Welcome to Curious U, the new University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies blog – your source of ideas and information to keep you curious and connected to the SCS community. 

Here, you’ll find stories about learners who are taking chances and making brave changes. You’ll read new ideas and bold opinions shared by our instructors, knowledge experts, and industry leaders. As we share news, announcements, and insights on current events, we’ll discover tomorrow’s unknowns, together.

Take a look around and check out this new information hub! You can customize your experience, and choose from three unique categories of content: 

Career

Whether you are early in your career, in the middle of your career, or highly established– or an internationally trained professional– this is the space for you! In our Career section, you’ll find inspirational stories about learners who are upskilling, gaining new abilities, making brave career changes, and taking their careers to the next level. You’ll also explore insights, tips, and strategies shared by our industry-leading instructors.

Curiosity

Welcome lifelong learners of any age who are looking to stay mentally agile, explore new concepts, develop hobbies, and fulfill personal passions! In our Curiosity section, you’ll find stories about learners who are expanding their minds and exploring new territory. Our expert instructors will also share inspiration, fresh ideas, and new perspectives. 

What’s New

Stay informed! Our What’s New section is the place to be to stay up-to-date on SCS news, announcement, and events. We’ll keep you abreast of new partnerships, initiatives, courses, certificates, and programs. In addition, you’ll find SCS insights on trends and current events. 

We’re excited to launch Curious U, and embark on this journey with you.  Let’s take a chance, connect, and take ownership of our future, again and again.  
 

The Penguin Random House Canada Student Award for Fiction supports emerging writers on their learning journey! The competition for this endowed award is open to all learners who have taken a creative writing course at SCS in the previous year. These writers have taken a spark of an idea and transformed it into a piece of writing they (and we) are proud of. 

Congratulations to these finalists, who have unleashed their creative potential! Winners and Honourable Mentions will be announced soon! 

Finalists

Kimberley Alcock, Twilight
Diana Blackmore, Amid the Spaces
Mark Burgess, A Letter from Bielefeld
Jim Colbert, Alphabet: Twenty-six Letters
Melany Franklin, Sanctuary
Caitlin Garvey, The Chrysalis Protocol
Kathe Gray, Panorama
Susanne Kwon, Jack that 8
Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, Saving Seraphina
Megan Tady, Dark Horse

Picture this: you take a skill-development course, gain exciting new abilities, and list the course on your resume and social media profiles. Sounds familiar, right?

But wouldn’t it be great if there was a quick and easy way for your professional network —including potential employers—to view and understand the awesome new competencies you’ve gained?

We get it.

That’s why we will now be issuing micro-credentials for our micro courses! We appreciate that the concept of both micro courses and micro-credentials may be new to you. So, here’s the top five things to know about micro-credentials at SCS.

1) What are micro courses?

All of our micro courses (which are short, targeted learning opportunities that focus on skills and competency development), will now issue a micro-credential upon successful completion.

2) What are micro-credentials?

Micro-credentials are a digital representation of the set of competencies or skills that you have achieved in a U of T SCS course! Micro-credentials are a powerful way for you to showcase your abilities to your personal and professional networks. 

3) How do micro-credentials work?

You can easily share your micro-credential over social media. When someone clicks on the micro-credential, or link to the micro-credential, they will be directed to a web page that displays the full micro-credential, which highlights important information such as your learning outcomes, key competencies/ skills that you gained, and the date that your micro-credential was issued. 

4) How do you share your micro-credentials with your network? 

It’s super easy! With a few simple clicks, you can:

• Share on your LinkedIn profile. 
• Share with friends and family through Twitter and Facebook.
• Copy your micro-credential link and share with your network through email.
• Include your micro-credential with your resume, by downloading a secure PDF version.
• Add your micro-credential to your “digital wallet” or online portfolio.

5) Is there funding for micro courses?

Micro courses are accessible, and you can check out funding opportunities available on our Financial Aid page, including the Canada Training Credit, OSAP and Scale AI funding.

Take a micro course, earn a micro-credential, and showcase your skills in a whole new way!

Visit our Micro Courses and Micro-Credentials page to learn more.

Thanks in part to the generosity of writer and Creative Writing Certificate earner Marina Nemat, the School of Continuing Studies offers this award to the most promising Creative Writing Certificate learner(s) each year. Up to two $1000 awards are given to the most outstanding Final Project of a Creative Writing Certificate learner. The winner is chosen by an esteemed panel of Canadian publishing industry professionals. 

This year’s judging panel includes:

Elizabeth Philips, Senior Editor, Thistledown Press, 
Douglas Richmond, Senior Editor, Anansi
Patrick Crean, Publisher and Editor-at-Large, HarperCollins, Canada

2019/2020 Shortlist:

The Marilynn Booth Award of Excellence was established in 2017 in honour of former Dean Marilynn Booth upon her retirement from the School of Continuing Studies in 2016.

Throughout her career, former Dean Booth has shown how continuing education broadens horizons, creates opportunity, enriches our culture, and builds stronger communities - in our city, across Canada, and around the world. The award was created to recognize and reward career-focused learners who have demonstrated academic success, personal commitment, and exemplary leadership. 

