OCNews

Articles tagged "Kelowna"

Emil Anderson group photo
Bridging the way to success: Emil Anderson Construction gives $75,000 to modernize Okanagan College’s Civil Engineering Technology Program

April 17, 2023

If you walk past Okanagan College’s Kelowna campus on a weekday afternoon, you’re sure to see Civil Engineering Technology students spread out across the grounds, gathering environmental data using surveying equipment. This skill is essential to their education and will one day help them shape our built environments. Thanks to a generous $75,000 gift from Emil Anderson Construction, students will have increased access to state-of-the-art surveying equipment to train on by fall of 2023. “We are proud to support Okanagan College’s Civil Engin...

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Connie Denesiuk
OC Foundation chair’s book launch supports students in need

March 27, 2023

Honouring the past and supporting the future: Connie Denesiuk’s new book has ambitious goals. The Chair of the Okanagan College Foundation Board is launching a book next month about a story close to her heart, with the hope it will benefit the community around her. ‘Til Papa Returns; Surviving as a child refugee in WWII is the true story of Alfred Columbus, the youngest of eight children and father to Denesiuk. Alfred was learning how to farm the land their family had worked for more than 200 years, following advice and guidance from his ...

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Spaghetti Bridge 2023
Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest serves up fun and learning at OC

March 3, 2023

Friday marked a triumphant return for a popular pasta-themed community event at Okanagan College, as the 38th annual Spaghetti Bridge Building Competition brought loads of fun and friendly competition to a boil. More than 250 students from elementary through post-secondary converged on OC’s Kelowna campus on Mar. 3, to see whose spaghetti bridge would reign supreme. In addition to furthering their knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), participants of the contest – back for the first time since pre-pandemic – also c...

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Red Dot Players
OC’s Red Dot Players present The Beast of Blackthorn Manor

March 1, 2023

Spring may be in like a lion out like a lamb, but a different beast is on the prowl at Okanagan College this month, courtesy of OC’s theatre troupe. The Red Dot Players are excited to present the premiere production of The Beast of Blackthorn Manor, a new comedy by Okanagan College English professor Jeremy Beaulne. The plot promises to delight fans of gothic literature and those new to the genre: When she accepts a position at Blackthorn Manor, an isolated manor house in the Yorkshire moors, governess Charlotte Vole has no idea that she is ...

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Taylor Hubick
Plasma donor drive campaign boosts OC nursing student with $3,000 bursary

February 22, 2023

Okanagan College nursing student Taylor Hubick learned a valuable lesson this year: persistence with plasma donation pays off. Hubick is the recipient of the Canadian Blood Services bursary of $3,000 for her studies in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, for recruiting 23 plasma donors between May and October last year. Hubick says she originally got recruited to donate by a friend who was studying on Vancouver Island. “She pulled out of the challenge because she was going travelling, and that’s when I realized I should do th...

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Sustainable Development Challenge
College students mentoring high school peers for Sustainable Development Challenge

February 17, 2023

It’s students helping students tackle the biggest issues of our time. Okanagan College (OC) students have joined forces with youth leaders in Grades 8 to 12 in the Central Okanagan to provide mentorship on projects that will impact the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The high school teams are preparing for a local Sustainable Development Challenge event, inspired by the UN initiative, and are able to bounce their ideas and projects off OC students prior to the challenge finale later this month. VIDEO: OC students su...

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Spaghetti Bridge
OC’s Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest set to return for 38th year this spring

February 13, 2023

Spaghetti is back on the menu at Okanagan College this spring. A fixture on the spring calendar in the Okanagan for nearly four decades, the College’s popular Spaghetti Bridge Building Contest will return this March for the first time since 2020. OC will host the 38th annual contest on Friday, March 3 at the Kelowna campus. Organizers are putting the call out to teachers and students from elementary through post-secondary to participate. Students can enter the following competitions: Elementary School Students: Elementary School Demonstra...

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Business Expo and Employment Fair
Okanagan College’s 15th annual Business Expo and Employment Fair returns on Feb. 1

January 18, 2023

For those on the hunt for a new job – or wondering about the educational pathway to kickstart a career change – one of Okanagan College’s most popular community events is back and bigger than ever in 2022. OC’s Business Expo & Employment Fair will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Centre for Learning (E Building) Atrium and in the Trades (T Building) Atrium at the Kelowna Campus, 1000 KLO Rd. The Expo is presented by the College’s School of Business, in collaboration with OC’s Trades and Apprenticeship and t...

