Holland College students and staff gear up for the season

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As Christmas nears, Holland College staff and students are busy finishing off their work for the semester, but they’re also finding time to raise funds for their communities and celebrate the holiday season. Here’s a summary of what they’ve been up to.

The Accounting Technology students are fundraising for the Holland College food bank, which is for students; the Upper Room Food Bank, which serves the Charlottetown area; and the Toys for Tots campaign. They will be hosting a cake silent auction/bake sale in the cafeteria and a 50/50 draw over the next few weeks.  Last year, they raised approximately $800 for these worthy causes.

Dental Assisting students made Christmas cards to send to the troops in Afghanistan. Anne and the staff at Michael’s helped gather all the necessary supplies to put the cards together.

The LINC teachers and students located on Belmont Street in Charlottetown are collecting food for the Upper Room Food Bank as well, and invite others across the college to join them. To make a donation, contact LINC instructor Shirley Ferguson at 629-4297, or drop in to 34 Belmont Street.

Several groups within the college are sponsoring families. The Foundation program students are sponsoring a single mother family with two children ages 10 and two. Staff in Montgomery Hall are sponsoring a widowed mother and her four children, and cadets in the Correctional Officer program at the Atlantic Police Academy in Summerside have also adopted a family for Christmas. So far, the cadets have raised more than $800 to buy the needy family of five Christmas presents and food.  They’ve got the instructors inspired too, with many of them donating to this worthy cause.

Also in Summerside, the Carpentry program has challenged all other programs and staff at the Aerospace Centre and Motive Power Centre to meet, or better yet, beat their recent donation of $172.58, which they raised to match funds from the student association barbecue. Fund raising at the Aerospace and Motive Power centres continues until Thursday, December 16. In total, the two centres have raised $485.76 for the food and turkey drives.

The Tourism and Travel Management – Events Coordinator students participated in the Professional Convention Management Association service day. Each of the 14 students in the program donated at least four hours of their time to stock shelves and bag vegetables at the Upper Room Food Bank.

During our annual United Way Campaign, the staff and students of Holland College raised $19,185 for the United Way of Prince Edward Island. These funds will go directly toward programming for children, youth, seniors, families, persons with disabilities, and other priority designations. The campaign was headed by Holland College staff member Leslie Holt and Jill Wakelin, assisted by a dedicated group of team leaders, all of whom went above and beyond for this worthwhile cause.

Significant support to this campaign came from students as well. The Holland College Hurricanes, for example, donated $1,000 to the Holland College United Way Campaign. Money was raised during a Pie in the Face event held last month, which saw proceeds go to the United Way and the Hurricanes.  Over 20 staff put their best face forward for this fun and fast-paced event.  Some of the staff even turned the tables on the students and paid to pie them instead!

Valerie Jargaille, a Wildlife Conservation Technology  student from Riverview, New Brunswick, is raising money to help a cause close to her heart. The Atlantic Wildlife Institute, located in Sackville, N.B., made the news recently when it announced that it could no longer take in injured and orphaned wildlife due to a lack of funding. Valerie is selling tickets on a painting of a great horned owl in a red maple tree by Sackville artist Robert Lyon.

Colbie Butcher, a second year Culinary Arts student, and Morgan Palmer, a first year Culinary Arts student, assisted with a workshop at Home Depot for children aged four to 14. Colbie and Morgan provided valuable leadership and guidance to the children as they worked on their projects, to build spice racks.  Their dedication, interaction and enthusiasm with the children were appreciated.

The Child and Youth Care Worker program has been challenged by Alternative Education division of the Department of Education to help collect items for a family in need. The students are helping collect items for the family.

In Souris, students of the Small Business Manager and Resident Care Worker programs, along with the adult education students and staff in the centre raised enough money to donate six turkeys to the local turkey drive, and the Souris Centre is decked out and ready for Christmas.

This week the Charlottetown Centre held its 28^th annual Festival of Carols and Lessons. Students and staff get together to sing, play musical instruments, and read passages of the Christmas story.  This year there were some special highlights, including Total C and the Business Cluster students. Total C is the son of one of the instructors. Watch out Justin Bieber!

