College secures funding for popular ESL program

An English as a Second Language program hosted by Northwest Community college is getting prepared to launch for the second year in a row, providing a well received opportunity for those trying to learn English to put their knowledge to work in practical ways.

The English Language Settlement Assistance Program is currently looking to complete its roster of tutors and classroom helpers, who will once again prove pivotal to the success of the program.

The program recently received funding from Settlement Assistance Branch of the Ministry of Advanced Education and will once again be able to provide for a learning environment that makes the best use of the resources available and the use of tutors, a process which can result in a learning curve that develops long after the participants leave the classroom.

The Daily News provided details of the program in Thursday's paper.

Would-be ESL teachers invited to get training
By Monica Lamb-Yorski
The Daily News
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Pages three and five

Newcomers to Prince Rupert who are learning English as a Second Language (ELSAP) will be happy to learn that Northwest Community College has received funding for the second year in a row to offer its English Language Settlement Assistance Program.

With funds from the Settlement Assistance Branch of the Ministry of Advanced Education, tutor training, the hiring of settlement assistance workers and child minding during some of the sessions is being made possible.

Coordinator Marie Grinstrand, is inviting people interested in becoming tutors to attend a training session beginning Sept. 23 at the college.

The sessions will run Tuesdays and Thursday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and are offered free of charge.
Some of the training includes tutors working with students in the classroom setting, something Grinstrand experimented with for the first time last year.

"From the tutor's point of view and the ESL student's point of view, I am forming a relationship. The class setting give tutors confidence and students absolutely love the fact that there are 10 other teachers in the class besides me," Grinstrand said.

A new on-line program, being implemented this year, will also make tutor training more flexible as Grinstrand said sometimes even tutors can't attend all the sessions.

Many of the sessions are group sessions. Last year, the tutors and students went to the Prince Rupert Library on Wednesday afternoons for citizenship classes.

While mothers studied in a side room and practiced writing citizenship tests, their children attended a storytime session.

"Those sessions were really popular and I'd like to schedule more of that this year," said Grinstrand.

Practical things like banking, health or obtaining a driver's licence are things one might take for granted but they can be stumbling blocks to a newcomer.

For Mariana Hülsen, who moved to Prince Rupert in April 2006, it was personal experience that inspired her to enroll in the tutor training program last January.

Hülsen emigrated to Canada 15 years ago from Argentina and was proficient in the English language when she arrived.

She started learning English at school in Grade 3, her high school had a good foreign language program and after graduation, she enrolled in a Certificate of Proficiency in English through Cambridge University.

"My English was good. I had a really big vocabulary, I knew grammar and syntax but it was the everyday things I needed," Hülsen said.

One winter, while living in Victoria, Hülsen was too embarrassed to ask someone how to catch the bus so she walked everywhere and was exhausted.

Hülsen taught ESL in Argentina for a career so when she learned about the college's tutor training program she decided to enroll.

Besides, she added, with her bus-less experience she thought she might be able to think of ways to help other immigrants that people without second language experience might not know about.
During the summer Hülsen tutored a young woman from India and said the two developed a friendship.

"We shared wedding photos, talked about food - she taught me how to make things and I shared recipes from Argentina. It goes beyond teacher and student," Hülsen said.
Grinstrand and Hülsen have been compiling kits containing materials and ideas to give tutors more support.

"This week, I picked up some bank books and cheque registers that we can practice with. We really focus on helping students cope and to learn practical things. It might even involve showing someone how to use a bank machine or what a person's going to say at a doctor's appointment."
Prince Rupert is the only place west of Prince George offering ESL classes because provincial funding has been aimed at smaller communities like Houston, Terrace and Kitimat to offer the ELSAP.

"There's a general recognition that immigrants do need more support and this program is genuinely trying to provide this support," Grinstrand said.

Locally, the program is a partnership with Northwest Community College and the Community Enrichment Society, with continued support from the Prince Rupert Library.

Despite deficit, NWCC doesn't see layoffs or program cuts on the horizon..

With the Provincial Government throwing a surprise funding cutback at the provinces colleges, there has been some scrambling going on as the provinces colleges find ways to cut corners and free up money.

Some like Prince George's College of New Caledonia have had to resort to layoffs and program cancellations to balance their books, while others have been working on some internal number crunching to bring the books into line with the new reality from Victoria.

Locally, Northwest Community College like the others is facing a reduction in finances, with a 1.5 million dollar deficit expected after the latest moves from the provincial government. However, unlike Prince George and other locales, NWCC feels that they can handle their shortfall through funds from previous years and grants coming through the process.

