wider horizons - spring 2008

A PUBLICATION OF LETHBRIDGE COLLEGE

Tom Cochrane:taking the highway to

Top of his game - p. 4 • oUr alUms make News - p. 6 • College expaNds global reaCh - p. 12

Homecoming ’08

Be part of the celebration!

02 • WIDER Horizons/Spring 2008

Tracy EdwardsLethbridge College President & CEO

Fifty: it’s such an awkward age, isn’t it? (Not that I would know from personal experience, of course, but I’ve been told.) At Lethbridge College, we’re celebrating our 50th Anniversary this academic year, and I can tell you we’re struggling with the concept.

Fifty: who would have thought? Are we supposed to be entering an era as the mature matron of post-secondary education in southern Alberta, dressed in sensible shoes, lowered hemlines and a grandmotherly coif of distinguished greying hair? Or do we go out and get a tattoo?

Should we top up our RRSPs, plan a sedate Alaskan cruise and watch our cholesterol intake? Or do we find a shooter bar where it’s always happy hour and the wings are free?

I’ve pondered this conundrum and, after careful consultation with my staff, I’ve concluded there is a middle alternative, one where experience and exuberance come together to create the perfect learning environment, where knowledge and wisdom are only made more vital when they touch youth and its determination.

Based on that theory, I think we’ve found an ideal word to describe everything we do at Lethbridge College: élan.

Comprised of just four letters, a favourite of crossword creators, élan, says Oxford, means vivacity, dash. It is derived from the French elancer, which means to launch. How perfect is that for a college sending out scholars into their careers and on life journeys?

So, we’re launching our next 50 years with vivacity and dash. Expect the unexpected. Be intrigued by the uncommon. We may rattle a few sensibilities, but we trust your shock will turn to awe.

And, you can rest assured Lethbridge College will always provide a venue for those seeking quality education, who desire the required knowledge and training to achieve their goals.

the shock and awe of hitting 50

Vol. 1, No. 3, Spring 2008

Wider Horizons is published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) by the Lethbridge College Advancement Office.

Through stories that celebrate the accomplishments of our students, employees and alumni, the magazine communicates Lethbridge College’s vision, mission and goals to its audiences.

We thank you for picking up this copy and 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 Horizonsc/o The Advancement Office3000 College Drive SouthLethbridge, ABT1K 1L6

publisher/editor: Steven Dyckmanager: Carmen Tothco-ordinator: Michelle Stegendesign: Jaylene Ulmer

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 Association’s website:lethbridgecollege.ca/alumni

To share this issue with others, visit our Publications web page at lethbridgecollege.ca/publications

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What’s InsideSign Language .................................10

Earth is the Only Planet ....................22

Ducks Unlimited ...............................24

Academia and Agriculture .................26

Our Nursing Program .......................28

Engineering Accreditation .................30

On Our Cover

Homecoming ’08.....................................................16We’ve always believed education makes life’s highway a smoother ride. Singer/songwriter Tom Cochrane must agree, because he’s heading to the Enmax Centre May 18 for a 50th Anniversary community concert.

Top of His Game .......................................................4One of our alumni may well make it to the Super Bowl one day. John Vidalin puts Texan bums in seats in Houston’s Reliant Stadium.

Our Alums Make News .............................................6It’s getting so you can’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper without seeing one of our Communication Arts alumni. Find out how and why they’re making the news.

Global Reach ..........................................................12You don’t require a passport to see the world at Lethbridge College: the world is coming to us. Our students helped make International Week a global success.

In fact, if growing fan support and exceptional marketing got teams to the Super Bowl, Vidalin would have had seats on the 50 in Phoenix last month. It doesn’t and he didn’t. But don’t feel sorry for this Lethbridge College alumnus (Communication Arts ’91) if you’re any sort of sports fan; he’s hung out with some of the best athletes of two professional sports in three cities since graduation.

Vidalin, originally from Edmonton, started university in his hometown, but wanted a course of study more applicable to what he craved: a life in sport. He switched to Lethbridge College to study broadcast journalism thinking that might be the way in, but discovered there was more money to be made in marketing and public relations.

“There were good opportunities in broadcasting, but the money was more attractive on the PR side,” says Vidalin, who married while in college and by then had a child. Texans supporters may not

realize, but part of the magic Vidalin and his crew manage to weave 10 times a year began on the campus of Lethbridge College, where he learned his trade.

“It was real-world experience, from the local broadcasts with Ian Mandin, the writing and the commercials, all in small classes and hands-on work,” says Vidalin, who wrote a public service announcement for the Canadian Cancer Society while in school that won a national award.

Today, in the high-power world of professional sports, Vidalin plays every down with intensity. Selling football to the folks of Texas might seem like a marketer’s dream, but this is the NFL, and every inch counts. The Texans answer all e-mails and phone calls received from fans, conduct J.D. Power surveys and hold focus-group sessions to ensure they are giving their customers a great ride on those Sundays at Reliant.

“We’re selling a little part of a dream,” he says. “We’re creating moments to

remember for people, whether they’re die-hard fans or kids at their first game. Our mantra is to create raving fans and be the most valued and respected sports franchise on the planet.”

Vidalin has carried that attitude with him since he left Lethbridge College, and still attributes his success to the practical experience he gained on campus. It’s also the driving force behind his determination to be involved with post-secondary institutions in almost every community in which he’s lived. He sits on the advisory committee of a sports marketing program at a Houston university and helps place students in internship programs with sports organizations across the country.

For four years following graduation, he worked back in Edmonton for Alberto-Culver, the folks who produce Alberto VO5 and other hair-care products, advancing to key accounts manager in Calgary. It was a good job, but it wasn’t sports. Then a friend working for the

Top of His Game:

The Super Bowl dreams of John VidalinFor John Vidalin, whether it’s football season or not, most days in sunny Texas are “first-and-goal.” And while

the Houston Texans’ seasons tend to end sooner than most in the NFL, the team is flourishing at the gate, making Vidalin’s job as their vice-president of sales slightly easier than that of, say, head coach Gary Kubiak.


Calgary Flames suggested his future might lie with the NHL club. “I sat down with Lanny McDonald (then the Flames vice-president) and was put in charge of new sponsor relationships,” says Vidalin. “It was a year of a substantial renovation to the Saddledome, and sponsorships were important to the team’s financial success.”

It was 1994 and Vidalin was back in the game, at least what there was of it: the season was slashed to 48 games by a lockout that kept teams off the ice until January. Still, the Flames made the playoffs, even if only for one round. It was a taste of the big time and Vidalin was hooked. Later promoted to director of marketing, he stayed with the team until 2000.

For a year afterward, Vidalin worked for an ad agency based in Saskatchewan that had expanded into Calgary. The work was all right, but it lacked the excitement with which he had become addicted with the Flames.

“I missed the sports side of the business,” he says. “About that time, an opportunity came up with the Washington Capitals. They had a new ownership and needed someone to “manage their evolving brand and their marketing efforts”.

So of course he took the Washington job in 2001 and of course there was a lockout in 2004; this one blotted out an entire season and job security became a consideration.

“I loved it there, but it became an issue of how long the lockout would last and whether there would be pay cuts and job losses.”

With two daughters to consider, Vidalin kept his options open. When the NFL’s Texans made an offer four years ago, he and wife Carol took Amy and Allison, now 17 and 15, to Houston to scout the

landscape. They liked what they saw.

“The city just seemed right for us,” he says. “It’s a lot like Calgary, from the culture of rodeo to the friendliness of the people and

the entrepreneurial spirit.”

When Vidalin arrived, the Texans, who entered the league in 2002, were still finding themselves. They were owned by Robert McNair, the same guy who, five years earlier tried to bring the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers to Houston. Blasphemy? Maybe, but remember, Houston is closely tied through sports to Edmonton through the Eskimos; it’s where Warren Moon and Hugh Campbell found post-CFL success with – wait for it – the Oilers.

At any rate, the Oilers (rink variety) stayed put in Alberta and the Oilers (gridiron variety) left Houston for Tennessee. It was this abandonment of

Houston by their beloved football team in 1997 that convinced McNair to drop his NHL bid and focus on football.

“Mr. McNair is the reason the game is in Houston,” says Vidalin. “And, he’s a great guy to work for.”

