杏吧原创 students worked with Professor Stefania Maggi from the and two areas of Ottawa (Centretown and Bridlewood) with the goal of trying to understand community engagement and how different groups of people work together, specifically focusing on how kids do in these communities. KIOP is part of a larger project called the Kids in Places Initiative (KIPI) which involves 7 communities across Canada and Italy. Some students are participants through the ) program while聽20-25 are volunteers who receive credit through the for their contributions.

The communities the KIOP works with are multicultural and a variety of community members participate in the project which Professor Stefania Maggi and students Jodie Lawlor (in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Child Studies) and Zahide Alaca (a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Social Work program) make clear has been a thoroughly enriching part of the experience. The research process is highly interactive, with much of the research performed in the process of community engagement while looking at how communities network effectively.

Jodie Lawlor joined the KIOP in the winter term of 2013 with the intention of doing her thesis around the research covered. Lawlor runs workshops to prepare families for the transition to kindergarten and also connects them to resources available in the community. The workshops serve a double purpose, according to Professor Maggi, as they connect with families of young children while also helping service providers reach the right people. Lawlor feels she has greatly expanded her communications skills and has become a lot more effective from taking advantage of this opportunity. 鈥淢y coordination, mindfulness and ability to work creatively have all improved a lot from participating [in the KIOP],鈥� Lawlor noted.

When Professor Maggi was asked why she chose to be a supervisor for the I-CUREUS program, she noted that the applied nature of the KIOP is very well suited to undergraduate students and that the project is so diverse that it gives students an opportunity to try many things so they can narrow down what they love. The project is also divided into manageable chunks so that it makes a great topic for a thesis project. Graduate students are also somewhat involved in the process, sometimes playing a supervising or mentorship role. Professor Maggi was highly impressed with the performance of Lawlor and Alaca who were exceptional students to begin with, but were still able to gain a great deal of competency from participating. 鈥淭hey believe in the project and it shows in how they work,鈥� Professor Maggi noted.

Community partners involved in the KIOP include the Centretown Community Health Centre, the West Ottawa Community Health Centre, Public Health, the City of Ottawa, the Champlain Community Care Access Centre, and the United Way. Members of these community organizations felt very positively about their interactions with 杏吧原创 through this project.

“We benefit greatly from our relationship with 杏吧原创 particularly in understanding the impact of the services we offer to people, from children to seniors and helping us design programs that better meet their needs. The work we have done and continue to do with 杏吧原创 is also very enriching for our staff.”

Kimberly Peterson,听Vice President, Clinical Care for the Champlain Community Care Access Centre聽

If students are interested in participating in a program like the Kids in Ottawa Project through the I-CUREUS program, they are asked to go 聽to learn more. Please do not individually contact the community organizations involved in the project for research opportunities, but instead go through 杏吧原创.

By Heather McAlister

Canaanites, Sea Peoples, Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans are all documented as former inhabitants of Israel鈥檚 3000 year old city of Tel Dor. Even Napoleon once used Tel Dor as an outpost as he conquered the Middle East.

This past summer, Directed Interdisciplinary Studies student Zack Batist鈥檚 name聽was added to the remarkable list of visitors to the former port city; a location which is now considered one of the world鈥檚 most unique excavation sites.

Situated directly on the Mediterranean Sea on the Carmel Coast, archaeologists are drawn to Tel Dor due to the fact that few sites in the world have had such a varied and diverse occupational history.

Tel Dor鈥檚 popularity as a settling ground is explained in its location.聽 Resting directly within the crosshairs of major trade routes, Tel Dor is where many populations and cultures crossed paths for the very first time.聽 Tel Dor鈥檚 seaside position was ideal for a port city, and for Batist, it was also an ideal setting to perform his first dig.

Throughout an intensive six weeks, Batist worked with a field school run by the University of Washington in hopes of uncovering lost relics dating back to the Bronze Age.聽 Unlike many first time diggers, Batist did not come out empty handed.

鈥淚 found a few small objects, including a bronze brooch and a bronze weight鈥�

In fact, everything Batist and his team found contributed to the intricate research of the lead archaeologists at Tel Dor, an impressive accomplishment for his maiden excavation.

Not only did Batist achieve a wealth of hands on experience during his time in Israel, he also left Tel Dor with a more clear understanding of his personal goals and aspirations.

鈥淭his was my first dig, but I hope to go again next year as well.聽 This experience solidified my decision to go into Archeology in graduate school, which I was unsure of prior to the summer.鈥�

Clearly, this first time dig was an overwhelming success.

To find out more about Archaeological Excavation and Field Schools in Israel and other locations, visit The Archaeological Institute of America at