Collaboration & Partnerships
College and Westbank First Nation sign new MOU, continue to deepen partnership
June 21, 2020
Okanagan College and Westbank First Nation (WFN) recently signed a new Memorandum of Understanding, building on a long history of working together to increase access and support WFN members in achieving their post-secondary education goals. In all, the new MOU outlines seven ways in which the partners will continue to collaborate on projects and programs that will benefit learners from the WFN community, while helping both organizations learn from one another and build professional capacity. Signing on behalf of Westbank First Na...
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Kelowna Chevrolet invests in health professionals
May 28, 2020
Kelowna Chevrolet is investing in future health care professionals, with a $50,000 donation to the Our Students, Your Health campaign for a new Health Sciences Centre at Okanagan College. Kelowna Chevrolet Dealer Partner Ian Speckman says he felt a responsibility to support the state-of-the-art Health Sciences Centre that will train health care professionals for the region. “As we’re all realizing, health care professionals are essential for our community,” says Speckman. “This is about supporting students so they can get the rig...
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Contest winner inspired to help others
May 26, 2020
When Brittani Sali answered the phone and learned she was the winner of a $5,000 tuition giveaway contest, she thought she might be dreaming. The 22-year old was just waking up, and she hadn’t been expecting the call from local radio announcer B Mack. Lucky for Sali, winning the tuition giveaway towards any health program at Okanagan College wasn’t a dream. The 22-year old was among one of 80 people who entered the contest, which was sponsored by the Payton and Dillon Budd Memorial Fund, in partnership with Virgin Radio and the Ok...
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Okanagan College hosts virtual info session on Tourism Management diploma program
May 25, 2020
Set at the foot of the picturesque Columbia Mountains and home to a growing array of four-season tourism operators and activities, where better to advance your career in the tourism industry than Revelstoke? On May 27, prospective students can attend a virtual information session to learn more about Okanagan College’s Tourism Management diploma. The program, which debuted last year, is set for a September start at the College’s Revelstoke Centre and combines hands-on learning in the tourism sector with applied business courses. ...
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College’s Therapist Assistant program earns new national accreditation
May 22, 2020
As career goals go, what could be more meaningful than improving someone’s quality of life? For therapist assistants, it’s more than a goal, it’s a daily reality – and you’ll find these in-demand health professionals supporting people’s rehabilitation in a vast array of settings. This spring, Okanagan College’s Therapist Assistant Diploma (TAD) program – which has been educating Physical therapist assistants (PTA), Occupational therapist assistants (OTA) and Recreation therapist assistants (RTA) for almost 30 years – has earned a...
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Families and community at the heart of Enactus GreenScreen technology initiative
April 9, 2020
GreenScreen is bigger than just a technology recycling program. It’s about people and helping build connections. An initiative launched by Okanagan College’s Enactus team in 2019, the project works to repurpose technology such as phones, laptops and tablets, saving them from the landfill and connecting them with families in need. The team consists of students Isaac Hossmann, Emily Pilon, Rachel Wehrmann and Maya Samaddar, and aided by College professor Devin Rubadeau. Working alongside Kelowna Cell Repair, Columbia Bottle Depot an...
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How to play in today’s reality: A Q&A with Beverlie Dietze, Play Expert
March 31, 2020
Social-distancing is the name of the game for all of us right now. But getting outside, whether it be in your backyard or your neighbourhood, when following the province’s guidance, remains an important way for us to keep moving says an Okanagan College outdoor play expert. In early March, before the onset of COVID-19 halted such gatherings, the College hosted an outdoor play workshop alongside Outland Design and New Monaco in Peachland. This unique opportunity gave residents a chance to learn more about outdoor and unstructured pl...
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Specialized Training Offered by Lillooet Tribal Council and Okanagan College
March 26, 2020
The Community Adult Learning Centre in Lillooet, B.C., recently partnered with Okanagan College to offer the Introduction to Office Administration training program, a fast-track program designed to build essential office skills necessary to job readiness in the field. Community consultation and local job vacancies highlighted a need for office administration. Yvonne LaRochelle, manager for the Community Adult Learning Centre, set out to close the gap between those in need of work and the office administration jobs available in her...