What the Texans have not necessarily accomplished on the field, they have in the stands, thanks to, in part, Vidalin’s understanding of what it takes to give fans the best experience he can on their 10 home dates each season. How does a guy who grew up watching, and later working, in hockey feel about the game of football?

“Hockey, because of its constant action, is great to watch live, while I always enjoyed football more on TV, great for the replays etc.,” he says. “So it comes down to the ‘game experience’ for the fans. I feel we put together a phenomenal and memorable game-day experience.”

Hockey fans, he notes, arrive at the arena just before game time and leave once the final buzzer sounds; football fans make the day last.

Regardless, game day at Reliant Stadium, home of the Texans, is a full-meal deal, literally: it starts with tailgate parties and barbecue. Roughly 30,000 fans pull into the parking lot with mobile units worth more than a sub-prime mortgage to share food, beer and vie for NFL “Tailgater of the Year.”

Once the game begins, hard-core fans hang out in Reliant’s “Bullpen,” an end zone section where collars of blue and

white mix in passionate celebration of red, white and blue.

It’s a locale where a good Alberta boy would feel most comfortable, with folks John Vidalin understands. It may be a long way on the map from Lethbridge College, but the lessons learned remain similar: put people first.

“It was real-world experience, from the local broadcasts with Ian Mandin, the writing and the commercials, all in small classes and hands-on work.”

lethbridge College alum John Vidalin: selling part of a dream in Texas.

05

Peter Scott

Our alums make newsand a difference in our community

Richard BurkePhotography: Gregory Thiessen


from left: Communication arts alumni Cathy martin, brent brooks, mark Campbell, sherri gallant and Tony deys in the College’s Technologies wing.

Motivation to work in the business varied, but for all, getting there involved taking the college programs.

07

They don’t send back breathless news reports while dodging bullets in war-torn countries as khaki-clad foreign correspondents. But the more than 20-plus Lethbridge College graduates who work on the front lines of the city’s media are serving their audiences with similar purpose: they want to make a difference in people’s lives.

Working in the media has a significant element of self-fulfillment, of course, but the sense that the work is important and can change lives is compelling. After all, people, not things, are what make news.

Most of those who learned their craft in the Communication Arts program, whether in Broadcast or Print Journalism, share a common affection for their audiences; only natural considering they are, like their listeners and readers, all citizens of the same community.

Take, for instance, the dean of the city’s media, Mark Campbell, a 1974 grad.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a celebrity like Wayne Newton or neat people in Lethbridge, someone who has an interesting life or has a life change, it’s all fun,” says Campbell.

Campbell knows about life changes: he’s a rarity who has scored the elusive hat-trick of having his work showcased by radio, television and print. That helps him understand the people he interviews daily for his popular Scene and Heard segment on Global TV or as morning show host on CJOC 94.1 The Lounge.

Says Sherri Gallant, (Print Journalism ’86) who has reported most beats at the Lethbridge Herald: “You become more connected with people in the community than in most other lines of work.”

It’s clear she likes writing about people.

“When I was on maternity leave preparing to go back to work, I came across a file of letters from readers that reminded me why I like to write. It was all really heart-felt, emotional stuff. People thanking me.”

For Cathy Martin (Broadcast Journalism ’84), it’s important to have fun and she and Brent Brooks (an honorary college alumnus) do that on the morning show at 107.7 The River. But, it’s their listeners whom they feel they are really working for; the real stars of the show.

“The news has to be serious,” says Martin. “But I also think people want to have some fun. They want to be able to laugh at a joke or comment.”

And, people respond by phoning.

“They are willing to give us their opinion. Sometimes they are very excited about it. It makes people feel they are important. We try to make people feel that way.”

Since the college started offering journalism courses in 1967 and radio arts courses in 1969, it’s been a mutually beneficial relationship: students have cut their teeth in the media world as apprentice journalists or all-night DJs while taking classes. Grads numbering in the hundreds have taken jobs in radio, TV, newspapers and magazines here, across Canada and internationally.

Terry Vogt (Broadcast Journalism ’71), CTV Lethbridge news director who has interviewed every prime minister since Pierre Trudeau, now finds more satisfaction in connecting with the underdog. After spending the first dozen years of his career in radio in The Pass, Lethbridge and Calgary, he turned to TV where he felt he could tell stories better. The appeal for Terry is in “talking to people and being able to convey how that affects people’s lives. Sometimes I feel we can help someone who doesn’t have the clout others do.”

For Kristen Harding (Print Journalism ’02), crime reporter for the Lethbridge Herald, the thrill of the chase is a prime motivator.

“When you’re onto a story and it’s a good story, you know there’s something more”, says Harding, who started at the newspaper a few weeks before she graduated. “You know there’s a story you need to tell, something to open the public’s eyes, your own eyes. It’s just an exhilarating feeling.”

But, Harding’s compassion shows when she talks about Sharla Collier, a youth-care worker murdered in the Oldman River valley in 2002.

“It’s so tragic it chokes me up to even talk about it. Sharla’s mother’s impact statement was so moving. I can’t make it better. But I can be a voice for her. I can tell her story and I hope in some small way that brings closure.”

When she graduated, Dori Modney (Broadcast Journalism ’76) was the only female among nine students in the program, and became the first woman hired on air at the old CJOC radio station.

“The manager called around to other stations and said, ‘Guess what I just hired,’” says Modney.

As news director now at Country 95.5 FM, in a newsroom with 2006 Lethbridge College grads Patrick Burles and Tristan Tuckett, Dori has seen a change in how radio folk relate to listeners.

“We talk to people now instead of lecturing to them.”

Most don’t hesitate when asked to give to the community.

For Tony Deys, (Broadcast Journalism ’89), it shows in his willingness to emcee community events, a role he sees as public relations for Country 95.5.

“I’m at my best when there’s a microphone in front of me,” he says. “It’s my comfort zone.”

But, it wasn’t always that way; he recalls his first emceeing role, a minor hockey banquet when he was covering news and sports for CHAT Radio and TV in Medicine Hat.

“It was a train wreck,” he says. “I didn’t do the prep work I should have.”

He learned from that and now finds the preparation is ongoing, even throughout the event. As it is on air, “You can’t forget your audience.”

Like their counterparts across Canada and overseas, most work journalists’ hours. As Campbell readies for the third take of a promo for Scene and Heard, he apologizes to the cameraman with a chuckle: “I’ve been up since 3:30 a.m.”

Hours like that go with the territory at times. But Campbell has been having fun on the job for 34 years, after rejecting an offer to attend university and, on the advice of a family friend who counseled students at Lethbridge College, he sat down in front of a microphone and turntable in the broadcast area “imagining I was on CHEC (radio station).” He was hooked, and still favors radio for its “spontaneity, which has a bit

of risk, but is always fun and keeps you on your toes.”

Delon Shurtz (Print Journalism ’86), business writer for the Lethbridge Herald, took the program for its public relations component.

“The college really worked for me. When I was in high school, I had no interest in writing. But, when I finished the college program, I could write. It really worked.”

Vogt seemed destined for media work. In high school at Picture Butte, a broken leg kept him off the football team roster, so he picked up a video camera and started shooting the games. He also recalls doing sound effects on his father’s reel-to-reel tape recorder with his brothers, simulating play-by-play broadcasts. At college, he did play-by-play for the local cable channel and later for the Crowsnest Pass Red Devils games on CJPR.

Gallant found “the tough stuff, pressure days where we had to do news stories on the spot

most helpful. The get-over-yourself advice helped, to know you’re going to have to learn to take criticism. You can be a blubbering mass of ectoplasm if you’re too sensitive to criticism.”

Garey Sheppard (Broadcast Journalism ’05) recalls a family trip to San Diego when he was seven. A TV news reporter was named Gary Sheppard. “That was cool.” Now that Sheppard is a producer at Global TV in Lethbridge, it’s “way beyond expectations.” He credits the college for his start.

“I learned a lot about myself. I think I came out of the program with so much more confidence in my daily life. It helped me realize my skills and talents.”

Martin found the college “does a really great job of helping students grow up. Instructors are always available. If you have a problem, whether it’s academic or personal, they were always there.”

Richard Burke, a veteran newspaperman, and former Communication Arts instructor.

