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Keyword: alumni news
Breaking barriers: CMU alumnus defends doctoral dissertation on disability theology
Thursday, March 23, 2023 @ 9:00 AM
Daniel Rempel is smiling from ear to ear.
Having successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland just a week before the Zoom interview for this story, Rempel was visually, and rightfully, excited to share on his research on the often-overlooked field of disability theology.
CMU alumna transforms dream for justice through peace program
Monday, March 20, 2023 @ 10:30 AM
CMU alumna Odelia Duffus wanted to be a lawyer after she graduated high school. Six years later, she's liaising with the court—but not in the role she expected.
Duffus is a mediator and caseworker with Mediation Services, a Winnipeg-based organization offering conflict resolution and training to workplaces, families, and communities. She wants to make a safer and more just future for all people involved in conflict, by navigating it in ways alternative to conventional punishment. Through mediation, she acts as a neutral third party that hears each side's perspective and helps create an agreement that benefits everyone and an appropriate solution.
CMU alum recontextualizes art song through queer, ecological lens
Monday, January 23, 2023 @ 1:18 PM
At first glance, it may not seem like music, climate justice, and queerness would cross career paths. But Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) alum Anna Bigland-Pritchard has built a life that weaves together these strands.
The 30-year-old soprano lives in Victoria, BC, where she divides her time between studying under renowned soprano Nancy Argenta, managing marketing at Vancouver Bach Choirs, directing music ministry at Oak Bay United Church, and teaching through her small business, ABP Music Studio. She also dedicates time to advocating for climate justice and facilitating workshops on eco-mindfulness, which she has done for institutions like KAIROS, University of Toronto, and CMU.
Peace Beyond Policing: Kristen Wiltshire
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 @ 8:31 AM
What's peace in a society where social systems can do harm to the people they are meant to serve? Jonas catches up with Kristen Wiltshire (CMU '14) on her work in family and social services.
Credits
Theme Music: Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) by spinningmerkaba (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/33345 Ft: Morusque, Jeris, CSoul, Alex Beroza
Alumnus explores the relationship between art and commerce in daring new novel
Monday, August 22, 2022 @ 4:11 PM
In 2017, André Forget was asked by friend and collaborator Joel Peters (CMU, 2011) to write a short story about a fictitious underwater organ. The only rule was to keep the story around 2,000 words. Forget ended up writing a 10,000-word academic dissertation about the mythical instrument, which he named the hydroöganon. Complete with invented scholars debating each other's theses and extensive details as to the engineering of the instrument, the story, originally titled The Lower Registers, served as the impetus for writing his debut novel In the City of Pigs, published by Dundurn Press in the summer of 2022.
Summer 2022 alumni updates (new content)
Thursday, June 30, 2022 @ 12:00 AM
Readers of CMU's The Blazer magazine often say they flip right to the Alumni News section before reading anything else.
Again, as with the past several issues of The Blazer in its digest format, we were unable to squeeze in alumni news. Below is a compilation of updates provided to CMU by alumni.
Forestry management helps alumnus find a just and equitable world
Monday, February 28, 2022 @ 10:38 AM
Hearing Darcy Reimer ('15, Environmental Studies) reflect on this time at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), you see how CMU was a place of intersection, bringing together his passions and helping direct him into his career.
Reimer appreciated the small, interactive biology classes with Dr. Rachel Krause where he had the freedom to explore individual curiosities. Important to these classes was how the dialogue between science and faith were incorporated into his education, through which Reimer found a congruity between faith and science.
Graduate School of Theology & Ministry alumnus finds immigration consultancy work a “life-changing experience”
Monday, January 31, 2022 @ 9:43 AM
For Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) alumnus Arisnel Mesidor (CMU '15), changing people's lives isn't an abstract hope or dream; it's the reality of his daily work.
As the owner and manager of Mesidor Canadian Immigration Services, he helps non-Canadians make the life-altering transition to becoming Canadian citizens. Daily, he meets with clients and mentors them as they navigate the complex world of the Canadian immigration system.
I Am A Mennonite investigates the past to glimpse into the future
Monday, January 17, 2022 @ 1:36 PM
Within the first five minutes of Paul Plett's (CMU 2004-05) newest documentary, I Am A Mennonite, he askes his target audience of Mennonites, "Where are we going to spiritually?"
That may be a loaded question for a community whose history is steeped in schisms, immigration, and discernment. But, It's a question Plett says is not rhetorical. "We're not going anywhere else physically. As a community, it does sort of seem that the real adventure is the spiritual one." Plett says that since Mennonite's transient disposition seems to have receded, we need to journey deeper into self-reflection, exploring inward as our spirituality is the most important odyssey of all.
CMU alumni collaborate on book featuring women in music
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 @ 8:21 AM
A vibrant children's book featuring 26 women in music will soon be hitting bookstore shelves, and it was created by two CMU alumni. Anneli Loepp Thiessen (CMU '18) first wrote The ABCs of Women in Music in fall 2020 as a creative project for a feminist theories class at the University of Ottawa, where she is a PhD student in interdisciplinary music research.
