Carla was born and raised in the West Kootenay region of BC, and is now settled in Calgary, Alberta following a dozen years living in England. Her British husband and their son keeps her on her toes, but she is currently on the final stretch of completing her BA in English through AU. In her free time, she spends as much time outdoors as she can by hiking, biking, gardening and geocaching.
Besides writing for The Voice, she loves to share her passion for words by being a Little Free Library steward in her community.
Carla’s favourite topics to write about are hobbies, current events and popular culture.
Cost pressures on students are rising. With the economic downturn, many Canadian families are having to deal with job losses and the cost of education continues to increase. For AU students in particular, many of whom are adult learners and have the added pressure of having to feed their family, dealing with the cost of… Read more »
Perhaps you’ve seen posters advertising AU using quotations and images of famous learners such as Marie Curie and Mark Twain. The Voice Magazine spoke to Erin Stevenson, AU’s Marketing and Social Media Manager, to give us some background and insight into the advertising campaign. How did the campaign come about? Was it a bright spark… Read more »
The vision of American industrialist Andrew Carnegie was to fund and build many public libraries throughout the world. His goal was to “bring books and information to the people.” Libraries have now grown beyond loaning just books to include movies, music, and even e-books but Carnegie’s original vision of sharing resources remains relevant. Although many… Read more »
I see this girl, wearing the pink sweater. I look at the freckles and big eyes and remember growing up in an average small town and in an average family. That seemed like such a long time ago, but even now some of those memories of what she went through make my muscles tense and… Read more »
Modern communication is almost instant. Sending a text message or dashing off a quick email or social media post are immediate ways to keep in touch with one another, but this also means correspondence is becoming rather impersonal. Writing a handwritten letter or card is a nice thing to do, especially around holidays such as… Read more »
Staring at a blank page and not knowing what to write about can be intimidating. Here are some tips to help you delve into the “lost art” of letter writing. Start with the basics. The only items required for a letter are paper, pen, and envelope, but there is a lot of room within that… Read more »
Just as Athabasca University is unique among Canadian universities because of its distance learning format, The Voice is unique among university publications. There is no reporting of campus concerts or sports teams, and no opportunities to take photos of students just hanging out in campus gathering spaces because those just don’t exist with the AU… Read more »
Writing a mid-term or final exam is a necessary though stressful aspect of any university experience, but for AU students, writing an exam requires a bit more effort than for students studying at traditional universities. AU students have several options when it comes to writing exams. Many students are able to write at one of… Read more »
This holiday season will be unlike any other I’ve experienced. You see, my Mom passed away suddenly just after Thanksgiving. The weeks that followed were a whirlwind for me; travelling to my hometown in rural British Columbia, funeral planning, making sure my Dad was doing okay and had some support, and also trying to navigate… Read more »
The largest overall trend in hobbies in recent years is the maker movement. The world is full of makers?you yourself might be one?but “maker” is a bit difficult to define. The dictionary definition of a maker is someone who produces or creates something, and the maker movement certainly lives up to this definition, but also… Read more »