Students
Meet André Bertram, Computer Information Systems student
November 1, 2021
Q: What’s your hometown? A: Kingston, Jamaica. Q: How did you end up at ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝? A: My immediate family settled in the ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ Valley for some time now, and I wanted to join them. After some thinking, I thought going to school and contributing to the Canada would be a good approach. I just had to figure out which school. With research, and with some assistance from my older sister and mom, I found that ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ was an excellent ...
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ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ Coyotes win the Canadian College Baseball Conference
October 15, 2021
The ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ Coyotes baseball team pulled out all the stops this past weekend, taking home first place in the Fall Championship of the 2021 Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) league. All eight teams in the CCBC came to play for the first time since May 2019. “It was really nice to see all the eight teams competing again after such a tough time due to COVID,” says Head Coach Geoff White. “I applaud all the student athletes from all the programs for sticking with it to get back to this point.” The Coyotes’ weekend ...
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OC student wins completion grant as part of inaugural Tourism Management Diploma program
October 14, 2021
For one ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ student, embracing Tourism Management Diploma (TMD) studies at the Revelstoke Centre has truly paid off. Stephanie Sonsona has been named the recipient of the Revelstoke Accommodation Association’s completion grant for 2021, receiving $1,000 to support her education. She first began exploring post-secondary study options while in her home country of the Philippines, and was introduced to the TMD program through ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝â€™s International Education department. She was drawn to the new tourism-focused...
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OC Culinary Arts students serve Thanksgiving meals to students in need
October 8, 2021
ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ Culinary students and instructors helped to spread Thanksgiving gratitude to students on Friday with a holiday inspired meal. Students pulled out all the stops to prepare a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings for students in need as part of the innovative OC Serves Up program. The program was launched in the middle of the pandemic last year to combat food insecurity and has just relaunched this past week for the new academic year. “OC Culinary Arts students serve 50 meals a day to students in need as part o...
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New LPN Orthopaedic Program at OC Set to Start in January 2022
September 22, 2021
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) will have a learning option for advanced orthopaedic knowledge and skills that keeps them closer to home. The new LPN Orthopaedic Certificate offered at ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ (OC) is the first of its kind in British Columbia. Launching in January 2022, the online certificate program is set to increase access to advanced orthopaedic education for nurses throughout the province and minimize travel requirements. “This program will meet the provincial need for a local solution for training opportunities...
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Lawren Richards
September 3, 2021
“I am a single mom to 17-year-old twins. We had been living in a 400-square-foot cabin about an hour from town when an opportunity came up that would allow me to purchase some land and build my own home closer to town and my kids’ school. I have always been interested in natural building but I don’t have a carpentry background so I enrolled in the Carpenter Foundation program in Salmon Arm. I was the only woman in the class and much older than my classmates, so I w...
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Ty Sideroff
September 3, 2021
“I have always been interested in our anatomy and exercising so I enrolled in OC’s Kinesiology Diploma program. My first year was going really well, then COVID-19 hit. I was able to finish the first year in an online format. However, starting school in September completely online, I was struggling to stay engaged with my studies. Before COVID, many of our classes would be active and in the gym. I found it hard to stay present with everything online and not having the sa...
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Saige Girouard, Red River, MĂ©tis Nation
September 3, 2021
“In my second year of studies I connected with a classmate over our shared curiosity to learn more about our Indigenous backgrounds. I’m MĂ©tis, but my family didn’t practice Indigenous customs. My classmate went on to be very successful in reconnecting with her culture. Watching her hit those milestones I knew that if she could do it, I could do it too. I’d say the tipping point for me was winning a bursary from ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ to attend the Indigenous Women’s Leadersh...
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Incoming OC Salmon Arm student wins a $40,000 scholarship
August 31, 2021
Salmon Arm student Savannah Lamb has 40,000 reasons to be excited to begin her educational journey at ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ this fall. Thanks to an external $40,000 scholarship from the Beedie Luminaries foundation, Lamb will begin the Associate of Arts program at the College’s Salmon Arm campus in the fall, worry-free. “When I found out about receiving this scholarship, I was so surprised and it took me a while to process it,” says Lamb. “After it sunk in, I shared the news with my family, and we had the chance to celebrate together.”...
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OC Audio Engineering and Music Production grad finds her groove through music during the pandemic
August 18, 2021
It didn’t take a pandemic for Kailee McGuire to realize that she should follow her lifelong passion for music. With her heart set on writing and releasing original music, McGuire decided to shadow an Audio Engineering and Music Production (AEMP) class at ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ to get a feel for what the program was all about. After connecting with Instructor Corey Bell and AEMP students, McGuire was hooked. She was inspired by the energy of the class and felt connected to the students, sharing the same passion for music and desire to ex...
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Meet Louise Trenholm, Automotive Collision and Refinishing student
August 5, 2021
Q: Why did you choose a career in Collision Repair? A: I’ve always had an interest in vehicles ever since I was a child. In high school, I hung out at the local Speedway in Penticton, making my love for vehicles grow even more. I wanted a career that worked on vehicles, so I decided to choose the Entry-Level Automotive Collision Repair Foundation program to help start my career as an Automotive Refinisher. Q: How did your training with OC help prepare you for your c...
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Skogie’s 50th anniversary adds shine to student experience
July 28, 2021
Skogie’s car washes are celebrating 50 years of business by making the ride for ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ students a little easier. For every year the family-run business has been in operation, Skogie’s is donating $1,000 to ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ — for a total of $50,000 in honour of their half-century anniversary. “We've hired a lot of ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ students over the years,” says David Skoglund, who founded the company in 1971. “We want to support young people and help them get ahead and we also wanted to give back to our community.” The ...
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Edible garden project at OC’s Penticton campus to feed students, community members
June 29, 2021
A partnership between ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝'s Penticton campus and the Medical Arts Research Group is helping to root out food insecurity amongst students and local families. An edible garden program is being established on the north end of the Penticton campus, with the aim to provide fresh vegetables to OC students and food bank patrons in the community. Medical Arts Research Group donated the wood and fence material for the project. Raised garden beds were built in May by students in the Women in Trades Training program, and install...
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College's modern dental clinic gets a boost from 123Dentist
June 28, 2021
123Dentist, Canada’s largest majority dentist-owned network of dental practices, is giving $30,000 to support ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝â€™s state-of-the-art dental space located in the new $18.9-million Health Sciences Centre. The new clinic is a major upgrade for Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) students, who can now learn in private operatories comparable to today’s dental practices along with smart cameras and monitors for teaching and instruction. Ali Bozorgzad, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of 123Dentist, says his organizatio...
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OC Advanced GIS grad dives deep into data to map shark population growth
June 18, 2021
When Sarah Gravel decided to sign up for geographic information systems (GIS) training, she was looking to broaden her skills in a way that would serve her Master of Marine Biology degree in a productive way. Now she is using those GIS mapping skills to understand the effects of climate change on sharks, rays and other fishes, along with developing models for population growth rates among those creatures. ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝â€™s Advanced GIS Certificate program teaches students to structure, manage and analyze data within a map. The ...
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OC student follows in her father’s footsteps as RV Service Technician
June 17, 2021
As an RV Service Technician instructor at ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝, Victor Flint welcomes hundreds of new faces to the classroom each year, but none so familiar as his own daughter, Sharla, who is proudly following in his footsteps. Sharla will join nearly 300 students from various ĐÇżŐ´«Ă˝ Trades and Apprenticeship programs who will take an important step towards their career path at the virtual Commencement ceremony tonight (Thursday, June 17). Sharla recently completed the Recreation Vehicle Service Technician Foundation progra...
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