There were also wonderful performances from many of the talented students in our midst, and a demonstration of Junkanoo by some of the 26 Bahamian students we have at the college.

The Holland College Welshmen Community Band will host its third annual concert Tuesday, December 14th at 7:30 p.m. The band is comprised of Holland College students and staff, as well as students and faculty from UPEI, a retired judge, music teachers from Island schools, and other members of the greater community. It’s always a fun event, and puts us in the mood the Christmas. The concert starts at 7p.m. in the Charlottetown Centre gymnasium.

This year all the students and staff at the Marine Training Centre participated in the CBC Turkey Drive, raising money through a hot dog sale and a raffle on a Holland College hoodie.  With the proceeds, they were able to donate 15 turkeys to this great cause. The entire Commercial Diving program made the trek to the Salvation Army Thrift Store.

Professional Golf Management student Alex Egan organized the Golf Club Management students and his own classmates to raise money and food for two great causes. The students raised enough money to purchase four turkeys with stuffing for the CBC Turkey Drive, and about $70 dollars worth of toys.

The toys will be donated to Christmas Stockings Hung by the Fire. This is a charity that helps families in P.E.I. by providing them with little toys that can be put in stockings so the kids get a little more at Christmas.

Update:
Precision Machinist students at the Aerospace Centre in Summerside rose to the challenge issued by the Carpentry students, and although there are only 12 people in the program, they raised an impressive $200. The Accounting Technology program raised $575.00 and, with a couple of additional donations, delivered $300 to Toys for Tots and purchased $300-worth of groceries for the Upper Room Food Bank. Nobody stepped forward to claim the 50/50 draw winnings, so the Accounting Technology students purchased seven $20 grocery gift certificates to be distributed to students in need of a little help this Christmas.

 

JACK-in-the-Box encourages students to think about careers earlier

Holland College’s Transitions program, a career exploration program for Grade 12 students, provides hands-on learning in a variety of trades and technology-based programs to help students figure out what programs may be right for them.

Although the program has been a huge success, Transitions Coordinator Joan Diamond was growing increasingly concerned about the shortage of career exploration opportunities for younger students.

“We know that in order to set goals and to be motivated to design career paths effectively, students need to start planning their careers earlier,” she explained. “Many young people disengage from the learning process, others choose not to continue their education after high school, and still others simply drop out.”

Led by Joan, the Holland College Transitions Team came up with a way to encourage Grade 7 students to start thinking about what sort of career they may want to have. The team believes that encouraging the students to explore their career options earlier will keep them engaged in their school work and increase the likelihood that they will be able to make well-informed decisions about their high school courses and their post-secondary options.

“We have found out through our evaluations that our Transitions programs make a lasting impression on students and motivate them to ‘pull up their socks’ and work toward their goals,” Diamond explained. “We hope to be able to get young people thinking that way earlier.”

The tool the team has developed is called JACK (Job Activity Career Kits)-in-the-Box. The plan is to develop kits that are a combination of video instruction and hands-on activities. These kits will make it easy for teachers to deliver trades-related information in an interesting and accurate manner, even though they may not have any formal training in the area. Each kit will contain 10 reusable projects (enough for a class of 30).

A pilot project will be launched in three schools in the New Year. Four trades will be featured in the pilot project: Carpentry; Electrical; Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC); and Wind Turbine Technology.

Holland College Graphic Design students were given the opportunity to develop a logo for the boxes. The winning design is by second-year student Stefan Greencorn. A student from Interactive Multimedia will produce the instructional videos for each of the boxes.

Funding for the pilot project has been provided by the Holland College President’s Innovation Fund, which provides instructors and staff at the college with additional dollars to try out new projects. These pilot projects frequently lead to longer-term endeavours aimed at improving program delivery or enhancing the college environment for students and employees alike.

If, at the end of the project in June, the JACK-in-the-Boxes prove to be effective, the kits could be restocked and sold through the Department of Education, thus making them a permanent resource in Junior High Schools across the Island.