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Executive Chef Ruth Wigman
Former ‘Top Chef’ takes the reins at Okanagan College’s Infusions restaurant

January 17, 2023

Fans of Canada’s Top Chef will recognize the name of the new Executive Chef at Infusions. Ruth Wigman, whose 20-year career has taken her coast to coast, brings a fresh and exciting perspective to the restaurant at Okanagan College staffed by Culinary Arts students. Wigman, who was a contestant on the Food Network’s Canada’s Top Chef program in 2014, most recently worked as the executive sous-chef at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport for over three years. Before that, she worked at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and the Fairmount Southampton i...

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Vernon Awards
Okanagan College Foundation distributes over $450,000 in student awards in under two weeks

December 6, 2022

The holiday spirit came early for Okanagan College students who were the recipients of 426 bursary, scholarship and awards this past month, which totalled over $450,000. Students also had the chance to meet the donors who support the bursaries, scholarships and awards at receptions held at each of Okanagan College’s Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton campuses in November. Each event included an Indigenous welcome, student and donor speakers and most significantly, time for all invited guests to connect and celebrate a shared commitment to ongoi...

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Hospitality Professional Program
Partnership helping to fill staffing gaps in hospitality and tourism industry

December 1, 2022

Like many industries, the hospitality and tourism sector has been hard hit by staff shortages over the past few years with a declining youth population and an aging workforce combining to create significant challenges. But a new program designed in partnership by Okanagan College (OC) and the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) will help to reduce those shortages. The first of four new cohorts of students enrolled in the Hospitality Professional Program this fall, a flexible program open to students anywhere in the Thompson-Okana...

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Grid of images from OC campuses, clockwise from top left: Penticton, Vernon, Kelowna and Salmon Arm
Alumni engagement poll

November 21, 2022

The Okanagan College Alumni Association invites alumni to participate in a quick poll. It will help assess the current state of alumni engagement at Okanagan College and establish a baseline for future tracking. OCAA is hoping to engage current OC employees who are also alumni, who may not receive messages. The survey should take approximately 2-4 minutes. To ensure confidentiality, your responses to this survey will be anonymized and combined with those of other respondents. Complete the survey by Tuesday, Dec. 6. To participate, please c...

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Webster Trophy recipient
Okanagan College student named Canada’s Top General Aviation Pilot

November 18, 2022

Okanagan College (OC) student Harmeet Garg is at his happiest when he is in the air flying. And it shows – an international student from Bathinda, India, Harmeet achieved national recognition when he won the prestigious Webster Trophy as Canada’s Top General Aviation Pilot earlier this year. “This award is motivation to work even harder towards my career and achieve higher feats,” said Harmeet. “As I am nearing graduation from OC, I’m looking towards future job opportunities in aviation and the specific line of flying I want to go into. The...

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Second Slumber representatives standing on a stage during Dragon's Den screening.
Local company partners with OC for Dragons’ Den viewing party

October 24, 2022

Okanagan College and Kelowna company Second Slumber have partnered to host a fundraiser and viewing party when Second Slumber appears on the popular CBC TV show Dragons’ Den on Nov. 3. Earlier this year, Second Slumber pitched its innovative business model to Dragons’ Den, looking for a funding partner to scale up its business, which re-purposes and re-sells lightly used mattresses, providing them at affordable rates and keeping them out of landfills. The company features former Okanagan College professor Rick Maddison and several OC studen...

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Salmon Arm Open House
Fall Open House and Info Sessions return at Okanagan College

October 14, 2022

High school students, parents and people of all ages considering post-secondary education – mark your calendars. Okanagan College is opening its doors this fall for a series of Open Houses and Spotlight Sessions across the region, the first of which is happening at OC’s Salmon Arm campus on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Events will then follow: Open House and Spotlight Sessions in Penticton on Wednesday, Oct. 26 First Year FAQs in Vernon on Oct. 26 and Open House and Spotlight Sessions on Wednesday, Nov. 2 Open House in Kelowna on Saturday, Nov. 19 “We...

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Chef Rob Walker in the OC Kitchen
Meet Chef Rob Walker

October 12, 2022

Q: What is your name? A: Chef Robert Walker Q: What did you take at OC/OUC? What years did you attend? What campus did you attend? A: I graduate from the Culinary Arts Certificate program at Okanagan University College in 2001. Q: Why did you choose your program at OC? A: I grew up in the Kootenays not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life. But I always loved food. In the back of my head was this question, “How do I become a chef?” I had my eye on the Okanagan Valley so ...

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