Independent Studies | University of Waterloo

Carolyn Helfenstein joined the IS community in September 2010. A Newfoundlander by birth and heritage, Helfenstein was educated in Ontario, and at the age of 17 stepped right into a teaching job (six grades in a one-room school house north of Toronto), clearly showing what were to become her roots as an independent learner.

This most unusual opportunity came about as the Ontario Ministry of Education in the 1950s was short of teachers willing to work in small, one-room schoolhouses. After two successful years teaching with a temporary certificate, Carolyn received a permanent teaching certificate.

Flash forward in time and to Ontario where Carolyn and her husband, Harry,” followed a dream” and bought a dairy farm in rural Ontario. For the next 25 years, Carolyn, the "City Girl, fell in love with farming and learned to adapt. The joy of raising three children in a rural seetting surrounded by cows and Old English Sheepdogs was a wise choice.

In 1986, it was time for another change. They had put their farm up for sale and admit they couldn’t resist the challenge to buy Teeswater's communnity newspaper.

They shadowed the previous owners for one month and then picked up the reins and began the painful experience of “learning by doing.” They could not resist entering the yearly provincial competitions and over the years The Teeswater News won over a dozen prizes in Ontario for business writing, farm features, and a highly acclaimed feature on “women in farming.” Carolyn’s favourite section featured a special group of men and women who had been institutionalized since early childhood because they were academically and in some cases physically challenged, and who were now "brought home for good."

The Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA) recognized Helfenstein’s passion for writing and asked her to run for a place on the OCNA Board of Directors. Six years later she was their chair.

In the mid-1990s, their paper succumbed to the economic realities that faced most small businesses at the time: lack of revenues, an abundance of 'flyers,’ and the closing of small independent retails stores which defeated the Helfensteins’ efforts to keep their paper viable. Carolyn was the last person to switch off the light at The Teeswater News.

Carolyn turned to writing again even while Harry was organizing the transformation of their log home into a bed and breakfast. Visit Carolyn and Harry at their lovely home, complete with the restorative and rejuvenating benefits of the many Lake Huron vistas.

In 2008, Carolyn’s first book was published. Why Not? A Memoir in Black and White received positive reviews in the dailies and in rural magazines. Recently, Carolyn started her most ambition endeavour of writing a four-generational non-fiction book that begins in 1790 England and follows two families through the decades of Newfoundland's history. Her need for research, facts, and guidance to complete the task successfully brings her to Independent Studies, participating ‘at a distance’ from Kincardine, Ontario.

Says Carolyn, “With the support of the University of Waterloo and Anne Dagg, my ever-encouraging IS Academic Advisor, there is the possibility that I may not only graduate from the three-year program, I may find a publisher for Newfoundland, the completed second book.”

Good to have you as a part of the IS community, Carolyn!

Carol Helfenstein This page was last reviewed on September 28, 2011