CFTK News out of Terrace provided some details on the issue posted Thursday to their website.

College Faces Deficit
Thu, 2008-04-03 18:05.

Local News

Northwest Community College is facing a $1.5 million deficit, after a surprise funding cut by the provincial government.

But President Stephanie Forsyth says she doesn't expect program cuts or layoffs.

"We do have some funds remaining previous years when programs haven't run or grants came in that have offset our costs," said Forsyth. "So we may be able to cover our deficit for one year and that's what we're anticipating."

Forsyth says Northwest Community College has delayed its budget process this year to assess and find solutions to the funding shortfall.

Universities and colleges across the province are affected by the same funding changes and some have announced program and staff cuts.

Forsyth says the province has cut basic college budgets by 2.6 percent, although it did provide some extra money to cover negotiated wage increases and has allocated specific funding for programs such as trades training.

High interest in higher education

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There were a couple of stories from the Daily News this past week that caught our interest, but time worked against us in delivering. Both involved the college and university level of education in the province.

The first one was about the desire from Northwest Community College to advocate in favor of more funding for aboriginal education initiatives.

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The second one highlighted some of the achievements in research that have been happening at the University of Northern British Columbia and how that has resulted in a high ranking for the university in recently published university ranking lists compiled by the firm InfoSource.

The two stories appeared in Monday and Tuesday’s editions of the Daily News.

COLLEGE SEEKS HELP SUPPORTING ABORIGINAL STUDENTS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, October 29, 2007
Pages one and three

Northwest Community College would like to see the provincial government provide more funding for aboriginal education initiatives.

Speaking to the province’s Finance Committee hearing in Terrace last month, Diane Ready, the vice-president of finance and administration at Northwest Community College, said the college has established wonderful partnerships aimed at helping prepare First Nations students for the workforce.

However, there are also many challenges.

“NWCC is not like other mainstream colleges in B. C. Our large aboriginal population makes us significantly different and presents us with extraordinary challenges. We are unable to keep up with the student supports and transition needs of our at risk and aboriginal learners,” she said.

“Unlike publicly funded aboriginal institutions NWCC is funded as if it were a mainstream institution. It is not adequately funded to provide the outreach, literacy, transition and student supports required of our aboriginal learners.”

She urged members of the committee to consider a pre-program and service funding model that is on par with other aboriginal institutions in the province.

One of the challenges in fully engaging the aboriginal community is the lack of on-campus housing for aboriginal students.

“The college struggles to maintain, let alone renew, our teaching and learning facilities, given a scarcity of annual capital allowance funds,” said Ready.

“We need support for the construction of on-campus housing for aboriginal students, one of the many barriers to aboriginal learners participating is housing for single parents and families. With the resurgence of the housing market in the Northwest, finding adequate and affordable housing is proving increasingly challenging.”

She also argued the funding should be available, given the economic contribution the college makes to the provincial economy.

Students benefit from higher earnings, thereby expanding the tax base and reducing the tax burden on provincial taxpayers, Ready said.

“When aggregated together, students generate about $8.2 million annually in higher earnings due to their NWCC education,” said Ready.

“As many as 95 percent of students stay in the region initially, after they leave college, and contribute to the local economy.

“The aboriginal population is critical to the revitalized economy and is on a steady rise, while the non-aboriginal population is in significant decline.

“With employment rates in aboriginal communities still in the order of 37 percent to 80 percent, aboriginal people represent an increased portion of the labour force.”

The deadline for submissions to the budget committee was on Friday.

The committee must present its report to the Legislative Assembly by November 15 for consideration.


UNBC GETS TOP GRADES FOR LEADING THE FIELD IN RESEARCH
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Pages one and two

The University of Northern B. C. has received accolades for the amount of research it is undertaking, including its work on the North Coast.

Last week, it was named one of Canada’s top Research Universities of the Year in a national ranking of Canada’s research-intensive universities.

Only universities that place within the top three in their size category have the distinction of being a ‘Research University of the Year’.

UNBC placed third among the 20 small universities.

The ranking is conducted by Research InfoSource and was published in the National Post.

Universities are assessed on a number of criteria related to research funding and research publications.

The 2007 ranking is based on data from the 2005-06 fiscal year.

“The reason for our success is simple: we have the best faculty in the country,” said Don Corzetto, UNBC president.

