Saturday afternoon the Community Learning Campus (CLC) Health and Wellness Centre celebrated its first anniversary with a barbecue, a 500-metre swim and a 3-kilometre run around the college grounds.
Of the 16 people that participated in the race, Sam Prevost and Sara Virag won CLC Fitness Centre one-year gym memberships for placing first in the men's and women's categories, and Mitchell Ormann took home a Panago gift certificate for first-place youth run.
Although the CLC (as a whole) celebrated its first anniversary in March, The Health and Wellness Centre is the last of the facilities (which also include the Bell e-Learning Centre, Fine Arts and Multi Media Centre, Ralph Klein Centre, Olds High School, and Government Services) to celebrate its one-year anniversary.
In its first operational year, the CLC has seen a lot of growth from a regional standpoint, said Connie Conley, director of CLC and college business development.
The features of the joint-use CLC facilities like the Fine Arts and Multimedia Centre and Ralph Klein Centre are attracting new groups this summer.
“You can meet here, sleep here, play here, and eat here. We can offer the complete package to these groups.”
CLC's former executive director Dot Negropontes said the desired vision of communal learning has been more than achieved.
“It gives them that step into the post-secondary world,” said Negropontes.
The introduction of a dual-credit pilot project through the CLC offers students the ability to obtain college and high-school credits simultaneously through specific courses.
“It makes sense for kids to try out post-secondary while they're in high school. It's a great transition strategy,” said Barb Mulholland, a learning services coordinator for Chinook's Edge.
“It's all been on a trial basis,” said Mulholland. “Dot (Negropontes) always said we were building the plane as it was flying. We're learning as we go, for sure.”
Varying dual-credit models were tested, including pre-employment welding, an equine course entitled “So You Love Horses,” and online fashion marketing – courses she says at least one student from each of the 12 division high schools have taken.
“I think sometimes it surprised the kids - how successful they could be in a post-secondary course. It will give them the confidence then to go forward.”
Though the pilot project is complete, Mulholland said they're hopeful dual-credit programs will become part of their regular education program in Alberta.
“It's in the hands of the government right now.”
Though hard numbers have yet to be crunched, she said high school completion rates have gone up.
“The qualitative data that we're collecting shows we're really making a difference.”
OHS principal Tom Christensen had similar things to say.
“I'm just looking at our achievement … and our diploma exam averages this year, and I think they'll be the highest we've ever had in our school history.”
Christensen said he attributes the student success partly to a long-standing partnership with the Olds College.
“I think it's gone very well. They've been very gracious in having us here. They do so much for us.”
Conley says the line is quickly blurring as students mutually accept one another.
“They've blended so seamlessly that it's getting harder to tell who's a college student and who's a high school student.”
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently short-listed the CLC in its international study of innovative schools, said Christensen.
“We were the only one chosen from Canada,” he said. “It's kind of crazy,'cause we're just going day to day and trying to educate our kids.”
One example of the unifying effect of the CLC to Chinook's Edge is the ability to conference between schools with Community Engagement Sites, said Negropontes, a current Chinook's Edge liaison for OHS.
Last year, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott (the first person killed in the Columbine High School shootings on April 20, 1999), was brought to Olds by the CLC to share Rachel's Challenge with Grade 7-12 students and their parents.
The Rachel's Challenge message of compassion for others was shared via video conferencing through the Community Engagement Sites.
“To me, that's a really good example of the power of this partnership.”
One of the challenges the CLC faces as it progresses is keeping the vision alive of providing innovative programming for all, said Negropontes.
“Former superintendent Jim Gibbons - who worked so hard on the project - retired. I'm retiring this year. But I'm confident we have a really good team at Chinook's Edge and Olds College. They're going to take it to new heights.”
Negropontes recalls Gibbons saying the phrase “To whom much has been given, much is expected.”
“They (students) have responded well to that challenge of being provided with so much,” said Negropontes.
"Dot (Negropontes) always said we were building the plane as it was flying. We're learning as we go, for sure," -- Barb Mulholland
