Success story of the month
An Interview with Ugyen Wangchuk
Urgyen shares his success story for our Youth SPARK readers- This
interview was conducted via email and facebook in March 2012.
Would you please introduce yourself to the readers of our Newsletter? I am Urgyen, a Tibetan Canadian. I was born in Nepal, outside of my country, Tibet. My parents fled Tibet when they were very young because of China’s invasion in 1959, and had grown up in refugee camps in India and Nepal. I came to Canada as a refugee when I was 16. From a very young age, I felt strongly about Tibet, and felt deeply connected to this high mountainous nation that I had only seen on TV. I believe our grandmother and parents played a very strong part in instilling a strong sense of identity and belonging, the fact that we were Tibetan. Naturally, I started getting involved in social awareness work for Tibet and Tibetan community events as I started to find my voice in Canada. I graduated from OCAD University with a degree in Graphic Design, and my thesis was on ‘The Evolving Design of Protest’. I currently work as the National Director of Students for a Free Tibet Canada, a grassroots chapter based organization that works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence.
Q2) How would you describe your experience being involved in Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program?
I have facilitated workshops in design, tutored high school students in art after school and participated in talks about post-secondary education preparation in 2010.
Q3) Why do you think a newcomer youth should join the Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program?
I think it’s a great way to learn about the resources available to Youth in Toronto to help them kick start their education and career paths, and learning about community activities.
Q4) What did you get out of this program that helped you achieve your goals?
I believe in learning from teaching, and with facilitating workshops I was able to greatly improve my teaching and facilitating skills, as well as revising my own design knowledge. I have gone on to do a similar design workshop in a College in India where it received a very positive feedback. The Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program has also helped me sharpen my communication skills with audiences, which is crucial for someone who advocates for human rights and freedom for a people. I was also able to use my experience in the program as a reference for current my current job as Nation Director for SFT Canada. So, I would like to thank Kalsang and Newcomer Youth Program in providing me with the wonderful opportunity to provide support for other newcomer youth.
Click here to read the full interview.
Would you please introduce yourself to the readers of our Newsletter? I am Urgyen, a Tibetan Canadian. I was born in Nepal, outside of my country, Tibet. My parents fled Tibet when they were very young because of China’s invasion in 1959, and had grown up in refugee camps in India and Nepal. I came to Canada as a refugee when I was 16. From a very young age, I felt strongly about Tibet, and felt deeply connected to this high mountainous nation that I had only seen on TV. I believe our grandmother and parents played a very strong part in instilling a strong sense of identity and belonging, the fact that we were Tibetan. Naturally, I started getting involved in social awareness work for Tibet and Tibetan community events as I started to find my voice in Canada. I graduated from OCAD University with a degree in Graphic Design, and my thesis was on ‘The Evolving Design of Protest’. I currently work as the National Director of Students for a Free Tibet Canada, a grassroots chapter based organization that works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence.
Q2) How would you describe your experience being involved in Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program?
I have facilitated workshops in design, tutored high school students in art after school and participated in talks about post-secondary education preparation in 2010.
Q3) Why do you think a newcomer youth should join the Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program?
I think it’s a great way to learn about the resources available to Youth in Toronto to help them kick start their education and career paths, and learning about community activities.
Q4) What did you get out of this program that helped you achieve your goals?
I believe in learning from teaching, and with facilitating workshops I was able to greatly improve my teaching and facilitating skills, as well as revising my own design knowledge. I have gone on to do a similar design workshop in a College in India where it received a very positive feedback. The Parkdale Newcomer Youth Program has also helped me sharpen my communication skills with audiences, which is crucial for someone who advocates for human rights and freedom for a people. I was also able to use my experience in the program as a reference for current my current job as Nation Director for SFT Canada. So, I would like to thank Kalsang and Newcomer Youth Program in providing me with the wonderful opportunity to provide support for other newcomer youth.
Click here to read the full interview.
Youth Creative Spot
By Rabyang
Literature
The Grey
Rated 14A - a movie review by rigden
Read more reviews from STOM youth team by clicking here!
After hearing rave reviews for this Liam Neeson thriller, I had really high expectations for this movie. So with popcorn in one hand and a medium Nestea in the other, I headed into the dark room looking forward to a good time!
Okay, I’m just going to say it, “The Grey” was really good…and I mean like REALLY good! It had me at the edge of my seat for I-don’t-know-how-long and the suspense and the build up in this movie were top notch. And don’t even get me started on the fact that thanks to this movie, I’ll probably never be able to view wolves in the same way without being completely petrified ever again.
