President’s message In this issue, our 13th, you’ll find the longest story we’ve printed since we initially published Wider Horizons in the fall of 2007. At more than 3,000 words, it’s about three times the length of most of our pieces, but we felt such a moving, human story as that of our Veronica Turcotte, alumna and employee, and her family required, and deserved, telling in detail.
“I moved out of my bedroom and into the kitchen. That was a big step for me.” – Calin Yablonski.
In her story, you’ll discover several human elements: courage, faith, grace, fear, love. These are not the sole domain of one person, one teenage boy, one family. We encounter them in life, and discover them in our pages, regularly. Seldom, though, are that many found in one telling.
“I’d like to think I’m the conduit for young aspiring coaches to advance in their goals. We need to develop pathways to certification for coaches other than just relying on parents.” – Dawn Keith.
For me, our magazine’s strength is its recounting of stories of people: their dreams, their academic and professional achievements, their triumphs over adversity. Their tales are the heart and muscle of Lethbridge College. If they were not a part of what we write in Wider Horizons, our publication would be but a dry husk, a sheaf of glossy paper made dull by their absence. Last issue, I boasted of the people who make Lethbridge College an outstanding institution at which to gain an education. This time, I’d like to draw our readers’ attention to the folks who, by their willingness to be part of Wider Horizons, make its pages come alive with their stories.
“I have a little education, but not enough to get a job to support both of us. I told myself I needed to get this done so I can give Logan a life.” – Amber Willis.
“Here I was leading five young female students into the bowels of a prison with only one guard as an escort.” – Earl Nilsson. Amazing people, amazing stories. In this issue, you’ll read why our alumni who run businesses often turn to our grads when they hire. You’ll hear about three grads who took different routes, but all in the fast lane, to success. We’ll take you inside a prison in Ecuador, gliding in a sailplane, and through the straits of student finances. If you’re picking up this issue at our 2011 Convocation ceremonies, I’d like to note that with each April, Lethbridge College sends out another 600-plus “stories” into the world, yet unwritten but sure to be thrillers when they are.
I’ll let their own words prove my point, which is that it is they who make us come alive. You’ll read all of these quotes in this issue: “I didn’t do it for the money. I think earning the doctorate has made me a better instructor; I can teach to a much greater depth.” – Ron Solinski. “I would have loved vacations the last seven summers. Wherever [my wife and daughter] want to go on this planet, that’s where we’re going.” – Terry Kowalchuk.
Dr. Tracy L. Edwards Lethbridge College president & CEO
What’s inside Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 2011
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Bright Lights
Bent but not broke
You, me and a PhD
We’re standing up and applauding our 2011 Distinguished Alumni recipients.
Tips for obtaining an education without losing your shirt.
Earning a doctorate requires the support of family, especially when you’re still working your day job.
On Our Cover: Veronica Turcotte, a Lethbridge College alumna and employee, has raised two children (including Eugene, pictured) who have cystic fibrosis. She has done so with incredible courage and faith, and with the support of her tightly knit family. In October, a lung transplant gave Eugene a new shot at life. Wider Horizons is proud to tell their story beginning on page 2.
Our gym dandy..................................................................................9 Dawn Keith spent a lot of time on the basketball court throughout her student days. Now, she’s on the sidelines ensuring Canada’s young women get the same chance she did: to be their best. High and flighty ............................................................................. 16 The joy of soaring the southern Alberta skies in a tiny glider are Melissa Robdrup’s to enjoy. She wants to take you with her this summer. Cycling 365 .................................................................................... 18 Something drove Jonny Friesen to bike to work one day in the fall of 2008. Whatever it was, it’s still out there and the odometer is still running. Talent Pool ..................................................................................... 20 Many Lethbridge College alumni find themselves in need of employees. What better place to find the expertise they require than back at their alma mater. ‘Have you ever been in an Ecuadorean prison, Jimmy?’.............. 30 Many students love to check out the local bars when they travel. Our Correctional Studies students go behind them.
Wider Horizons is Lethbridge College’s community magazine, celebrating the successes and accomplishments of its students, employees and alumni by promoting them throughout the community and around the world. This publication aims to educate its readers, engage stakeholders and recognize donors through compelling stories and images that relate to, and resonate with, its readers. Wider Horizons is published three times a year by the Lethbridge College Advancement Office. We thank you for picking up this copy and we hope you enjoy the read. If you would like to recommend story ideas for future issues or would like to find out more about our magazine, contact us. Wider Horizons c/o The Advancement Office 3000 College Drive South Lethbridge, AB T1K 1L6 email: WHMagazine@lethbridgecollege.ca publisher: Dr. Tracy L. Edwards manager: Carmen Toth chief writer: Peter Scott photographers: Hope Litwin, Rob Olson, Gregory Thiessen designers: Shawn Salberg, Hope Litwin, Windy May Martin, Gregory Thiessen magazine staff: Imarú Baquero, Leeanne Conrad, Michelle Stegen contributors: Megan Shapka, Amber Willis In addition to free distribution to our regional community, Wider Horizons is also mailed to all Lethbridge College alumni. Alumni are encouraged to stay connected to the college by updating their contact information at the Alumni Relations website: lethbridgecollege.ca/alumni To share this issue with others, visit us at widerhorizons.ca
In Every Issue
Campus in Season.............................................................................12 Q & A...............................................................................................14 Office Intrigue...................................................................................22 My Life.............................................................................................27 Widen Your Horizons ........................................................................40 A Word or Two..................................................................................44 Where Are They Now?.......................................................................45
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A breath of life For two decades, cystic fibrosis placed a time limit on the Turcotte family. A lung transplant has allowed them to contemplate a future.
2 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Eugene, centre, with, clockwise from top left, mother Veronica, father John, brother Maurice, brother-in-law Terry, sister Suzie.
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Veronica Turcotte asked her son Eugene only once if he was prepared to die. She posed the question in 2010, during a particularly dark skirmish in his long battle with cystic fibrosis, inefficient but rapacious killer of children and young adults, when the last weapon remaining in the medical arsenal was a lung transplant that might or might not be available while he slowly slipped into submission. He was 19, an age when his mates were contemplating life, not death. But the latter was a topic never far from the Turcotte family’s thoughts ever since his older brother Maurice was diagnosed with CF at nine months old and Eugene still in his mother’s womb.
How do you measure strength of heart, the will to persevere against adversity? Is courage benchmarked in the Utah desert? In those final few steps on Everest? Or is it something much closer to home; an ability to accept what you cannot change and keep on throwing punches against the challenge? With his birth in 1991, Veronica, then in her mid 20s, was suddenly a mother of three children: a healthy girl of 2½, and two sons not expected to reach their teens. How do you measure strength of heart, the will to persevere against adversity? Is courage benchmarked in the Utah desert when an arm must be severed to survive? Is it metered by those final few steps approaching exhaustion on the peak of Everest? Or is it something much closer to home; an ability to accept what you cannot change and keep on throwing punches against the challenge?
Veronica Gregoire, mother, Saskatchewan farm girl, Lethbridge College alumna (Office Administration, ’08) and now a fixture in the college’s Advancement Office, married John Turcotte in 1987. The two settled in Taber where all three children were born. Suzie came along on July 6, 1988, healthy, beautiful and destined, at 20, to become a fellow Lethbridge College grad and, after completing her education at the University of Lethbridge a year ago, a registered nurse. There was little reason to suspect a second child, Maurice, would be anything but perfect, and he was born just that way Sept. 16, 1989. But by nine months, he had been diagnosed as a “failure-to-thrive” baby, unable to gain weight. Shortly after, during a visit to a pediatrician as the family searched for answers, the doctor asked Veronica if she could “lick” her son. “It was a strange request, but I said sure,” says Veronica. “What she was looking for was a salty taste on his skin, one of the symptoms of CF. She said ‘I think your baby has cystic fibrosis.’” The diagnosis couldn’t have come at a more frightening time: she was three months pregnant with Eugene. Could there be a chance he, too, could have cystic fibrosis? It’s a question many parents would ponder long into the night, but Veronica and John knew they would have their third child regardless of the risk. “I wouldn’t wish CF on anyone,” says Veronica. “But I’d make the same decisions again, based on my faith and who I am.” When Eugene was born at 4:30 a.m., Jan. 6, 1991, he appeared normal and healthy, but within two hours he was suffocating and was taken from Taber to Lethbridge and, ultimately, to Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. At 36 hours old, he was operated on to remove half his small intestine, the first of a multitude of hospital stays in his future. “It was pretty grim,” says Veronica. “The surgeon told us Eugene’s intestine was falling apart in his fingers. It was knotted, stopping the blood flow, one of the leading indicators of cystic fibrosis.” So, you’ve got a toddler and an infant, the latter with cystic fibrosis, and now you’ve discovered your newborn has CF, too. Oh, and you’re only 27.
For the Turcotte family, the measurement is not so much one of fortitude, although when you’ve finished this story, you’ll realize a vast amount of it was required. It is rather one of solidarity. It’s a story of a family that relied on each other to stay afloat on a river of medical misfortune. And, while the story isn’t over, they are approaching higher ground than they’ve enjoyed for many years.
4 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Eugene
, 3 days after h is surg ery
“It’s hard to have a normal life when you know your children are going to die,” says Veronica. “It’s always in the back of our heads. This was 20 years ago, when CF almost always led to an early death, and not a particularly nice one, either.” Beyond the drugs (enzymes and vitamins) taken in handfuls each day to aid digestion, and inhalers to keep the lungs clear, the only other thing the family could help with was “postural drainage,” a procedure which involves thumping your child on the front and back to knock the fluid loose in the lungs, like whacking the sediment free in a water heater. It wasn’t what one might call a warm, fuzzy time. “John really struggled with it,” says Veronica. “Here he had a lovely, healthy son and then suddenly he became a son with a death sentence hanging over him. For myself, I became overly protective. Any decisions I made in my life were made with cystic fibrosis as a component.” Cystic fibrosis is one of those double-word, monstersunder-the-bed conditions like multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy. It required an encyclopedia to get a grip on it, and that hold wasn’t particularly reassuring.
From tragedy, triumph They’ll take just about everything you’ve got to give. In Alberta, organs and tissues accepted for donation include heart, kidney, lung, pancreas, liver, small bowel, bone, cornea, sclera (white of the eye), skin, heart valves, veins and tendons. Given that list, it’s no wonder a single donor can save eight lives and enhance some 75 others. More than 4,000 Canadians, among them 400 Albertans, are waiting for organ transplants, 75 per cent of them for kidneys, according to the Canadian Association of Transplantation. Last year, only 1,803 transplants were performed in Canada; 195 patients died while waiting. Roughly one to two per cent of deaths in Canada result in a possible organ donation. It’s been suggested Canada’s low rate of transplantation is due to a national reticence to donate, but several factors are at play. Canadians receive a high level of health care, keeping them alive longer. The incidence of death due to automobile accident or gunshot is also much lower here than, say, in the United States. In 2001, 420 deceased Canadians donated organs, a rate of 13.5 donors per one million population. More than threequarters donated more than one organ or tissue. In most cases, according to the Canadian Organ Replacement Centre, about half of donor deaths result from an intracranial event (stroke, brain aneurysm or cerebral hemorrhage); about 20 per cent die in automobile accidents. In 2000, deceased organ donors ranged in age from under one year to 84, with an average age of 39. There is a much greater chance of one day requiring a donation than there is of ever becoming a donor. Alberta does not have an organ donor registry. To be a potential donor, ensure you sign the back of your Alberta Health card and discuss your decision with your family, as they will be contacted and will make the ultimate decision.
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For more information, contact the Human Organ Procurement and Exchange program at 403-944-8700. National Organ and Tissue Donor Week this year is April 17 to 24.
“You think ‘what is this?’ You know it’s deadly, but you don’t know how bad it is until you look it up and read that it’s the most common fatal genetic disease in Caucasian males.” The perfect CF storm in the Turcotte family was caused by both parents being carriers of the CF gene, almost unknown at that time, but now better understood. One parent a carrier: no harm, no foul; both parents carriers: a one-in-four chance of a CF baby.
