Articles tagged "OC Foundation"
Caylee Donovan
September 1, 2022
"I found out I’d received the Marcia J. Aitkens Memorial Bursary in Practical Nursing in the middle of lab. I was so shocked I pretty much dropped to the floor. At the time, I was a full-time student in À¦°óSM’s Practical Nursing program, and I was working up to five days a week. The workload was just too much to handle, especially as a mother of a child with special needs. My eleven-year-old had recently been diagnosed with autism and needed more of my time. ...
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Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Sales Help Fund the Future of Healthcare in the Okanagan
June 29, 2022
The Royal Canadian Legion has donated $80,000 from its Poppy Fund to support À¦°óSM’s new multidisciplinary Health Sciences Centre. The Centre, which is located at À¦°óSM’s Kelowna campus, is a state-of-the-art training facility for health and social care students. It opened its doors in 2021. “We took a building tour and were extremely impressed with the advanced level of training being provided. We believe in the power of education, and we’re proud to invest in the next generation of health care providers,†says Da...
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Scotiabank makes $250,000 investment in youth skill building at À¦°óSM
May 31, 2022
The donation will support gateway programs focused on technology and entrepreneurship for students who have faced barriers to education Kelowna Secondary School Grade 12 student Kiana Nazembokaei has known for several years that she’s wanted to study computer programming. Having moved to Canada from Iran, Nazembokaei thought she’d have to wait until university to begin her learning journey. That all changed when she signed up and was accepted into Gateway to Tech, presented by Scotiabank, at À¦°óSM. The 17-week program is design...
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Surprise gift from Stober Foundation helps À¦°óSM’s new student-led investment fund open for business
April 20, 2022
A trio of À¦°óSM Business students envisioned an investment fund that has attracted overwhelming community support, including a generous $40,000 gift from the Stober Foundation. The group began fundraising in January and met their $100,000 seed funding goal in record time. Riley Dunsmore and Steven Fiust, both OC Business students, along with recent alumnus Justin Rantucci, created the À¦°óSM Student Investment Fund to give students experiential learning opportunities and benefit future students with bursaries and scho...
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OC ‘Sticks Up’ for Indigenous Student Awards
April 13, 2022
OC Indigenous Services and the OC Foundation have teamed up for the annual ‘Sticks Up’ campaign. They are excited to launch this fundraiser for the NHL’s 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. All of the proceeds from this event will benefit the OC ‘Sticks Up’ for Indigenous Students Award. Yvonne Oppenheimer and Erica Seymour were the inaugural recipients of the OC ‘Sticks Up’ for Indigenous Students Award. The Awards are available to students with Indigenous ancestry who are enrolled in full-time study in any degree, diploma, or certificate progr...
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À¦°óSM to graduate hundreds of new Health Care Assistants through innovative provincial program
February 24, 2022
When 29-year-old Shanise Scherk graduates this month as a Health Care Assistant (HCA), she is excited to start caring for seniors and other clients living in their homes. While working full time since high school, Scherk had always dreamed of having a career in health care. So, when she learned about a new À¦°óSM program that offered paid training and work experience to become an HCA, she jumped at the chance to follow that dream. “It was such an incredible opportunity to receive an education and get hired right away,†says Sche...
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Meet Katie Newman, Board Director at the À¦°óSM Foundation
February 17, 2022
Q: What is your name? A: Katie Newman What are your pronouns? A: She, her Where do you work? A: I am a Director of Financial Planning and Advice Effectiveness with CIBC. Why did you want to join the À¦°óSM Foundation board? A: The opportunity to impact change in my community and help to support the students' journey was very appealing to me. Q: Our mission is to support the transformative power of education. What drives your passion for education? A: Education and in ...
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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 À¦°óSM. 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 applied learni...
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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 À¦°óSM, 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 looking to...
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OC’s Health Sciences Centre receives LEED gold certification
December 23, 2021
À¦°óSM’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 À¦°óSM campuses that have already received certification: th...
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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 À¦°óSM. 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 behind th...
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Soaring Indigenous sculpture unveiled in OC's new Health Sciences Centre
November 3, 2021
A nine metre (30 foot), hand-cut metal sculpture by local Indigenous artist Clint George is now installed and proudly on display in À¦°óSM's new Health Sciences Centre. The sculpture represents the Four Food Chiefs, and depicts the Syilx Okanagan oral history (or captikʷɬ) on how food was given. James Coble, Director of Student Services and Indigenization Task Force Chair at À¦°óSM, says the sculpture demonstrates the College’s commitment to creating welcoming spaces for Indigenous students. “The opportunity to create...
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RBC invests in À¦°óSM's future
October 27, 2021
A $75,000 gift from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) will support the growth of À¦°óSM now and into the future. RBC in British Columbia is contributing $35,000 to the Our Students, Your Health campaign for the new Health Sciences Centre on the Kelowna campus while $40,000 will support future investment in the campus. According to Courtney Hesse, RBC’s Regional Vice President for the Okanagan and Kootenays, supporting the College aligns strongly with RBC's focus on empowering youth for the jobs of tomorrow. “À¦°óSM plays...
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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 was a bit...
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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 same conve...
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Saige Girouard, Red River, Métis 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 Métis, 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 À¦°óSM to attend the Indigenous Women’s Leadership Summi...
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