Our Community

Dear Colleagues and Learners:

I would like to start off this week’s communiqué with a note of thanks for your ongoing patience this past month as we implemented the College’s new Mandatory Vaccination Policy for the start of the 2021 Fall Term. Support for the use of the Algonquin Mobile Safety App to submit vaccine status information has been incredible, with over 11,500 applications submitted by College community members. Of these submissions, 92% are fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19.

The month of October lies ahead and features three crucial deadlines related to our policy:

• October 12: Those choosing to be unvaccinated by personal choice will not be permitted access to the campus after this date – unless they have been approved for an exemption (details on this process can be found here).
• October 16: For those pursuing vaccination, this is the latest date you can receive your last shot in order to meet the College’s October 30 deadline for full vaccination. (Once you receive your last dose, you must re-submit your proof of vaccination via our AC Mobile Safety App or web portal).
• October 30: This is the date complete vaccination is required – meaning you have received your last dose and have waited the requisite 14 days to be considered fully vaccinated. If you have not received your last dose – and undergone the 14-day waiting period by this point – you will not be allowed entry to the campus.

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Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Community Services Award Recipient Crystal Martin-Lapenskie. To register for the Alumni of Distinction event, click here.

President and CEO, Okpik Consulting

Social Service Worker, Class of 2013

When Crystal Martin-Lapenskie was first pondering her choice of career, social work wasn’t the first option on her mind. Her early goal was police work. Her family knew and were friends with many RCMP officers and when she expressed interest in pursuing similar work, the officers were very encouraging. “They’d say, ‘You want to be a cop, you can be a cop right here in your community,’” she says.

But life intervened in the person of her guidance counsellor at Opeongo High School near Pembroke, who reminded her that in order to graduate from Grade 12 she would have to complete 40 hours of community service. It so happened that she was heading home for a time: “I wanted to explore. I wanted to see family, reconnect and see where it was I belonged.”

Born and raised in Sanirajak in Nunavut, Martin-Lapenskie divided her time between the North and the Ottawa Valley through her teenage years. On this trip to the Arctic, she used the opportunity to do her community hours in a local school. She functioned as a teacher’s assistant, working with students her own age who were – because of differences in education in the North – in much lower grades. She helped with their schoolwork and volunteered at a hockey camp. What she learned in the process was both distressing and inspiring.

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When Amy Ayers graduated from Perth Campus’ Personal Support Work program in 2018, she had no idea she would soon find herself on the front lines of a raging pandemic. As a Personal Support Worker in an Almonte long-term care home that was one of the first in Ontario to suffer a widespread, deadly outbreak of COVID-19, Ayers played a critical role in the battle against the virus.

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