Read more...Tom Budd sponsors health care tuition
March 26, 2020
Local businessman and philanthropist Tom Budd is giving residents an opportunity to win free tuition toward a health care career at Okanagan College. Budd, along with local radio stations Virgin Radio and Sun FM, are offering the contest called Wishin for Tuition across the Valley until April 12. Residents can win up to $5,000 toward their tuition to one of any 10 Health Sciences programs at Okanagan College. The programs offered range from nursing to Early Childhood Education and Pharmacy Technician. The prize money is coming ...
Read more...Campus-to-Campus half marathon cancelled
March 15, 2020
Sunday, March 15 – Today, Okanagan College and the University of British Columbia Okanagan announce that the campus-to-campus half marathon and celebration scheduled for Saturday, April 4 has been cancelled. This decision follows the recommendations made by the B.C. Ministry of Health on March 12, which advise event organizers to cancel all events and gatherings of 250 people or more, in order to help curb the spread of COVID-19 in the province. “While we are saddened to have to delay the resurgence of the run, it’s absolutely pa...
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OC business students top podium at Enactus Regionals
March 11, 2020
What do you do with your leftover fruit waste? For a group of Okanagan College business students, repurposing apples that otherwise would have gone to waste into healthy snacks for kids was the logical solution – and the resulting project, FruitSnaps, recently earned them top project at Enactus Canada Western Regionals. Hosted in Calgary in late February, the event drew college and university student teams from as far away as Vancouver to Brandon, Manitoba. The College fielded teams in four categories, with FruitSnaps taking top ...
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Making mentors: OC Women in Trades and Willowstone Academy students learn and build together
March 6, 2020
Sometimes a finished carpentry project turns out to be far more than the sum of its parts, when the tools, techniques and materials combine to create something unforgettable and transformative. The same goes for educational experiences, as demonstrated by a recent event that brought together students from Willowstone Academy and Okanagan College’s Women in Trades Training (WITT) program, with support from the Industry Training Authority (ITA). On Thursday, March 5 a class of WITT students arrived in the early hours of the morning ...
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Renowned social media expert debunks digital myths in latest book
March 5, 2020
Social media is free. Millennials are all social media experts. Businesses have to be available 24/7. Psychologist Ian MacRae will address these and other social media myths during an upcoming book launch and discussion at Okanagan College in Kelowna on Wednesday, March 25. The date will mark the international debut for his latest book, Myths of Social Media: Dismiss the Misconceptions and Use Social Media Effectively in Business (published by Kogan Page, 2020), which he co-authored with Michelle Carvill. “Everyone knows that soc...
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Students seize opportunity at CICan Student Showcase on Parliament Hill, Ottawa
February 28, 2020
For third- and fourth-year Bachelor of Computer Science students Jack Humphrey and Christopher Mazur, showcasing their project on network optimization at Parliament Hill was an opportunity that opened doors and forged connections. Held in the National Arts Centre, Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) on the Hill is a two-day conference, running February 26-27, geared towards connecting college and institute leaders with parliamentarians. The Student Showcase did just that, offering students from across Canada in any academic dis...
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Families, don’t miss this free outdoor play workshop
February 26, 2020
Do you know a child who loves to stomp in the mud, look under rocks to see what crawly creatures might be living underneath or challenge themselves to walk the tightrope of a fallen log? Children will have a unique opportunity to express their creativity and engage their sense of wonder at an upcoming outdoor play workshop in March. A loose parts play date and open house will be happening on Saturday, March 7 from 10 a.m. – noon at Cousins Park on Beach Avenue and 6th Street in Peachland. The event is being hosted by Okanagan Coll...
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RBC On Campus powers up financial literacy space at Okanagan College
February 25, 2020
A new collaboration between Okanagan College and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will help OC students tap into free financial literacy support and services from RBC advisors. On Monday, RBC officially opened the new “RBC On Campus” financial literacy hub outside the Library on the second-floor mezzanine level of the Centre for Learning at the Kelowna campus. The space will be open from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Students will be able to drop in, free of charge, to speak with RBC advisors who can help students on a host of to...
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