“They’re connected with numerous industry groups, communities, and government agencies such as Northern Health, to both ensure that the community is part of the research process as well as the dissemination and application of the research results.”

Overall, UNBC has ranked 29th among Canadian universities, placing better than many universities that are much larger and older than UNBC. For example, UNBC placed one point ahead of the University of Regina, which has nearly 13,000 students. UNBC has a little more than 4,000.

In the 2005-06 fiscal year, UNBC attracted nearly $16 million in research funding, a 90 percent increase over the results from the previous year. This large annual increase is due to a number of new developments during 2005-06: research funding for the new National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health, the acquisition of state-of-the-art forestry research equipment to assess fibre quality, the expansion of UNBC’s high-performance computing centre, and the addition of health research equipment.

Work on the North Coast in recent years included research by Dr. Laurie Chan, B. C. Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health, on a dietary survey and risk assessment in Kitkatla in order to determine the potential impact of the sunken Queen of the North ferry on shellfish and seaweed.

Dr. Caroline Butler received a Fulbright award in 2006 to study the effects of fishery policies on fishing enterprises and coastal communities.

Most recently, she participated in the fourth annual Steelhead Symposium, which brought together researchers from across North America to Prince Rupert to discuss the impacts of development of a container port at Fairview Terminal.

The expansion of research at UNBC relates to the growth in graduate students at the University. About 14 percent of UNBC students are pursuing Master’s or doctoral degrees and they are vital to the research process.

Outstanding leadership award given to Northwest Education Administrator

Northwest Community College President Stephanie Forsyth, has been honoured with the “Today’s Woman in Leadership’ award for 2007, sponsored by Dean Mason & Company Chartered Accountants the award is designed to recognize outstanding women from across Northern British Columbia.

Ms. Forsythe, who watches over the entire Northwest Community college system from her base in Terrace, was recognized for a number of initiatives that she has launched during her time at the helm of the College.

The Daily News featured some background the awards and on her accomplishments as part of the Friday paper.

College president is singled out for top accolade
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, October 12, 2007
Pages one and three

It is always a testament to the talent and expertise harboured within our community when professionals in Prince Rupert are given recognition for their achievements.

Such is the case for Northwest Community College President Stephanie Forsyth, who has been awarded the 'Today's Woman in Leadership' award through the Today's Woman Awards program.

Put on by Dean Mason & Company Chartered Accountants, the program is held annually in Prince George and was founded to recognize exceptional women from across Northern British Columbia.

"I was really honoured to win, there were a number of really great candidates," said Forsyth.
"So I felt quite honoured to be the one that they ultimately chose."

The Leadership award is given to a woman who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in her field or organization, and taken advantage of strategic growth opportunities for the organization and people, including expansion, mentorship, advancement and development.

Forsyth has been at the head of numerous programs that have benefitted the college and the people in surrounding communities, and it was for some of those that she was originally nominated. She helped establish the Freida Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art, which is the first of its kind in Canada.

"The school was started to recognize the legacy of Frieda Diesing and to help in the revitalization and reclamation of art in the Northwest," said Forsyth.

"It's been a fairly significant initiative, and though it's based in Terrace, it has partnerships in New Zealand and Australia, with students and artists going on exchange programs back and forth."

Forsyth was also responsible for starting up the school of exploration and mining in 2005. It includes a program that provides mining knowledge and education training for people in the North. The school is run in partnership with the Smithers Exploration Group and with funding from the Ministry of Energy and Mines and has been a hugely successful program for providing people in Northwest communities with employment opportunities, particularly the Aboriginal students who make up 70 per cent of students in the program.

"It's been great, because as mining and exploration has opened the economy, we were concerned we wouldn't see the employment opportunities going to our Aboriginal communities, which really need a boost," said Forsyth. "But it has been a great success for that."

In addition to her long list of recent accomplishments, Forsyth was to be the first speaker at a NWCC-organized conference that began Thursday and continued today in Terrace entitled Challenging the Paradigm: Decolonizing Post-Secondary Education.

Yesterday, she gave an opening talk that set the tone of the conference, before other keynote speakers presented and attendees were then given the opportunity to explore and engage in workshops that challenge the current post-secondary education paradigm.

"It's a really important meeting to discuss the challenges that post-secondary institutions face in becoming more receptive to Aboriginal students. It's pretty well-known that Aboriginal students have not been succeeding at a pace that is really acceptable," said Forsyth.

"We're trying to be honest about the severe impact that colonization has had on these individuals, and what we should be doing in post-secondary education to address those issues."