Samantha came for the head start. Bethany came for the fun. Both walked away feeling they'd achieved their goals and then some.
Now entering its seventh year, Olds College Success Skills Week has developed a reputation for providing incoming Olds College students with the skills, connections and confidence required to not just familiarize themselves with post-secondary expectations, but to master them.
The five-day event focuses on empowering students: putting them in the driver's seat, making them realize that they are the ones in control of their futures.
Students who have attended say it's done a lot for them.
“(It's) good people, new connections. Lots of fun,” says Bethany Stavinga, a 21-year-old who moved to Olds from Selkirk, Ont.
“It (College Success Skills) gave me a chance to familiarize myself with the campus, move in early to residence, get to know many of the people who later came through for me later as contacts.
“It made everything so much easier for when my classes actually started,” the 2014 attendee says. “After that one week of preparation, I was ready to go.”
Samantha Peesker entered the 2015 program with a slightly different objective.
“I'd been out of school for a couple of years,” the 24-year-old Yorkton, Sask. native says.
Peesker says she looked at the week as a way to get back on sure footing academically; to rise to the occasion after being out of the post-secondary system for a while.
She describes it as “a great reintroduction.”
“College Success Skills Week gave me just what I needed,” Peesker says. “It made me feel so much more comfortable re-embarking on this important new journey than I would have if I hadn't taken it.”
College Success Skills Week runs from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2. Tuition is $282 and students can have their meals and accommodations provided by Student Housing. Students can register online at oldscollege.ca/collegesuccess or by contacting Brendan Richardson at 403-507-7744 or by email at [email protected].
- Richardson runs the Learning Centre at Olds College.
"College Success Skills Week gave me just what I needed."SAMANTHA PEESKERSTUDENTOLDS COLLEGE
