Connections Archive

Brenton Stacey
Editor

PHOTOGRAPHER NOW OFFICIALLY AN AWARD WINNER
Kudos to desktop publisher Ann Stafford of audio visual services--she received best news photo in the 2006 Hindson Awards. The awards recognise the importance of contributors, and the quality of material submitted, to Record, the weekly newsmagazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific. Ann's photograph of Julie Stefani and Dr Arthur Patrick cutting a cake to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Homecoming this past year won the unanimous vote of the Record editors. The editors said the photograph "told the story in one-one hundredth of a second, capturing the spirit of the occasion and drawing the reader into the story." Ann's award is official recognition of a talent we often take for granted.

BEACH BAPTISM FOR STUDENT LEADER
Danielle Quick, student president on the Lake Macquarie campus this year, is celebrating, too. She decided to get baptised while attending the Christmas worship service at her local Seventh-day Adventist church in Clarkson, Western Australia. Not one to muck around, Danielle and the minister of the church, Daniel Hanbury, organised the baptism, held at Whitford Nodes beach, in five days.

CAF FOOD CHEAPER THAN COLES
It is almost a rite of passage to criticise the cost of the food in the cafeteria on the Lake Macquarie campus. So, here's a different view, from an international student who stayed on campus but had to buy food off campus throughout the summer. He spent more than $70 a week, "and that's on average, and not counting all the times I was too lazy to cook and went to Subway or Domino's." The lesson: if you're trying to eat healthily and cooking for yourself, it's more expensive to cook three meals a day. "Considering my bread moulds faster than I can run to the gate and back . . . I'd rather take my chances with the caf."

NEW AUSSIES KISS ON COVER
We loved the photograph of staff members Rose and Keith Howson (she's project manager for AIMS; he's dean of the business faculty) kissing on the cover of February 1's Lake Macquarie News. The two were among the 107 people who became Aussie citizens at Speers Point Park on Australia Day.

AVIATION SCHOOL RECOGNISED
Chief flying instructor Garry Fraser didn't get cover treatment but he did get quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald vocational education supplement on January 21. Garry talked up the range of opportunities for the college's School of Aviation graduates in an article about transforming the desire to fly for a living into reality. "Students who want a job when they leave here usually pick one up within three to five months," he said. You can't beat that kind of PR. Oh, and the school received approval from the New South Wales Vocational Education Training Accreditation Board to offer a nationally accredited course--a Certificate IV in Transport and Distribution (aviation flight operations).

WISDOM: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO WE GET IT?
The beginning of the academic year might be a good time to reconsider Dr Geoff Arnold's presentation at the last colloquium in 2006. "What is widsom?" he asked before proposing a model--which suggests wisdom operates in our lives as a profound and practical matter--for considering the question. Dr Arnold described the question as perpetually new and reflexive, challenging our capacities to be adaptive, creative and flexible. The key point: this openness requires an attitude of humility rather than excessive certitude.--Dr John Watts

NAME HAS HISTORY
Finally, a nod to our history buffs (or long-serving staff members). The name of this new column is the name of the original Connections. Tattler, published for the first time in 1970, was a one-page, single-sided A4 announcement sheet produced by the dean of the students.