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Still, there wasn’t much time for whining, even if she had wanted to give into it anyway, because young Eugene was going to spend the first four months of his sure-to-beabbreviated life in the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary. Veronica needed to be with him. Fed through a nose tube, pumped with drugs, Eugene was ultimately able to return to Taber, and Veronica settled into the routine of raising her CF sons and a vibrant daughter. Time passed. The family moved to Wrentham in 1999, with Veronica home-schooling her children, partly because Suzie was diagnosed as dyslexic and required extra help reading, and because of the threat to the boys of school-bred diseases. Cystic fibrosis is a degenerative condition, manifested by a steady decline in health; all treatment does is manage the decline. Eugene and Maurice have different CF gene “modifiers,” meaning their conditions affect them at different rates. Maurice has been in hospital just once, though he is required to follow the same regimen of drugs as his younger brother. Still, in Wrentham, both boys experienced a relatively normal childhood. Eugene hunted, fished, took tae kwon do, tore around on a quad and swam; a rather normal slate of activities for a young, rural teenage boy. Sure, he required pills and inhalers to aid digestion and keep his lungs from clogging into sludge, but at least, until he hit 16, he could keep up a fairly good performance as a normal kid.
The family moved to Lethbridge in 2007 and Eugene attended Winston Churchill High School. But he remained a frequent guest at Children’s in Calgary all through high school, requiring hospitalization every six months or so at the start, then with increasing frequency. When most Grade 12 grads were being measured for tuxedos in 2009, Eugene was dealing with a collapsed lung, followed by a bout of the H1N1 flu. He was vulnerable to almost anything microbial. He couldn’t see the threats, like one might spot grizzlies or drunk drivers or falling pianos, but he knew they were there and were as unpredictable. “I was extremely gaunt,” Eugene says now. “My ribs showed; my face was sunken.”
Cystic fibrosis is a degenerative condition, manifested by a steady decline in health; all treatment does is manage the decline. He was, to be blunt, running out of hope and low on desire to continue punching back. When he required a G-tube, required for feeding directly into the abdomen, Veronica knew he was on the short track. On Aug. 28, 2009 one of those many Turcotte “days of infamy,” doctors at Foothills Hospital called the family together for an intervention. Eugene, they said, was deteriorating quickly. Time was drawing near where he would either have to step back into the ring or toss in the towel and prepare for the end.
Eugen
e, Exe rc
ising A ND kn itting
Then came puberty, rough enough on any 16-year-old, but devastating on a boy who, while his friends were pondering their first cars, spent long hours wondering about death and dying. Because both were in his immediate future and it’s hard to get hyped about the “rest of your life” when it might only be a few months long. Dark days set in, adding depression to all the medical malevolence. 6 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
“It was an emotional, terrible day,” says Veronica, who, on the drive to Calgary, told her family her cancer symptoms she once thought were behind her, might be returning. “I had told them I would never lie to them. It was a solemn family journey. Later that day we found out that Maurice had CF-related diabetes and later that month we found out that Terry, Suzie’s fiancé was also a carrier.” By February, the only answer was a transplant. Eugene accepted the offer. Being a candidate for a lung transplant means being stranded somewhere between a rock and a hard place. First, you must be physically capable of surviving the operation, which can take eight hours, stops the heart and generally messes with the body. However, you must also be within 18 months of death to qualify. It’s like blowing your life savings on a lottery ticket with no job and the rent due at the end of the week: hey, might work out, chances slim.
“When they counsel you on an organ transplant, there’s no pussy-footing around,” says Veronica. “You have to be psychologically prepared for it, as well as physically.” In June 2010, Eugene began a series of tests to determine if the venture was possible. His heart was examined, his bone density scanned and his head was read to help doctors decide if he was a good candidate for having his lungs ripped out and replaced. A month later, he attended sister Suzie’s wedding. Two days after the July 17 nuptials, he entered a six-week physical training program in Edmonton to reach a required biomass index of 18 per cent (he was at 16) and a weight of 110 pounds. Because muscle weighs more than fat, the pasta was passed over for push-ups. After Edmonton, Eugene worked out daily at the Lethbridge College Physical Education facility. With his body on the build, he was now in a chess match with time. “I knew this past winter would be it,” says Veronica, looking back. “I knew he’d either have a new set of lungs or he’d be dead.” At the time, Eugene was one of 60 Albertans on the registry for new lungs; in the six months leading up to his discharge, six of those died waiting. Only 40 to 45 are done annually in the province, and summer is a busy time, what with all that vehicular traffic providing donors. And long weekends and, especially, New Year’s Eve. “From May to July and on long weekends, transplant surgeons don’t take holidays,” says Veronica. There are four such surgeons at the University of Alberta Hospital, a facility that has become the transplant centre for Western Canada. It’s easy for the Turcottes, of course, to remember the day the call came; for anyone else, too: 10/10/10, Thanksgiving Sunday. Veronica was about to put the turkey in the oven when the phone rang, Edmonton on the line. By 1 p.m., mother and son were on a Medivac flight; three hours after that, Eugene was in surgery at the University of Alberta Hospital. “I had no second thoughts,” says Eugene. “I knew I would need this operation since I was 17.” It would be somewhere east of 1 a.m. before Veronica would see her son again, swaddled in the ICU with enough IV poles, monitors and respirators to run a MASH unit. “I wish I had broken the rules and taken a photo,” she says now. “He looked like this little mummy with a mask on.” She had spent the 8½ hours of his surgery mostly alone, although one relative dropped by to sit with her. “I actually wanted to be alone. If things went well, I’d be able to let them know back home as soon as he was out of surgery. If he died, I’d have time to collect my thoughts before giving them the news.” What she didn’t know, as she waited through the long afternoon and night, was that the surgeon was also watching the clock. Eugene’s lymph nodes, normally thumb-sized,
were the size of walnuts due to long-term infection, making it difficult to remove the damaged lungs behind them. As he told Veronica later, he was afraid he’d run out of time making the switch. To beat the clock, he simply cut through the lymph nodes and finished his work. At about 1:30 a.m. Oct. 11, she was able to text the message home that all was well. On a respirator and resembling an Egyptian artefact, Eugene was starting a new chapter in his life. He remained in hospital for 19 days on the transplant ward and then another eight weeks in the Outpatient Residence, (long enough to learn from a Hutterite woman how to knit, which he did while spending time on an exercise bicycle). Once discharged, however, he soon found his second wind.
At the time, Eugene was one of 60 Albertans on the registry for new lungs; in the six months leading up to his discharge, six of those died waiting. Only 40 to 45 are done annually in the province, and summer is a busy time, what with all that vehicular traffic providing donors. Transplant surgeons use organs harvested from across North America. Many western Canadian recipients find themselves with replacement parts from sunny California, with its large population, proximity to the west and penchant for automotive derring-do. After receiving a letter from the donor family, Eugene found out the lungs were from a teenaged girl. She would have graduated high school this June. “I felt sorry for Gene,” says Veronica. “Finding out put a lot of pressure on him at a stressful time. Of course, I think about that family and what they lost, and I’m grateful.” As the numbers would have it, the average age of CF male lung transplant recipients in Alberta is above 30; according to the clinic, women with CF tend to require transplants earlier because they develop less muscle mass through puberty, and often have accompanying psychological factors and poorer diets. Upon return to Lethbridge, free from the 12-hour days of intravenous, morning and evening, to kill off infection and give the new lungs a chance to settle in, Eugene began to enjoy the simple pleasures of being able to walk a block without wheezing, and eating. Oh my, yes, the eating. 7
“Like a horse,” his mother says, and not unlike Maurice, an observer might suggest. “He wolfed down an entire sub in his hospital bed. I’ve never seen him eat like that.” Food, for Eugene and Maurice (21 and 115 pounds) is a lifeline. They require 3,000 calories a day (5,000 is preferred, more than twice the recommended amount for a 20-year-old of Eugene’s weight and height.) Eugene is still heavily into drugs (three kinds of anti-rejection medication, plus antibiotics and calcium, all laid out in a tray a fisherman might use for favourite flies. He is checked out monthly, although if his progress continues unabated, the frequency of the visits will decrease sharply. He measures his new lungs’ ability to exhale; a low rate four days in a row is a signal of possible rejection. He also self-measures his blood pressure, temperature and weight. No one is allowed to touch the equipment for fear of contamination. There remain, says his mother, a lot of ‘don’t’s in his life.
He is holding his cards close for the first year, but would eventually like to travel; Australia is a first choice: the beaches, the girls and the first-rate medical care should he require it. While Suzie admits to feeling some guilt for being the one healthy Turcotte child, she did not escape the stress of the family’s situation. She took a year off from working and just concentrated on her studies to deal with the pressure. “It’s a ‘family’ disease,” she says of CF. “It hasn’t identified who we are, but it has played a role in defining us. But we’re survivors; we’re a close family.” “Something like this makes you a tight-knit family,” says Veronica, who considers Suzie her best friend, someone who has been at the epicentre since the beginning. “It’s always been the five of us.” Yes, cystic fibrosis has taken a toll on their marriage. But Veronica and John have survived together, even if they took different routes. The divorce rate is five times higher in couples with a terminally ill child. Would she do it all over again if she could wind back time? Would she run the risk of watching her babies die as teens or in early adulthood, living with the knowledge their lives would be cut short? “No,” says Veronica. “But I wouldn’t have changed what happened.” Still, the stress has been, as she says, ‘out of this world.” She maintained a full-time job at the college until the phone rang that day last October, and returned to work early in the new year. Those closest to her are amazed at her strength, much of which comes from her faith, but also her pragmatism. And it hasn’t been tear-free. “I do my crying at night,” she says. “But I grew up on a farm and saw death often. I held the chickens while my father chopped their heads off. It was a part of farm life, just as death is part of life. The boys have come to that realization.
ts in physio Eugene, lifting weigh
He sports a scar from sternum to belly and several drainage holes for additional adornment. But he has new-found energy and has become, says Veronica, a poster boy for transplants. He’s even added three centimetres in height and left his physiotherapy program more than two weeks early. He has the vitality to keep up with Pixie, his Yorkshire terrier, introduced to the family originally to help Eugene deal with his depression. A small coterie of high school mates remain among his closest friends. They have, says Veronica, surrounded and protected him. Other acquaintances, sadly, had to be jettisoned because Eugene grew tired of sating their curiosity about his imminent death. Whether morbid teenage curiosity or heartfelt concern, it was all getting a little too heavy to bear. 8 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
“We do everything we can in our society to escape it, but death is death.” Unfortunately, cystic fibrosis continues to stalk the Turcottes into the next generation. Suzie Turcotte Smith, while dodging the CF bullet herself, is a carrier, as is her husband Terry Smith. The couple rolled the dice and took their chances. Suzie is expecting in July; an amniotic fluid test has determined her daughter will be born with CF. Suzie, now a nurse in the Claresholm Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre, says the decision to have a child was a joint decision. And, as an expectant grandmother, Veronica notes the advancements made in the treatment of CF in the last two decades gives the family hope for what lies ahead. For the next long while, though, life is life and Eugene has his stretching out ahead. With Maurice holding his own, the Turcottes can finally escort death to the door.
Basketball has taken her around the world. Now, Dawn Keith is taking basketball to a world of new players. Waiting for the photographer to set up for his best shot, Dawn Keith takes a few of her own, dropping them in effortlessly with a motion that comes automatically from years on the hardwood. The Lethbridge College physical education instructor and nationally recognized basketball coach has spent most of her life either playing or teaching the game. Each spring, through her Cougar Club, she’s exposing its fundamentals, and her love for the sport, to girls from grades 5 to 11, just one of the ways she’s giving back to those following her. Keith, coach of the Catholic Central High School (CCHS) Cougars girls’ team, is also mentoring young women who want to break into the coaching milieu. She shows them the path she took to become assistant coach of the Canadian Cadette (U17) team, which she took to Mexico City in August 2009 and to Europe for the World Championships this past July. “I’d like to think I’m the conduit for young aspiring coaches to advance in their goals,” says Keith, who coached at both Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge. “We need to develop pathways to certification for coaches other than just relying on parents.” After starring for CCHS, she played at Scottsdale College in Arizona where she was a shooting guard. She finished her career at the U of L where, as part of a still-unfulfilled lifelong dream to own a restaurant, she studied business management. In 1986, her fourth year as a Pronghorn, the team was ranked in the top 10 in Canada all year, and won the bronze at the Canadian national university championships.
