Students take on workplace bullying

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2019 (2652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two Sturgeon Heights Collegiate students are doing their part to help stop bullying in the workplace.
Grade 12 graphic arts students Jaren Ducharme and Tanner Hamin-Marsh placed second and third, respectively, in SAFE Work Manitoba’s 2019 Make Safety the Norm contest. The contest encourages high school students across the province to create a project that educates young people on the pitfalls of workplace bullying.

“I didn’t realize how bad it got in some jobs,” Ducharme said. “It happens everywhere and it’s really common and we should make people aware of it.”

She and Hamin-Marsh both created posters for the contest — other entries included videos, infographics and a multimedia comic strip display.

“I’d like to commend this year’s winners for demonstrating exceptional safety leadership by coming up with creative and engaging ways to educate their peers on the importance of staying safe at work,” SAFE Work’s chief operating officer Jamie Hall said in a statement. “(The) judges were impressed with the level of talent and skills displayed in this year’s winning entries.”

Ducharme spent a month creating cartoon characters to help illustrate bullet points on her research into the negative effects of bullying. She received $1,500 for coming in second place.
“I’m still shocked about it, I didn’t think I would win, but I’m really happy,” Ducharme said.
SAFE Work Manitoba will also make a matching donation to the graphic arts program at Sturgeon Heights for both contest winners.

Hamin-Marsh’s poster included easy to read information on how to prevent bullying. He used Adobe Illustrator to create the design and applied concepts he has learned in the graphics lab.

“I’ve learned to have go typography and I’ve just learned the programs really well, so it makes it a lot easier to try stuff out,” said Hamin-Marsh, who received $1,000 for coming in third. “I wanted to put not as much information, because I know, myself, I don’t like to read big blocks of text.”
Graphic arts teacher Jason Bilous included the contest as a class project for his Grade 12 students this year and is excited that two of the class’ five entries won awards.

“I’m probably not as surprised as they are because they put a lot of work into the designs and they put a lot of work into everything that they do,” graphic arts teacher Jason Bilous said. “I’m very proud of them.”

While both Hamin-Marsh and Ducharme hope to continue with graphic arts as a hobby, they are planning on pursuing other interests when they graduate later this year.