Lakeland Link: May 2, 2011

May 2, 2011

The

www.lakelandcollege.ca

A publication of Lakeland College

Vermilion • Lloydminster

Our MISSION To inspire our learners to realize their individual potential. Our VISION To achieve educational excellence in a people-centred environment. Our VALUES are Respect, Safety, Trust, Pride, Ethics, Quality and Accountability.

Upcoming Events Lloydminster campus Tuesday, May 3 & Thursday, May 26 • University transfer program orientation.

BK 112. 6 to 9 pm. Another session will be offered June 13. For details go to www.lakelandcollege.ca or call 1 800 661 6490.

Friday, May 11 • ColourSpectrums Workshop. Room 1013.

12:30 to 3:30 pm. To register call Theresa Berg at ext. 8624. Last day to register is May 9.

Friday, June 3 • Campus convocation ceremony. Vic Juba Community Theatre. 1:30 pm

Vermilion campus Thursday, May 5 • Women's Conference co-sponsored by the Town of Vermilion, Vermilion Chamber of Commerce & Lakeland College. Vermilion Regional Centre.

Registration 8:30 to 9 am.

Saturday, May 14 • Lakeland Runaway. Vermilion Provincial Park. For more information go to www. lakelandcollege.ca or call 780 853 8474.

Friday, May 27 • Campus convocation ceremony. Vermilion Regional Centre. 1:30 pm

is published biweekly from September to May by the department of Advancement for staff and members of the college community. Submissions regarding college news and initiatives are welcome and published at the editor's discretion. The deadline for submission is Thursday at noon prior to the publication date. The Lakeland Link is available in Outlook's Public Folders and online at www.lakelandcollege.ca/link.

Lakeland's interior design program honoured with Excellence in Education Award from NKBA Lakeland College’s interior design technology program received an Excellence in Education Award from the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), the industry gold standard. This is the second time Lakeland has won the award from the North American-based industry organization.

Instructors Cindi and Greg Plant received the award last week at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas, NV. It was presented during the show’s annual Educators’ Forum meeting which is a session specifically for representatives from NKBA-accredited schools.

Criteria for the award include a score of over 93 per cent on two annual student work submissions. This year’s submissions by two second-year Lakeland students were over and above the mark.

“Our first student submission was completed by Lisa Godwin. It scored Cindi Plant, instructor in the interior design 95.5 per cent,” says instructor Cindi Plant. technology program, accepts an Excellence “Kelsey Guenter’s work was the second in Education Award from the NKBA. student piece and it scored 96.7 per cent.”

Student projects are scored by industry professionals in New Jersey, U.S.A. Plant adds that the strong marks earned by Lakeland students demonstrate that Lakeland’s interior design technology students are not only learning what they need to know about kitchen and bath design, but are faring well when compared to students at 62 other accredited schools in the U.S. Lakeland’s first Excellence in Education Award for the interior design technology program was received in 2008.

The two-year diploma program has had a number of other notable achievements this year. In February, Lakeland announced a new transfer agreement with the Art Institute of California—Los Angeles which will allow Lakeland graduates to transfer into its interior design program, which leads to a bachelor of science degree.

In January, five Lakeland students were finalists in a North American student competition hosted by the NKBA. In the bath category, Kelsey Guenter, Lisa Godwin and Jessica Leasak were finalists chosen from a field of 152 entries from 40 schools.

In the kitchen category, Guenter along with Dani Rau and Laura Underwood were selected as finalists out of 171 entries from 36 schools. Lakeland College was the only Canadian school making the final round and was just one of two schools that had three of its students earn the distinction as finalists.

Also this year, student Jenna Nibourg received a $1,000 scholarship in a charette design competition hosted by General Electric. It was a timed competition where students had three hours to come up with a floor plan, another drawing and a concept statement about their design based on the needs of fictional clients.

Lakeland announces new transfer agreements for environmental sciences students with B.C. & Saskatchewan universities and SIAST The grass is even greener now for environmental sciences graduates and students.

New transfer agreements between Lakeland College and the University of Regina, Thompson Rivers University and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science & Technology have opened more opportunities for post-secondary students to advance their credential and graduate from a degree program.

Effective immediately, Lakeland environmental sciences graduates enrolled in the wildlife and fisheries conservation major will be able to receive credit for two years of study when transferring to the U of R’s bachelor of science degree program in environmental biology.

