From birds on a train to goats on a bus – adaptable animals are learning how to get around our expanding cities. Many are domestic – like cats – but coyotes, monkeys and other wild species are also finding their way onto public transportation. These animal “commuters” are motivated more by food and security than anything else, said Suzanne MacDonald, a psychologist and biologist at York University, who studies urban wildlife. “If they’re sitting there thinking, ‘I gotta catch that 3 o’clock bus in order to make it to the movies,’ then we’re in deep doo-doo,” quipped MacDonald, who receives funding from the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration. Instead, animals that end up on buses or trains usually realize “if they get on this thing and get off this thing, in between they [can be] treated pretty well and rewarded for it,” reported the National Geographic News April 24. Read full story.
Paper resumes headed for extinction
While the future of job applications may be more multimedia, there are limits, cautions Robert Hines, executive director of the Career Development Centre at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto. “One thing that there won’t be more of in the future is time. Everyone will be short of it and so no one will have time to go through a video story of your life. I know that from my own experience. When I was working with a major search firm in Chicago we put a lot of time and analysis into very eloquent video résumés of candidates we were proposing to clients. But we found that search clients for C-suite executives wanted us to condense all that into summaries because they didn’t have time to watch them,” The Globe and Mail reported Hines as saying April 25. “Presenting a résumé on paper at the beginning of a job interview makes you look ancient.” Read full story.
Youth challenged to change their worldPreview
The annual challenge issued to get Ontario’s youth to volunteer in their communities began locally at Brampton’s St. Augustine Secondary School— a school with the most active student volunteers in the province last year…Ade Adegbonmire, a St. Augustine graduate who just finished his second year at York University, can attest to how teenagers help themselves by helping others, reported the Brampton Guardian April 25. The 21-year-old returned to his alma mater as one of the guest speakers for the volunteer campaign launch. He recalled how as a new immigrant, volunteering truly helped him become part of the community and develop a better understanding of his new homeland. It also helped him make connections and build networking skills that have been valuable for the young entrepreneur. Read full story.