The plot is simple, a bunch of guys get caught in a plane crash and are stranded in the middle of nowhere. They’re in the cold with no food and to make matters much worse, there’s a pack of wolves just popping out of nowhere and picking them off one by one. At its core, “The Grey” is basically a man VS nature movie and…nature is really pissed at man. . It may sound cliché but the wolves in this movie bring a whole new dynamic to this movie and make it totally awesome. It’s obvious that ‘man’ won’t be able to fight off the wolves so they have to use their brains and stick together. That’s where Liam Neeson comes in. Liam plays one of the passengers on that plane who happens to be a wolf know-it-all and who may be their only chance for survival.
Now like any other movie, Liam Neeson was great in it. It’s already been established that this guy is a great actor, and once again, he did not disappoint. Even if the rest of the cast sucks I can pretty much always count on this guy to carry the whole movie and make it somewhat bearable, but thankfully, this was not the case in “The Grey”. The entire cast was great and made the movie seem really believable. I actually believed that they were in this terrible situation and saw myself in their shoes. And for that, I give them props! Great job in making me feel really uncomfortable for about 2 hours and perhaps emotionally scarring me with a fear of wolves for the rest of my life!
Now a little bit on the serious side, this movie is rated 14-A, so that means this movie is going to be loaded with some pretty mature stuff. There were F-bombs thrown here and there and a lot of blood and gore thanks to the wolves! However I didn’t notice any smoking scenes in the movie, so I’m quite relieved to know that kids won’t feel the need to grab a cigarette and take toke in a silly attempt to look cool after watching this movie. Later I learnt that a few of my colleagues had seen a second or two of smoking even though I personally didn’t notice anything I’m guessing the smoking is very insignificant in this movie as I missed it even when I was trying to look for them. I’m fairly content that smoking (if there was one) in this movie would be of no harm to anyone and that the ratings for the movie needs no change.
As for the movie, I would recommend this to everyone as a must-see movie! It has all the ingredients for an awesome, edge of the seat thriller and is captivating to the very end. It showcases some very realistic acting (you actually feel chilly as you watch them struggle in the snow!!) with an epic Liam Neeson fighting wolves and prefect pacing. I had a wonderful time watching “The Grey” and I give it a whopping 4.5 stars out 5!!
February in Review by Kalsang
The
highlights of the month were the featuring of our video of Youth Flashmob for
Immigrant & Refugee Children’s Rights on Canadian Council of Refugee’s
official national campaign site and the publication of STOM project article by
youth members in the Forum magazine of Youth Action Network.
Language Skills Development for Newcomer Youth - Wednesdays
There were four sessions held in February on Wednesdays. The first two sessions were on the subject of bullying as the choices made by youth participants in winter focus group discussion held in January. During the integrated learning session; through games, discussion, reading, presentation and skids, youth learned about various characteristics of bullying - definition, myths, relationship between hate crime and bullying, Canadian stats on bullying and cyber bullying. Read more here.
Language Skills Development for Newcomer Youth - Wednesdays
There were four sessions held in February on Wednesdays. The first two sessions were on the subject of bullying as the choices made by youth participants in winter focus group discussion held in January. During the integrated learning session; through games, discussion, reading, presentation and skids, youth learned about various characteristics of bullying - definition, myths, relationship between hate crime and bullying, Canadian stats on bullying and cyber bullying. Read more here.
CALENDAR: Newcomer Youth Program's Weekly Schedule
Opportunity
Win a Free Movie Ticket!
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Check OutMarch Break Activities for Newcomer YouthVOICES: Newcomer Youth Film Festival by YMCA at TIFF BELL Lightbox!Free Dental Care for Youth!
Youth under 17?Toronto Public Health offers free and low cost dental services in our clinics. We also work with many community health centres,community agencies and private dentists throughout the city to make sure you get the treatment you need.
Can everyone get free dental care? We offer dental services to eligible children and youth (0-17 years),adults enrolled in selected Toronto Public Health programs, andseniors (65 years and older). http://www.toronto.ca/health/dental/free_dental_care.htm over 17 and need Dental Care?
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© Copyright 2010 - 2012: Newcomer Youth Program of PIA/PCIC partnership. All rights reserved.
Managing Editor: Kalsang Dolma (Youth Settlement Worker - ISAP)
2012 Youth Editorial Board:
2012 Youth Editorial Board:
- Tsewang Dhargyal
- Dudoul Tenzin
- Rigden Lhawang
- Tenzin Rabyang
- Tenzin Choeyang
- Tenzin Namsel
- Bipin Aasi
- Namdol Lama