March 2011

After a well-deserved winter vacation we're back, and already half way through the 2011 Spring Term! "Spring" Term, however, seems a bit of a misnomer at the moment: crystalline water is falling gently from the sky and the academic building is being guarded by two life-size snow bears, evidence of the huge snow-dump over the weekend.

This time last year the Olympics were in full swing and students were exploring Borneo, Argentina, and New York, among other places. This year we're just as busy, with a bustling arts scene, non-stop winter sports, and, as always, constant, fascinating, and demanding academic pursuits.

Congratulations to Dustin Eno and Megan Myles, the newly-elected President and Vice President (respectively) of the Student Representative Council for the 2011/2012 school year, and to the whole Quest community for great articles in both The Vancouver Sun and Maclean's!

Student Life Highlights

So far, Spring Term has been full of great arts and culture events. In the music department, we've had frequent open mic nights and drumming workshops. Quest's music collective group Fogon is beginning to make a name for itself in the Sea-to-Sky corridor, recently opening for Latin Funk Rock band Santa Lucia LFR. In addition to the drumming workshops, students have been honing their scriptwriting skills through a series of workshops, and workshops in drawing, watercolor, contact improvisation, and Balinese Gamelan music are coming up. Student Affairs sponsored an "Arts Slam" competition in February: one found object per team, and 24 hours to create an inspired piece of artwork. For Chinese New Year, tutor Fei Shi took a group of Questers down to Vancouver for the February 6th parade and some authentic Chinese cuisine. Students continue to hold French and Spanish tables once a week and, new this term, weekly informal Portuguese classes taught by Ligia, one of our Portuguese students!

Quest has also been charging hard in athletics - both varsity and intramural, competitive and recreational. Both the Men's and Women's Basketball teams have had strong seasons - a highlight was the last home games of the season against Capilano. Both games were extremely close, with the men winning their game while the women lost by just a few points. We are also pleased to announce that Jonas Worth, who worked with Quest last year as the Women's Assistant Soccer Coach, has now joined Quest as the Head Coach for the Men's Soccer Team. In other news, Quest club sports have been, as always, a constant source of stress relief - soccer, football, volleyball, yoga, dance, curling, and, thanks to Student Affairs, twice-weekly shuttles to Brennan Park for early-morning lap swims. In January, Quest's Right to Play club hosted a 24-hour erg-athon (in which the Quest team did remarkably well). The SRC-funded Kermode Bouldering Wall is coming along quickly and March will mark the beginning of the second Quest Sailing season!

For those who need their snow-sport fix, we've had weekly Wednesday night shuttles to the Olympic cross-country ski venue in the Callaghan Valley as well as weekend shuttles to Whistler. In other snow-fun news, over the January block break the Adventure Club offered an Avalanche Skills Training class (AST 1) to promote safe backcountry fun, and early this month Quest's very own Rosalind Groenewoud won gold in the women's Superpipe World Championships!

Student Affairs continues to help our soon-to-be graduates get life figured out with Life Post-Quest on topics including post-graduate business studies, job search strategies, strategies in sustainable development, and life in the Foreign Service. They've also offered sessions about resumes & cover letters and filing income taxes.

We've been lucky enough to host a few outstanding presentations from members of the Sea to Sky community over the past few months, including a presentation on health care relief in Haiti post-earthquake by Squamish local Ian Mackay and a showing of the documentary "The Clean Bin Project" which chronicles the year-long quest of a Vancouver couple to generate zero waste - both presentations were impressive and inspiring!

Academics

Here on campus we've be enjoying a number of academic colloquia: Meghan Winters started the year off with a presentation on "Cycling in Cities & Public Health" on January 12th, followed by Natalia Delingne's "Trees Re-growth on Lava Flows" on the 18th and Bill Thompson's "Photographing Everest" on the 19th. This month, Katherine Sutherland spoke about "Motorcycle Racing: A Cultural History of Speed" on February 10th and on the 15th, Jeff Gallos enlightened us on the "Politics of Resource Management." In light of recent events in Egypt, Quest tutors Rich Wildman and Ryan Derby-Talbot held a discussion on Politics, Culture, and Current Events in the region.

Just as members of the community are coming to Quest to share their experiences with us, Quest tutors continue to share the results of their studies with the community via lectures at the Squamish and Whistler Libraries. In January Negar Elmieh presented on "The Shift In Infectious Disease: From the Global to the Local Perspective" in Squamish, and David Helfand gave his signature talk on Global Climate Change at Whistler, followed by a talk about Quest itself in Febuary.