It’s another workday - 7 a.m. - and when the alarm sounds, Lounge Lizards in southern Alberta awake to a familiar booming voice over the radio. “They’ve added a new phrase to the dictionary,” it says, warming the morning with another morsel of vital information to start the day. “Bad hair day.”

Before listeners have a chance to pour their first coffee, they’re already smiling. That dulcet voice is Veryl Todd, half of the morning team at CJOC 94.1 The Lounge, who does his best to make sure people’s mornings are a joy, not a dread.

Todd, who retired in mid-2007, is a former Lethbridge College Broadcast Journalism instructor who sent hundreds of young voices onto the airwaves during his two decades in the classroom.

“My 22 years at the college were wonderful,” says Todd, who took delight in the many students he taught. “I loved interacting with them; I shared my knowledge of broadcasting, and they shared their lives with me.”

Retirement, it turns out, barely let Todd catch his breath; it wasn’t long before he was back at it, doing what he loves. As CJOC’s morning news anchor and partner to Mark Campbell, (Lethbridge College Radio Arts, ’75) he couldn’t be happier.

“Going back to radio as morning anchor was a dream come true,” says Todd, who worked in radio for more than 25 years before his time at Lethbridge College. “Radio was my career, so working at the new station was simply ‘going home.’ It was a no-brainer.”

Although Todd is on the job at 5 a.m., he hardly considers it work at all. “I love radio and always have. To me, it’s not work, it’s an enjoyment. I am creative and it’s the perfect outlet. I’m a morning person and don’t stay up late. (I) also get to go home early and never have to fight traffic.”

Todd says he enjoys teaming up with Campbell, and believes they make a good on-air pair. “Working with Mark Campbell is a delight; we have a sense of humour that matches a lot. We work well [together] and help the listeners have a happy day. I learned long, long ago, morning radio is where the biggest audience is. I don’t talk to my listeners, I talk with them. I provide them with their morning news in a personalized way, and also give them a few reasons to chuckle as they start their day off.”

Todd also enjoys gardening, oil painting, making beer and wine and spending time with his family. But, career-wise, he says his heart will always belong in radio.

“To me, radio is one of a kind. Every day and experience is slightly different. I love to be on-air and have a natural skill for it. I have something a lot of people don’t have: I love my work and it helps keep me young and healthy, and I will do it as long as it is fun.”

Veryl Todd: King of the Lounge

“I learned a lot about myself. I think I came out of the program with so much more confidence in my daily life. It helped me realize my skills and talents.”


Christina Boese

Christina Boese will graduate from Lethbridge College in April ’08 with a diploma in Communication Arts.

Communication Arts grads on air, in printLethbridge College Communication Arts alumni working as journalists or announcers in Lethbridge media also include:

Marv Gunderson (Broadcast Journalism ’76) Country 95.5 music director and morning show host with Corlee Torok (Broadcast Journalism ’03)

Craig Kennedy (Broadcast Journalism ’03) B-93 announcer

Craig Slater (Print Journalism ’00) Herald sports reporter

Carolyn Zentner (Print Journalism ’00) Herald reporter

Dawn Sugimoto (Print Journalism ’88), Herald assistant managing editor

Tony Clarke (Print Journalism ’07) Herald reporter

Tina Giesbrecht (Broadcast Journalism ’05) CJOC 94.1 The Lounge news reporter

And the beat goes on in the department’s 41st year, providing media training for another 110 students.

from left: Communication arts students garrett raines, brianne rohovie and david helmer critique an edition of the student-produced campus newspaper, The endeavour.

09

It’s bold, brassy and bright and puts Lethbridge College up in lights.

de-sign team from left: mike holland, darcy beattie (electrician appenticeship ’91), michelle stegen (Communication arts ’96), dean Johnson (electronics engineering Technology ’85) and brad Young (multimedia production ’95).

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And, if our new digital sign on Scenic Drive resembles a giant video game, the comparison is entirely intended: if we’re attracting young learners to our campus, using a lure from their world only makes sense.

“Our younger students and prospects respond to a different medium, a whole new set of stimuli,” says Michelle Stegen, Lethbridge College’s marketing co-ordinator.

The sign is providing the institution with street presence and street creds, something that was missing with the campus located so far from the main drag. With more than 4.7 square metres of display space, the computer-controlled sign becomes the latest, cost-effective communications, recruitment and marketing tool in the College’s arsenal and a key part of its rebranding.

“The community had been asking us for more information about events and activities taking place on our campus,” says Stegen. “The sign is one of the many ways we’re

responding to that request. It also provides a strong visual reminder and identifier that we’re here.”

The sign will be used to promote events such as Kodiaks games, programs and services, and to celebrate people who make a difference in the college community.

“It’s our bragging tool,” says Stegen. “We’re using it to show the community and city visitors the great people and programs we have.”

The sign utilizes LED video technology, making it capable of bright, innovative displays, easily and rapidly changed as opportunities arise, incorporating 281 trillion colours and using just $2.26 in energy for a 16-hour day.

The sign ties in directly with the college’s brand roll-out, which includes a redesigned web presence (lethbridgecollege.ca) and large indoor monitors.

“It brings us curbside,” says Stegen. “It’s like an iPod on steroids.”

Peter ScottPhotography: Gregory Thiessen

It may be a small world at Lethbridge College, but the institution’s international spirit is anything but tiny.

And nowhere was that worldly flair more apparent than during Welcome to the World, the college’s celebration of International Week in early February, when halls were transformed into a mosaic of cultures from around the globe.

Visitors and students could find evidence of international influence throughout the campus. Many employees, faculty members and students wore business card-sized flags indicating their country of heritage. Some wore Canadian flags, while others displayed more than one, reflecting their diverse backgrounds.

Currencies from around the world were on display at the college library during the week, and students had a chance to view highly-acclaimed foreign films.

Rose-Marie Litwin, chair of the college’s 50th Anniversary events committee, was instrumental in planning events for International Week. She says it gave students a chance to see just how global the college really is.

“An important part of Welcome to the World was showing our learners how many international students we have here and how involved we are with so many different countries,” says Litwin.

Students were shown a fashionable side of the world: an international fashion show featuring students modeling clothes from 15 different countries, including India, Vietnam, Kenya, and Peru. Some faculty and staff also wore traditional clothing that reflected their ethnic roots.

Throughout the week, visitors had a chance to meet and greet Lethbridge College students from around the world as part of the International Café. Students from Asia, Africa and Europe sat with passers-by and chatted about their native lands.

We welcome

drum Café’s munkie leads the crowd of college and

community drumming participants.


“Our students are really helping bring a global attitude to the college. I think that certainly contributes to learner success and success in the workplace.”

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Many of the students who participated in Welcome to the World celebrations are part of the college’s English as a Second Language program, a program that prides itself on already having a closely knit community.

Judy Hasinoff, director of the college’s English Language Centre, says the program’s success is that it allows for the mingling of so many world cultures; students from 30 nations are studying on campus this semester.

“I think this is absolutely the best program in the entire college,” says Hasinoff. “We are on a world trip all the time.

“You can imagine what they’re bringing into our centre. . . to us, as staff and to each other. They’re sharing their life experiences, their culture, their language, their food, their world view. That is the best part of ESL.”

About 100 full-time students make use of the centre, but it also serves a purpose far beyond the college. Maple Leaf Foods has contracted the English Language Centre to provide English language training six hours a week for its Provincial Nominee Program workers from Central America. The centre also offers language courses, including Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Dutch, to the public. Even in the summer, the centre stays busy; this year it will be hosting camps for students from Brazil and Japan. The foreign students, staying with Canadian families, will study English in the mornings and technical subjects in the afternoons.

While some students studying ESL are only in Canada temporarily and will be returning to their home country, others are here permanently. No matter where they came from or where they’re going, every student needs to work hard to adjust to a different land with different customs, weather, and food. The language centre makes an effort to help students through the stages of culture shock they may go through.

“Our challenge is to help them through that, to keep their goals set, keep them moving forward, and keep the experience as positive as possible,” says Hasinoff.

The centre can also help students learn what Canadians may take for granted, basic settlement things such as banking, negotiations with landlords and comparative shopping. The program’s instructors are a large part of the success, says Hasinoff.

