UWindsor’s Faculty of Law has recently created a website designed to equip students with the essential people skills needed for working in poverty law. The Clinical Law website is accompanied by a YouTube channel that hosts a series of video lessons.

“These are vital skills for clinic students,” says Gemma Smyth, law professor and website creator. “The program is intended to supplement the existing law program in an accessible format for students."

After interviewing clinicians and law students across Ontario, Smyth says she saw a primary struggle with introducing students to important clinical law concepts before they entered practice. 

Smyth (LLB ’02) partnered with film producer Kim Nelson of UWindsor’s Department of Communication, Media and Film, to develop open source videos aimed at introducing skills, etiquette, social justice attitudes and knowledge for novice lawyers.

There are several dozen video courses covering such topics as client interviewing and counselling; experiential awareness and cultural competence; explaining retainers; exploring lived realities of poverty; trial skills; and reflective practice. The site features mock trials and hypothetical scenarios, as well as lessons laid out in two to 20 minute videos.

"I was fortunate that Professor Nelson was willing to be creative and take a risk to work with a program that isn't typically associated with film,” says Smyth. “Both law and film students learned a lot about one another, both in terms of subject knowledge and professional attitudes."

The interdisciplinary project included help from film students Svjetlana Oppen (BSc ’12, Hons. BA ’14), Maria Cusumano (Hons. BA ’14), Brian Khan (Hons. BA ’14), and law students Mackenzie Falk, Shawna Labadie (Hons. SW ‘11, LLB ’14) and Colin Wood (LLB ’15).

Nelson’s documentary film-making class also got on board to help create the documentary, Under the System, a hard hitting, stark look at poverty in Windsor, which screened at the Windsor International Film Festival.

The project was funded by a 2013 Strategic Priority Fund grant. Since launching in February 2015, Smyth says the YouTube channel has had more than 10,000 hits from around the world, including the United States, Australia, India and South Africa. Feedback from viewers will inspire future material.

"We are thrilled that people around the world are using this program. Our primary goal was to improve clinical practice at home, but it has been gratifying that the program is obviously meeting a need in other jurisdictions as well."

New funding for a collaborative research project between Windsor Regional Hospital and the University of Windsor will look for new and better ways to treat women with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

UWindsor biology researcher Lisa Porter and Windsor Regional Hospital Oncologist Caroline Hamm recently received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Transitional Operating Grant of more than $765,000 in support of their work, Novel Cell Cycle Regulation in the Initiation and Therapeutic Intervention of Triple Negative Breast Cancer. The funding will support the project over five years.

The pair’s research focuses on triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that commonly affects the youngest group of breast cancer patients. UWindsor’s Porter Lab has identified a protein known as Speedy, or Spy1, that drives aggressive populations of cells in triple negative breast cancer to grow, and impacts how responsive individual patients are to select drugs.

The Porter lab will use a mouse model, human cells, and patient samples to determine whether Spy1 and related proteins provide a signature to identify triple negative breast cancer patients who will respond to specific treatments. They will also address whether targeting Spy1 represents a valuable therapeutic direction for patients with this form of aggressive breast cancer.

“We are very excited to work with Windsor Regional Hospital and partnering institutions in Michigan to help us move these discoveries forward,” says Dr. Porter. ”The ultimate goal is to improve survival rates for patients with this aggressive form of disease. Doing the research in Windsor will give patients in Windsor/Essex the added benefit of access to these advancements before any other region.”

Both Drs. Porter and Hamm are members of the Windsor Cancer Research Group (WCRG), an assembly of local researchers and healthcare professionals working to strengthen local cancer research programs. This latest project is an extension of previous work funded by the Canadian Cancer Society/Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, and the Windsor Essex County Cancer Centre Foundation Seeds4Hope program.

“The University of Windsor recognizes the importance of translating the work of our researchers to the community we serve,” says K. W. Michael Siu, UWindsor Vice-President, Research and Innovation. “We look forward to continuing research partnerships that strengthen and support the type of vital work that will make a difference in the lives of the people in our region and the world.”   