On February 24th the Quest Library celebrated Freedom to Read week with a presentation on "Intellectual Freedom vs. Censorship: Leveraging information, technology, and policy in support of societal change in Rwanda" by UBC's Lisa Nathan, and continues its "Lit. in the Library" program with a discussion of A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali coming up on March 14th. The Learning Commons continues to provide a friendly space at the end of the block, friendly, knowledgeable peer tutors to help combat stress productively, and caffeine - because sometimes sleeping is not an option.

The scientists have been active on campus with the Quest Biology Club holding its inaugural meeting on February 17th - the topic was concussions, with neuroscience tutor Neal Melvin. In addition this month, a group of independent study students have organized weekly "Philosophy of Science" lecture/discussions - topics so far have been the birth of science, the drivers of science, and the relationship between math and science. These science talks have been an excellent opportunity for students to benefit from the vast pool of expertise represented in our tutors, but with the first graduation fast approaching, we've also had an influx of experiential learning presentations by students themselves. Topics have ranged from entrepreneurship in Indonesia, to ecosystem service valuation technique, to sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica. Many students are also working on their Capstone projects here on campus and using the student body as test subjects for social science research.

Coming Up

January and February have been busy, but March and April are shaping up to be equally exciting. From March 11th to 13th, Quest Model United Nations is hosting their first conference - you can sign up for the conference through their beautiful new website! On the evening of Friday, March 18th, Quest is hosting an Open House Event for the Sea-to-Sky community: read more here. We have a new SRC President and VP, but elections for the remaining ministerial positions will be coming up in March as well. And lastly, the students are putting together another V-Day Monologue Event on April 22nd - 23rd.

On Saturday, April 30th, Quest will be graduating its first class of 50 proud students! The Quest staff and faculty are busy making preparations for the Commencement Ceremony and the week leading up to the event which will include students' Capstone presentations and a full line-up of speaker events, all of which are open to the public. See full schedule here. Directly following graduation, we have the annual and much-anticipated Dancing Bear Music Festival. Check out the Dancing Bear website for the music line-up and info on discounted pricing for students, prospective students, and families.

Over the summer, the Quest Global Issues Network (GIN) is hosting a conference from May 6th to 8th (more info here), and Quest is hosting another series of summer programs later in the season. The Summer Scholars program for high school students, this year entitled "How to Build a Habitable Planet" will run from August 7th to 12th: the application deadline is June 15th. For adults, we will be running the "Renew Your Quest" program with two options "Debunking the Myths of the Mind: Psychology for the Real Word" with Megan Bulloch, and "Infinity, Certainty, and Knowledge" with Ryan Derby-Talbot from June 12th - 17th.

Multimedia

It's been an exciting two months for Quest in the media department. First and foremost, we've re-designed our website - you can check it out at www.questu.ca.

Life at Quest continues to be an excellent and ever-expanding forum for sharing the Quest experience with the world. Highlights this month have been the National Survey of Student Involvement series - click here to learn about Quest's 2010 results - and the new "Stuff You Should Know About Quest Tutors" series.

In addition, Quest's music collective Fogon has a page on CBC Radio 3, allowing the world to hear some of the amazing musical collaboration that's happening up here on the hill.

Quest Admissions and Scholarships

Quest Admissions continues to enjoy a steady stream of applications for the 2011-2012 school year, and the walls of the Admissions office are slowly filling up with photos, poetry, and all manner of creative original works from prospective students. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; however, we encourage students to apply as early as possible due to the limited number of spots available for Fall 2011.

Congratulations to all students who have so far been admitted for the 2011-2012 Academic Year!

To be considered for our David Strangway full-tuition scholarship and to receive priority for all other scholarships, students must be admitted and have submitted their scholarship applications by March 15th, 2011.

If you're excited about Quest and think it might be the place you'd like to be this September, you can begin your application by completing our FREE online application form. All of our Admissions staff are more than happy to speak with you about Quest and answer any questions you might have:

Kelsey Delarosbel, Admission Counsellor, Canadian Admissions
Regan Kohlhardt, Admission Counsellor, U.S. Admissions
Steven White, Admission Counsellor, International Admissions
Lotte Bond, Director of Admissions, United World College Admissions
Keely Stott, Assistant Director of Admissions, Exchange and Visiting Student Admissions

Visiting Quest

Of course, the best way to figure out what Quest is about is to come and visit us. We've already had one preview event this year, but there's one more coming up on March 12th. Register online to come see our beautiful campus and have the opportunity to talk to both students and faculty about our highly effective Block Plan and the Quest educational philosophy.

If you can't make it for March 12th, you can still schedule a visit Monday through Friday. Quest is a unique institution and the best way to figure out if it's a good fit for you is to come to campus and see for yourself what it's like. We believe in the value of a Quest education, so we offer travel grants to encourage prospective students to come experience it for themselves.

Enjoy the last of Winter!
From the Quest Admissions Team