“This isn’t a job for the ESL instructors; this is a life study. And they really go way beyond the extra mile in helping students be happy, be successful, and leave here with a big smile on their faces.”

And, it’s not all books and studying for the ESL students.

“Not only do we provide academic training and settlement training, we also have a lot of activities and field trips,” says Hasinoff. “And students love that part of the program. A lot of post-secondary ESL programs don’t have that; we do.”

Many students cite field trips to places such as Waterton Lakes National Park and Crowsnest Pass as their favourite part of the program. One of those students is Ashley Jang, a South Korean who joined the ESL program in December 2006.

“The program has lots of activities, it’s not just textbooks. It was very helpful for me,” says Jang, who enjoys the potlucks and other special events that allow her to interact with ESL students from other countries.

Jang will return to Seoul in April to study English Literature and Japanese at university. After graduation, she plans to become a part of the international business scene. She isn’t the only one who believes the college offers great ESL opportunities. The program has been nominated for a Lynn Howes Award, a national recognition given out by Languages Canada. According to Hasinoff, the excellence in the ESL program is reflected in the wider college as a whole.

“Our students are really helping bring a global attitude to the college. I think that certainly contributes to learner success and success in the workplace.”

Where cultures minglethe worldThey also informed fellow students of

the opportunities available through the college’s co-op programs.

Participants in International Week also got a taste of the wider world, as Charles Parker, head of the college’s food services department, and his Culinary Careers students prepared a selection of delectable dishes, including chicken curry, Moroccan beef, and Polish sausage.

The college also used the week to bring attention to, and help raise funds for, War Child Canada, a charity that provides humanitarian assistance to children affected by war. Dubbed “Walk a Lap for War Child,” the event involved participants walking a set path around the college and stopping at regular checkpoints to read about what war-affected children endure every day. At the end of the trek, visitors were able to make a donation to War Child Canada.

To help finish the week with a bang, organizers enlisted the talents of Drum Café, an African drumming troupe that had never before performed in southern Alberta. African drums were handed out to more than 400 participants in the Val Matteotti Gym, who were then taught how to play during the next hour. At the end of the event, the sound of hundreds of drums echoed through the halls as everyone played to their own beat.

Litwin says she thinks Welcome to the World helped bring students and staff together, and foster a sense of community throughout the college.

“We hope it helped give students the feeling of belonging to a closer-knit community. If students, staff, and faculty can get involved together like this in a week, you feel like you’re part of something bigger, but you still feel close to everybody because you’re all doing the same thing.

“I’d like to see a good community come out of this, a close community of students and staff together.”

Photography: Gregory Thiessen

College expands global reach

Lethbridge College has been recognized at an international summit for its efforts to forge world partnerships.

In February, representatives from the college, including president Tracy Edwards and Rick Buis, vice-president of corporate and international services, presented at the 2008 World Congress and International Association of Colleges Conference in New York City.

The conference’s theme, “Developing Global Partnerships,” was reflected in the presentations given by institutions from around the world. Buis, along with Cheryl Pollmuller, the college’s chair of business and Maggie Sun, its international manager, presented on Lethbridge College’s agreement with Estar University in China, joined by Estar President Jin Chang Chen of Qingdao, China. Edwards joined Jun Haraguchi of Japan’s Nippon Institute of Technology to showcase the partnership between the two organizations.

“Our agreement with NIT is unique in institutions across the world,” says Edwards. “Many presenters at the conference were asked to share a time slot. We were given a whole hour for our presentation, so that says a lot about what we’re doing here.”

Lethbridge College has a 12-year partnership with NIT to provide English-language training for its students at a cross-cultural campus in Blairmore. The Japanese students study

ESL for one year before transferring to Lethbridge College to complete their General Studies diploma. Upon receiving their diploma, the students return to NIT to complete one of five different engineering programs. Edwards says the partnership with NIT helps further Lethbridge College’s goal of becoming a truly international institution.

“We have a significantly growing population of international students,” she explains.

“We’re trying to give the college a local, provincial, national, and international flavour.”

“We’re trying to give the college a local, provincial, national, and international flavour.”

Campus pushing its sphere of influence

Photography: Gregory Thiessen


The world’s most populous country is now benefiting from the global attitude of Lethbridge College.

It’s hoped about 800 students at Estar University in Qingdao, China will eventually take Lethbridge College courses, as part of a five-year agreement between the two institutions.

It all began in 2005, when college officials visited China as part of a Lethbridge delegation. When Lethbridge College’s Board of Governors later decided that it wanted the college to have a larger global presence, Rick Buis (pictured above), vice-president of corporate and international services, saw opportunities to partner with Chinese institutions.

As part of the agreement, Estar students can either complete their two-year program entirely in China, or they can opt to traverse the sea and study in Lethbridge for their second year.

Buis says the partnership is indicative of an ever-shrinking world.

“We’re getting more students coming from afar and wanting to attend Lethbridge College,” he explains.

“Ultimately we want our students to get an exposure to the world,” Buis adds, noting he’d eventually like all college courses

to incorporate global aspects, from current events to law and business practices.

But the college’s work in China is far from done. Other institutions in the country have seen what Lethbridge College has accomplished in Estar and are interested in similar agreements with the college, with about five showing “strong interest,” according to Buis.

Ultimately, the Chinese partnerships will benefit students in both countries.

“Our work in China will have an impact on Lethbridge College,” says Buis.

“As an institution, we’ll start to have a broader view of the world, and that will benefit the students here.”

College exports expertise to China

students and staff model costumes from around the world as part of welcome to the world’s international

fashion show. Photo by Gregory Thiessen.

15did you know?There are students from 30 different countries attending Lethbridge College this semester.

Life is a highwayTom Cochrane plays for Lethbridge

lethbridge College & homecoming ’08 present:

Tom Cochrane with red ridermay 18, 2008

The enmax Centredoors open at 7 p.m.Tickets: • $10 each • limit of 10 per person

• available at the College

• on sale April 1

Call 320-3457celebrating50.ca


Life is a highway, and the college is going to let Lethbridge ride it all night long with Tom Cochrane as part of its Homecoming ’08 weekend in May.

The Canadian Music Hall of Fame member, famous for songs such as Big League, will be headlining a concert May 18 at the Enmax Centre in what Laura Carlson (Communication Arts ’93), Lethbridge College development manager, calls the college’s gift to the community.

“We knew we wanted to do a concert and the best thing to do would be having a concert that anybody and everybody could afford and enjoy,” says Carlson. “It’s a great finale to the weekend.”

Tickets for Cochrane, available at Lethbridge College for just $10, will go on sale to the public April 1, but those who register for the college’s Homecoming will be able to purchase tickets sooner. “Our goal is to sell out the Enmax, all 6,300 seats,” says Carlson.

Cochrane, who will be uniting with his former band Red Rider, was a natural choice.

“We wanted to bring in an artist who speaks to many generations because of all the generations of alumni coming,” said Carlson. “We wanted as big a name as we could get and we wanted a Canadian.”

Cochrane, a native of Lynn Lake, Man., is a multi-Juno award winner known for his work with World Vision, the Parkinson Society of Canada and War Child Canada. He also performs for Canadian troops overseas as part of the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency.

In 2007 Cochrane was made an honourary colonel of 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron in Cold Lake, the first since the squad’s reactivation in July 2006.

Cochrane has recently experienced resurgence in popularity after his song ‘Life is a Highway’ was redone by country artists Rascal Flatts for the Disney film ‘Cars.’ He recently finished a tour across Canada with John Mellencamp.

Heather Robbins will graduate in April with a diploma in Communication Arts.

Heather Robbins

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Lethbridge College Homecoming ’08May 16 - 18celebrating50.ca

HOMECOMING

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did you know?We are the first publicly funded

junior college in Canada and are proud to be celebrating our 50th

anniversary.

friday

Information Center • The Cave • Noon - 7 p.m.

Class/Affinity Reunions • Across Campus/Off Campus

Planned Reunions • Nursing • Kodiaks Athletics • School of Business • Early Childhood Education • School of Engineering Technologies • School of Justice Studies • Child and Youth Care • Students Association Executive • School of Environmental Sciences • Special Needs Educational Assistant • Communication Arts

saturday

President’s Pancake Breakfast • The Barn • 10 a.m. - noon • Free Activity

Registration and Information Center • The Cave • Noon - 5 p.m.