The Marilynn Booth Award of Excellence is valued at $1,000; primary donors to this award include staff, friends, and family of former Dean Booth. On February 10th, 2021, we hosted a virtual event where our six exceptional winners shared the impact of continuing education on their lives and careers. 

Congratulations to all winners! 

2020 Winners

Michael Coelho 
Daniel Fernandes 
Lauren Hummel 
Taara Smith 
Jordan Stevens 
Clara Tsim 

We know that many new Canadians face career and educational barriers. Training and skill development is essential to help people create positive change in their own lives, as well as the lives of others. At SCS, we are committed to empowering new Canadians. That’s why we’ve partnered with Windmill Microlending.

Windmill supports immigrants and refugees who come to Canada with education, skills, and experience, but struggle to resume their careers here. By providing low-interest microloans of up to $15,000 to skilled immigrants and refugees, Windmill helps newcomers obtain the Canadian licensing or training required to work in their field, or to secure a position that matches their level of education, skills, and experience. 

Together with Windmill, we aim to support under-employed new Canadians who cannot afford the cost of professional development. In fact, Windmill will assist eligible newcomers to help them identify and chose career-based programs at SCS that are suitable for funding. Newcomers from anywhere in Canada can work with Windmill to explore learning options, and select courses or certificates that will support career growth. With hundreds of courses available online, and a strong commitment to inclusivity, we aim to remove barriers to education, and make learning accessible to all.

There are many people throughout the years that have shaped the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studied (SCS). However, few have held such diverse roles and harboured such committed passion as Warren Jevons. In honour of Warren, who passed away in September, we are humbled and proud to share the distinct, innovative, and quirky ways that he touched our school and lifelong learning.

Warren came to our school, which at the time was called the Division of Extension, in the early 1970’s after an initial career in teaching. Bringing a passion for education, he served as the Coordinator of Liberal Arts and Humanities.  After a couple years, he was appointed as Assistant Director, Finance and Secretary. This role also included responsibility for the Human Resources and Building Management portfolios, ensuring Warren was busy and well acquainted with his colleagues. Lorraine Nishisato, a former co-worker and friend, recalls, “I was immediately impressed with his passion and pride in the way he described the School and its programmes.  Over time I learned that he really embraced the important mission and values of the School, which was an enormous part of his life.”

Shaping Curriculum
Warren’s passion for language, history, education, religious studies, and current events influenced our educational programming in ways that are still prominent today. In fact, Warren introduced the first international Intensive English as a Second Language course, and helped rapidly increase enrolment. He also instigated our very first French language courses. Both of these programs continue to be integral parts of our school today. 

Building Partnerships
His capacity to build connections across the University of Toronto campus, and collaborate with different divisions, significantly diversified the school’s educational spectrum. For instance, Warren forged new partnerships with the Department of Medieval Studies, and began coordinating an annual “Medieval Studies Symposium”, personally designing the brochure. Warren also collaborated with the academic and professional staff at St. Michael’s College in planning some innovative courses and workshops on religious studies. Further, when a group of later life learners wanted to hold meetings where they could invite guest speakers, Warren took on the task. The Academy of Lifelong Learners was born, and to this day, SCS and the Academy still have a valued partnership, including a bursary to support learners with financial need.

Assisting Faculty
Warren’s collaboration efforts offered administrative benefits as well; he played an important role in assisting faculties that did not have student registration abilities. With his help, the Division of Extension took on registration responsibilities for the Faculty of Engineering, the Department of Business (now Rotman School of Management), and the Faculty of Education, among others. He also contributed to the planning of large events and conferences for these schools, never shying away from a challenge. 

A Mentor and Friend
“He was a remarkable mentor to all of us,” reflects Lorraine, who held roles as an Assistant Director. “Warren was truly the backbone of the School. I was privileged to be his colleague and friend.” Outside of work, Warren was a lover of Canadian nature, a master bread-baker, and enjoyed travel and camping. His natural curiosity and leadership qualities fueled a life of determination, commitment, and joyful adventure. 

A Legacy of Lifelong Learning
From program conception and coordination, to finance, HR, building management, event planning, graphic design, and relationship building, Warren’s contributions to the school are undeniable. His ability to collaborate and build partnerships within the university, and embrace bold people and ideas, truly helped shape our organization. But Warren’s real legacy is his embodiment of lifelong learning, which still emanates today. We thank Warren and his supportive family- his beloved late wife Jane and their four children and grandchildren- for all he contributed to not just our school, but education as a whole.

$1000 Award Winner – Jane Macdonald

Jane Macdonald was born in Red Deer, Alberta, and moved to Scarborough, Ontario to start Grade Five. For a long time Jane lived in the California Bay Area, working in Silicon Valley and studying with poets Ellen Bass and Angie Boissevain Roshi. Now Jane lives in Prince Edward County on Lake Ontario's northeast shore, land and water long loved by Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Jane serves on the Board of the Prince Edward Learning Centre, writing full time and still going to school, in grateful debt to her many teachers from the past and in the present day.

