It is a time for honouring past accomplishment and for new challenges. This week Vancouver Island University (VIU) students are walking across the graduation stage and it is a time of transition, joy and celebration.
More than 100 Powell River VIU students will receive their certificates and awards at this year’s Awards and Graduation Ceremony held Thursday, May 30, at Brooks Secondary School’s Max Cameron Theatre.
Powell River campus principal Arlette Raaen will host the event as master of ceremonies and will welcome Dr. Elsie Paul, VIU Powell River’s Elder in Residence, to give a blessing for the ceremony. Health and Human Services Dean Carol Stuart will attend and bring a welcome from the university.
Having Stuart attend the ceremony is “a highlight,” said Raaen. “This year we have a lot more graduates in human services than usual.”
Thirty-four students taking health and human services programs will graduate this year in the diploma in disability studies, school and community support worker and health care assistant programs.
These programs are offered on a rotational basis so some years there are more graduates than others, Raaen explained.
Graduates from dual credit trades programs in automotive, welding, carpentry, culinary arts, hairdressing, and business computer applications, as well as students in the Women in Trades program, will also be receiving their certificates. The dual credit programs are provided through Brooks and VIU.
Raaen said she always enjoys seeing family and friends attend the event to support the graduates. “It’s always really heartwarming,” she said. “You can tell it means a lot. It’s a little less formal than a convocation. We try to keep it fun and light.”
An important part of the ceremony is awarding scholarships and bursaries to recognize student achievement. Over 10 different awards will be given out to students at the ceremony, some specialized for particular programs like the Top Dual Credit Student award and others open to students in all programs like the Dr. Pat Ross Campus Life Award.
Level one welding student Heather Wall and dual credit automotive student Brett Massullo, 17, are two of eight students receiving the VIU Graduation award this year. The award is presented to top students graduating from certificate programs based on their academic and practical achievement. Brett is also receiving the Top Dual Credit Student award.
“He’s a dream student,” said automotive instructor Ron DePape. “He has the aptitude and the inclination. There’s no doubt he’s going to go into the trade.”
DePape described his student as being reliable, quiet and hard-working. “He’s our top student in class,” he said.
Before Brett joined the program in February he enjoyed taking engines apart and fixing his jeep and quad. Once he finishes the automotive program in June, the next step for him is to transfer his mechanical skills to a heavy duty mechanics program in September.
He takes his academic classes in the morning and at about 10:30 am he goes to the automotive shop to work on customers’ vehicles. “Whatever is out there that needs to be done,” said Brett. When not working in the shop, students work their way through their two-inch thick textbook.
Brett said that he enjoys the challenge of diagnosing what’s wrong and rebuilding engines.
Although he is pleased to be finishing grade 12, he still has four more years of technical training and his apprenticeship ahead of him. “It’s a stepping stone,” he said. “I’m not there yet.”
Like Brett, Wall is also considered a top student and will be taking her experiences and knowledge and applying them to the next step in her journey.
Wall, who has a background in graphic arts and design, started welding as a mature student in September 2012. Since completing her C-level welding certificate in April, she has decided to look at becoming a certified level one welding inspector. “With that I could attain pretty good employment,” she said.
Welding is nothing new for Wall; both her father and brother work as fabricators and she grew up with it.
Wall said VIU’s welding program really exceeded her expectations and any concerns she had about going back to school and taking exams quickly disappeared.
“I understood what welding was about,” she said, “but it’s not until you have the stick in your hand and you strike an arc [that you] really know what it’s like. Every time I strike an arc and I’m looking at the pool I think, ‘wow, I’m melting the metal.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever tire of that.”
Along the way she also started creating metal sculptures of creatures, and these sculptures have started to catch the community’s attention. Her second sculpture, Fathead, is a shark-like creature built with metal washers, bicycle chain rings and disk brake parts. It stands almost as tall as the artist. Wall said she is drawn to tall art.
“I’m envisioning 20-foot tall sculptures in front of skyscrapers,” she said. “These were kind of testers to try it out. I’m going to need a hoist and a really tall ceiling.”
While students like Brett and Wall are walking across the stage to graduate, a whole other group of students, despite finishing their programs, will not. These are the students who took classes in Adult Basic Education (ABE) and university transfer.
“The students that graduate each year are just a fraction of the students who participate in post-secondary in Powell River,” said Raaen.
She speaks of students like Jane Phensphonsy. She has been studying at VIU to improve her English and complete university prerequisites since 2009. She is currently working on finishing English 12 and has applied to VIU’s nursing program for September.
Phensphonsy and her family moved to Canada in 2007 from Laos. “English was totally new for me,” she said. “VIU is a great place to learn. The instructors were great and it was easy and fun to be there.”
VIU’s Awards and Graduation Ceremony will begin at 6:15 pm. A graduate mix and mingle is planned from 5 to 6 pm. The event is open to the public.
“We’d love to see the whole community come out,” said Raaen.