Family Games Room • The Cave • noon - 5 p.m.

The Brown Bag Bar • The Brown Bag • noon - 6 p.m.

Campus Showcase • Across Campus • noon - 5 p.m. • Free Activities

25+ year Alumni Reunion • Canbra Room • 2 - 4 p.m • Free Activity

Associate & Retired Staff Reunion • Sunflower Room • 2 - 4 p.m. • Free Activity

shaken and stirred Cabaret • exhibition park 7:30 p.m. - 1 a.m. • 18 years + only • Tickets: $30 per person

sunday

Garden Court Brunch • 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Registration and Information Center • The Cave • 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Tailgate Party • The Barn • 3 - 7 p.m. • Free Activity Tom Cochrane with red rider Concert at the enmax Centre

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Reunions draw alumni homeward


Homecoming ’08: A party for the entire community

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For five decades, Lethbridge College has prided itself on providing only the highest standards of education for its learners. Instructors, support staff and administration alike have taken pleasure in watching their students grow, learn and become the best of the best.

This year is no exception. With a new name, a new look, and a new attitude, the college is flying higher than ever, and a new crop of students is preparing to make its presence known on the world stage. So, after all this, there’s only one thing to do: break out the bubbly, invite the entire city, and celebrate the success with a party that promises to be no less than extraordinary.

Homecoming ’08, May 16-18, is the finale to the college’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebration; 1,200 are expected to renew acquaintances with the campus and each other. Laura Carlson, manager of development at Lethbridge College, says the May long weekend provides a chance for students to mingle with alumni and to understand the import of the college’s history.

“We want current students to feel like they are becoming alumni already,” says Carlson. “It’s also a good chance for them to see where their predecessors are at.”

By the end of the weekend, they’ll have answers to those key questions of life, such as who lost the most hair, who gained the most weight, and who’s driving the Beamers?

Several programs are already accepting registrations for the Friday evening program reunions, including Nursing, the School of Justice Studies, the School of Business, Communication Arts, Child and Youth Care and Early Childhood Education.

Reunions are also planned for alumni who graduated between 1957 and 1982 and another for all retired staff and faculty Saturday afternoon.

Many other programs are setting up meeting places for their alumni and friends to reunite, so if your program isn’t listed above it doesn’t mean there isn’t something in the works.

“It’s easier than ever to plan a reunion,” says Sandra Dufresne, alumni co-ordinator. “The Alumni Office created a reunion planning handbook, Reunion Planning 101, developed to guide volunteers through the planning process covering everything from caterers to accommodation.”

The Alumni Office is looking for additional volunteers to assist with the co-ordination of reunions and finding some

lost alumni, and is ready with support. Kelly Burke (Communication Arts ’07), is available to help with marketing, planning and communicating with alumni.

“We provide contact lists of the alumni that have current contact information and can assist in ways of communicating with these people,” says Burke. “We are also developing templates and planning a phone-a-thon to make sure we get all of our friends back on campus that

weekend.”

For more information on the Alumni Office, reunion support, the handbook and connecting with former classmates please contact her at:

[email protected] or call 320-3202 ext. 5205.

For more information on Homecoming events and program reunions, or to register, visit celebrating50.ca.

With a new name, a new look, and a new attitude, the college is flying higher than ever.

Tailgating: a parking-lot meat and greetChristina Boese

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Ask most people the meaning of the word “tailgating,” and they would probably drag up an episode in which a distracted driver bumped them from behind, and then grumbled about the significant amount of damage caused.

Well, news flash folks: tailgating isn’t always a bad thing. This spring, Lethbridge College will be taking a lesson from its American colleagues and doing a little “tailgating” of its own.

Yep, it’s a chance to lower your tailgate, have a cold one, and take part in the biggest celebration of the year.

Homecoming ’08, May 16-18, will be host to many events, including a tailgate party on Sunday to wrap up on-campus festivities. Tailgating is a popular tradition at American college homecomings and football games, at which people can barbecue, socialize and listen to live music while sitting on the tailgates of their vehicles.

“(Tailgating is) usually centered around a sporting event,” says Laura Carlson (Communication Arts ’93) manager of development at Lethbridge College and its self-styled biggest football fan, who explains that it also helps to generate excitement in the community. “We wanted to do this before the Tom Cochrane concert, our biggest event of the weekend.”

Though the true origin of tailgate parties is unknown, there are two competing legends at the centre of great debate:

Some say the tailgate was born at the very first college football game: the 1869 match-up between Rutgers and Princeton, when fans grilled sausages in buggies behind horses’ tails. Others say the practice originated at Yale University in 1904 where hungry fans traveling by train brought picnic hampers to feed their growing appetites.

Whatever the case, Lethbridge College is prepared to embrace this tradition, and share the fun with students, staff, community and alumni free of charge. The event will feature live music, children’s activities, as well as a huge barbecue cook-off. People are also welcome to reserve tailgating spots in the parking lot, and anyone who does is automatically entered into the cook-off. Ladies and gentlemen, start your barbecues.

Anyone who wishes to reserve a spot can call the Advancement Office at 403-320-3457.

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Far from being another listed endangered species, our Kodiaks are all over the map. But they’ll be migrating to Lethbridge in mid-May for a gathering of the teams that have represented Lethbridge College on turf, hardwood and pebbled ice for the last five decades.

Roughly 120 student athletes are involved with Kodiaks Athletics each year, and while the math isn’t quite that simple because the program has expanded since 1957, 50 years at 120 per is a pile of sweat socks. The reunion this May long weekend, replete with coaches, should create a bear market for team trinkets.

“We want to put a lot of energy into the Val Matteotti Gym,” says Mark Kosak, Lethbridge College athletic director.

To meet that goal, the annual Kodiak Growl, a basketball tournament for the younger set, will be held during Homecoming ’08. Teams will be coming from across Alberta (and often show up from Saskatchewan and Montana) to compete in four age categories (under 13, under 15, under 17 and open.)

No Kodiaks reunion would be complete, of course, without a few alumni games, sure to work up a sweat on those who have not kept in shape during their years away.

Long is the list of Kodiaks stars who went on to great careers elsewhere. A brief sample includes:

PBA to add diamond sparkle to Homecoming ’08

Kodiaks bear up for

Alumni bring it back home this


Regardless of the weather during the May long weekend, Homecoming ’08 can count on the PBA to “bring the heat.”

The Prairie Baseball Academy will host the Spitz Canadian College championship tournament again this year, moving it slightly to coincide with the festivities on campus and furthering the relationship between academy and college.

Teams will be arriving from the University of Calgary and three B.C. colleges: Kwantlan (Surrey), Malaspina (Nanaimo) and Thompson Rivers (Kamloops). They’ll take on the hometown Dawgs from May 15 to 17 at Henderson Stadium and Lloyd Nolan Yard.

PBA President Glenn Secretan, an instructor at Lethbridge College, says the league is pumped about its role in the weekend’s celebration, and is planning its annual homecoming to coincide. PBA alumni are expected to attend from such diverse locales as the Czech Republic, Holland, Australia and throughout the United States. “Because of the strong academic link between the PBA and the college, most of our alumni are college alumni too,” says Secretan.

All PBA players are required to be full-time, post-secondary

students and maintain a GPA of 2.0. Fall below that, and players lose their scholarships and their places on the team. Stay above that, and they’ll have an excellent chance to obtain a further scholarship to an American Division I or II university once their two years in the PBA are complete.

Secretan is proud of the PBA’s scholastic record: of those sent to the U.S. during its 13 years, very few have come back, unlike those who make the jump directly from high school to university baseball. Of the 51 who started the program last year, 49 are still with it.

“It can be a real culture shock,” says Secretan, also the PBA’s academic advisor. “We ease that shock by showing them what it’s like to play baseball and keep up an academic record. When they head south, we match them to the right institution to ensure their success.” While the majority of PBA players are Canadians, others have come from the U.S., Japan and Saudi Arabia.

The championship weekend will include a pancake breakfast, homerun derby and featured games at 7 p.m. each day involving the Dawgs. For more information, check the PBA website at www.prairiebaseball.com.

