Heather Latter
With another school year underway at the local Confederation College campus, enrolment remains similar to that of last year.
“It’s holding steady, about 100 full-time post-secondary students,” noted campus director Anne Renaud.
She feels enrolment is remaining strong due to the Bachelor of Science and Nursing program, which started up this year in collaboration with Lakehead University, as well as the continuation of the “School Within A College” program again this year.
“[It] is in collaboration with the Rainy River District School Board for students that have not graduated from high school [but] want to take college courses and earn high school credits at the same time,” Renaud explained.
In addition to the full-time students, there also are part-time students and others who are taking shorter programs or workshops.
As well, Renaud said the local campus has an international student enrolled in the paramedic program—only the second time one has been enrolled here.
“And we have three other students who are from southern Ontario in the paramedic program, as well,” she noted.
“It’s hard to get into those programs in a lot of other colleges or campuses, so students are willing to travel to those,” Renaud explained.
At a smaller campus like Fort Frances, there aren’t as many students applying, so it can be a little easier to get accepted into those types of programs.
“We typically get at least two or three from out-of-town for the paramedic program,” Renaud said.
“So maybe our future will have more and more international students.”
In fact, Renaud said she was speaking with the director of the International Program at Confederation College.
“Our number of international students in Thunder Bay has multiplied exponentially in the last few years,” she noted.
“She asked if we’d have seats for international students in the paramedic and the practical nursing programs that we offer here.”
Renaud said yes, but also added they want to make sure they put the right supports in place.
“But we’re willing to do that,” she stressed. “It might be an area of growth for us.”
Still, Renaud admitted accepting international students can have its challenges.
“They have to have an offer before they can apply for a visa,” she explained. “So typically, if you send out 10 offers, you’ll end up with one student who is able to come because of visa, financial, and other things.
“And sometimes you don’t know until they arrive,” she added. “But we are willing to be flexible.
“It helps our programs and helps us offer more variety of programs if we have more students,” she reasoned.
Meanwhile, returning students here might notice a new face around campus.
The position of a campus manager was created to allow Renaud to take on more responsibilities with distance education.
Noreen Bourgeois said she is looking forward to her new role.
“It’s exciting for me,” she enthused, noting she had a similar position years ago.
“But I’ve been a faculty member for the past seven years and the general education electives co-ordinator,” Bourgeois added.
“In that job, I was dealing with students and teaching classes in Thunder Bay.”
She’s also done lots of online development previously for Lakehead University, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the Ontario government.
“I’ve also done a lot of work with curriculum at the college on academic council and prior learning assessment, so I’m familiar with all the programs,” Bourgeois said.
“It’s sort of all coming together,” she added. “It’s a good opportunity.”
Having lived in small towns on the north shore of Lake Superior, Bourgeois sees Fort Frances as a “big” town.
“I’m very much enjoying the people, the river, the lake,” she remarked. “It’s just been great.”
While Bourgeois will be responsible for the day-to-day work with students, instructors, and dealing with the campus itself, Renaud will remain in her position as campus director.
But she also will be doing more work with distance education.
“With the distance education department, we have a huge number of programs and students all over Ontario, mostly in Northern Ontario, but we’re getting more and more through southern Ontario,” Renaud noted.
She’ll also be overseeing the co-ordination of the regional integrated plan.
“Then, of course, we have a new agreement with the six northern colleges to work together,” Renaud said.
“We’re going to be sharing more programs with those other northern colleges and part of it is going to be through distance, which we’re very much used to in the region—that’s what we do.
“So I will be on that team to assist with that,” she explained.
Renaud will continue to be based in Fort Frances and has staff from distance education report to her here.
“That’s the first time anyone from Thunder Bay has reported to a manger in the region,” she said.
“We often have it the other way so that was interesting.
“I do video conferences with the staff and will go to Thunder Bay, as well,” Renaud added.
“But it works really well.”
