Barbara Lehtiniemi is a writer and photographer from Ontario. She’s a graduate of Athabasca University, having completed her Bachelor of General Studies degree in 2018.
A regular contributor to The Voice Magazine for over ten years, Barbara has also contributed to other publications including Chicken Soup for the Soul and Maclean’s. Barbara writes in several genres, including non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. She’s eternally grateful to The Voice Magazine for providing the opportunity to explore an array of topics and writing styles.
Barbara has a fondness for travel, used bookstores, everyday absurdities, and oversized wine glasses. Originally from urban Southwestern Ontario, she now lives on a windswept rural road in Eastern Ontario.
I made it through an e-text course! This month, I completed my first?and last?e-text course for my AU degree. I wasn’t looking forward to e-text. Like I wrote in E-text Initiation last November, I chose courses with real text whenever possible, avoiding or delaying courses that had been converted to e-text. Now I’ve made it… Read more »
AUSU will be splashing out $15,000 in a few weeks. Do you want some? May 1 is the deadline for the next round of AUSU scholarships, awards, and bursaries. With only a couple weeks to go, it’s time to start looking at which awards you qualify for. Most AUSU award applications require you to gather… Read more »
One of the best things about Athabasca University is its courses run year-round. This is also one of the downsides of AU. With the ability to begin courses every month, students have no built-in holiday period. There are no fixed semesters and no fixed breaks. No summer holidays, no reading weeks, no year-end break?nothing. AU… Read more »
One error universities routinely make is ignoring their students’ opinions. Universities are notorious for making ivory-tower decisions based on a business model, factoring in the dollars and cents and focussing on the bottom line. It seems they can sometimes lose sight of their reason for being, which is to provide a service to their students…. Read more »
Did you send an e-mail to Dr. Ken Coates this month? you’d better read this: On the game show “Wheel of Fortune” vowels were so critical to solving the puzzle that contestants had to purchase them. As soon as the letter “e” appeared on the board, the solution often became obvious. The value of the… Read more »
On March 17, it is said, everyone is Irish. In Canada, it sometimes seems so. From Montreal to Manitoba, from Toronto to the Calgary Tower, green-attired St. Patrick’s Day revellers will march in parades, wear shamrocks, and drink green beer. The cross-cultural appeal of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations is exceptional. Does anyone outside the Finnish… Read more »
The Student Lifeline program has more than just general mental health and wellness advice. AU students will find plenty of resources to help them in their studies too. AUSU and AUGSA provide the Student Lifeline program free for all AU students. Students can access the program from anywhere, twenty-four hours a day. In addition to… Read more »
I’ve just flipped the calendar page. Now spring is staring me in the face. There’s still snow on the ground and It’s still cold, but the lengthening days tell me that winter is on the wane. But while the days are getting longer, the time for spring cleaning is getting shorter. Once the snow melts… Read more »
Can you get addicted to public speaking? I joined Toastmasters for the usual reasons, but ended up with much more than presentation skills. Toastmasters is an international organization that helps its members improve their public speaking and leadership skills. I wrote about my initial Toastmasters experience (“Public Speaking: Mastering the Fear“, The Voice Magazine Nov… Read more »
Motivation tricks are the little games we play to cajole ourselves into persevering through a disagreeable task. Some days, students have no problem getting through several hours of solid studying while, on other days, every minute buried in a textbook seems like eternal agony. AU student Amanda Gillis recently posted a photo of her newly-adopted… Read more »