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College finds ‘lost alum’ Ted

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Few coffee drinkers in Lethbridge can order a “skinny cinnamon dolce latte” faster – or with more aplomb – than Ted Scholten (right). Chances are, the Lethbridge College alumnus (Business Administration ’87) has memorized most of the menu and can explain the linguistically exotic sizes, too.

But then, being the fellow who developed the city’s third Starbucks and first Running Room, on Mayor Magrath Drive, Scholten has a decidedly unfair advantage: when he takes on a project, he immerses himself in the details. He’s busy lad, but when he noticed the billboard advertising Lethbridge College’s Homecoming ’08, he took the time to update his information with Sandra Dufresne, Lethbridge College’s alumni co-ordinator and, bonus, scored tickets to Tom Cochrane. He’ll be at the Enmax when the Canadian legend takes the stage at the Homecoming ’08 finale May 18. Chances are his wife Debbie (Nursing ’85) will be in the next seat.

Scholten is another “lost alum” now found and reconnected to the college. There are many others out there, former students who gained their sea legs on campus and sailed on to successful careers.

“I needed that diploma,” says Scholten, between sips of a favourite, frothy Starbucks creation. “There was nothing out there for me but minimum-wage jobs. Once I graduated, all sorts of opportunities opened up.”

Granum born and bred, Scholten moved to Lethbridge to attend college and never left. After early post-grad jobs, he entered the world of property management at Centre Village Mall. “There I was, the new mall property manager, and Sears had just pulled out and I was now in charge of refilling it,” says Scholten. “I was a management rookie, with little more than the knowledge I had gained at Lethbridge College.” Something must have worked, though: under Scholten’s guidance, the mall was repeatedly redeveloped, each time strengthened by new clients he lured to the location. In 1997, he added the West Village Mall to his portfolio. Today he’s busy developing the old Catelli building, a project of renovation, not demolition.

Scholten sits on the Lethbridge College Business Administration advisory board to keep the program relevant to industry.

“What I got was a two-year program crammed with practical knowledge,” he says of his time at the college. “I obtained accounting skills and an understanding of economics. There was also a strong focus on preparation, presentation and resumes that many people take for granted. It gave me the skills I needed to make a good living.”

Cross-country

Kip Kangogo – currently ranked second in Canada in the 5000 metres.

Men’s basketball

Charlton Weaselhead – played in two CIS national championship finals with Brandon University; earned his education degree at the University of Lethbridge and now teaches on the Blood Reserve.

Alan Gibb – now a Lethbridge dentist.

Dave Adams – played and coached as a Kodiak; became a school principal; now works for the City of Lethbridge.

Women’s basketball

Lisa Ressler – married NHL star Scott Niedermayer and lives in Los Angeles .

Joanne Smallbones– now a Saskatchewan police officer.

Golf

Brian Huculak, – won an ACAC golf medal; now general manager of the Lethbridge Golf and Country Club.

Badminton

Terry Dennis – professional poker player in Las Vegas; published a book on gambling.

May long weekend

reunion games

For Kelly Oikawa, it’s all about Hanna Rain.When his first child was born recently, the Earth shifted for the veteran Lethbridge College biology instructor. Although Oikawa has long been a campus and community leader in environmental consciousness during his 14 years at Lethbridge College, Hanna Rain’s birth gave him his most intrinsic reason yet for wanting a clean, healthy future for the planet.

For this instructor, Earth is The ‘Only’ Planet

So although Hanna Rain has a few years before she considers a post-secondary education, her dad is as adamant as ever about making his students see green. And if that means using a little bribery on the 300 or so with whom he works in an academic year, well, it’s a worthwhile expenditure of bonus marks.


kelly oikawa leads students to environmental enlightenment.


“I’ve never had a problem encouraging student involvement,” says Oikawa. “It’s amazing what students will do for you.”

Of course, the bonus marks help, too. And students who involve themselves in Oikawa’s projects score much, much more than simple marks on their academic record. Each one who steps up is learning about the environment, about the world and, perhaps most important of all, about themselves.

Here’s what Oikawa’s students have done in the past few semesters in aid of the old home planet:

• raised money for the Southern Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale

• raised money to buy Karelian bear dogs, used to re-instill a fear of humans in “friendly” bears, and tracking collars for the dogs

• cleaned up stretches of the Oldman River through Lethbridge

• initiated a city-wide clean-up

• established a public environmental speaker series on campus

• sponsored civic and provincial election forums on environmental issues

• entered the Terry Fox Run en masse

• conducted an informal environmental audit of Lethbridge College to determine what can be done better on a campus already tuned into the issue

• built and gave away mountain bluebird boxes

Oikawa is most proud of the election forum last October, the best attended of any during the campaign.

“We’ve made it our mandate to hold these forums for each election,” he says. “The candidates were most appreciative of a chance to speak on the environment, but more importantly, several students involved in the project actually voted for the first time.”

Voted for the first time, but likely not for the last time; one bonus mark can go a long way in life.

All of these activities are, of course, extra-curricular, and require a deep-seated commitment to the cause. But that’s not much of a stretch for Oikawa, who was a founding member of the local branch of Trout Unlimited in his teens and has always enjoyed the outdoors since he was a boy in Picture Butte.

“The discipline we work with in biology is conducive to out-of-class learning,” says Oikawa. “I feel if students take ownership of something, they get more out of it, and I think that’s appreciated by the students. Also, when you teach environmental responsibility, you have to practise what you preach.”

The level of community involvement in Oikawa’s classes is high. In lieu of a term paper last year, five groups of students gave presentations to elementary-school classrooms on how to be environmentally friendly at home, a project welcomed by their hosts.

“It was good for our students, good for their students and good for the college,” he says.

And good for the environment. Oikawa took students on a field trip to Jasper and Banff, multi-star accommodation included if they enjoyed gazing at the night sky outside their tents. For students from Korea and Japan, it was the experience of a lifetime, made even better with the sighting of a dozen-plus bears.

“Environmental issues aren’t pretty, so after a semester of looking at the dark side of things, I wanted to take them camping to show them what a pristine Earth looks like.” Oikawa is quite familiar

with the dark side. He has a collection of horror movies that make Nightmare on Elm Street look positively Disneyish. An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s call to end global warming, is merely the most recent. It shares a cupboard with Manufactured Landscapes, The Corporation, End of Suburbia and Refugees of the Blue Planet. Add in the newly released The 11th Hour and you have the collected works of E.A. Poe on environmental disaster.

Oikawa sees overpopulation as the largest single issue facing Earth today, a phenomenon soon to culminate in an end to many of the planet’s resources. While he may not be able to do much about that, he’s determined to keep the larger picture in focus at Lethbridge College.

“Our growing population and the manner and rate that we are consuming resources will not allow us to maintain what we are doing,” he says. “I also think society has been led to believe growth and development is something that is always positive. This is what business and governments seems to instill in us so they can profit or increase profit for a select few while leaving a footprint that dramatically affects everyone in the long run.

“The environment has been around for billions of years while the economy is a modern human invention to which the majority of people in power have given top priority. Maybe as a species we need to reassess this.”

Dannie Lien, one of Oikawa’s General Studies students, is a southern Albertan who gets it already. She and

her husband run a dryland farm east of Warner and understand change is not immediate, but rather incremental.

“We use chemicals on our land, and my husband also works in the oilpatch, so we do profit from things that aren’t so environmentally friendly,” says Lien. “But that’s reality.”

Instead, the Liens and their children do what they can, composting and recycling long before they were buzzwords, and educating themselves on the state of the Earth. Lien still recalls the most profound

moment on Oikawa’s student camping adventure: a trip to the edge of a glacier.

“There were markers showing where the glacier had once reached 100 years ago; it was miles from the present edge,” says Lien. “Even the 1992 marker was a long way off. I couldn’t believe that much ice had melted so quickly.”

To his extensive to-do list, Oikawa has added formalization of a campus environmental club, a group that hopes to co-ordinate and secure all recycling on campus with a view to using the money for additional education events.

He and Edith Olson, School of Environmental Sciences instructor, are co-chairs for an Environmental/Sustainability initiative on campus that will nurture and guide the student club, include representation from all program areas, and make recommendations to college leadership.