Louisa Zerbe, her mentor, got her involved teaching children’s summer basketball camps at the U of L as well as through Basketball Alberta, and convinced her to study physical education. (This career switch was likely hereditary: her father, Robin Fry, was head coach of the U of L men’s team; her mother, Jodi Nilsson, is a multiple Canadian racquetball champion and Dawn’s second mentor.) In 1991, she began a small business in Lethbridge to expose youngsters to the game of basketball, which was the second leading popular sport in the world after soccer. STARS Basketball Association was a program in which the philosophy was teaching “fun, fitness and fundamentals” to children age six to 12. During a brief time coaching at Concordia University in Montreal, attempting to bring the “western” game to an underachieving eastern team, Keith honed her skills at an elite level. She studied at the National Coaching School for Women in Halifax, one of the first camps of its kind. Those who passed through became a cohesive group with a common goal: to develop the technical, practical and strategic levels of the game of basketball. “That’s when I decided to pursue coaching education,” says Keith. Coaching in Canada seemed to be an ‘old boys’ network at the time and it was difficult to gain a coaching position. But the top icons in women’s programs were trying to reach out to young aspiring coaches, and through a camp such as this a connectedness in women began to form.
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“You needed knowledge and certification to get into coaching positions.” Back in Calgary, she became head coach at Mount Royal College (now Mount Royal University), added a teaching position, and took over the Alberta U-19 team. She also married her fiancé, Warren Keith, who, seeking a career as a firefighter, found one in Lethbridge. She left Calgary a year after being married in 1992.
teams in one location, enhancing cohesiveness, Canada brings its teams together just before major competitions). In Mexico City, they found themselves training in a $30-million facility and staying in a gated and guarded residence. After winning all their first-round games and beating Argentina in the semifinals, they lost to the United States to earn the silver medal in the Tournament of the Americas.
“Years from now, the girls won’t remember whether they won or lost as well as they will the wonderful life experiences. Our goal is to build better people with good personal life skills and accountability, as well a top-notch athletes.” -Dawn Keith Back home, Keith taught at the U of L and served as president of the Pronghorns Booster Club before crossing the river to Lethbridge College in 1994, under the tutelage of then-athletic director Tim Tollestrup. She took her team to one national final tournament, finishing seventh. She also became the first coach tossed from a game, 8½ months pregnant with her second child, Katie, now 13. Her oldest, Nick, 15, spent Kodiaks games in a baby carrier on the end of the bench, often minded by then-trainer Jim Manzara. She retired in 1999 to spend more time with her family and less on the road. In 2002, Keith became involved with Basketball Canada’s newly created Basketball Centre for Performance in each province, which sought to identify Canada’s top young players. The concept was to teach the same curriculum of fundamentals and game terms across the country. Basketball Canada had studied the Australian system, impressed with the game’s growth in a similarly large, underpopulated country. “When they adopted the plan here in Canada coaches believed in it,” says Keith. “It fostered open communication in the development of young players. The men’s side followed suit the next year. Now, we’re all on the same page, developing phenomenal athletes and future Olympians.” Women’s basketball nationally was divided into two age groups, U19 being the Junior National age group and over 19 years the senior national team. Basketball Canada developed its first Cadette (U17) program in 2009; Keith signed on as assistant coach. The program assessed players from across Canada in athletic talent, technical ability, physical ability and potential. “We also looked at their social, psychological and emotional levels,” says Keith. “Those aspects are important when developing young athletes who have to travel abroad, are exposed to unfamiliar environmental conditions as well as differing intakes of food. They need to learn the mind-body connection.” Once chosen, the team, with players from most regions of the country, went to Mexico City in 2009 after just three days of preparation. (Unlike some countries who “centralize” their
Their finish qualified Canada for the world championships in 2010 in Toulouse, France, where the team finished 11th. While Keith had hoped to be in the top eight, it was an acceptable result, considering the team had two days of tryouts in Toronto and three exhibition games in Barcelona’s 42C heat, sans A/C. Regardless of their results, players dined at a cultural feast. In Spain, they were invited to watch the World Cup soccer final with Spanish hosts; at the tournament, the Tour de France cycled through Toulouse. “Years from now, the girls won’t remember whether they won or lost as well as they will the wonderful life experiences,” says Keith. “Our goal is to build better people with good personal life skills and accountability, as well as top-notch athletes.”
Dawn Keith by the years Player:
1980 - 1982 1983 - 1985 1982 - 1984 1984 - 87 2005
Catholic Central High School Alberta Team Scottsdale College, Ariz. University of Lethbridge Gold medalist, World Masters Games
Coach:
1987 - 89 assistant, Concordia University, Montreal 1990 - 93 Mount Royal University, Calgary 1990 - 92 U19 Alberta Team 1994 - 99 Lethbridge College 1999 - 2001 Lethbridge Selects Basketball Club 2002 - 2007 assistant, Basketball Canada Centre for Performance, Alberta 2004 - 06 assistant, U of L (added master’s in education and leadership) 2006 assistant, U15 Alberta Team 2007-2010 Basketball Canada Centre for Performance, Alberta 2008 - present Catholic Central High School, and Cougar Basketball Club for girls 2009-10 assistant, U17 Cadette National Team 11
Campus in Season
Former student Kara Kosokowsky (Criminal Justice ‘09) prefers studying beside a babbling waterfall in the college’s forecourt. Wider Horizons invites the college community to submit fall photos depicting the beauty of our campus for its September issue. Photo by Karen Travis, Library Services specialist. 12 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
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Q&A
Q&A
Author, activist, educator, elder, Beverly Hungry Wolf is a lifelong southern Albertan who has dedicated herself to learning and restoring her Blackfoot culture for future generations. At its convocation ceremonies this month, Lethbridge College will proudly bestow an honorary bachelor of applied arts on Hungry Wolf, one of its former students.
Wider Horizons: In Daughters of the Buffalo and The Ways of my Grandmothers, you describe the diminished role of women in the traditional Blackfoot family. How have things changed? Beverly Hungry Wolf: The way I was raised was very differently than later generations. We had a traditional base of loving parents that was removed from European traditions. When I was five years old [1955], my mother worked at the boarding school and I went with her from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. I slept in a little house behind the school. When I went to boarding school full-time when I was in Grade 6, I missed out on not being around my family 24/7. It was a colossal loss. At home, we had strict rules. But we didn’t have meanness. We knew we were unconditionally loved. Today, parents are more European in their thoughts and behaviour. When I was 19, I went and studied the traditional ways of life. 14 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
WH: What convinced you to write about your traditions? BHW: I was encouraged by the elders I spoke to. They said you have to write this down. I never intended to be a writer, but my grandparents encouraged me to do it. Some people have said “you can’t bring back the 1800s.” I’m not trying to; I’m just looking at the beauty of our traditional ways of life. I always wondered why we were told in boarding school that our ways were evil and our grandparents were going to hell. I loved my grandparents, so this was very hurtful to me. I wanted to know more about my heritage. WH: What did you discover? BHW: I had fun getting to know the old people and understanding the values they were raised with. They taught through humour. They would say “watch carefully; you’ll be told once.” It showed you clearly that if you were not paying
attention, you were being disrespectful of the person teaching you. I hope that way of mothering is going to come back. I’m trying to teach it as much as possible so our children will have more options on ways to raise their children. In my day, you didn’t hit children; parents who did were looked down upon. People from the community would come and take that child away. Animals were used to teach respect for nature, but also to reprimand children: “See that bear; if you’re not good, he’ll come after you.” In each community, it was one person’s job to reprimand children, to scare the bejeepers out of them. I was told by my mother “see that man over there? He’s the man who will get after you if you misbehave. Go and give him this gift.” It taught us generosity, but also to confront face to face the person who would correct you if you misbehaved.
WH: You’re also an advocate for First Nations people. That must be frustrating at times. BHW: Yes. I look at all the immigrants coming here to work and I wonder how come our people are not allowed to work. We’re educated, but we’re not able to get work in our own country. Employers don’t tap into that pool of available talent. There is nothing to employ us on the reserve. When I was a girl, there was no such thing as welfare or unemployment. We were very good farmers. Now, for the last 40 years, we’ve had others farming our land. The government has failed in its fiduciary responsibility to us and has done everything it can to make us dependent. WH: As an educator, you must see the value in education. BHW: Education is a big way out for us, getting the skills we need to find employment. But at the same time it’s
also important to educate Canadian citizens on their responsibilities guaranteed us in the treaties we signed. We have become mired in institutionalized poverty to where we are strangers in our own homeland. Education for both parties would go a long way.
WH: There is a wide difference too, between First Nations and their customs. We have a story in this issue about a young woman coming to Lethbridge College from the Northwest Territories who had little knowledge of Blackfoot culture.
WH: You’ve been doing some lecturing at Lethbridge College recently.
BHW: Blackfoot culture is unique in that it was not touched by Europeans as early as were others. Our culture has stayed intact since the 1400s; we’re still practising our sacred ways. I’m teaching the Blackfoot language in Early Childhood Education classes because I believe it’s important to keep it alive.
BHW: Yes. I’m honoured that instructors have brought me into their classes to speak to students. I’ve spoken to Environmental Studies classes, which I enjoy because I’ve been an environmentalist for a long time since learning from elders about the need to treat the planet as Mother Earth, as a living being. I feel respect from students at the college; I’m humbled by it.
WH: Do you enjoy teaching? BHW: I always wanted to be a nurse, but my father didn’t want that for me; he said “you be a teacher.” I was hired to be the school secretary [at a Blood Reserve school] but I got pushed into the classroom. It’s been a great experience. 15
Riding the sky
Pilot Melissa Robdrup wants southern Alberta to experience the joys of soaring. So, she’s helping launch a club. By Megan Shapka
16 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
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ou can feel the excitement building in Melissa Robdrup as she describes the sport she loves so much: soaring. Bringing the sport to southern Alberta has her flying high, literally.
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Soaring is motorless flight in a sailplane. The plane rides naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena called thermals to gain altitude and stay aloft. Basically, as Melissa explains, a plane with no engine is launched and stays up using air with “lift,” generated by the warming of the earth.
The only sound you hear is your heart beating. Peace, solitude, perfection. High above the earth soaring on thermals like an eagle, flying a glider is an experience like no other.” - Melissa Robdrup
Robdrup is secretary of the Southern Alberta Gliding Association. Still in the crucial start-up phase, the club boasts six members dedicated to raising awareness of the sport and how accessible, affordable and fun it is for people of all ages. Robdrup says the club plans to train instructors and new glider pilots, and has aspirations to host the Canadian National Soaring competition in a few years. The Southern Alberta Gliding Association has an agreement with Warner County Airport for 2011 and, with the recent purchase of a two-seater plane, will be airborne this summer. With its bylaws approved, the club is an official non-profit organization. Members selected Warner because it’s a perfect field on which to launch and land gliders. Robdrup says it’s a fairly quiet airspace, and the thermals and landscape around the area are perfect for training new pilots. “Warner offers more than what first meets the eye to those of us who savour beautiful scenery and super thermal activity,” she says. “The Milk River Ridge is just off the west end of the airfield and stretches west towards Cardston and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A few miles to the southeast you will see the Sweetgrass Hills or Bear Paw Mountains. These mountains are a wonderful prairie anomaly that produce thermal activity to well over 10,000 feet and can reach north for miles, pretty much from Warner to Medicine Hat.” The gliding season will begin this month or next and run until October, depending on when the snow flies. The SAGA will be soaring as often as possible in all three flying seasons. Members hope to participate in provincial and national competitions throughout the season, and provide training and ground-school classes for those seeking licences. Those wanting to experience a flight but who don’t want to learn how to fly can go for a ride with an experienced pilot. The community is welcome to watch the gliders whenever they lift off; the club will be at the Alberta International Airshow in August, raising awareness and attracting new members.
“It is a true stick-and-rudder machine; fly-by-the-seat-of-yourpants piloting,” says Robdrup, administrative co-ordinator in Lethbridge College’s Centre for Applied Arts and Sciences. You are one with the glider. You feel every shudder as your wing catches a thermal. Turning into it, you are spiralled upwards at 1,500 feet per minute.” How does a plane with no engine get off the ground? There are two options: the pilot can fly behind a tow plane or use a winch to reach appropriate altitudes. Once the glider reaches a desired height, the pilot breaks free and the soaring begins. “Now thousands of feet above the Earth, you need oxygen to breathe and gloves on your hands. It’s cold up here. But you don’t even notice the cold because the amazement and appreciation of the landscape in a glider at this altitude has taken your breath away.”
