Final Report BachelorPLUS 2013/2014 Jan Moritz Geyer
In the following, I want to give an overview of my stay in Canada and studying at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. The Report is also meant as a piece of advice for the current BachelorPLUS students. First of all I want to thank all the people who made the Program possible and did their best to make our stay as pleasant and exciting as possible. Thank you very much Professor Spiecker for giving so many forestry students the chance to gain valuable experience abroad. The BachelorPLUS program has been a great, very unique opportunity for all of us. Thank you Marianne Stadler for being such a helpful, empathic and interested contact person and helping us with all our questions and problems before, during and after our stay. I also want to thank the Canadian students and professors who gave us a warmhearted welcome and made us feel home at UNB.
Application Process Even after having been accepted in the Bachelor Plus Program it is necessary to formally apply to UNB. This is relatively easy using the online application form that can be found on the web page. http://www.unb.ca/admissions/undergraduate/ https://apply.unb.ca/ UNB requires an extra letter of motivation. I simply used the one I had prepared for the application in Freiburg which worked out fine. It is mandatory but I do not think it actually influences the success of the application. UNB also asks for a language proof. Our BachelorPLUS generation took a preliminary English class in Freiburg with our Irish teacher Adele Greeney who did a great job. Therefore, Prof. Spiecker's signature was sufficient. Once I was accepted by UNB I received a welcome package with information on how, where and when to start my studies at UNB. Also, I had to chose courses. Unfortunately the online course descriptions are very short and often not very informative. It is helpful to ask former students for course information. In this report I will shortly introduce the courses I took. Not all courses are offered every term and depending on the teachers the contents might change. However, the course descriptions can serve as a means of orientation. If you're not content with the courses chosen, it is still possible to switch courses within the first few weeks. For forestry specific information Yolanda Spithoven (yolanda@unb.ca) was able to answer all of my questions. For questions regarding general information on life as a foreign student, Pascale Schicks (pascale.schicks@unb.ca) is the woman to ask. Visa After the letter of acceptance had arrived, I had to apply for a study visa in order to be allowed to study in Canada. The letter of acceptance by UNB is a prerequisite for this application, it is not possible to apply beforehand. I would strongly recommend to apply online (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/student.asp ) because less information is needed and it is more likely that the visa letter will arrive in time. We didn't need a certificate of conduct or a health proof document by a physician. (We wondered about the prerequisites asked for on the visa website, most of which weren't necessary in our case) However, all the required documents were asked for in a digital form, meaning as a scan or a photograph. The actual visa was handed to me when I entered Canada and showed the confirmation letter I received from the visa office. Finances The Bachelor Plus scholarship fits the students with 300 per months which equals 450$CA. This was enough money to pay my rent and cover some basic needs. Also we received 35 per month for a health insurance which was meant to cover an international insurance from Germany. Unfortunately, the required Canadian insurance was (and probably still is) much more expensive (see below). Unless
students work in Canada (for example on a summer Job at UNB) it is not necessary to get a Canadian bank account. I used my free Credit Card from my German account to withdraw cash at the many ATMs in town. It spared me a lot of transaction fees and is very convenient. However, I had to pay all my expenses in cash or using the credit card, because of very high fees I didn't do any transactions. Health insurance We were told to get a cheap international health insurance in Germany. Unfortunately these are not accepted by UNB anymore. DO NOT get an international health insurance in Germany! You'll have to take the UNB insurance anyway. It covers most of the common treatments and costs 900$ CA for the whole academic year. Unfortunately the change hadn't been reported to Freiburg, therefore I had to pay for both insurances. Flight It is possible to either fly to Halifax and take the bus to Fredericton or fly to Fredericton directly. I did the latter and paid around 900 for a flight to Canada and back again. It can be cheaper and much more expensive depending on the date of the flight. Generally, the earlier you book, the cheaper the flight will be. I wouldn't buy the ticket back to Germany right away because during the summer months Condor flies to (and from) Germany starting at 295. Be aware that technically, you are not allowed to take a plane that goes via the US when you stay in Canada for more than 3 months. As the US doesn't consider Canada a foreign country travelers do not leave the country going to Canada. It's complicated and stupid, but I would recommend to better just book a flight that doesn't enter the US. In the winter months, Icelandair is a good and cheap company to fly with. Arrival/Living Thanks to Kathrin Hagge-Ellöfts I already had a room when arriving in Fredericton which was very convenient. Yet, it is relatively easy to find a room or a flat off-campus during the first few day in Fredericton. The hostel is a good place to stay in the meantime. I can't recommend living on campus in one of the dormitories. It is VERY VERY expensive and not possible to opt out of the meal plan. This means 3 times a day food will be served and the students have to pay for it, no matter if they like it or not. Also there are many opportunities to find a place off campus and it's a good way to get to know people outside University. I stayed in a small house in 769 Regent Street which is close to campus. It was a shared flat with 4 other students from Canada, Germany and Wales. Shopping At first, Canada might seem expensive and some things actually are. Generally, the basic needs and food are not more expansive than in Germany. It is important though
