Some students hope to graduate this year with a high-school diploma, also known as the Dogwood in BC, but they will not be attending Brooks Secondary School. They’ll be completing a program called Connect-Ed.
The School District 47 program is free and run out of Vancouver Island University’s Powell River campus.
“It is to support ‘older than high school’ students to complete their diplomas and to make a transition into the post-secondary world,” said Connect-Ed teacher James Hanson.
Hanson is the only staff member at Connect-Ed, teaching students who are 17 years old and older.
“I have a couple of students who just can’t do Brooks, and they just can’t do home-schooling,” said Hanson, who has worked in alternate education for 10 years. “I’m used to working with people who are not successful in the regular classroom so I build programs they can be successful at.”
According to Hanson, when students come to see him, he is able to almost custom design courses.
“I can set up people with work experience. I have math and different English courses available,” he said. “I’ve built other courses like psychology, law, marketing, computer science and things people are interested in.”
Joy Brown is enrolled in Connect-Ed because she wants to finally complete her grade 12. According to Brown, the diploma will allow her to go for future training and career improvement.
“Believe it or not, most people in my family don’t have grade 12,” said the 54 year old. “I love to learn. I love to know things and with not getting my grade 12, I didn’t feel like I was complete.”
On Monday, September 12, Connect-Ed is starting its second full year of supporting adult learners in Powell River. Classes are Mondays or Thursdays between 11 am-5 pm at the university campus.
According to Hanson, he had 65 enrolled students, ranging in age from 18 to 64. Five of those graduated with their diplomas.
“I have a rollover of about 55 students from last year,” he said. “I don’t take students off my enrolment at the end of the year. This is just a continuous enrolment, so I’ll load up people with homework over the summer, if they choose to have it, and then they just come back to me and we carry on in September.”