Melissa at the Lethbridge International Airshow
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18 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
First, you need the numbers to fully understand the magnitude of what Jonathan (Jonny) Friesen (Renewable Resource Management ‘06) has accomplished since he began cycling from home to Lethbridge College daily, starting Oct. 6, 2008. As of Feb. 1, they look something like this: • 478: days cycled •9 ,560: kilometres ridden (more than a round trip from Vancouver to Halifax) • 400: hours spent pedalling (some 16 days) • 133,840: vertical metres (8½ times the height of Mt. Everest) • 37: degrees Celsius, his hottest day cycled • -49: degrees Celsius, the coldest. Those are the colossal figures that measure his accomplishments, amazing even if you don’t extrapolate them to the date you’re reading this story, at least another 80 days. But here are the numbers which, while less obvious, perhaps make Friesen most proud: • 334,600 calories burned • 1,118 litres of gasoline saved • 915 kilograms of emissions saved from entering the atmosphere.
Did we mention he’s done this every day except for holidays and the rare sick day? From West Lethbridge? Would that be more impressive if you had read this story back in February? And, yet, Friesen, a lab technician in the School of Environmental Sciences, is as sane as you are, perhaps more so, thanks to his cycling.
“It helps with my mental state,” he says. “There’s a peace of mind which is very satisfying, and that keeps me happy, which, in turn, keeps me healthy. So, I’m doing it for the good of my body, for the environment and for my chequing account.”
Friesen grew up in rural Manitoba, just north of the border, which gave him an appreciation of his environment. His father, in search of a hobby and a bonding opportunity with the boy, opened a Rocky Mountain Bicycles (they’re made in Vancouver) outlet and the two began cycling the Pembina Hills near home.
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Since then, Friesen has competed in the TransRockies challenge, between Fernie and Canmore, twice, once in the seven-day event with his dad and once in the three-day event last year, pulling off a 12th-place finish out of 87 riders in the open men’s category. That year, the TR3 included Union Cycliste International points rankings in the race, including professional, sponsored riders. He’s also finished the 24 Hours of Adrenalin in Canmore three times. At home, though he admits to owning a truck, Friesen rides a Rocky Mountain cyclo-cross bike, faster than a mountain bike but stronger than a regular road model. Thanks to his hours in his father’s shop, he can do all his own maintenance. Of course, riding home on paved roads from Lethbridge College to his westside home wouldn’t be enough of a challenge, so some days Friesen heads into Six Mile Coulee behind the campus, wending his way on part of Lethbridge’s “unbelievable” trail network. “I’d rather cycle in a blizzard than drive in heavy traffic,” he says. “I just allot a little extra time. It’s the same as gym work. It’s easy on the joints and you can go wherever you want. My goal is to never drive if I don’t absolutely have to.” Yeah, but -49? “You have to have the right clothes. I wear Gor-Tex layers, a toque under my helmet, a headlamp for safety, and, if it’s colder than -30, a scarf around my face.” He rides on knobby tires for traction, limiting his falls to about a dozen during the past 30 months, and he finds the going difficult only after heavy snowfalls and against the wind, on occasion. “The west wind pushes me to work, but there are days, especially after a long Friday afternoon, when an 80-km/h wind can be difficult. But that comes with the territory.”
“The area has coulees like Lethbridge, but with more trees,” says Friesen. We rode cow and deer trails, then we built trails of our own.”
I’d rather cycle in a blizzard than drive in heavy traffic.” -Jonny Friesen
You don’t have to cycle to travel environmentally friendly widerhorizons.ca
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Grads hiring Grads If any employers know the value of hiring Lethbridge College students, it’s the grads who came before them. Three alumni explain why they look to the college first when it’s time to hire.
on faster. They get a good balance of academic and practical training. Yes, we hire from other CJ programs, but we know Lethbridge College is extremely community minded and we’re pleased to be associated with it.”
When the Lethbridge Regional Police Service goes on the hunt for recruits, it doesn’t require Sherlock Holmes to find them. When Ward Bros. Construction requires carpenters and civil engineering technologists, it checks resumes for one telling piece of information.
Colin Ward (Civil Engineering ‘95), Lethbridge College’s Distinguished Alumni recipient in 2010. As a partner in one of the city’s premier construction firms, he knows how to find a pool of ready talent.
And when Tangle Media, one of Lethbridge’s bright, young web firms, needs an infusion of bright, young talent, it offers “try-outs” to a specific group of candidates. Tom McKenzie, Colin Ward and Fergus Raphael come from different generations, backgrounds and careers, but the three have Lethbridge College in common. All are grads and all know the value of a Lethbridge College diploma. For Chief McKenzie (Law Enforcement ’76), the detective work of finding and training new officers is removed by Lethbridge College’s Justice Studies – Policing program.
“If I had two equal applicants and one was a Lethbridge College grad, I’d take the grad.” - Colin Ward “We have a long history with Lethbridge College’s Criminal Justice program because we helped create it,” says the 2008 Distinguished Alumni recipient. “Several police services are part of the program’s advisory committee. We realize the college wants to stay current. Instructors come from a nice diversity of backgrounds and academic qualifications, with a keen understanding of policing.” Forty years ago, the then Lethbridge City Police felt confident enough to hire only Lethbridge College grads, such as McKenzie, who began in the ranks, and put them on the beat, albeit on the fringes of the city to start. Today, the service considers grads from other policing programs as well, but all wind up at Lethbridge College for their recruit training specific to the force’s requirements. “I’m proud of each of our members,” says McKenzie. “But I’ve noticed students from the Criminal Justice program catch 20 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
“If I had two equal applicants and one was a Lethbridge College grad, I’d take the grad,” says Ward. “We know they’re stable and well-trained. If they receive their training here, they’re much more likely to stay here, so it’s not a waste of time and money.” Ward Bros. has some 20 Lethbridge Collegetrained carpenters on staff, along with three Civil Engineering Technology grads and one from the School of Environmental Sciences. The CET grads are involved in project management. “As a program grad myself, I know what they took and I can relate to their training,” says Ward. “When I give them a project, I just tell them to use the principles they learned at Lethbridge College and take the project in this direction.” At 16, Fergus Raphael (Communication Arts – Broadcast Journalism ’03) was operating a TV station in Shaunavon, Sask. Sure, he ran it off his computer over a blank channel (don’t ask how), and slightly fewer than 2,000 souls could pick it up, but hey, it was still a TV channel. One of the features he offered viewers was “Yesterday’s Weather,” an admittedly useless feature that won him a lot of smiles. But it’s his forward thinking, now, that pays the bills. And while Raphael, owner of Tangle Media in Lethbridge, taught himself the world of multimedia, he understands the value of hiring Lethbridge College grads, people he can turn his back on and know he’ll get work he can trust. Fergus Raphael has taken on six practicum students from the Computer Information Technology program since he opened Tangle six years ago, hiring three of them as soon as they graduated. “I serve on the program’s advisory committee and work closely with the instructors, so I know the students learn a lot more at Lethbridge College,” says Raphael. “They know how to make it work, and they bring their ideas and a disciplined approach. It gives me confidence when I’m hiring employees to know what they’re learning.”
Raphael uses the practicums as his version of employer window-shopping. “It’s a bit like ‘try before you buy,’” he says. “In the 200 hours you have with a student, they’ll either be training and everything is working or they’re not. It saves us thousands of dollars in training. When I hire a Lethbridge College grad, I can give them a key to the front door knowing they’ll show up Monday morning. The timing works well for us, too. They come to us in the spring and they’re looking for work in the summer.” The CIT 2+2 transfer agreement (two years at Lethbridge College followed by two in the University of Lethbridge’s bachelor of computer science degree) is attractive to students, says Raphael, and works for him as an employer. Students who start at Tangle after the first two years are more committed to
the Lethbridge market and will stay longer. He’ll work around their class schedules, knowing he’s got employees who have learned, and are learning, from top-shelf instructors. “I’d be a fool to begrudge them that,” he says. The type of career Tangle offers, says Raphael, attracts a lot of applicants who think they have the required skills; Lethbridge College CIT grads can live up to the hype. “The work is mostly unsupervised because I can’t look at it and verify it actually works until it’s finished,” he says. “The program’s grads have already indicated a deep appreciation of what they do. They’re thoughtful, innovative, committed and able to work by themselves.”
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Office Intrigue: Hat with earflaps for those cold days in the field
Collection of Chopin to soothe savage beasts
Fisherman’s Patience painting
Fossils he’s found in these parts
22 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Henry Komadowski has, by his own bad pun, an “e-fish-ant” office, not out of place for someone who has taught in all areas of Lethbridge College’s School of Environmental Sciences for the past 32 years. He’s also a grad (Renewable Resource Management ’76), and has earned a bachelor of science in wildlife technology (Montana), a bachelor of general studies (Athabasca) and a master’s of distance education. Komadowski is a strong supporter of Trout Unlimited, and enjoys nothing more than spending time by a trout stream or leading students through the wilds on annual field trips.
h.komadowski@lethbridgecollege.ca About three tons of books Wooden rainbow Trout
Carved wood salmon
One lonely betta
Trout Unlimited mug, always full
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Web Master
Calin Yablonski finally has a career with top-drawer clients; his socks can rest easy at home.
Calin Yablonski figured once he left Lethbridge College with a Communication Arts diploma to wrap around his considerable talents, the advertising world would drop dead at his feet. At 22, the young alumnus had earned top grades in his studies, won the admiration of his instructors, and was well-prepared to meet the challenge head on as he saddled up his career and rode into Calgary astride a string of successes.
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“I figured I’d be welcomed with open arms,” says Yablonski, who graduated in 2007 from the program’s Advertising/Public Relations major. “That wasn’t the case.”
I wake up each morning knowing I’m going to my office and my clients. Two years ago, I was sitting in my bedroom wondering what I was going to do.” -Calin Yablonski
Oh, he found work, all right, and it was in his field. But the advertising business in Cowtown, if it wasn’t already under attack, was about to get creamed by the recession. Layoffs were a-comin’ and, in 2009, he became an unemployment casualty, losing his job as a graphic designer. “Layoffs were happening left and right,” says Yablonski. “I figured I’d either have to find a job or go it on my own. When I was laid off, I was in an intermediate position and with all the senior people in the marketplace, I knew my chances weren’t great at finding a job. I never want anyone to have that much control over my life again.” So, he started freelancing his graphic design skills. While once he managed five major brands for a Calgary home building centre, Yablonski was now picking up $60 cheques from stay-at-home moms who required branding for their home businesses. “I was feeding on the scraps,” he says now. “So I went to SAIT and earned a webmaster’s design certificate, taking classes four nights a week while I freelanced during the day. I saw it as an opportunity to get into the web-design field.” Newfound success forced him to move his base of operations to more spacious surroundings.
24 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
“I moved out of my bedroom and into the kitchen. That was a big step for me.” With his empire now spread across the kitchen table, Yablonski took on a friend as a co-employee and scored his first major client, his hometown of Wadena, Sask. The town required a website, a task right in his wheelhouse. Then along came George Canyon, Canadian country music star and another website score. “That was massive for us, landing a high-profile entertainer” says Yablonski. “It allowed me to move from my kitchen to a second bedroom.” His portfolio was expanding. Industrial companies started calling wanting to pump up their web presences, and so did other agencies who fed him contract work. He did the branding for a Suncor internal education package after the firm’s merger with Petro-Canada, helped rebrand Suncor, and worked on the campaign concept for the Atlanta Thrashers of the National Hockey League.
By the fall of 2010, Yablonski could concentrate on website design and online marketing. With 10 solid clients on which he could count monthly, he decided to find an office that didn’t include a waffle iron or dirty socks. Now in a proper office two blocks from Chinook Centre mall, Yablonski has formed a partnership with a strategic public relations planner; Calin Daniel (calindaniel.com) is now a full-service agency. “I wake up each morning knowing I’m going to my office and my clients,” he says. “Two years ago, I was sitting in my bedroom wondering what I was going to do.” In his two years at Lethbridge College, Yablonski learned a lot about the advertising and public relations business. But there was a greater truth he took with him upon graduation: “A work ethic. Working hands on with The Endeavour and Expressions (weekly student newspaper and annual student magazine, respectively) gave me confidence. I knew I couldn’t successfully operate my own business working eight hours a day.”