“Awareness of these issues is better now than it was, but it still needs to be part of our education,” says Oikawa. “Young people know these issues on the surface, but we need to offer solutions and a greater understanding. You have to give them the shock and show them the hope.”

What’s being done to “green” Lethbridge College.

Several initiatives have been started to reduce the college’s environmental footprint and educate students about sustainability. Apart from The Living Home Project (Wider Horizons, Vol. 1, No. 2) here is a sampling:

• lights switches are on motion sensors

• water feature re-uses water

• new Scenic Road sign is energy efficient

• good access to cooled-water fountains to reduce bottled-water consumption

• Aquaculture Centre of Excellence uses fish water to grow vegetables

• computers are leased from supplier and returned upon renewal, lowering e-waste.

• book buy-back helps reduce waste

• items taken off capital inventory are auctioned

• posting class material on Internet by most faculty reduces paper waste

• landscape uses bark chips

Did you know? Lethbridge College is making a daily commitment to reducing its environmental footprint, seeking out innovative ways to lower energy and water use.

“The environment has been around for billions of years while the economy is a modern human invention to which the majority of people in power have given top priorty.”

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A flock of Lethbridge College students is proving that living individual values is as important as academic success. And the continent’s ducks respond with a grateful quack.

The students, all from the School of Environmental Sciences, are members of the campus’s chapter of Ducks Unlimited Canada, itself a rarity as the only chapter at a post-secondary institution in the country to take flight.

For students such as Stephen Hill, this year’s chapter president, and volunteer Laurie Weidenhamer,

membership in DUC presented an opportunity they couldn’t pass up. It’s allowed them to be involved in an environmentally responsible organization while developing their personal skills as communicators and leaders.

“I think what really defines you as a student is what you do outside the classroom,” says Hill, obtaining his Renewable Resource Management diploma to add to a Lethbridge College degree in Conservation Enforcement. “Ducks Unlimited gives you a chance to make a real difference. I want to be known for something other than academics.”

Hill was a charter member of the group when it formed at Lethbridge College two years ago. When he ends his studies, he intends to return to campus for the annual dinners each November as do other alumni, some who travel eight hours to Lethbridge from northern Alberta and Manitoba.

For Weidenhamer, who will have her Renewable Resource Management diploma this spring, DUC participation meant organizing the 2007 banquet, a task she would likely not have attempted before joining the chapter.

These Environmental Science students are only in it for the ducks


Peter Scott

did you know?The mallard on the facing page is

part of the Hubbard Collection, located in the Cousins

Building. The collection displays almost

every species known in Alberta.

The Lethbridge College chapter is

a milestone for the organization

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From L to R: Kerry Edwards, Stephen Hill and Laurie Weidenhamer established the nation’s first and only student Ducks Unlimited chapter.

“People don’t realize how beneficial it is to develop yourself and your potential,” says Weidenhamer. “I’ve developed closer relationships with instructors and learned presentation, which I can add to my resume.”

Weidenhamer “paid my dues” over a summer, studying the area’s pintail duck population as part of a doctoral thesis for Terry Kowalchuk, the school’s academic head.

The presentation facet wasn’t easy at first for Hill, one of those who would rather have faced a firing squad than speak in public. But, as chapter president, the firing squad wasn’t an option. He addressed the November banquet with aplomb and now knows he needn’t fear such an opportunity when it arises in the field.

“As a conservation officer, it’s something I’m going to have to do on the job as part of my community involvement,” he says.

Instructor Kerry Edwards, a Lethbridge College alumnus (Renewable Resource Management ’83) watched Hill and Weidenhamer develop through the DUC chapter as faculty advisor to the group and is proud of what they’ve achieved.

“You can see the leadership potential develop,” he says. “It’s quite remarkable.”

The Lethbridge College chapter is a milestone for the organization,

says Nick Alvau, one of the longest-serving DUC members in Alberta, who sees the student involvement as the changing face of the organization, one with a previous image of developing duck populations for hunting. It’s an image that has changed to where wetland conservation far outweighs hunting as a motivation for joining.

“DUC has become more concerned with related issues,” says Alvau. “It sees the need to preserve duck habitat for pure conservation purposes. There’s been a definite swing in membership.”

Alvau, who worked at Lethbridge College for a spell four years ago, gives credit to Edwards for kick-starting the chapter, which has provided DUC with more than one or two employees along the way. Several, including Karla Guyn and Perry McCormick, are now among DUC leadership. The organization has hired 20 to 30 summer students during the past 15 years.

“It’s been a beautiful marriage,” says Alvau. “It’s a great opportunity for students they can use to their advantage later, and DUC has hired several grads from the program. So far it’s dovetailed nicely.”

Hunting has been less than full bore of late. In 1978, close to 525,000 Canadians took to marsh and blind to hunt migratory birds; today there are fewer than 170,000; in Alberta, the number has dropped to fewer than 17,000 from a peak of

82,000 30 years ago.

“Traditionally hunters made up the vast majority of DUC members,” says Edwards. “As hunter numbers dwindled, support for wetland conservation has been taken up by non-hunters.”

The chapter usually meets for an hour each week; members must be continuing students at Lethbridge College and maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5. The three dinners have raised more than $60,000, a portion of which pays for scholarships.

Most chapters with long-term members have six months to a year to plan dinners, but students have from the start of the fall semester, a period sliced even thinner by a month of field trips.

Besides fundraising, second-year members mentor new DUC members, another learning experience for Hill.

“Membership is as good as a classroom,” he says. “I learned a lot about group dynamics just standing in front of a group. If you don’t do these things, how do you know you can’t?

Edwards sees the involvement as an education-added activity that will not only serve participants for life, but is creating a new wave of conservationists, students who know how the land lays and why it must be protected, not merely for ducks, but for all species who rely on its bounty.

“They see how committed we are to agriculture and

they become ambassadors for the college and for the

Agricultural Technology program.”

Tiffin Conference raises community’s farming knowledge


The Tiffin Conference is growing, loaded with energy and already looking forward to next year.

Well, what nine-year-old wouldn’t be?

Now one of the largest agricultural gatherings in southern Alberta, the Tiffin draws upwards of 300 participants to Lethbridge College each January and February to glean the latest word on the industry from world-class experts. The convergence of a knowledge-hungry populace and speakers who know the lay of the land has made the college an obvious venue for the event since it began in 2000.

What started as a two-day event mutated five years later into a one-day special session on the red-meat industry in response to the early rumbles of BSE. A second day was added in February to include other agriculture issues; the format stuck, says organizer Kathy Waddell (Communication Arts ’87).

“There is so much out there to be talked about,” says Waddell, a farm girl herself who knows her oats from her barley.

“The agriculture industry has changed as much in the last 20 years as it had in the previous 100. It’s a smaller world these days, but that has merely increased the amount of information available. Those in the industry in southern Alberta are hungry to look into the crystal ball.”

So, each January, Tiffin examines the world of red-meat and, in February, tackles other items of interest. Those coming to harvest information enjoy a bumper crop, considering this year’s January line-up that included the home-grown Renee Ehrnstein, director of organizational development at Whole

Foods Market, the world’s leading retailer of natural and organic foods. Ehrnstein, formerly of Coaldale, rattled a few cattle pens in the land of the country’s feedlot empire.

Again, as with almost every recent Tiffin, an international flavour was added to the closing dinner, this year by Trent Loos, a sixth-generation American farmer, who founded Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating consumers about food production in North America. His hour-long radio program is heard across the Midwestern U.S., so when Waddell had a chance to guest on the program and boost Lethbridge College, she took it.

“It was a great opportunity to talk about the difference in the industry between the two countries,” she says.

The Tiffin is perhaps the largest area-wide event held on campus and represents the college’s determination to be an intrinsic part of the communities it serves. With that many

people coming to Lethbridge College for an event of this calibre, it would be surprising if the Agricultural Technology program did not benefit from word-of-mouth advertising.

“One thing we’re most proud of is that we attract repeat attendees,” says Waddell. “They see how committed we are to agriculture and they become ambassadors for the college and for the Agricultural Technology program.”

