Author Archives: champlainmontreal

Spring Cleaning

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By Laura Smith (BUSA ’18)

When you are living within a city, such as Montreal, it can be overwhelming sometimes with all of the towering buildings and concrete. However, just a short walk from downtown is Mont Royal, the mountain that Montreal has built its base around. This park is filled with plenty of picnic spots, hiking trails, running trails, and other refreshing green spaces.

As the semester is coming to an end, the SCI 155 environmental science class here in Montreal decided to take a trip to Mont Royal for our final field trip. Throughout the semester, we have visited several museums and science exhibits, however, this is the first time that we were able to get hands on experience within the community. Our task for the day – clean up trash throughout the park.

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The Internship Chronicles – Sami

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By Sami Vashaw (EDUC ’18)

As an Early Childhood/Elementary Education major with a minor in Computer Science, I wasn’t sure what kind of internship I would get while studying in Montreal. I was thinking of going into the educational game field, maybe QA testing games with an educational perspective. When I was given the opportunity to intern at Kids Code Jeunesse as a curriculum developer, my ideas for this semester went from trying something new with the risk of not enjoying myself to a perfect opportunity to put my two passions together and do what I hoped to do after college.

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In The Streets

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By Laura Reilly (EGPR ’18)

With the weather getting warmer and warmer, there is no valid excuse to stay indoors (that includes schoolwork, right?). Whether you’re just getting out of class or looking for something to do on the weekend, there are almost too many places to check out around the city. While Burlington might have Church St, we’ve got some streets of our own that are full of city life and things to do.

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The Internship Chronicles – Katie

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By Katie Boynton (GDDM ’17)

Maybe it’s the sentimentality of these Montreal days, or the rapidly approaching end of my college career, but I can’t seem to stop reminiscing– sorting through and reliving my memories of the past four years. I don’t mean this to sound bleak. In many ways, my introspection is happily and embarrassingly self-indulgent. I’m beyond proud of everything that I have been able to accomplish during my time at Champlain College, but this semester has definitely been the cherry on top.

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I Swear I Made A Movie!

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By Freeman Fletcher (FILM ’18)

If you’re a film major, you’ll know how daunting the task of making anything is. There’s equipment you have to wrangle, actors you have to coordinate, a crew you can’t argue with, a spectacularly under-considered shooting schedule; the list goes on. Did the lens always have that crack in the side? What do you mean the batteries aren’t charged? Are we sure that outlet can withstand those lights? Can we get that again but this time do it entirely different? You want to put the dolly where? We can’t wrap, we haven’t rolled yet! What a pleasure!

Now try it with four people in a country that only mostly speaks the same language. Welcome to semester abroad Montreal Film 2! “If Nancy doesn’t wake up screaming, she won’t wake up at all!” [Nightmare On Elm Street reference -ed.]

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Gaming the City

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By Laura Reilly (EGPR ’18)

Montreal is a huge gaming hub. What I mean by this is that Montreal is full of not only great game companies like Ubisoft or Compulsion, but Montreal is also home to some of the greatest gaming opportunities for either developers or those that just love playing video games. To name a few would be an understatement, so I’m here to name all of the different aspects of gaming culture here in Montreal!

  1. In the classroom

If you’re majoring in a division of the Game Studio, chances are your professors are developers themselves at different companies. For example, artists here learn VFX  from a developer at Behaviour, and two sections of Production ll learn from a producer and a gameplay programmer at Ubisoft! Since our professors are in the industry themselves, they have the firsthand experience of working in the industry to apply knowledge into the classroom. And if you’re lucky, they’ll invite recruiters to come and play your Production games! (Some are coming next week to see mine…help).

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The Internship Chronicles – Tyler

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By Tyler Chermely (EGPR ’18)

One of the things I wanted most while at Champlain College was to get workplace experience with an internship. Luckily, Champlain College has an abroad campus in the heart of one of the biggest game development hubs, Montreal. With over 150 different studies ranging from AAA to Indie, I knew I had to go abroad.

During this semester, I have been an intern at Moment Factory as a Unity Programmer. Moment Factory is a multimedia studio which combines many different skillsets in order to create incredible experiences for the public. From decorating LAX to creating a beautiful interactive experience in a forest, there is no company that does it better.

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Discovering Montreal

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By Freeman Fletcher (FILM ’18)

Spring 2017 students gathered in the Residence lobby during Orientation (Hannah Cartmel)

I entered Montreal on a bus, the most dystopian civilian transport this side of the people wagons from Planet of the Apes. I was nervous and it was raining. I was nervous because I hail from a small town in Maine and have never stayed in a city for longer than a couple days at a time on family vacations. It was raining because of global warming.

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The Internship Chronicles – Emily Poltor

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By Emily Poltor (Theater – Ohio Wesleyan ’17)

An important part of my journey in my major has been taking what I’ve learned in the classroom and spending some time away and putting it into practice. Learning about Montreal theatre through my internship at MainLine Theatre has been a unique experience that I get to bring back to my colleagues in Ohio. 

Located on the busy street of St. Laurent, MainLine Theatre is an affordable theatre for companies to rent and rehearse in. As a result of this, I have seen all different types of theatre — anywhere from improv to musicals to one person shows — pass through MainLine’s two theaters. Down the street from the theatre is MainLine’s gallery space where art shows came and went throughout my time.

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Company Bee

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By Michael Manfredi (GART ’18)

Credit: themainmtl.com

One extremely fascinating and, frankly, unique company in Montreal is called Alveole,  a company that puts their focus on beekeeping. More specifically, they encourage beekeeping all around the city. Alveole’s main service is aiding clients in the installation and care of their own apiaries. The benefits of having one of these on the property of your home or business is two fold: Not only do you get a self sufficient source of honey, perfect for a restaurant or eatery, but you also encourage pollination in your local area. Alveole also has a second function: education. It hosts classes on bees and beekeeping, available to anyone, but especially encouraged if you are actually establishing a hive; you must know how to take care of it! With time, Alveole hopes to spread their appreciation of bees across the whole city.

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