Not bad for a guy whose mom had to encourage him to enter poetry competitions in high school in Coquitlam, B.C. “She’d enter, I’d win,” he jokes.

“I could always flat-out write, and that’s how I could B.S. my way through everything,” he adds. “I wasn’t a strong student, but writing was how I got the grades to get into Carleton.” He’s wrapping up his fourth year in the Bachelor of Journalism program.

Soon after he arrived in Ottawa, he caught a performance by Shane Koyczan, a slam poet he’d learned about through MySpace. “I liked his work, but didn’t know what it was,” Chris recalls. “I didn’t know how to define it, but I thought it was cool.” Opening were members of the local group, Capital Slam, and Chris was hooked. He wrote a couple of poems, performed at the next Capital Slam competition, and took second place.

Last year was a banner year, when he became Ottawa champion and captained Capital Slam to the national championship.

Since then he has taught slam poetry at high schools in Ottawa and B.C. and talked to kids at TEDx events, and will perform next month at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Arts Centre.

But his fame has spread internationally – and he almost didn’t know why. At a Vancouver slam in December 2009, he performed a controversial work called “I’m Sorry I’m a Christian.” It went online a couple of weeks later, but nobody told him.

“All of a sudden I got random requests to be a Facebook friend or Twitter follower, and I finally asked somebody why. He said, ‘Dude, you don’t know? You’re all over YouTube.’” With more than 80,000 views to date, the poem has caused a stir among atheists and Christians alike, is blogged about by right- and left-wing religious leaders, received air time on two Australian radio shows, and led to speaking invitations from both church and hip-hop events throughout the U.S.

“I don’t even think it’s my best piece,” he says.

But it does reflect another side of Chris Tse: his faith. He serves on the leadership team of the campus chapter of Navigators, an international group that explores Christian beliefs from a social justice perspective. “When you make a decision to believe, you’re not set for life. It’s a constant struggle.”

He helps promote club events, volunteers at the Ottawa Mission and Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, and interned one summer as a youth director at a church.

He also spent four years with Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), a group that mobilizes the media to make people aware of their human rights, and this year was president of the local chapter – though he says, “That’s really just a title since the executive works together.” He’s off to Ghana this summer to work at a radio station on a government-funded JHR project.

But he’ll take a break from that for the world slam poetry championship in Paris. He says he’s pretty competitive – after all, he was a provincial-level athlete in track and field. But win or lose, he says, every performance is “an opportunity to get on stage and be fully uncensored for 3 minutes and 10 seconds. You can say the most radical things, and people give you respect.”

In a way, she has her dad to thank.  When Iman was 12, he took her to a Canadian university fair in her hometown of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

 “The Carleton booth was the first one I saw, and the woman there was really nice,” she recalls.  “I knew I wanted to take journalism – CNN was always on at breakfast, and I loved to write and talk – and I knew Carleton had the best program.”  When it came time for university, this was the only one she applied to. 

 “It was a bit of a gamble,” she concedes, “but if I hadn’t made it, I would’ve stayed home.”

 Today, as Iman winds up her second year in Journalism and Political Science, she has become a Carleton ambassador herself, working for the Student Experience Office.  Whether it’s helping serve tea at President Runte’s house, ushering at convocation, or participating in summer orientation, Iman enjoys giving folks a warm impression of Carleton students. 

 But her biggest responsibility has been to spearhead this year’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB), a program that links classroom learning with community service.  She enjoyed participating in ASB during her freshman year, helping at a local school that serves mainly immigrant kids, and wanted to return to the program in a bigger role.

So last summer she found herself planning three ASB projects, including ones in Mexico and Guatemala, and revamping the Ottawa project to focus on poverty and homelessness. 

The Ottawa team volunteered at a number of local organizations, from a drop-in centre to a soup kitchen, got a taste of poverty by living on a $7-a-day budget, and heard guest speakers who’d themselves lived on the street. 

“There was real team-building,” Iman says.  “At the end of the week, it was really hard to say goodbye to these 13 people.  Luckily, I still see them around campus.”

She says the experience taught her not to be worried about reaching out to street people – even if it’s just to smile and say hello.  She also learned organizations always need help.  “Not enough students know about Carleton’s resources to connect them with local groups,” she says, pointing to the Student Experience Office Days of Service program as an example.   