A new agreement with TRU located in Kamloops, B.C., will also allow Lakeland graduates from its adventure tourism and outdoor recreation diploma program to receive credit for two years (60 credits) into TRU’s bachelor of tourism management degree: adventure major, and 51 credits for the same degree program’s entrepreneurship and management majors.

A third agreement, where Lakeland College is the receiving institution,

will enable graduates from SIAST’s environmental engineering technology, water resources engineering technology, and integrated resources management diploma programs to be eligible for acceptance into Lakeland’s bachelor of applied sciences: environmental management program.

Lakeland College’s applied degree program, one of just four degree programs in Canada currently accredited by ECO Canada, is highly regarded by employers, government and regulatory bodies that operate in industry and the environmental sector. It is a two-year post-diploma program that also includes an eight-month practicum placement.

“We are pleased to have added these transfer agreements to our existing agreements. We are consistently able to negotiate solid transfer agreements to universities because of the quality of our graduates--a direct result of the knowledge and hands-on skills they receive at Lakeland,” says Allen Verbeek, chairman of the environmental sciences department at Lakeland College.

“Quality graduates are also the result of our faculty’s strong ties with industry.”

Alice Wainwright-Stewart, Lakeland

vice president, academic, innovation and research, adds new transfer agreements show that Lakeland is doing its part to support the Campus Alberta Planning Framework to promote student mobility.

“Lakeland will continue to create opportunities for career pathways and career advancement. Transfer agreements are an important step,” she says.

The three new transfer agreements for environmental sciences graduates come on the heels of other new agreements recently struck between Lakeland and other post-secondary institutions.

These include a new agreement with the University of Saskatchewan that allows students to take the required first-year university arts and sciences courses for its bachelor of nursing degree program at Lakeland, as well as an agreement with the Arts Institute of California in Los Angeles that enables Lakeland interior design technology graduates to receive transfer credit into its bachelor of science degree (interior design) program.

For more information about Lakeland College and existing opportunities for students to advance their credential through transfer agreements, visit www. lakelandcollege.ca or call 1 800 661 6490.

A message from Glenn's desk Hello everyone and congratulations as we approach the end of the 2010/2011 fiscal year.

Certificate, diploma and applied degree programs have, for the most part, wrapped up. Heavy oil and trades programs continue for a while yet and emergency training is approaching a busy season.

We will shortly begin the renovations on the last of the residence buildings at the Vermilion campus and will see this $10 million project wrap up this summer. The Applied Engineering Building is nearing completion and will be up and running in time for the September intake of welding and steamfitter/pipefitter students.

Fundraising for our new Heavy Oil wing at the Lloydminster campus is ongoing and we hope to have funding in place to begin drawings in the very near future.

Our third quarter roll-up is now complete and we are running better than budget. At this point, we anticipate a year-end deficit of $700,000, significantly better than the $1.7 million deficit projected in the budget. Thank you all for your continuing efforts to make this happen.

May will see the last board meeting for our board chair Doug Elliott. Doug will end his second three-year term June 4. During his terms, Doug has overseen several new programs, a 30 per cent increase in enrolment, over $40 million of construction and renovation projects, our first NSERC grant, and the acquisition of 1,500 acres of farmland.

In addition, Doug has been a trusted colleague and friend. I know the whole college joins me in thanking Doug for his leadership over the past six years.

Milt Wakefield has been appointed as Lakeland’s new board chair and Gary Moses has been appointed as Lakeland’s newest board member. Watch the newspapers for formal announcements and bios in the weeks to come. Congratulations to both Milt and Gary on their appointments.

I look forward to seeing many of you at convocation ceremonies. If I don’t see you before you begin summer vacations, have a great break.

Glenn Charlesworth Lakeland College president

A Lakeland minute Available in Public Folders are minutes from the April 7 Executive Committee meeting.

Heavy oil operations technician grad works her way up the industry ladder As a child, Alyson Davenport thought a career in marine biology would be in her future. But after a year of taking science courses at university, that notion took a dive causing her to look for something completely different.

“I am bilingual so I enrolled in a French faculty at university,” says Davenport.

