Generous gift will advance OC health-care education
January 19, 2022
A local family foundation is investing in the future of health-care education with a generous gift to Okanagan College. The Merrifield Family Foundation is donating $100,000 to the Our Students, Your Health campaign for a modern Health Sciences Centre on the College’s Kelowna campus. The gift will support technology upgrades and new equipment for eight professions ranging from Pharmacy Technician Assistants and nurses to Therapist Assistants. Lane Merrifield, a well-known entrepreneur, says he values the College's focus on applie...
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Meet David Sawatzky, SBT graduate
January 19, 2022
Q: What is your name? A: David Sawatzky Q: What are your pronouns? A: He / Him / His Q: Where is your hometown and where are you located now? A: Originally from Kelowna, B.C., now I am located in Coldstream, B.C. where I am working on projects in the central and north Okanagan. Q: What program did you take at OC? When did you graduate? A: I completed the Sustainable Building Technology Diploma (formerly Sustainable Construction Management Technology D...
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Meet Brendon Gray, SBT graduate
January 19, 2022
Q: What is your name? A: Brendon Gray Q: Where is your hometown and where are you located now? A: I’m a second generation born and raised Kelowna resident. Q: What program did you take at OC? A: Electrical Apprenticeship and Sustainable Building Technology (SBT). Q: What is your current position? A: Principal at Egnite Sustainability and Registered Energy Advisor. Q: Why did you choose your program at OC? How does it relate to what you’re doing no...
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Meet Courtney Koga
January 18, 2022
Eight years ago, Courtney Koga and her sister Meiko started CrAsian Food Truck. Today, they continue running a successful food truck business in addition to two brick and mortar kitchens in tasting rooms of two popular Kelowna breweries: Kettle River Brewing and BNA Brewing. Recently Koga was nominated for two Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards for Young Entrepreneur and Social Leadership. We caught up with her to hear more about what she’s been up to si...
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OC Business Professor's stained glass portrait honours Indigenous students, colleagues
January 14, 2022
If you have visited the Kelowna campus’ Centre for Learning and looked up at the second-floor offices, you may have seen colourful stained glass art hanging from the windows. Those pieces were created by OC Business Professor, Devin Rubadeau. During the day, he teaches business administration and in his spare time, he is a stained glass artist. His father taught him how to make industrial art at a young age and since then, stained glass art and woodworking have been two media he always comes back to. While working on his doctora...
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Partners launch resilient housing solutions project at Kanaka Bar to assist with rebuild of fire-ravaged Lytton, B.C., region
January 13, 2022
Kanaka Bar Indian Band, SAIT, Okanagan College, Foresight Canada and Seko Construction partner to harness innovation to provide options for the rebuild of the region Kanaka Bar, B.C. (Jan. 13, 2022) — Patrick Michell, Chief of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band, announced today they have entered into an agreement with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) on a pilot project focused on climate-resilient housing options for evacuees who lost their homes in the June 30, 2021 Lytton, B.C., wildfire. The project is expected to rev...
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Award-winning Water Engineering Technology grad breaks barriers for women
January 6, 2022
An Okanagan College student’s passion for protecting the environment not only earned her a prestigious award, but is also serving as an encouragement for other women. Meghan McCreight, who grew up in Coldstream, first started her Okanagan College journey in Salmon Arm where she did the first year of her Associate of Science. There, one of her professors told her about the Water Engineering Technology (WET) program at the Kelowna campus. “My family is very outdoorsy, skiers, campers, always kind of outside, and I grew up in natur...
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OC business students seek community support to launch investment fund
January 5, 2022
Justin Rantucci and Steven Fiust speak highly of their education at Okanagan College, but there is one thing they would like to change. When networking with other finance students at post-secondary institutions across Canada, they learned that schools with a student-run investment fund seemed to result in a better transition to finance careers for their graduates. Seeing an opportunity to provide hands-on experience for more OC students while building capacity locally, Rantucci, Fiust and fellow student Riley Dunsmore are lo...
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OC’s Health Sciences Centre receives LEED gold certification
December 23, 2021
Okanagan College’s leadership as a champion of sustainability continues after receiving another LEED certification for the new Health Sciences Centre (HSC), which officially opened at the Kelowna campus in October. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the most widely used green building rating system that certifies the level of sustainability-related features incorporated in a building’s design. The HSC building joins several other buildings at three Okanagan College campuses that have already received certifica...
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The Okanagan Sikh Temple and Cultural Society gives boost to health care students
December 22, 2021
A $25,000 gift from the Okanagan Sikh Temple and Cultural Society will empower health care students as they pursue their education at Okanagan College. The Sikh Community began collecting donations from their congregation to support the College's $5-million Our Students, Your Health campaign and was able to raise the funds in six months. Amarjit Singh Lalli, President of the Okanagan Gurduara, says their community believes in the importance of acquiring knowledge and passing it on to future generations, which made it easy to get b...
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