Boreal student wins leadership award

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

Normand Lanthier can't stand it when people complain about issues but won't do anything to change the world.

The second-year Natural Resources Technician student at College Boreal would rather tackle problems head-on to see if he can make a difference.

In between studying for classes and participating in numerous extra-curricular activities, he acts as the student body representative on the college's board of governors.

“Having seen a few things around Boreal that I think could have been done better, and wanting to do my part to contribute to the proper functioning of the school, I very gladly accepted that position when they offered it to me.”

It's this attitude that has netted the 23-year-old Massey native the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario (ACAATO) Joan Homer Student Leadership Award.

He was nominated for the award by Dianne Kruker, the executive assistant to Boreal president Denis Hubert.

“I really appreciate it (the award). I would never do the things that I do to get such an award. But nonetheless, I do appreciate the fact that people are out there noticing that youth can make a difference.”

The award celebrates the achievements and influences of a current student at an Ontario college who fosters leadership, growth in others and whose accomplishments assist students or the college to advance their goals.

Lanthier will pick up the award at the ACAATO conference Feb. 19. His school also honoured him for the win Jan. 16.

It's important for students to have influence with the college's administration “because, obviously, without students, there wouldn't be a college,” he says.

“I firmly believe that students need a say with where the college is going because even though most of them will graduate after only two or three years, there will be more after them. The new students' viewpoints will likely be similar.”

The young man also cares about the health of his fellow students. Last year he was the co-ordinator of a campus anti-smoking campaign.

“It was called Leave the Pack behind. I'm a non-smoker myself. I'm very athletic, actually, so I wouldn't smoke,” he says.

“It's like drinking and driving. You're not only affecting your health, but the health of those around you. I try to establish the parallel that way.”

Lanthier also participates in a rather unusual campus extracurricular activity.

Until recently, he was the captain of the school's “timber sports” (or lumberjack) team.

“Obviously, you've never seen them on TSN or ESPN, but it's lumberjacking games. We chop wood with axes, we throw axes at targets and we climb poles. It's not about the forestry industry today, but the way it was 100 years ago.”

Before joining the team, Lanthier had never even chopped wood before.

“They taught me from the ground up. That's typically what we do. Most members of the team have no prior experience unless it's their second year.”

Outside the college, he volunteers as a stagehand for the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra and a gopher at the annual Friendly Massey Marathon.

While Lanthier grew up in Massey, he attended high school in Greater Sudbury at College Notre Dame.

He rode the school bus three hours a day until the middle of Grade 11, when his parents decided he was old enough to board with a family in the city from Monday to Friday.

“We came to that solution because the commuting was just becoming way too much. It was just wearing me right out. It was affecting my grades as well as my social life, and even my health to some extent.”

After high school, he trained to become a commercial helicopter pilot, but was unable to get a job in his field. That's why he decided to go to Boreal and get a diploma.

“I hoping it (a diploma) will give me an edge in my search for rotor-craft employment as a rookie. It's extremely for a difficult to get that first job because nobody wants a rookie pilot,” he says.

“I've seen how hard it is to get a job. I tried with my Canadian commercial license and awards on my resume, and I didn't have very much luck.”