Class clown
A funny thing happened to Doug Mutai on his way to a Business Administration diploma. Now, he’s got everyone else laughing. Stop us if you’ve heard this one: a Lethbridge College Business Administration grad, a Kodiaks cross-country runner and a Kenyan go into a bar. It’s a great first line of a joke, even better first line of a great career. Doug Mutai is the business grad, the Kodiaks athlete and the Kenyan, now transplanted in the Alberta prairie, nurturing his career as a stand-up comic, working his act from Lethbridge’s Cudos Lounge to Calgary’s Yuk-Yuk’s, gaining confidence, getting his name out there beyond the spotlights, working his material in lightly accented, letter-perfect English, following the path he set for himself two years ago while still a student. This career, he says, has been a long time coming. In Kenya, he began developing a stage presence early, reading poetry at Kenyan National Drama festivals, directing plays and removing any self-doubt about what he wanted to do. “It took me two years to figure out the Canadian culture, but the idea has always been there just waiting.” says Mutai, the afternoon of a performance at Cudos. “The Business Administration program taught me the business side I needed to market myself. After all, comedy is a product; I’m just marketing my product like anyone else.” In Kenya, Mutai says he might still be a funny guy, but standup comedy is still in its infancy in the nightspots of Nairobi. During his time in Canada, he’s found the national funny bone. “Canadians seem to be able to laugh at themselves,” he says. “They enjoy hearing the observations of someone from outside.” Mutai came to Canada recruited to run; he was a key member of the Kodiaks national-champion cross-country team, one
of the many Kenyans who have raised Lethbridge College to prominence in the sport. But running was secondary to a diploma and whatever opportunities it could bring him after graduation. Mutai graduated in 2010, already a known performer after playing a Lethbridge College employee function and garnering laughter. “There are better opportunities in Canada, and if you know it’s going to work out, it’s easier to make the transition,” he says. “It would be harder for a Canadian to transition to Kenya.” He uses ethnic-based material in his routines, although there is much more. He finds the differences between the two countries’ cultures rich with possibility.
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Canadians seem to be able to laugh at themselves. They enjoy hearing the observations of someone from outside.” -Doug Mutai
His family, he says, are supportive of his decision. While he misses them, he knows they’re pulling for him to succeed, just as they did when he took to the stage in Kenya. 25
“I’m using transferable skills,” he says. “It’s a different genre, but after years of stage presence, I’m comfortable on a stage.” Mutai admires Russell Peters, the Canadian comedian born of Indian heritage with the deft touch for working the edges of ethnic humour without offending sensibilities, and Dave Merheje’s aggressive style of delivery and stage persona. He’s found Albertan audiences extremely welcoming, which he admits sometimes overwhelms him. He allows for movement in his routines and finds the aspect of stand-up to be liberating, unlike the confines of a stage play’s lines. And,
unlike the routes he ran as a Kodiaks athlete, this latest race has no finish line. “I want to take this as far as I can go,” says Mutai of his comedy career. “At least I’ll know I gave it my best. It’s one step at a time.” For Mutai, the “Kenyadian” business grad, life is one big playground zone, and it’s full speed ahead.
Bridal sweet
McKenzie Kehoe’s fashion designs are walking down the aisle. For three years after graduation from Lethbridge College, the road to McKenzie Kehoe’s dream of owning her own fashion business ran between tables at the Shark Club.
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In fact, Kehoe (Fashion Design and Merchandising ’05) also worked at the former Madhatter’s and the Calgary Stampede to pay the bills while she and her mother, Shannon Wolskyj, carefully nurtured their bridal business.
I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do; everything has fallen into place. I hope it continues. I’m living my dream.” -McKenzie Kehoe
Looking back, however, Kehoe agrees she’s reached every goal she’s set for herself and the days of serving drinks are reserved for celebrations at McBride & Groom, the wedding shop she and her mother have operated for four years. “I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do; everything has fallen into place,” she says. “I hope it continues. I’m living my dream.” The dream started in Grade 11 when Kehoe developed a desire to be a fashion designer. But she was wary of jumping into the program at Lethbridge College for fear she might not land a job in such a finicky business. “It’s hit and miss, and I wasn’t sure I’d find work. I thought of taking nursing for financial stability. But I wanted to pursue the dream. In three years, she earned her diploma and degree and set off for a fourth year of study in Milan, Italy, and a specialized degree in “intimates.”
26 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
“I wanted to work with fragile fabrics and laces,” says Kehoe. “I love working in formal wear, not casual wear. I like a challenge; if I’m going to work on a project, I want it to be something substantial.” She once considered working for a major fashion house, and was on their doorsteps in Milan. But she found Italy far less friendly than her home country and let go that one part of the dream. In between those shifts in Lethbridge bars, Kehoe designed wedding dresses while her mother, a 12-year veteran of the wedding industry, ran the decorating and consulting side of McBride & Groom. With the business flourishing, mother and daughter are considering their own, yet similar, paths. Kehoe wants to move her business to the Okanagan or Vancouver, while Wolskyj is aiming at Calgary, both retaining the McBride & Groom name. Her advice for those thinking of a career in fashion design is to specialize early. “Narrow the focus to menswear or casual wear when you’re starting out; you can broaden your scope later. And remember, sometimes it’s hard to keep going. You might not see the money coming in at the beginning. It’s important, too, to get your name out there.” Kehoe says her studies at Lethbridge College were invaluable for what she had in mind, from industrial sewing and pattern development to accounting and factory management. “It’s a great program and you can do a lot with it,” she says. “It’s been awhile since I was in it, but I still hear lots of good things.”
My life
Making a life for Logan Amber Willis has a fourmonth-old and wants to work with seniors. She may well become a woman of the ages.
I grew up on a farm just south of Lloydminster. After high school, I went to Edmonton for five years, part of which I spent at NAIT studying graphic communications. What I really wanted to do was play volleyball. I liked the subject enough, but it’s not what I wanted for a career. I wanted a job I could work at all day and come home knowing I had done something for somebody.
This last semester was much easier. We’re into a routine now and I’m not so tired all the time. If we’ve had a good night, we get up about 7 or 7:30 a.m., and Logan goes back to bed after 1½ hours, allowing me to get things done. Sometimes it’s hard to manage to get much done, but usually it works out. I certainly don’t want to make excuses. The communication with my instructors in Lethbridge has been awesome.
I moved back home to figure out where my life was going. One day, I was visiting my grandma in an assisted-residence seniors home in Lloydminster, and the manager told me she thought I was really good with seniors. She indicated they could use me there. Soon after, I decided this was what I should be doing in life.
This September I have to come to Lethbridge for two classes. I’ll bring Logan. I’ll have plenty of time for her because I’ll be taking my other two classes online. It will again be a new experience and I’m sure challenging at times, getting used to being away from her and being back in a classroom after going this far online.
“I told myself I needed to get this done so I can give Logan a life, one that doesn’t include living with my mom and dad forever.” A friend of mine took the Therapeutic Recreation – Gerontology program at Lethbridge College. I heard lots of good stuff about Lethbridge College. I started in the fall of 2009. The program was offered online, which was the appeal for me; I could study and work to pay for it all. And, if I had a question I needed answering immediately, I could go to the seniors home here.
If all goes as planned, I should graduate in April 2012. I have a job waiting at the senior’s home in Lloydminster, but my dream is to have my own business working with the elderly. I really have a heart for them. The residents at the home all watched my belly grow for nine months; now I take Logan with me when I visit my grandma. All the elderly want is for someone to make them feel special.
Then, in September 2010 I gave birth to my daughter Logan. Knowing she was due around when I would be starting a new term, I decided to take just one class that semester. Well, September and October were write-offs. I thought “should I just suck up the money and quit?” But I thought “no, you can do this.” It was challenging, but I got through that class.
I still find time for volleyball, coaching a club team and playing in a women’s league. And at the start of the fall 2010 semester, I applied to be a student blogger on the Lethbridge College website. I’ve been able to put a different spin on student life because, as a single mom taking courses online, I’m not your average student.
I have a little education, but not enough to get a job to support both of us. I told myself I needed to get this done so I can give Logan a life, one that doesn’t include living with my mom and dad forever.
Read Amber Willis’s blog at lethbridgecollege.ca
27
Student perspectives
Wider Horizons asked: How did special services offered by Lethbridge College help you reach convocation day?
Harland was recruited out of high school in Creston, B.C. in 2008 by Derek Tianna Usman, Kodiaks women’s volleyball coach. After a year in General Studies, she switched to Criminal Justice, all the while playing as a power on the team. While she was motivated enough academically, she knows of other students who might not have made it through without the supports the Kodiaks provide.
Kodiaks Study Hall Program
“Being on the Kodiaks helped a great deal. First, there’s a mandatory two-hour study hall every Monday. And there is academic monitoring in which your marks are sent in regularly. If you’re struggling in your classes, your coaches will do what they can to help you be successful. Then there’s team support. We had one player who was struggling so we all got on her case to keep up because we wanted her to be eligible to keep playing. There’s a lot of motivation.
“Our coach told us we are ‘student athletes’ and the ‘student’ part comes first, the ‘athlete’ part second and, if there’s time left over for a social life, it comes third. He always wants us to win the competition between Kodiaks teams as the highest academically. Women’s volleyball has won it five of the seven semesters it’s been held. “With nine rookies and just four veterans, as a third-year player I threw myself out there as someone they could ask for help.”
Harland plans to transfer to Mount Royal University in Calgary this fall to finish her degree in Criminal Justice. Her goal is to enter law school, but her back-up plan involves policing; the Lethbridge Regional Police Service is her first choice. A younger sister, now in Grade 11, is right behind her, hoping to play Kodiaks volleyball and take Criminal Justice. 28 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Robyn Mantla
didn’t know a soul in the city when she arrived from Yellowknife in 2009 to take the Business Administration – Management program at Lethbridge College. It was her first crack at a post-secondary education, and she knew little of what to expect. Even her First Nations heritage was of not much help in Blackfoot country. So, to help with the transition, Mantla, a member of the Tlicho Community of Wha-Ti First Nation in the Northwest Territories, enrolled in the FNMI Transition program at Lethbridge College. Running from August to April, the program involves one course per semester, giving FNMI (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) students information they can use to ease into their regular studies and assist in their success. “I met a lot of nice people from the community who helped me adapt to a new city. I made friends in the program and we hung around together outside class. They made me feel comfortable and welcome. And I learned about a lot of supports here for students which I might not have discovered otherwise.
FNMI Transition Program
“I moved here with my common-law husband and my two-year-old daughter Lynasia. I came ahead to become familiar with the city. When I was accepted into the program, the college assigned me a family unit in residence. “The Transition program got me interested again in my own First Nations culture. I wasn’t raised with a strong sense of it; coming here showed me its importance. I loved meeting the Blackfoot elders and hearing their stories. You don’t appreciate your own culture until you leave it and see others. When I went to my first powwow here, I had to keep asking a friend to explain what was going on; there are distinct differences. I love the colours here and the spirituality. “I want my daughter to understand her heritage. I’m going to learn more about it; I’m going to do it for her. It’s one of my motivations.”
Mantla is enrolled in First Nations Governance at the University of Lethbridge. While she likely would have done well academically regardless, the Transition program provided more than study habits and time management. Once she’s secured her degree, Mantla hopes to return to Yellowknife to work for a First Nation organization.
Sam Weisbrod came to Lethbridge College from Regina specifically for the Exercise
Science program. He also knew the college’s Disability Services office could assist him in overcoming a slight learning disability that makes taking tests particularly difficult, not because he doesn’t understand the material, but because he requires extra time to process questions. He stretched the two-year program into three years, and, with the understanding of his instructors, is set to graduate this month. “If it hadn’t been for Disability Services, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I started getting set up with them before I arrived, to accommodate my learning disability. The staff worked extremely hard to provide me with the supports I needed to be successful.
vices
Disability Ser
“I needed a quiet space and extra time for tests; I was able to write them in a quiet room in their office. They also provided tutoring and learning strategies to help me with my processing speed. I worked specifically with Lana Caldwell, who was extremely helpful. She’s an awesome person. “Taking the program over three years gave me a course load that I was better able to manage. My instructors were approachable; I felt comfortable explaining my learning situation and they were interested in helping me achieve success. We worked together well. “I would recommend Lethbridge College’s Disability Services to anyone who needs a little extra help to succeed.”
After graduation, Weisbrod is hoping to secure work in his field in Lethbridge or Regina. His confidence is obviously high. When he looks back on his three years at Lethbridge College, he says he recognizes just how far he’s come, with credentials and a career in front of him.