to compare prices. The Victory Meat Market for example, is a great place to get high quality vegetables, fruits, meat and fish at reasonable prices. Also I recommend to go to the farmers market on Saturdays. Locally grown food and international delicacies are offered. For furniture, kitchen equipment and much more, the awesome thrift stores are a good place to go. University At UNB there are 3 trimesters, from September to December, January to April and inn the summer. As tuition fees are very expensive If possible I totally recommend to take the Forestry Field Camp which is a great way to get to know your future fellow students, professors and New Brunswick. As for the courses it might be interesting to know that they are worth different amounts of credits, usually 3, 4 or 5. In the beginning I wasn't aware that the number of credits reflects the work necessary to successfully do the course. Fortunately I hadn't chosen 5 credit courses only and the first term was relatively easy in terms of the required workload. 4 courses per semester proofed to be a reasonable amount for me, but it certainly differs from student to student and depends on the specific courses. In the following I'll shortly introduce the courses I chose: Winter Term Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Great interdisciplinary course on Canadian forest ecosystems and how they work. Graham Forbes is a teacher who encourages student-teacher interactions and often does not need any media except a blackboard in order to make a lesson interesting. He has a cross appointment with the Faculty of Biology and is an expert on wildlife issues. Thus the focus of his management classes is on wildlife and especially mammals and birds. A highlight of the course was the term project in which pairs of two students planned and conducted a small scientific project using data from our own field work. For me and my partner this meant spending an afternoon per week in the nearby UNB woodlot, collecting information on water bodies, buffer zones and plant species diversity. Forestry Field Camp The Field Camp was the best possible start into my studies in Canada. With all the Forestry students from year four, the last year in their undergrad program, we spend a week in an outfitters camp in the North of the province. Twenty students were accompanied by 5 teachers and everyday changing groups of 4 students and a teacher went on excursions in the area. The topics ranged from hiking trips to visiting clear cuts, plantations, old growth maple forests, road construction sites, fish barriers and much more. The overarching topic of the field camp changes from year to year, ours was Forest Certification. During the course of the week, each student had to
prepare a presentation on a topic chosen at the beginning of the week. In the end we had had the chance to get to know our future class mates, teachers and especially our study object the Acadian Forest. Non Timber Forest Products Taught voluntarily by two very enthusiastic teachers, this course gave a great overview of the various NTFPs with an emphasis on the Canadian East. The topics ranged from growing mushrooms and Christmas trees to cocoa plants and rubber harvesting. A special emphasis was laid on medicinal plants, the speciality of our teachers. Unfortunately it had not been decided yet, whether the course would be offered again or not. If so, I can highly recommend the course to everybody interested in alternatives to only using forests for pulp and timber production. Wildlife Investigation Techniques This is a hands on course on how to plan and conduct an assessment of wildlife related data. The course is also taught by Graham Forbes and in our year it was chosen by only 4 students, two of which were BachelorPLUS students. I thought it was a great course because it gave me the chance to get out of the classroom and into the field. Also, we had the chance to meet professionals working in wildlife management which is rare in Germany. Amongst other things we were introduced to electro-fishing, learned how to trap and handle small mammals and did a deer vasectomy. Spring Term Remote Sensing and Air Photo Interpretation Taught by the program coordinator in Canada, Brigitte Leblon, this online course deals with the interpretation of aerial photography and the prozessing and analysis of digital data. Because no class attendance is required the course is based on computer labs and weekly quizzes it is relatively easy to pass the course with little effort. If done properly however, a lot of useful skills can be learned. I especially enjoyed to get to know Geomatica an alternative software to ArcGIS. Fire Management A very detailed course on fire history in Canada and the US, general fire ecology and management. Officially not offered in our year, David McLean still offered to teach the course as a Directed Studies for only two students. Even though we met only once a week, the workload was quite high and a lot of assessments and presentations were required. However, I learned a whole lot and I was glad I took the course. There's also a Watershed and Fire Management course, but the water part is said to be lots of work. So if your main interest is in fires this is the course to choose.
Urban Forestry Taught the very first time this was an interesting, though quite theoretical course on the challenges of Urban Forestry. The most interesting part of the course dealt with insects and disease and how to identify and treat them. Wildlife Management Another course taught by Graham Forbes, Wildlife Management focused on the history, biology and current management of hunted animal species, mainly mammals. It was an eye opener that showed me that wildlife issues in Canada are still more or less equivalent with hunting and fishing issues and that a very strong hunting lobby influences wildlife management in Canada a lot. Thinking about it a little longer it's not much different in Germany. Almost half of the course consisted of student's presentations which I really enjoyed. Internship Not a mandatory but still an essential part of the entire program, I had planned to intern with Cecelia Brooks, a Chemist and expert on medicinal plants from the St Mary's First Nations. A twist of fate made it impossible to conduct the internship, thus I had to change plans spontaneously. Fortunately I was allowed to intern on Brock and Karen Davidge's farm on Keswick Ridge. I felt perfectly integrated in the farm family right away. Not only did I learn a lot about gardening, chickens, fruit trees, bees, how to manage a family, kids, god and potatoes. I also got to know many interesting Frederictonians on the Farmers Market. The time on Good Spring Farm was wonderful and a worthy end of my Canadian experience. Thank you so much Karen and Brock!
Long Lake - Location of Field Camp Hiking on Gran Manan Island Early morning on Fredericton's trails
Deer Necropsy with the Wildlife Investigation Course
Winter discoveries in New Brunswick
Good Spring Farm Atlantic Ocean