Planning for the three ASB projects – pulling together a fundraising plan, background reading, orientation sessions, and other logistics – meant she learned great skills: being quick on her feet, customer service, organization (“when you have to get up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to get to campus for 7:30, you’re pretty organized”). 

Despite all that, Iman has carved out time for other interests.  She serves on the executive of Carleton’s chapter of Journalists for Human Rights, maintains a blog, and is an avid photographer who sells some of her work for charity.  She has also developed a passion for hockey (“back home the guys are really into soccer, but nothing compares to the fanaticism for hockey here”).

 “I’m involved in so many things I feel a bit of pressure,” she admits.  But that hasn’t cut into her academic achievements quite yet: last year, Iman was named a K. Phyllis Wilson Scholar.

Jennie Russell never really thought about fencing as a sport for her until she read Carleton’s viewbook for prospective students. She was looking for ideas about extracurricular activities, and zeroed in on a brief reference to fencing.

“That looked good, so I went with a friend to a beginners’ class,” says the third-year student in Journalism and Global Politics, who admits most of what she knew about the sport came from movies that don’t often get things right. “I just really fell in love with it. It’s the smartest decision I’ve made at Carleton, because it’s really fun and I’ve met an incredible group of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

Beginners were encouraged to try out for the varsity team, she says. She made the cut. “It was daunting, but the coaches are really friendly and open to helping out,” Jennie says.

She specializes in sabre (fencers can also do epee or foil). She’s been part of the women’s bronze-medal sabre team at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) finals for the past two years, and she personally ranked in the top 10 at a tournament last year at Brock University. The next OUA finals will be held Feb. 5-6 at Royal Military College.

“I like sabre because it’s faster paced than foil or epee, more exciting to watch,” she explains. “It’s pretty thrilling to be part of it.”

Growing up in Oakwood, Ont., Jennie thought about studying creative writing in university. But after interning at the nearby Lindsay Daily Post during high school, she fell in love with journalism. That sealed her decision to attend Carleton.

“It’s important to make an impact in the world,” she says, “and when you combine that with a love of writing, journalism makes sense.” But she continues creative writing, mostly poetry, at home.

Because Global Politics is the only program of its kind in Canada, Jennie is on track to becoming the first graduate in Canada with a combined honours in that subject and Journalism.

“Global Politics complements Journalism,” she notes. “You have to have a general knowledge of what’s going on in the world. Without it, you won’t be a very good journalist.”

Political instability in Ivory Coast.  Campus union negotiations.  Repeal of Canada’s prostitution laws.  If it has to do with politics, Jason Gowler and Luke Smith are keen to explore it, and share what they find with the world.

The political junkies host “Raven’s Eye,” a political discussion every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. on Carleton radio station CKCU-FM.  The program is also archived at ravenseye.yolasite.com.

Their special twist?  An unabashed student perspective.  The co-hosts, both second-year Political Science majors, interview Carleton students knowledgeable about the weekly topics.  If they can’t find a suitable guest, they bounce ideas off each other.

“It took a while to come up with the format, frankly,” admits Luke, who moved to Canada from Wales with his family in 2006.  “We tried several ideas, but essentially we thought that talking to students would be a brilliant way of bringing issues to life.”

President Roseann Runte was an inspiration, he adds: “She once suggested using more technology to give students a voice, and we see the program as doing that.”

The show can, arguably, trace its roots to the Mississauga high school where Jason caught the radio bug.  When he joined Carleton, he approached CKCU and did a couple of sample episodes, but didn’t like having no one to play off of.

When Luke came on as a guest, however, the “great chemistry” led to co-hosting duties, Jason says. “Luke has really become the main guy on the show.  He’s really the one who put it into overdrive.”

The two seem to complement each other in other ways, too.  Luke’s primary interest lies in Europe and Africa, while Jason is attracted to the U.S. and China.  Jason isn’t afraid of controversy, pushing his guests about their beliefs; Luke takes a more diplomatic approach.

Radio isn’t their only interest.  Luke does community outreach for the campus GLBTQ Centre, helping it connect with outside organizations, and he chairs a monthly get-together of post-secondary gay and lesbian centres across Ottawa.  Jason hosts Wednesday trivia night at Mike’s Place and is active in Carleton’s Model United Nations Club, participating in simulations at such schools as Harvard and Queen’s.  He’s twice been named outstanding delegate at York University’s annual model UN weekend.

“It’s really important to have diversified experiences as a student,” Luke explains.