Like 2020, the year 2021 was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on everyday life. The pandemic leads our year in review at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Waterfront Campus as we reflect on the past 12 months and how our students and employees demonstrated resiliency and worked to help others in need.
The hopes that came with a vaccination to protect people from the virus also required a huge volunteer effort to operate vaccination clinics. Several Pembroke Campus employees and students volunteered their time at the largest clinic in Renfrew County which operated for several months during the spring and summer of 2021 at the Pembroke Memorial Centre.
The vaccines permitted more activity to be held on campus when the Fall term began, but to protect the campus community, the College introduced a mandatory vaccination policy for anyone coming on campus. Daily screening, mask wearing and physical distancing was also required as the College reduced lab sizes and put in additional safety mitigation practices within programs.
For the second year in a row, the College opted to hold a virtual convocation ceremony. One of the highlights of the Pembroke Campus ceremony was the awarding of an Honorary Degree to Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. Keefe spent many years in Pembroke as he started his coaching career with the Junior A Lumber Kings and was a donor to the Waterfront Campus building fund and a bursary set up to support students in financial need.
Photo Source: Maple Leaf Daily News
The Pembroke Campus also celebrated when two of its graduates from the Social Service Worker program, Tom Sidney and Crystal Martin-Lapenskie, were recognized for their career accomplishments when they received an Alumni of Distinction award from the college. Martin-Lapenskie was also nominated for a Premier’s award for her work supporting Inuit youth across Canada, work that included recording a national public service announcement encouraging Inuit to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
Another alumnus was also making us proud. After a year off because of the coronavirus, country recording artist and Business graduate Jason Blaine returned to his hometown of Pembroke to host a revised one-day charity concert and golf tournament. The event was a huge success as it raised $80,000 for special projects and community organizations in the Pembroke area. $10,000 of the funds raised was donated to Blaine’s endowment fund at the Pembroke Campus which supports students who need bursaries to support their educational investment.
While the pandemic created many challenges, there were also some new opportunities that helped the College broaden its community outreach. The Pembroke Campus had been hosting a speaker series for more than 20 years, but the pandemic forced the campus to move from in-person to virtual presentations. With no travel requirements for speakers, the campus was able to attract some high profile personalities including His Honour Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former CBC The National Anchor Peter Mansbridge, Author and Historian Charlotte Gray and Ron MacLean and Tara Slone of Hockey Night in Canada and Rogers Hometown Hockey which paid a visit to Pembroke in December.
The campus was able to support the Forestry sector through a large government investment of almost $5-million to help the industry attract new workers and train its existing workforce. The Forestry Skills Advance Ontario project was announced in the spring and resulted in several blocks of training being made available to mills and wood manufacturing facilities across the region.
Partnerships were a big part of 2021 for the Pembroke Campus as the College worked with organizations such as the Renfrew County District School Board to offer special dual credit and Ontario Youth Apprenticeship programs that gave high school students a chance to come on campus to experience the skilled trades. A special summer trades camp was offered that gave students a chance to test drive careers in trades such as carpentry and welding.
Forestry students also helped plant 30,000 trees in Algonquin Park and the Nipissing Forest. The project was sponsored by the Ontario Woodlot Association, the Canadian Institute of Forestry, Friends of the Petawawa Research Forest, Nipissing Forest Management Inc., and the Algonquin Forestry Authority, all important partners to the College’s long-standing Forestry Technician program. As a thank you to the students, a $5,000 donation was made to the College in support of its Forestry program.
The College continued to expand its programming in 2021 with the launch of the Environmental Management and Assessment post-graduate certificate program which began in January. The program proved to be very population with both Canadian and international students. The campus also announced it would have a first intake for a Computer Programming program in January of 2022.
In April, the campus was able to expand its Employment Ontario footprint in Renfrew County when it began offering Employment Services support to unemployed or underemployed individuals in the Eganville and Barry’s Bay areas. The College’s Academic Upgrading program continued to offer most of its programming remotely, creating new opportunities for learners to access the program.
We have only highlighted a few of the many things that were happening at the Pembroke Campus in 2021. We look forward to creating more memories in 2022. Happy New Year to everyone from all of us at Algonquin College’s Pembroke Waterfront Campus.