It follows that those who come from outside southern Alberta leave with a sense of the area’s strengths and potential, and speak highly of it at home. Still, the main draw is from the surrounding area, and includes producers, ag business professionals, real estate and banking

representatives and students in the ag tech program for whom event attendance is a requirement.

The event was named for Ronald Tiffin, who, born in Lethbridge to dairy farmers, broke thousands of acres of virgin prairie for dryland farming in the Milk River, Hussar and Bassano areas. He bequeathed the college $1 million, to be used to further agricultural education in southern Alberta.

Academia meets world agriculture

From left: Tiffin Conference presenter Gary Smith (College of Agricultural Studies, Colorado State University), Agricultural Technology student Keith Warnock, and Tiffin Conference Co-ordinator Kathy

Waddell at the sold-out Jan. 16 event.


27


The human patient simulator in the college’s

sphere centre is an invaluable teaching

tool utilized by health sciences students at

lethbridge College, as well as southern

alberta paramedics and emergency personnel.

29

did you know?The human patient simulator used in the SPHERE centre, comes with its

own set of “injuries” to give students realistic treatment experience.

Nursing program at its healthiestPeter Scott

Every year since 1971, nursing students have accepted their diplomas from Lethbridge College and begun their careers in health care. For 37 years, they took on roles in southern Alberta and around the world, lured to foreign ports as highly sought exports from one of Canada’s top nursing programs.

So there was likely a touch of whimsy in the air when the final class of 25 lined up for a group photo in December, representing the last diploma program students to graduate.

Following the province’s mandate, those entering the profession must, by 2010, hold a degree in nursing, a four-year commitment to education that will lead them, under the auspices of NESA (Nursing Education in Southwestern Alberta), to complete their first two years at Lethbridge College before taking two additional years at the University of Lethbridge.

NESA was formed in 2001, a partnership between the two schools that replaced the former Southern Alberta Collaboration for Nursing Education, which had included Medicine Hat College.

Since then, nursing students had the option to enter the field after the 2½ -year diploma program, or carry on to earn their degrees. Graduates from both routes write national qualifying registration examinations to legally use the title Registered Nurse.

Experienced nursing instructors believe the move to a degree program is a positive step for the profession. “Nursing now requires a broader scope of practice and is applied to more settings,” says Sheila Heinrich, chair of nursing at Lethbridge College. “It requires

greater independence of practice and deals with a higher acuity of patients than before.”

Instructor Jacalynne Glover agrees. “The explosion of nursing knowledge requires a wider educational foundation,” says Glover.

Computer technology has added a new level on its own, from online charting and test results to high-tech assessment and treatment tools. The degree program will also open options for management and academic positions, should students decide to continue their educations to the masters and doctorate levels.

Nurses now work in more locations and in different types of practice than they did in 1971. Some work in isolated northern areas in independent practices, while others specialize in areas such as community health, international projects, research and clinical nursing practices, or enter related fields.

Joyce D’Andrea, who facilitated the first graduation in 1971 and the last in December, recalls the exodus of nurses, primarily to the United States, during the Ralph Klein years, when nursing jobs were slashed and grads sought work south of the border. Now, a greater effort is being made to keep them here.

“Nurses educated here are well thought of,” says D’Andrea.

This year, Chinook Health offered supernumary positions, allowing new nurses to be mentored even though no openings existed at

the time. In some jurisdictions (Calgary, Edmonton and throughout Saskatchewan) nurses are offered signing bonuses to fill lengthy lists of vacancies. Nursing students are coming to Lethbridge College

from farther afield to take advantage of the profession’s opportunities.

About one third of those who enter the nursing program come directly out of Grade

12; most have added some life experience to their portfolio, while some have other post-secondary education. The one advantage they have over younger students is their communication skills that, coupled with a positive attitude, open mind and a willingness to work, will serve them well during their studies, in which the focus is on teamwork and co-operation to learn. Loni Burbank, member of the final diploma grad class, understood this from the beginning.

“You have to be self-directed, but also interdependent,” says Burbank, one of the organizers of the final grad ceremony. “You are responsible for others; if you don’t do your part, you’re impeding the learning of your classmates. It’s much like it is in the field.”

Computer technology has added a new level on its own, from online charting and test results to high-tech assessment and treatment tools.

29

If Erin Young thought she’d take a little time for herself after graduating in April, the Lethbridge College Geomatics Engineering Technology student has put that thought to rest.

She’ll barely have time to walk across the convocation stage with her classmates before she heads to work. Darn that 100 per cent employment rate: backpacking in Europe will have to wait.

Once in Calgary, she’ll trade her grad gown for khakis and a ball cap, the better to feel more comfortable in the field and in a career dominated by men. (Although, to be fair, the gender discrepancy is rapidly eroding as more women choose this expanding field.)

“As one of only three women in the program (of 35), I definitely felt the desire to work harder just to prove I could do it,” says Young, now just weeks from earning her two-year diploma.

That piece of paper, suitable for framing, will come with value added. Late last year, the GET program and the Engineering Design and Drafting Technology program received national certification from the Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists, following an in-depth investigation on campus, a major advancement for both programs.

“It gives national recognition to our learners’ achievements, allowing them transfer opportunities across Canada as well as internationally,” says Dennis Sheppard, head of Lethbridge College’s School of Engineering Technologies.

Before accreditation, students earning diplomas in the two programs were qualified to work only in Alberta, and had to pass additional exams to work in other provinces. Accreditation reduces that barrier.

“National accreditation says if you meet the standards set by Lethbridge College, you’ve met the standards across Canada,” says Sheppard. “It becomes a huge marketing tool for us to attract students to both programs.”

Learners, says Sheppard, show an increasing degree of sophistication when choosing post-secondary education; a quick Internet search will show them Lethbridge College’s programs meet the highest of employer specifications.

“That was always the case,” says Sheppard. “Now we have the paperwork to prove it.”

Both programs take in 35 students each fall. EDDT students become design technologists, working for, among others, civil engineering firms, Aerospace and petrochemical fields and manufacturing firms. Geomatics grads, who traditionally enjoy a 100 per cent employment rate, work for environmental consultants, government, surveying and engineering firms, agriculture, law enforcement and others.

For Young, a Calgary native who once set her sights on teaching, the high demand for her new craft might also be a passport to the world. Geomatics professionals are sought everywhere, she says, from Ireland to Australia.

“There’s no student who can say they can’t find work,” says Young, who quickly took to the science and computer aspects of the program. “The accreditation also helps put you at ease by opening so many more doors.”

Young hopes to put in some time in the field (“I’ve got student loans to pay”) before taking advantage of a 2+2 agreement between Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge

that will allow her to complete a Bachelor of Science in Geography with a concentration in geographical information sciences.

She can take confidence from former geomatics student Aaron Glover, who decided to add the lustre of a university degree to his geomatics diploma from Lethbridge College and found crossing the Oldman River a hassle-free experience.

The Fernie, B.C. native, who graduated from Lethbridge College in 2006, was able to slide directly into studies at the University of Lethbridge, thanks to the formal 2+2 agreement.

“It was straightforward,” says Glover . “With an agreement in place like that, the transition is pretty smooth.”

Glover, who plans to work either in municipal planning or for an engineering consulting firm, said his studies at Lethbridge College gave him the grounding in the technology he’ll need to pursue his career, while his U of L courses add more background and refining to his knowledge base.

Lethbridge College has developed several 2+2 agreements with the U of L, allowing students to complete their two-year diplomas and seamlessly move to complete two years of university work to earn their degrees.

“I needed the application aspect of the work, so I decided to start at Lethbridge College,” says Glover. “The college has a better grasp of what the industry wants.”

National recognition engineers successCollege Engineering students benefit from accreditation

Peter Scott

Facing page: Erin Young in the field. Young will be employed before the ink

dries on her diploma.


“The accreditation also helps put you at ease by opening so many more doors.”

- Erin Young

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When are you coming home?We’re inviting you and the rest of the community to our

Homecoming ’08 may 16-18.

We’re opening our labs, throwing a cabaret, holding basketball tourneys and generally having a great May Long.

Oh, and Tom Cochrane is dropping by for a concert May 18. Register (and score $10 tickets) at celebrating50.ca

HOMECOMING

’08

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It all started here.

May 16, 17, 18 • celebrating50.ca

wider horizons - spring 2008

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