media event in Edmonton on Friday. “Actually getting on the field, getting a sense of the guys, the game and what the stick feels like. I’ve never held a lacrosse stick before. I’m sure I will suck but it will be a lot of fun.”

Another part of the partnership, Randy Couture hosted four Rush players at his training camp, Xtreme Couture. Xtreme Couture is the Las Vegas-based home training ground for Couture as he prepare for his next bouts, as well as the training facility for many other UFC fighters, including former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin.

Rush players Jimmy Quinlan, Brodie Merrill, Ryan McNish and Chris McElroy were welcomed to Xtreme Couture during training camp. There they were treated to intense mixed martial arts training for a week. For the players like Ryan McNish, the experience was exciting.

“For me, I am an UFC fan. Getting the chance to train with his camp, his kickboxing coach, his boxing coach, it was absolutely unbelievable,” said McNish. “At the end of the day we are training with Randy Couture.”

For the players this was unlike any other training they have experienced heading into the season. Instead of doing the traditional lacrosse exercises, the four Rush players were treated to the same workouts that Mixed Martial Arts fighters do in their training. The training was quite intense, but all was beneficial to any athlete, not just lacrosse players, according the legend Randy Couture.

“There was a core strength and conditioning program that we used for mixed martial arts that is good for any sport,” said Couture, as he also recognizes some similarities between lacrosse and mixed martial arts that his training helps. “There is a lot of physical contact in lacrosse, especially close in quarters fighting, the clench work, some of the wrestling and using the hand eye coordination from boxing all translated into good lacrosse.”

This training experience was just as much about learning another sport than just training for the National Lacrosse League season. The training features lots of sweat, pain and hard work. The word quit is never uttered, nor would it be allowed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever trained that hard, and I’ve spent 10 years in the military. Those guys are phenomenal athletes and I got nothing but respect for them,” McNish said of the mixed martial arts athletes.

The Rush hope to continue their agreement with Couture beyond the 2010 season, and try to get even more players to train with the UFC legend.

Moving forward we want to send players down there this summer to train,” says Rush President Sawyer.

The biggest hope the Edmonton Rush and Randy Couture partnership will bring to the Rush is the chance at getting in excellent fitness shape compared to other teams in the NLL.

As Sawyer says, he hopes this partnership will “take [our team] to the next level of conditioning in the NLL.”

The latest virus to take over the Internet is aiming at the world’s largest social networking site. A virus has been unleashed on Facebook via spam email. The virus comes as an email stating that your Facebook account password has been reset, the email subject line will state: Facebook Password Reset Confirmation Customer Support.

Half of Facebook users are between the ages of 18 to 25, and many NAIT students fall into this category of facing the virus.

April Phillips, a NAIT student says she’s always on Facebook, it’s a huge time killer and logs on at least 20 times daily.

Fact: Facebook has become the most visited website, taking number one from Google.

Facebook is the one site that people depend on to keep in touch with colleagues, family, and friends. It is the easiest site to rekindle a past without having to go out of your way to text or call someone because people check their Facebook at least five times a day. If a social media site like this were affected, it could cause frenzy amongst its users.

Philips feels that if Facebook were to go down in flames, she has no idea what she’d do with herself for a good while, unless another social media pops up like a jack in the box.

This virus is capable of stealing personal passwords, including login information for banking. Once you open the email it will begin downloading spyware. Keep in mind that Facebook’s policy is not to send any new passwords via attachments.