Juror citation:

In Jane Macdonald’s searching, sense-aware poems, the speaker explores mortality, estrangement from the self and the ways in which we experience our natural surroundings. With control and ease, the poet marries the domestic and existential, using precise yet wondering language to ask questions of “the world outside normal”.
-    Heather Birrell, Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner,

$500 Award Winner

Diane Massam is a linguist and a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, with a long career of academic writing, including a recent book on the grammar of Polynesian languages. She has now returned to writing poetry and fiction, with the help of courses at SCS with Amy Jones and Elyse Friedman. Diane lives in Toronto, and also has strong family roots in B.C. and Quebec.

Juror citation:

In Diane Massam’s sparse but poignant poems, metaphors are tightly wielded to convey human experiences in surprising ways. Each piece is a vivid journey through the speaker's mind as they contemplate their existence and what is to become of them, what is within a "spiral of noises, of kisses and loss".
-    David Ly, Poetry editor of This Magazine

$500 Award Winner

Anna Lee-Popham is a writer, poet, and editor. Anna was born in Canada and has been schooled by social movement elders and organizers in the US South. She lives in Toronto — the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation, Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, the Metis Nation of Ontario, and home to many diverse Indigenous peoples — with her partner and young child. Anna is completing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph and is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Creative Writing Certificate and The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University.

Juror citation:

In a journal of our challenging times, Anna Lee-Popham’s carefully balanced poems examine connection and its loss. The efficient phrasing and language drives the poems forward. The social critique is presented in a way that engages and without overstatement. The experiments with form add another layer to the reading.
-    Bruce Rice, Saskatchewan Poet Laureate

The winners of the 2020 Penguin Random House Student Award for Fiction have been announced. This year’s first place prize of $2,500 has been awarded to Kimberley Alcock. Two runner-up prizes of $1000 each have been awarded to Rajinderpal S. Pal and Chris Pickrell.

The Penguin Random House Student Award for Fiction is awarded annually to a School of Continuing Studies creative writing student who has taken a course within the previous year. Entrants may submit either a fictional short story or novel excerpt for consideration and the winner and finalists are published in a chapbook. 

2018-2019 Excellence in Teaching Award Winners Announced

Each year, the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies recognizes instructors who exemplify the SCS value of excellence in adult education. SCS Excellence in Teaching Award winners are nominated by learners who feel that their instructors have gone above and beyond to share their knowledge in a way that is particularly engaging, helpful and inspiring. 

“Year after year we are so impressed and touched by the hundreds of stories that come in from learners nominating their  instructors,” says SCS Dean, Maureen MacDonald. “We hear from so many people whose instructor’s impact has reached far beyond their classrooms to help them change their lives for the better.”

This year’s award winners, being recognized for teaching during the 2018-2019 academic year, are: 

Excellence in Teaching – Business and Professional Studies 
Reza Mirza Hessabi 
Richard Picart 
Ronald Caldwell 

Excellence in Teaching – Creative Writing 
Caitlin Sweet 

Excellence in Teaching – Arts & Science 
James F.S. Thomson 

Excellence in Teaching – Languages and Translation 
Mary McBride 

Excellence in Online Teaching Award
Evandro Rodrigues 

Outstanding New Instructor Award 
Nadine Atwi 
Piro Dhimitri 

Career Impact Award 
Martha Batiz

For more information on the UofT SCS Excellence in Teaching Awards please visit: https://learn.utoronto.ca/why-continuing-studies/about-our-instructors/instructor-awards-and-recognition 

The University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies has added a new online guided writing course to its roster of creative writing courses taking place this spring and summer. 

The course, taught by novelist, journalist and veteran SCS instructor, Kim Echlin is designed to help writers at any level either start a writing project they have had percolating in their mind or to overcome writer’s block and breathe new life into a piece that has stalled. 

“Guided Writing is useful to create structured time to write, to get past writer’s block, to discover both creative energy and story-telling technique,” explains SCS Creative Writing Program Director Lee Gowan. 

Students will follow Echlin’s instructions and structured writing prompts and write for at least half of each class. The other half of each class will be devoted to studying technique and workshopping pieces with their classmates. 

Every student will be given the instructor’s Writing Handbook, The Scribal Art, to supplement their in-class writing. This handbook includes a number of illustrative examples as well an introduction to techniques that all writers need to know for fiction, genre writing, memoir and nonfiction.

“At the end of this course students will not only be better writers but better readers, recognizing key elements of style,” says Gowan.

The first offering of Guided Writing will take place Tuesday evenings from July 6 – August 30, 2020.

How we all work and learn has been changing rapidly. SCS wants to support you through this evolution. We recognize that in addition to new assistance options for online learners whose finances were impacted by COVID-19, there is an appetite from our learners for content to help explore new territory, engage your minds, and learn skills and ideas you can apply to your lives and careers now. 

We reached out to our community of learners to get a better idea of just what kinds of content and the topics you would like to gain insight into. We asked, you responded, we listened. The UofT SCS Knowledge Hub series is the result. 

LEARN MORE