“Perhaps it was the combination of studying science in French that made my year so difficult, but I also knew that if I were to pursue marine biology I would have to relocate to an area far away from my family and home. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do that so I started to have a change of heart. Maybe it was a combination of all these things, but at that time I felt I needed to find something different.”

That was April of 2008. And find something different she did. Davenport, an honours student who graduated with distinction from Lloydminster’s Holy Rosary High School, enrolled in Lakeland College’s heavy oil operation technician program at the Lloydminster campus. She graduated from the program in July 2010.

Now, at the age of 21, she is employed as a full-time pumper at Husky’s Bolney site. She is also studying to advance her credentials by taking evening courses at Lakeland to earn her third class power engineering ticket and intends to eventually earn a second class ticket.

Davenport says her new career with 10-hour shifts with an eight days on and six days off schedule fits well into her lifestyle. She adds her job in the oil industry challenges her and rewards her with a salary well above what she thought she’d make at her age after completing a one-year certificate program.

Because of the nature of heavy oil operations, workers deal with a range of physical demands and natural elements.

As well, lab and mechanical systems that involve high-pressure valves, steam, oil and gas can present added risks and occupational hazards.

But for Davenport, it’s just part of the business--and it’s not totally foreign.

Her father, who still works in the oilfield industry, did shift work while she and her brother and sister were growing up. She also says that her family and boyfriend were very supportive when they heard about her decision to pursue a career in the oilfield.

“They were all very supportive,” says Davenport. “It was a career choice that was very different from most people in my family, but they were all very

Lakeland alumnus Alyson Davenport

encouraging,” adding that her mom works in the banking industry.

Despite having a positive practicum experience with Husky as part of her Lakeland training (she was tech lead of the lab group at Husky’s Pike Peak site), Davenport says she thought she’d have some issues breaking into the field because she is a woman. However, her worries about not being accepted by her male peers were soon put to rest.

“My co-workers are great. They can see that I know what I’m doing and I’m not treated any differently at the job site

because I am a woman.”

Davenport intends to stay in the oilfield business and encourages more people, especially women, to consider taking the heavy oil operations program to launch their career in the oilfield.

“There are so many opportunities in field and such a shortage of skilled, trained workers,” says Davenport. “I’m so glad I pursued this career path. The number of doors that have opened to me never would have had I not taken my training at Lakeland. I highly recommend it.”

Showing off their technical know-how Romyn Clarke, a Camrose Composite High School student, put his skills to the test at the 2011 Lakeland Regional Skills Competition hosted at Lakeland College on April 21. He finished in second place in the auto service category. For competition results for all six categories, go to page 4.

High school students shine at Lakeland Skills trades competition

Lakeland student Stephanie Vehnon, Enviro Club president, yearbook editor, Rustlers curler and scholarship winner.

Busy Vehnon makes Lakeland a better place When Stephanie Vehnon graduates from Lakeland College this June, it will be debatable whether she or Lakeland benefited more from her time at the college.

Vehnon says she’s a better person because of her time at Lakeland. “It’s become a second home,” says the Yorkton, Sask., native. “I’ve gotten more out of my time here than I ever could have imagined.”

In the process she’s made Lakeland a better place. She helped establish a recycling program in the Vermilion campus dorms, is the editor of the Vermilion campus yearbook, and works as a lab monitor in the library. During the winter she was the third on the Rustlers mixed curling team and worked at the Vermilion Curling Club.

Vehnon is also the president of the very active Environment Club. This past year the club introduced a Green Spiel fundraiser to complement its popular Green Cup street hockey tournament and members started a green roof project.

Oh yeah, and she is also a second year student in the environmental monitoring and protection (EMP) program.

“The more I’m involved in, the better I do in school. Plus I wouldn’t be doing all of these things if I didn’t enjoy them. I just have to manage my time. I have no time to procrastinate,” says the 23-year-old. Her efforts were recognized during the Vermilion campus awards celebration in March when she received the Board of Governors Scholarship, CN Scholarship for Women, Resident of the Year Award and the Vermilion Credit Union Award.

Vehnon chose Lakeland’s EMP program because of her interest in water and air quality.

During the two year program she’s learned about sampling and monitoring techniques for surface and ground water, air, vegetation and biological organisms; site assessment; contaminant management; as well as how to use environmental regulations to protect the environment.

Live the learning opportunities and amazing instructors are what make the EMP program great, says Vehnon.