29
A group of Lethbridge College students went to Ecuador to learn its culture, meet its people, sample its cuisine and do a little jail time. Up until last year, Lisa Barnett was not what you’d call a world traveller. “I had never been outside of Alberta or on a plane before,” says Barnett now. How she wound up in an Ecuadorean prison is a tale that could only have begun at Lethbridge College. “It was a real learning experience for me,” says the fourthyear Correctional Studies applied-degree student from Calgary. Barnett and six classmates, accompanied by instructor Earl Nilsson and Gisella Suescum, a Lethbridge-based probation officer and 2008 grad, toured several correctional facilities in the South American country, discovering their stark differences from prisons in Canada. As some of them reunite to describe their trip, it’s obvious the journey made an impact. “Like ours, they’re overcrowded, only much more so,” says Sandra Wirsch, also from Calgary and in her fourth year. “They’re housed four to a cell. Children are allowed to stay with their mothers in prison until they’re five, then they’re sent to an orphanage. It’s a touching situation.” The Canadian women, who raised the money for the trip themselves, were apprehensive about their first prison tour. As Nilsson describes it, the building, unlike most correctional facilities in Canada that sit apart from mainstream life, was found by navigating narrow downtown streets. “Suddenly, you’re there without warning,” says Nilsson, former assistant director of the Lethbridge Correctional Centre. “All you see are the high walls; there’s no signs explaining you’re approaching a prison.” The city was Guayaquil, Suescum’s hometown and, at 3.3 million people, Ecuador’s largest and the country’s major port. She made a first-rate interpreter and tour guide. “It was interesting for me because I got to see Ecuador from a Canadian perspective,” she says. Inside the walls, the students found conditions eyepopping. The majority of inmates were serving time for drug offences, mostly for trafficking. A few foreign prisoners were housed separately, and, say the students, seemed to be treated more harshly than the native Ecuadoreans. One woman, from Vietnam, knew neither Spanish nor English and could communicate with no one, a hard existence when you’re serving eight, 16 or 25 years, the three levels of sentencing for drug infractions in Ecuador. 30 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
With the world’s 125th-ranked personal GDP, (Canada’s is 22nd) Ecuador has little extra cash for prison reform. At $1 per diem for each inmate, meals are spartan. Inmates must purchase their own mattresses and linens. Washing is done in their cells, and hung to dry there as well. As many don’t have families outside to help them buy these necessities, many turn to other means to obtain the necessary cash. “One day a week, they’re allowed conjugal visits,” says Wirsch. “But many use visitors’ day to prostitute themselves to raise money. That can buy them coffee for a week. Wardens and guards also sleep with the inmates.” The students had a chance to visit one of the orphanages housing the children of inmates. They brought soccer balls and Frisbees for the kids, played with them and tucked them into bed.
“They’re trying to be progressive,” says Nilsson. “But they have a limited budget. We visited a halfway house where inmates do their own cooking. We all dug into our wallets to help them buy cooking utensils.” Volunteers help educate inmates with some trades training and with literacy. Training is not funded by the government and tools are rudimentary. The students also discovered a vast difference between universities in Ecuador and Canada. Public institutions provide free tuition (gasp), but at a cost. Professors often photocopy texts, out of financial reach for most students. A “library” might consist of a row of books behind a locked screen; students are not allowed to check them out.
“It was a very emotional experience,” says Melissa Luthje, from Chauvin near Lloydminster, who has since switched programs to Therapeutic Recreation – Gerontology. “One little girl asked us if we had visited the prison. She said ‘my mom lives there.’ She has no father. It’s so sad.”
At the other end of the spectrum, private universities educate the rich and famous, where one subject alone can cost $7,000 a semester. Because of their high-class clientele, these schools are secured to discourage kidnapping. Inside the one the Canadian women visited, students enjoy leather chairs, indoor pools, sports and fitness facilities and stateof-the-art equipment. All of that might make it sound much like Lethbridge College, if it weren’t for the marble floors and other decadent trappings.
On another excursion to a facility for men, built for 2,000 but housing twice that, the enormity of his responsibility hit home to Nilsson.
Back home, the students know they’ve experienced something special; Nilsson is proud of the way they handled themselves under some different circumstances.
“One day a week, they’re allowed conjugal visits. . . many use visitors’ day to prostitute themselves to raise money. That can buy them coffee for a week.” – Sandra Wirsch
“Here I was leading five young female students into the bowels of a men’s prison with only one guard as an escort,” he says. “There were inmates in the hallways and no glass in the windows. The students weren’t scared, but I was thinking ‘what have I done?’”
“They went wanting to learn and grow and be more understanding of other cultures,” he says. “They interacted with the local people, ate whatever was offered and were just down-to-earth Canadian kids. They were excellent ambassadors for Lethbridge College and Canada.”
As it turns out, Nilsson need not have worried. Once the inmates knew the students’ purpose for the visit, they acted like gentlemen.
All have their careers on the boil. Wirsch is in her practicum year with the Lethbridge probation office, working with Suescum. Luthje hopes to become a recreational specialist working with young offenders in a youth-camp setting. Barnett wants to work in corrections in a canine unit. The group’s only non-traveller, she also intends to take more trips.
For most inmates, access to lawyers is financially unattainable. Instead, they receive legal advice from students in the law faculty of a local university. If the wheels of justice move slowly in Canada, the tires are flat in Ecuador. Inmates, says Suescum, can wait years to have their cases heard in court, meanwhile incarcerated on remand. And remand time does not count towards their ultimate sentences. The fastest way to get before a judge is to bribe someone.
Our Correctional Studies students also visited prisons down under widerhorizons.ca 31
Future Worth
Students have several options for financing their educations without entering debtor’s prison upon graduation. by Megan Shapka Bills, loans, tuition, jobs: frightening words for young people who know little about the complex world of financial planning. Dealing with banks, the government and employers, and the labyrinth of any post-secondary institution, is a daunting task. It’s hard to know where to start. Fortunately, there are many options for paying the bills, both at school and at home, before your credit card overheats and stress sets in, overshadowing academic success. Carla Bodor, a first-year Business Administration student, says she initially felt overwhelmed when she added up the cost of her education. “It was tough not knowing how much I would be receiving from student loans and where exactly I could and needed to cut my costs,” she says. To sort everything out she made a trip to the Student Awards and Financial Aid office at Lethbridge College; she recommends other students do the same. Linda Sprinkle, co-ordinator of Student Awards and Financial Aid, and her team assist with student loans, scholarships and awards, and budgeting. She advises students to get on the right track early and save themselves a lot of stress by erasing any debt they have before beginning their college studies. “Prior to school, prospective students should do all they can to reduce their debt load (paying off a mortgage is neither likely nor necessary), so that the stress of studies is not compounded by the stress of debt management,” says Sprinkle. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to get ahead financially while in school full-time, especially while on student loans. But starting your post-secondary career when you’re already behind is a recipe for disaster. Sprinkle advises tackling as many debts as possible before your classes start: expenses will pile up quickly and you don’t want to start your semester already in the red. 32 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
As a new student, you can also obtain advice at the start of your first semester. ATB Financial sponsors College Life 101, the new-student orientation event, to outline finance options. Jim Kellington, market manager for the Lethbridge region, says his staff is armed with a wealth of information, including the Students First Plan. This comprehensive plan offers students a bank account with low fees, a MasterCard and a line of credit. Kellington says ATB staff educate students on the benefits of credit cards and establishing good credit. Attending college isn’t cheap. Between the money spent on tuition, books, accommodation, food and other supplies, college students often have little flexibility in their budgets. The average cost for tuition, fees and books for Lethbridge College programs in the 2011-2012 academic year is $6,000 and change. “Oddly enough, tuition, fees, and books and supplies are typically not the major expenditures for many students,” says Sprinkle. “Anyone who cannot live with their parents is going to face considerable expense just living for eight or nine months.” When Student Awards and Financial Aid staff help students establish a budget, they base the estimated living allowance at $941 a month for a single student with no dependents living away from home. This amount is expected to cover living costs, but many students will have higher expenses, especially if they have vehicle payments. Students on loans are allowed to make additional monthly payments of $800 to help them get by. It is important to remember that start-up living expenses will set you back as well. In the first month, students should factor in damage deposits, and stocking cupboards with essential supplies. Joey Sugai, second-year Communication Arts student, recommends paying bills right away. “Get the payments you need to make out of the way; that way priorities are being met with your money,” advises Sugai, who is working on his second diploma. If students do not have savings to draw from, or a part-time job, Kellington recommends they obtain a credit card or line of credit to pay for the first month’s expenses. Student loans and other awards, he says, do not arrive in time to pay all of the bills. Lethbridge College also offers advances against student loans to cover some of those start-up costs, for a $5 fee. Students can use credit to cover expenses, and pay off what they owe when funding comes in. He emphasizes the importance of making regular payments on these forms of credit. A good credit rating opens many doors, but a bad credit rating shuts them quickly. Some students will work part-time jobs while in school, but for many, student loans are the chosen, if intimidating, path. The Student Awards and Financial Aid office is available to help from start to finish. Staff will assist with applications and help sort out any issues that arise once funds have been granted. The office also has information on repayment plans. 33
“There are plenty of myths around government student loans and we are happy to dispel them,” says Sprinkle.
“
Financial rewards and recognition for hard work can also help pay bills. Countless scholarships and awards are available for applicants, some based on financial need and others on academic achievement.
Saving money ahead of time is another option for funding post-secondary education; Sprinkle and Kellington recommend an early start. A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is an excellent option, especially when government contributions are included. Your bank will have information on this topic.
I often tell people that the key to financial well-being can be captured in five simple words: spend less than you earn. . . . when anyone is in financial difficulty, the only real options are to reduce expenditures or increase income.” - Linda Sprinkle, co-ordinator of Student Awards and Financial Aid Returning students can apply to the Lethbridge College awards program annually between March 1 and May 1, and new students have until July 15 to complete their award applications. The application is accessible at www. lethbridgecollege.ca/awards. It takes a few minutes to complete and students are directed only to screens that apply to them. The Student Awards and Financial Aid office will assist with any questions. Sugai took full advantage of the scholarship opportunities available. He spent a month applying, with a goal of earning $10,000 in scholarships; he received $9,200. He recommends spending time searching and filling out applications. “Whether the award is national, provincial or local, believe in yourself that you are worthy of receiving it,” says Sugai.
34 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
With so many options out there it’s no wonder students’ heads are spinning before they even step into the classroom. Sprinkle recommends keeping it simple and asking lots of questions. “I often tell people that the key to financial well-being can be captured in five simple words: spend less than you earn,” she says. “That’s not always easy when you’re in school, but the truth is, when anyone is in financial difficulty, regardless of activity, the only real options are to reduce expenditures or increase income.” So, get organized, do your research and know where to go for help. Bodor says she feels things are really coming together now that she has her finances in order and she’s ready to focus on her studies. “I think the biggest challenge is organizing my time between classes, studying, homework and trying to have a little bit of a life outside of college,” she says. “It will be worth it in the end.”
Finances A -Z Apply for awards at Lethbridge College
P art-time job hunting? Visit The Works -
Be attentive and read the communications
Q uestions? Ask someone at the Student
CanLearn (www.canlearn.ca) – an
Registered Education Savings Plan
(www.lethbridgecollege.ca/awards).
sent to you by the college and lenders.
excellent resource from the Government of Canada about paying for postsecondary education.
Job and Career Services.
Awards and Financial Aid Office.
(www.smartsaver.org).
Students First Plan with ATB Financial (www.atb.com).
Don’t ignore statements and bills (bad debt Take part in College Life 101. stays on your record for many years and can impact your life significantly).
Edulinx’ Exit Counselling – student loan repayment information (www.edulinx.ca).
Finances are complicated. Contact the
Student Awards and Financial Aid office for assistance (403-320-3372).
Get out of debt before you start school. H ave a backup plan for unexpected expenses.
Understand the importance of establishing good credit and pay creditors on time.
Visit www.alis.alberta.ca for complete
information on student loans and other post-secondary education topics.
Weigh your options and go the route that works best for you.
X financial planning off your list early.
You control your future and can learn to manage your finances for success.
Invest in your education early; start saving Zero balance = credit card goal. as soon as you can.
Juggling work and school may impact your grades. Carefully consider the option of working part-time.
Keep your address up to date with the college and lenders.
Learning Café – offers many avenues of support for college students
Make more than you spend. Never leave things to the last minute. Be proactive with your finances.
Outline your income and expenses in a monthly budget.
