Certificates, Degrees and Awards
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Information about the various Certificates, Degrees and Awards that I have accumulated over the years can be found here, just in case you were interested 
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Tutor Training Certificate:
Tutor Training Certificate
My first job as a Tutor/Teaching Assistant was at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. In order to improve the benefit students received from Tutorials, Victoria University required that all of their Tutors attend a Certification Program. The Certificate on the right was awarded to those who attended and participated in the program.
Since then, I have attended numerous Tutor/Teaching Assistant training workshops at both Victoria University, and at York University in Toronto, and developed a number of proficiencies in teaching Academic Study Skills to Undergraduate students.
The Victoria University Tutor Training Certification Program was the beginning of what is now my Academic Skills Coaching Services
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Professional Retirement Coach Certification:
Certified Professional Retirement Coach
I first became interested in the concept of productive aging through a Social Policy course that I studied as an undergraduate student, and then Tutored. The idea of a period of time in one’s life where a person could explore and pursue their life’s purpose, and design an authentic lifestyle around it, was enchanting.
Needless to say, over the years I continued learning more about how Baby Boomers were dealing with retirement, and finally decided to become Certified as a Professional Retirement Coach.
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Master of Communications, with Distinction:
Master of Communications, with Distinction
I had originally intending to build on a Bachelor of Arts in Social Policy that I had received, but became fascinated by a new Masters program in Communications that was being offered at Victoria University.
The program was strongly influenced by Marshall McLuhan’s media theories which focuse on exploring the impacts of media on society. As a result, this Masters Degree Program combined Communications Theories with an overview of the impacts of new media on society to provide a fascinating view of how new media was (and still is) changing interpersonal relationships (how we relate to each other), society in general, and various social institutions.
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Bachelor of Arts, Social Policy:
Bachelor of Arts, Social Policy
After spending years as an undergraduate Distance Education student at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario I moved to Wellington, New Zealand where I finished off my Undergraduate Degree in Social Policy.
In New Zealand, Social Policy is affiliated with both Public Policy (Government Policy) and Sociology so provided a unique perspective on social issues – including the aging of the population, poverty, education, welfare, etc. In Canada, Social Policy courses are associated with Social Work, which, although similar to the New Zealand perspective, offers a significantly different approach to the development of Social Policies.
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McMaster University’s President’s Award for Outstanding Performance:
Every year, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario celebrates its employees by bestowing the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance. Recipients are nominated by fellow employees, and then selected by the University’s President from the nominees.
I had the great good fortune of working on an 18 month contract as a Student Advisor for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program the year we were nominated and am proud to share this award with the two other Student Advisors.
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