A political science student from India has recently completed a UWindsor research internship exploring the role of religion and politics on a global scale, thanks to a program that gives international students summer research opportunities in Canada.

Yashasvini Rajeswar was in Canada as part of a Globalink Internship offered by Mitacs, a not-for-profit research organization that manages and funds research and training programs in partnership with companies, the government, and academia.

Under the direction of expert mentor, political science professor Roy Amore, Rajeswar’s project,  The Interface between Religion and Politics, focused on Hindu nationalism in India, though the project's global scope allowed her to learn about the political climate in countries around the world.

"It has been very interesting to study themes pertaining largely to India based so far from home," says Rajeswar. “The distance definitely helps the perspective and seeing India through a non-Indian academic lens has been a very interesting experience."

She says the internship has also provided her with the richest academic experience of her education and has helped cement her desire to pursue a PhD in the future because her project  has strengthened her belief that more study needs to be done on the subject.

Dr. Amore says Rajeswar has proven to be a hardworking, skilled researcher with helpful contacts back in India.

"I am confident that someday I will read articles and books written by her," he says. 

Amore encourages other faculty members to apply to mentor Mitacs research interns, saying it is a win-win situation for both the intern and the researcher.

Read Rajeswar's story on Mitacs' website.

Making dream catchers and medicine pouches with local artist and alumna Kathryn Pasquach were some of the activities that Aboriginal youth took part in at the Turtle Island Summer Arts Camp which took place July 6 to 24.

Twenty First Nations, Metis, and Inuit youth from the Windsor-Essex County area produced Aboriginal artwork while learning about their history and culture. The camp, led by coordinator Maya Menear, included such activities as weaving native baskets with Walpole Island artist Torey Day, and painting tipi night-lights with Walpole Island artists Peter and Faith Redmond.

“The camp provides a safe place for the youth to develop their artistic skills and self-confidence,” says Aboriginal outreach coordinator Danielle Handsor. “All while making lifelong friendships and having fun.” 

The UWindsor Aboriginal Education Centre program is held in partnership with the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, Apatisiwin Employment Program, New Beginnings and Focus on Youth. 

Read more on the centre’s website.

UWindsor will be hosting an evening of music featuring a piano performance and a concert of duets at 7 p.m., Friday, July 31, in the School of Creative Arts music building, room 139 recital hall.

The concert includes a program of Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Lehar, Verdi and Puccini, performed by Italian pianist Marco Francesco Palazzi; soprano Erin Armstrong, violinist Velda Kelly; and cellist Nadine Deleury.

Parking is available on Sunset Avenue south of the music building. A donation of $15 is welcome at the door.

For information & reservations please call 519-252-0212 or email ndeleury@sympatico.ca.

Catering Services has announced its special UWindsor Welcome Week lunch menu.

The new menu includes pasta, barbeque, pizza, and sandwich lunch options.

Visit the catering services website to view the menu.

Windsor Lancer golf program head coach Adam Wagner has announced the try-out and training camp schedule for the upcoming season.
  
Try-outs for both the Lancer men's and women's teams will take place from Monday, August 31 to Friday, September, 4. The schedule for the week will be e-mailed to all players who register by August 26.

The training camp will involve range sessions with the coaching staff, shot analysis and tracking using Flightscope launch monitor technology, as well as four 18-hole tournament rounds to be played at Ambassador Golf Club and Roseland Golf & Curling Club. Tee times will be determined after the August 26 registration deadline.

"I'm excited about the upcoming season of Lancer Golf," said Coach Wagner. "We've got a good group of returning players to go along with some newcomers, which we think will put us in a very competitive position this fall."

All interested golfers are required to fill out a recruitment form online prior to try-outs.

For more details visit golancers.ca

The Campus Bookstore will offer a 25 percent discount on all costume jewelry, as its true saving promotion for Thursday, July 30.

The store is open daily until 5 p.m. and is located on the lower level of the CAW Student Centre.