“The labs are amazing. I really believe they prepare you well for the work you will do in industry. And our instructors are so knowledgeable and helpful. If they don’t know the answer, they’ll find it for you,” says Vehnon.

As for what’s next, she’s not sure if she’ll enter the workforce full-time or transfer to the University of Lethbridge to take the post-diploma, bachelor of science in environmental science degree. Either way Vehnon will continue to participate in activities she cares about.

“It is all about the friendships formed, the memories made, and the dream to make even just a small difference in the world or someone's life.”

The future of trades is in good hands based on the skilled performances of 48 high school students from Lloydminster, Mannville, Camrose, Vermilion, Kitscoty and Athabasca at the 2011 Lakeland Regional Skills Canada Competition.

The event took place at Lakeland College’s Vermilion campus on April 21.

Featured events were auto service, cabinet making, carpentry, culinary arts, electrical wiring and welding. Winners were (from first place to third place): Auto service: Karsten Nielsen, Camrose Composite High School; Romyn Clark, Camrose Composite High School; Steven Oleksyn, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School.

Cabinet making: Karen Woloshyn, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School; Cory McKibbin, Camrose Composite High School, and Ricky Parenteau, Camrose Composite High School.

Carpentry: Reuban Patterson, Camrose Composite High School; Levi Wonsik, Mannville School and Scott Paulson, Camrose Composite High School.

Culinary arts: Katelyn Kjos, Camrose Composite High School, Elizabeth Brace, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School and Mackenzie Stewart, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School.

Electrical wiring: Trevor Charron, Holy Rosary High School; Dustin Kambeitz, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School, and Kerrigan Grolinowski, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School.

Welding: Ethan O’Neill, Kitscoty Junior Senior High School, Evan Rondeel, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School and Keiler Cherry, Holy Rosary High School.

The Lakeland Regional Skills Competition was one of nine regional competitions scheduled in Alberta this year. The top performers advance to the Provincial Skills Canada competition in Edmonton May 11 and 12.

Photographs of the day’s events and highlights can be found on Facebook. Be a fan of Lakeland College Canada and check out the Skills Canada photo album.

Lakeland BAppBus:ES student focuses on volunteer retention for practicum project How does an organization recruit and retain firefighters when 99 per cent of them are essentially volunteers?

That’s the topic Trevor Sutherley explored during his first practicum in the bachelor of applied business: emergency services program offered by Lakeland College. Now, as part of his second practicum, he has the opportunity to implement portions of his findings.

“This issue stood out for me right from the beginning,” says Sutherley, deputy chief operations for Parkland County Fire Services west of Edmonton. “Our biggest issue is recruitment and retention of firefighters who we classify as part-time but are essentially volunteers.”

Parkland County Fire Services has 150 part-time firefighters and Sutherley is one of four full-time employees. In his work to create a human resource management plan, he looked at five areas: roles and responsibilities of firefighters and the county; training and professional development for firefighters; profile of current workforce and forecast of future needs; what motivates people to become firefighters; and budget implications.

“I looked at what we’re currently doing and developed recommendations for the future,” he says.

As part of his research, Sutherley surveyed part-time firefighters and also analyzed the seven fire stations in the county. Three are owned and operated

by the county and four are operated by contract service providers.

“One of the biggest issues I found was that each of our stations is operating very independently of the others. There aren’t any consistent recruitment practices or training processes,” says Sutherley.

Now, as part of his final practicum, he’s implementing standardized practices for hiring and appraisal, training, and professional development. “Most of our firefighters are interested in ongoing training. They are eager to keep learning and they want to know what career paths are available,” says Sutherley.

Following the completion of his practicum in July, Sutherley will have a few more courses to complete in the fall to earn his applied degree. The program is offered primarily online and attracts people from throughout Canada and internationally who work in emergency services and want to develop management and leadership skills.

“I started the applied degree in September 2008. My fire chief suggested a degree would be beneficial for career advancement,” he says. As all of his previous training including firefighting, fire officer and fire inspector was through Lakeland College Emergency Training Centre, so Sutherley didn’t hesitate to enrol in Lakeland’s applied degree program.

Trevor Sutherley (right) chatting with volunteer firefighters.

“The program is as tough as everyone said it would be but it’s been very good. You learn about every aspect of emergency services management. I’ve also learned a lot from other members of my cohort who work in different areas.