35
A Doc or in he House
More Lethbridge College instructors are completing their PhDs, seasoning their teaching with the knowledge gained. But the journey requires sacrifice from those around them. Leigh Kowalchuk and Ron Solinski will soon be pondering long-awaited vacations. For five-year-old Leigh, world travel is a definite possibility, while Solinski, an instructor in Lethbridge College’s Child and Youth Care program, will likely head to the family cabin near Kootenay Lake, B.C. For Solinski, the return to the cabin is a return to a “previous life,” one free of the toil of chasing his doctorate in child and youth care. “It was built as a place of enjoyment,” says Solinski, who finished his doctoral work in August 2010. “But after working on my PhD there for so many summers, it became a place of immensely difficult work.” Young Ms. Kowalchuk knows nothing of what it takes to earn a PhD, but she knows her daddy, Terry Kowalchuk, head of Lethbridge College’s School of Environmental Sciences, put a lot of effort into his, starting two years before she was born. “She understands when daddy’s working, he’s working,” says Kowalchuk, who expects to finish his PhD this year. “I would have loved vacations the last seven summers, but we plan to have one when I finish. Wherever they want to go on this planet, that’s where we’re going.” The “they” would include Kowalchuck’s wife Kim, who, Terry agrees, was with him every step of the way as he tracked fur and fowl over the prairies in pursuit of a doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan in how animals respond to human encroachment on their habitat.
“It was a team effort,” he says. “I consider this as much her accomplishment as it is mine.”
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If you’re getting the idea doctorates require work and commitment on behalf of the candidate, and a large slice of family support, you’ve about got it. Solinski’s children Zain, 14, and Nadia, 9, and their mother Randi Malmo, understood his quest was not going to be a nine-to-five weekday proposition.
I didn’t do it for the money. I think earning the doctorate has made me a better instructor; I can teach to a much greater depth.” — Ron Solinski
“I put in seven days a week,” says Solinski, who is “extremely grateful” to Lethbridge College for granting him a one-year sabbatical in 2006 during his 4½-year quest under the auspices of the University of Victoria. “It was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done academically. It was like a master’s degree cubed.”
DOCTORATES AT LETHBRIDGE COLLEGE President Tracy Edwards Applied Arts & Science Sampath De Silva
Jeremy Hummel
Faron Ellis
Arsenault
Jennifer Davis
Terry Kowalchuk
Callahan
Mike Hastings
Gerri Joosse
and Human Services Wolsky
Robin Goates
Cathy Takeda
36 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Philip Harttrup
Applied Management
Neil Liu Jim Manis
Randal Lewis
Leona Rousseau
Health, Justice
Phyllis Day Chief
Joyce D’Andrea
Lana Sprinkle
Teaching, Learning and Innovation
Management & Learner Services
Greg Bird
Edith Olson
Deb Hadley
Frank Vuo
Ron Solinski
Sandy Vanderburgh (dean)
Doug Scotney
Krista Pearson
Lorne MacGregor
Susie Kennedy
Karla
Enrolment
While he devoted all his summers to his work, and a lot of nights and weekends during the school year (he’s been at Lethbridge College 20 years), the financial cost was as difficult. “I didn’t do it for the money. I’m intrigued by what I teach and by mental-health treatment practices. I think earning the doctorate has made me a better instructor; I can teach to a much greater depth.” For Kowalchuk, who, like Solinski, hails from small-town Manitoba, May through July for four summers meant hunkering down on the prairie landscape observing pintails, an activity that led many on campus to believe his PhD was in “counting ducks.” With grants of some $400,000 from outside agencies and a lot of gifts-in-kind support from the college, Kowalchuk was able to track pintails to determine how they respond when human activity encroaches on their habitat. “It could have been grizzlies or grasshoppers,” he says. “I used pintails as my study specimen to test my hypothesis.” Like Solinski, Kowalchuk put in those seven-day weeks. His work involved considerable research: he used some 30 researchers, many of them students in Environmental Science. “Their participation allowed them to progress and continue their careers, something of which I’m most proud,” says Kowalchuk. The college, too, was there when Kowalchuk needed its support, dealing with grants accounting and even welding materials he required in the field. “Lethbridge College sees the value in investing in these endeavours, and understands that we make sacrifices to get there,” he says. Kowalchuk has file folders full of data, hundreds of thousands of Excel spreadsheet cells with information from every duck nest he studied. Each one had to be analyzed and double checked for accuracy. “That takes away from your family,” he says. “I’d say to anyone thinking of pursuing a doctorate to be sure they can make that kind of commitment.” Kowalchuk has yet to defend his thesis, something he’ll do soon. When he does, a shotgun of experts will be firing some stiff questions at him. “You have to have a thick skin,” he says. “That’s science and it has to be critiqued and examined, in some cases by world experts. This is the major leagues and you have to develop a sense this isn’t personal. That’s helped me understand my position at Lethbridge College; evaluations are done of my work, not of me personally.”
Doctor doctor, give me the news So what does it all mean? Do academics earn PhDs in vacuums? Ron Solinski and Terry Kowalchuk spent, in total, more than a decade pursuing their doctorates. There must be something they learned we can all use or at least benefit from. Solinski’s work involved studying strength-based mental-health practices in the treatment of children’s mental disorders. There’s plenty to mine from his conclusions. “As a community, we spend a great deal of money on treating social problems,” he says. “But we’re not necessarily spending it wisely. Of course, because there’s a lot of money involved, decision-making around funding various models for mental health treatment is a highly political process.” The concern is ‘what’s the most efficient way to deal with these kids that’s effective and economically expedient.’” The problem, says Solinski, is that “at times decisions around treatment practices are based on ideological principles rather than on humanistic practices”. “Children don’t vote, and very often come from impoverished parents who are less likely to vote,” he says. “They don’t have a very loud voice in demanding services.” Kids for whom treatment is ineffective often wind up in jail, homeless, drug-dependent, suicidal as adults. Some recover, others don’t. “Jailing the mentally disordered is very expensive, and is an ineffective means to treat their problems and to prevent further problems once they are released from jail,” says Solinski. “And one in three inmates has some sort of mental disorder that harsh, punitive treatment only makes worse. What’s more often needed are humane living conditions. Healing can only occur within a relationship context.”
Solinski joined the battle to rejuvenate his teaching. “I was getting mouldy,” he says. “I needed to sharpen the pencil. It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’m finished. I had a feeling on New Year’s Eve that I could now focus on myself for a change. Still, it was an incredible growth experience and I am very grateful to Lethbridge College to have had the opportunity.”
Kowalchuk’s thesis is a turnkey recommendation for those who spend taxpayers’ money on habitat management. His work shows some species can adapt to human encroachment, while others cannot. In the world of waterfowl, for instance, mallards don’t mind a little human interaction, which is why they’ll nest in roadside ditches or spend the summer on Henderson Lake. Pintails, meanwhile, are among the most shy of ducks, preferring virgin prairie for nesting.
So, while Solinski contemplates cracking a cold one by the cabin door and the Kowalchuks visit travel agents, students at Lethbridge College will be learning from two more PhDs. One day, they, too, might follow the same track to the Machu Picchu of education. The trail is rocky and steep, but the view at the end is well worth the struggle.
“If we want a healthy, growing population of pintails, we need to conserve grassland,” says Kowalchuk. “Their nest survival rates are several times higher in grassland than in agricultural land. We can fine-tune our management practices to spend the money more intelligently.”
37
Camping in the Castle As the “May long” approaches, campers are again preparing to besiege the Castle. Brett Jensen urges them to do so responsibly. In the Castle River area, hard against the B.C. border, lies an area of Alberta rich in recreational possibilities. From the “May long” to winter’s first bite, hikers, campers, fishing fanatics, quad riders and others take Highway 507 from Pincher Creek, wend west and discover all manner of gravel road, trail and stream from which to engage in their outdoor pursuits. Brett Jensen, Environmental Sciences instructor, knows most of the routes professionally after conducting a massive GPS survey for the provincial government several years ago. He’s also a regular visitor to the Castle and has seen the predation caused by those who use the area without concern for others who might follow. Now, it’s your turn. Heavy use in the Castle area is taking a toll on the environment, says Jensen, but a bit of consideration for nature goes a long way. “The biggest problem is created by riders (motorcycle and ATV) who go off-trail and tear up the landscape,” he says. “Motorcyclists seem to be the worst, ripping up the sides of hills by hill climbing and causing erosion on higher slopes.” Meltwater and heavy rains find those ruts ideal, sometimes cutting ruts a metre deep in a matter of days. The subsequent erosion winds up in streams, affecting fish habitat. Older quad (ATV) riders are less of a concern; most are middleaged or elderly riders who no longer have the strength to hike and enjoy putting along established trails.
All designated trails and landmarks are indicated on a map provided by the Sustainable Resources Development office in Blairmore at 11901 19th Ave. Jensen laminated his and uses it regularly when in the area. Random camping can be an extraordinary experience, especially if existing rules are followed and enforced. A 14day limit is in place, but seldom enforced. Some, says Jensen, stay all summer, exacerbating erosion, cutting ruts and denuding the landscape.
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The biggest problem is created by riders who go off-trail and tear up the landscape. Motorcyclists seem to be the the worst.” —Brett Jensen
There is some good news, says Jensen. Several years ago, an annual Stewardship Day was established to help clean trash from the area. This netted automobile parts, bed springs and other refuse tending to detract from a natural area such as the Castle. The effort, coupled with changing attitudes, has forced organizers to find a new focus for the day as garbage is getting scarce. “Now they’re more into trail maintenance and things like that,” says Jensen. “People seem to be more conscious of their impact on nature.”
photos supplied 38 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Brett Jensen wants you to be a better steward of the area and, in return, he will share some of the area’s camping gems. He’s even willing to go first: •
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39
Widen your horizon
Your backswing is still in mid-February, your short irons have never met a bunker they didn’t like and don’t even get you started on your putting. OK, because Dave English, program chair of Lethbridge College’s Professional Golf Management program, isn’t here to fix your broken-down game. He’s here to tell you where to take your game where no one knows you and where you can become lost in the moment of golf’s majestic settings.
moment. If you get a caddy, they’ll show you the “must” spots for photographs. You don’t really see on TV how small and sloped the greens are.”
Scotland: well, naturally. The cradle of golf boasts numerous fabled links courses where you can ensnare yourself in the same grasses and traps that have brought low the greats. English on Scottish: “St. Andrew’s and Carnoustie are phenomenal experiences for any fanatic. But you have to go realizing the differences from North American courses. These are sculpted by nature, the sea and the wind and you must appreciate the history.”
Oak Hills, San Antonio, Texas; Old Works, Anaconda, Mont. (“It’s a reclaimed mine with all black sand. The mine is still there; you tee off on one hole from a slag heap.”)
A must-see: the spot on 17 where Tom Watson chipped in to win the 1982 U.S. Open. Other English-approved courses:
And, finally, in southern Alberta: “Paradise Canyon; simply the best.”
Northern Ireland: Royal Portrush. Never heard of it? Not surprising. But Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington have: they’re members. Located on the North Antrim Causeway, it became, in 1951, the first Open course from outside the mainland United Kingdom. “It’s called the Emerald Isle for a reason. Portrush is by the sea. Go to appreciate the people, the culture and the history.” Middle East: The Creek, Dubai. Overlooking the marina of the United Arab Emirates capital, this 18-year-old course might not have the history of British golf, but it’s a key slice in the city’s attempt to become a world tourism centre. The clubhouse is fashioned after ship’s sails; the fairways are lined by dates and palms. “It’s a piece of beauty in the middle of the desert. You’ll taste the culture of the Middle East.” United States: Pebble Beach, Monterey, Calif: “I played Pebble Beach on a beautiful, sunny day with no wind, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Every hole had a “wow” 40 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Dave English at Royal Port Rush
We keep the Pronghorns running When the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns go on the road to competitions, where do they look for massage therapists to keep their athletes at their prime? Lethbridge College. So when the school’s swim team headed to a Canada West competition in Vancouver this past winter, Alex Plett, second-year Massage Therapy program student from Rosemary, was at poolside. She did such a bangup job on their banged-up swimmers that she was invited to accompany the team to the national finals in Calgary in February. Taylor Quan, another second-year student, volunteered to take his skills on the road, a bus trip to Winnipeg with the U of L track and field team, also during reading week. The experience both students gleaned from the trips would have been huge. Unfortunately, the team decided to fly to Winnipeg and didn’t have the budget to take Quan.
“
It’s good that the college and the university have such a close relationship... it creates great opportunities for us.” — Taylor Quan
Massage Therapy students are required to put in athletic massage hours during their program. Quan and Plett were both high school athletes who retain their love of sports, so linking up with the Pronghorns was a natural opportunity for them.