They’ve been excellent resources,” says Sutherley.

He’s looking forward to completing his degree so he can spend more time with his two young sons but will likely return to the classroom in the future to pursue a fire service degree. “I want to keep on learning,” he says.

ETC happenings Saturday marked the class completion of Lakeland’s first paramedic class.

The 27 students are now on practicum and studying for exams through the Alberta College of Paramedics. A celebration for the students was held at the Camrose Regional Exposition.

Lakeland’s Alice Wainwright-Stewart, Denis Cunninghame, Debbie Smeaton, Heather Verbaas and other program staff attended.

P3 firefighting students started training at Vermilion campus April 18. The green certificate program also offered courses in fire extinguisher and farm safety.

Since the Easter break, clients onsite for training include Methanex Medicine Hat, CNRL and Albian Sands. Also on campus are staff from ESSO, Leismer Aerodrome Limited, and the Emergency Services Agency.

Off site contracts include client training at Husky and Mosaic.

Twenty-seven students in the paramedic program celebrated the completion of their classroom studies April 30 in Camrose. This year's group is the first cohort of students to complete the program at Lakeland College.

Retirement wishes After almost 29 years as an agricultural sciences instructor, John Robinson is moving on to greener pastures. John is retiring from the college this year.

Robinson began at the college in 1982.

Now that he has chosen to wrap up his teaching career, he plans to remain active in the industry as a full-time farmer. A coffee party was held in his honour at the Vermilion campus on April 20. Pictured at the event, Robinson is joined by Mel Mathison and Josie Van Lent, agricultural sciences and environmental sciences deans, and fellow instructor Peter Walsh.

Pat Roach competing in ranch doctoring.

Cowboys put skills to test in Lakeland College's Working Cowboy Competition Cowboys from throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan battled for bragging rights during Lakeland College’s Working Cowboy Competition April 15.

After ranch roping, stock dog, ranch doctoring, ranch horse and bronc riding events were done, Clayton Millar of Cadillac, Sask., was named the Greatest Working Cowboy.

“This award was created to recognize the cowboy with the greatest range of skills in a working environment,” says Ron Hoffman, instructor of Lakeland’s Western Ranch and Cow Horse program. Contestants entered in at least three different classes were eligible to compete for the title.

Millar, an alumnus of Lakeland College, received a custom buckle and $1,000 for his efforts. Pat Roach of Musidora, Alta., was second and Steve Millar of Foam Lake, Sask., finished in third place.

The following day during the Working Cowboy Horse Sale there were 39 horses sold for an average price of $3,753, up from last year’s average of $3,112. The top selling horse was consigned by Tom and Cole Brain and sold for $7,800 to Rod Ferguson of Maidstone, Sask. This is the second consecutive year Ferguson has purchased the high seller at Lakeland’s Working Cowboy Horse Sale. The average price on the top five horses was $6,390 and the average on the top 10 was $5,565. Once again, both of these totals were higher than the previous year’s sale.

Mathly Cup

Touring from Down Under Michelle O’Sullivan (left) from Esperance, Western Australia, visited Lakeland College April 6 to learn about inclusive postsecondary education methods at North American colleges. She was able to travel to Alberta after winning a scholarship from Australia’s Disability Services Commission. She is pictured above with Jill Applegate, Lakeland’s inclusive education coordinator. During her visit she noted several similarities between Lloydminster and her hometown and was encouraged by the number of inclusive systems in place at the college level.

Animal science technology students Amy Knowles, April Warrilow, Shawneen Esson, Logan Martinson, Steph Brawn, and Graham Turbett received the Mathly Cup last month from instructor Blair Dow. The award goes to students in the Math 100 course who are randomly assigned to math teams for the year. The team with the highest average mark wins the Mathly Cup. Students were asked on the first day of classes to assess their math skills and place themselves in the following categories: enjoy math and receive good grades; average at math; or do not like math and find it very challenging.

Two students from each category are assigned to a math team. Students who are stronger in math are expected to help others develop their skills.

Dow explains that during the year, many student leaders evolve as they help others master math concepts and support each other to work towards achieving a passing grade. Problem solving skills by all students are also developed.

The trophy is donated by Blair, Lisa, and Travis Dow.