“It’s good that the college and the university have such a close relationship,” says Quan, a former football player for Lethbridge Collegiate Institute. “It creates great opportunities for us.” In Vancouver, Plett found herself easing bicep tendonitis and muscle spasms during the meet. Quan expected, had he made it to Winnipeg, to find legs, backs and shoulders demanding his attention, (the basic track and field muscle groups). Plett and Quan, like other students in the program, are capable of dealing with acute sprains and strains and hold CPR certificates. In short, the two-year program has given them well-rounded training in their field. In addition, through practicum work at Lethbridge College, the students get assistance in building their client lists before they even graduate. Quan, a lifelong Lethbridge resident, already knew of Lethbridge College’s program before leaving high school. As of March, he’s been working at Meridian, a Lethbridge physiotherapy centre. He intends to study performing arts and kinesiology at the U of L. Plett is debating staying in Lethbridge or heading home, but knows she’ll be involved in some athletic program. She participated in soccer, basketball, volleyball, track and badminton in high school in Rosemary. She also did her homework. “I did a lot of research on massage therapy programs and found Lethbridge College’s was one of the best in Alberta,” she says. Plus, coming from a small town, Lethbridge was an easier city to adapt to than Calgary.”
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Celebrating our stars Every year, as our grads prepare to step from campus into their new careers, they have shining examples to emulate. The four people chosen by the Office of Alumni Relations and celebrated on these pages are among the many of accomplished people who credit their time at Lethbridge College for their successes. By their dedication and excellence, they distinguish themselves and the entire Lethbridge College community. We are proud to call them ours. Here are the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients.
Distinguished Alumni Award
Terry Vogt Radio Arts ‘72
His voice has long been the sound of news in Lethbridge and throughout southern Alberta. He is a mainstay of reporting integrity and community connectivity. For his dedication to his craft and achieving a high level of career excellence, Terry Vogt is Lethbridge College’s Distinguished Alumnus for 2011. Vogt’s nominators use words such as trusted, humble and generous, forthright, compassionate and respected. All these adjectives, like the stories to which he’s treated viewers across the region on CTV’s CFCN in Lethbridge almost daily for more than 30 years, are accurate. They tell of a Lethbridge College grad who could have taken his talents anywhere, named his choice of locale, and flourished in the brighter lights far from his home community. They write of the man they know with a passionate persuasion, a reflection, perhaps of their subject himself.
“I have spent nearly 40 years of my life telling stories,” says Vogt. “To be recognized for that is both exciting and humbling. But I feel that I need to share this award with all those people who have welcomed me into their lives, freely sharing their concerns, insights, frustrations and joys.” Whether on the trail of a hot story, volunteering with his church, nurturing the career hopes of Broadcast Journalism students, or staring down pucks as his team’s goalie, Vogt does all things with grace, humility, fairness and dedication. He is unswerving in ensuring his reports are factual and informative. His low-key approach conveys integrity, despite the cameras and the cult of personality. Raised in Picture Butte, Vogt never strayed far from his prairie roots, but his reputation has travelled far and wide. He has won numerous awards, the most honoured among them the Ron Laidlaw Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada for best continuing coverage.
42 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2011
Vogt remains connected to Lethbridge College through the mentoring of practicum students and has, in the past, taught in the Broadcast Journalism program and been a member of the Communication Arts Advisory Committee, helping to ensure it remains of the highest calibre. He is, by his example, one of the program’s best ambassadors. “My career really began at Lethbridge College, where I received the basic knowledge and tools to break into broadcasting,” says Vogt. “It’s important to stay connected to the college, so you can keep up with advances and changes in the industry. Lethbridge College is always looking ahead, so students are prepared to meet the demands of an ever-evolving workforce. The college also offers a link to our next generation of announcers and broadcasters.”
Career Virtuoso Award • Sherri
Gallant (Print Journalism ’86)
Her words have been read by a generation of southern Alberta newspaper readers, describing, decoding and disseminating information on issues affecting their lives and their communities. For her balanced, compassionate reporting of the daily life of the community, Sherri Gallant is Lethbridge College’s Career Virtuoso Award recipient for 2011. Gallant has, in her lengthy career with the Lethbridge Herald, covered virtually all 24 hours in a southern Alberta day. She accomplished this, and established her reputation, by weaving empathy and education throughout her stories. She ensured her coverage included an aspect of explanation, and felt her work was incomplete unless
Community Leader Award • Richard In civilian clothes now, he will long be recognized as a peace officer who served with compassion wherever he was posted. For leaving the communities in which he served better for his time in them, retired RCMP constable Richard Huculiak is Lethbridge College’s Community Leader Award recipient for 2011. Transferred to Wetaskiwin in 2004, in the 15th year of his service with the force, Huculiak was assigned the following year to assist in creating a cadet corps of Hobbema children to help ease gang violence in the First Nations community.
Rising Star Award • Bram
her readers had come away with a greater understanding of the situation. “When I heard I’d won the Career Virtuoso Award, I got an instant lump in my throat,” she says. “I truly felt honoured and proud.” Gallant has always searched for the human aspect of her subjects, whether covering education, politics, health issues or any one of several topics she’s unravelled for readers. “The college gave me the skills to go out and be a reporter. To be recognized years later as someone who’s enjoyed a successful career, without leaving Lethbridge, is icing. From the moment I enrolled there, everything began to change for me.”
Huculiak (Law Enforcement ’79) “Knowing the number of alumni who would be nominated, and my absence from the Lethbridge area for more than 21 years, I’m honoured to receive this award,” he says. Huculiak has given much of himself through his vision and mission to work with young people in the communities he policed. “I remain connected to Lethbridge College because of its credible, respected instructors and programs and the positive reputation of Lethbridge College.”
Timmer (Multimedia Production ’03)
Why are the good ones always taken? Snapped up by an employer while still wearing his grad gown, Bram Timmer is still rocketing skyward and is Lethbridge College’s Rising Star for 2011. He has, in less than seven years, become an accomplished graphic designer, art director and photographer associated with an alphabet of brands including Applebee’s, Bombardier, the Canadian Football League and more. “I’m truly humbled by receiving the Rising Star award from Lethbridge College,” says Timmer. Bram’s clients include enough A-list companies to make him a sought-after designer. But he’s also volunteered his expertise to aiding groups such as Habitat for Humanity and others.
He has given his talents to print and web work at events in Amsterdam, Seoul, San Francisco, Hollywood, New York and Toronto. Somehow, Lethbridge College kept calling him back. “After guest lecturing at the college in 2009, I realized many of my old instructors were still lingering in the hallways and cracking the same jokes; it felt as if time stood still here.” Timmer has photographed David Suzuki, Ricky Gervais, William Shatner and Jason Priestley, yet still guest lectures at Lethbridge College. “My best advice to students would be to learn a small base to begin with; don’t let yourself get engulfed in one direction.”
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A Word or 2
Wider Horizons asked Kirby Maronda (Interior Design and Merchandising ’02), sales consultant, Daytona Homes Lethbridge, to share a word or two on housing trends.
What interior colours are the hottest in homes this year? Metallics and opalescents, purples, greys and teals. Which room or hot feature sells a home? Kitchens, luxury bathrooms and presentation of colour. What’s the most important aspect of a home that buyers should check out? Quality of construction. Homebuyers could make the process so much easier by: Coming prepared with what they really need/want. You can move your own home to any street in Lethbridge. Which one? Overlooking the coulees. Big landscaped yard or low maintenance? Big yard with a lawn boy. If you weren’t selling homes, what would you like to do? Serve as host of Extreme Home Makeover. First choice for a vacation? Snorkelling in Hawaii. First song on your personal music device? David Gray This Year’s Love. I use social media because: If Facebook was a country, it would be the fourth-largest in the world. 44 • WIDER Horizons/Winter Horizons/Spring 2011
Where are they now? Celebrating successes of our alumni in their careers and throughout their lives. Joseph Anderson Agricultural Technology ’77 After graduating, I worked in Brooks; my last job there was as an accountant for Brooks Livestock Auction. Since then, I have worked in the oil-and-gas, utilities and telecommunications industries, and, most recently, in the new-home construction business. Nancy Willis Campbell Nursing ’85 I’ve had a great career as a registered nurse that started at Lethbridge College. I’ve worked in critical care, emergency, primary care, patient safety and quality improvement and senior leadership/administration. I obtained my BN in 2004 and MSc. in 2008. I work as director, Clinical Services with Covenant Health in Lethbridge. Pamela Jill Austman Nursing ’91 From Lethbridge, I went to the United States for five years, working ICU in Texas and at a family practice clinic in San Diego. In 1998, I moved back to Winnipeg to be closer to family, took the Manitoba Nephrology Nursing program and became trained in hemodialysis. I’ve now been in dialysis since 1999 and have worked in British Columbia and Winnipeg. Donna Beeman Child and Youth Care ’93 Since graduation I have been working in the child- and youth-care field as a family support worker in various agencies throughout Alberta. Randy Mackay Automotive Systems ’95 I worked in the automotive industry for awhile. I am now working in the oil and gas industry, working on natural gas engines and compressors in the Kindersley, Sask. area. Teresa Warnock Nursing Education in Southwestern Alberta ’00 I have been working at the Claresholm Centre for Mental Health and Addictions since graduating. I work on the Extended Treatment Unit and I love my job. Trevor Leonard Butler Computer Information Technology ’01 I started at the University of Lethbridge as a student, obtained B. Mgmt. in information systems and worked in system support at the U of L. I am now the manager of Technology Services and run all technology for the Faculty of Management, including the development of their Financial Trading Room.
Tina (Giesbrecht) Karst Communication Arts ’05 After graduation, I helped launch a radio station (XM105 in Whitecourt). I then joined 94.1 CJOC here in Lethbridge soon after it launched in the summer of 2007 and am now the associate news director. Lisa Blacquier-Rempel Therapeutic Recreation - Gerontology ’05 I now have a very rewarding job working as a therapy assistant in psychiatry on a unit in the Medicine Hat Hospital. I am continuously furthering my education and have become a proud advocate for the mentally ill. Lindsay Fletcher Agricultural Technology ’06 I worked for Bayer Crop Science for two years and then moved on to work for a local independent chemical and fertilizer retailer. As an agronomist, I specialized in potato production. Lani Ledingham Communication Arts-Advertising and Public Relations ’06 I pursued a job at Red Deer College in my final semester at Lethbridge College and got hired right away and have been here since. I loved the hands-on aspect of the program that prepared me for everyday multi-tasking. Sarah (Corraini) Nieboer Massage Therapy ’08 I’ve opened my own massage therapy practice in Bow Island. Pamala Paulsen Business Administration-Accounting ’08 Thanks to Lethbridge College, I have a great job working as a member service representative at a bank and I love it. The faculty at the college is great and they will help you in any way possible. Jeric Goodsman Geomatics Engineering Technology ’09 I have been accepted into the University of Lethbridge Bachelor of Science program via the 2+2 transfer. I am majoring in geography with a concentration on geographic information science. Felix Mak Engineering Design and Drafting ’09 Since graduating I have gotten a job with Suncor Energy working with engineering drawings and models. Fort McMurray is great. The skills I learned in the EDDT program have helped me a great deal with my job. I truly believe that the design and content of EDDT is of great value.
Lisa Nast Civil Engineering Technology ’09 I moved to Saskatoon after graduation and was employed by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure as a surveyor. From there, I moved on to another position: quality control technologist with Lafarge Canada. I am now with Innovation Place, a crown corporation of Saskatchewan, working as a project technologist in their Project Management division. Kirsti (Gibson) Forsyth Early Childhood Education ’09 I am working full-time in my hometown at the Taber Child Care Centre, as a child-care worker. I also work part-time as a crisis intervention worker at the Taber Safe Haven Women’s Shelter. Joshua Darren Peters Business Administration -Management ’09 I am finishing my bachelor of international business at the University of Lethbridge. After I am done, I will be going to law school. Courtney Quenneville Business Administration-Accounting ’09 I am doing the accounting and bookkeeping for Parastone Group of companies in Fernie, B.C. Parastone Group consists of 13 companies, including bars, hotels, development and construction companies. Chelsey De Groot Child and Youth Care ’10 I was lucky enough to get a job with Family Ties before finishing my first semester. I had started working in the Community Aid program, taking youth out into the community, showing them different resources accessible to them. I now do supervised visits with families. I did one of my practicums with the YWCA LIFE program, as a youth support counselor, in which I got hired on shortly before I finished. I have been working there for the past eight months, and Family Ties for almost three years. I am looking forward to furthering my education at some point, and excited to see where this field takes me.
Submit your alumni update online at lostalumni.ca 45
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