Polytechnic hosts fall open house

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 7, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Prospective students take part of the first Lethbridge Polytechnic Fall Open House Wednesday at the institution's centre core.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge Polytechnic opened its doors to prospective students during their Fall Open House Wednesday with a variety of programs showcased across campus.

Tom Virag, student recruiter team lead talked to media about the importance of hosting an open house and give prospect students an opportunity to experience what the institution has to offer.

“Today is the first open house under the Lethbridge Polytechnic umbrella for us, which is a very exciting time. We are running our regular promotions, 50 per cent off application fees if the student is here,” said Virag.

He said they had 400 prospective students registered to attend and those who applied while on campus could do so in one of computer labs with advising and admissions in attendance to help troubleshoot.

“We also have our wonderful VR setups to try out, we’re doing info sessions, free culinary samples from culinary students. All of our programs and our service areas are here represented to make sure the students have the most up-to-date information about our Polytechnic,” said Virag

He said by visiting Lethbridge Polytechnic during the open house those in attendance had an opportunity to not only speak with experts in multiple fields but also to experience hands-on what the programs have to offer.

“Our biggest selling point is definitely the small campus compared to big institutions. We are a very relaxed small campus with small class sizes. A lot more personal experiences as far as the students are concerned,” said Virag

He said this makes it easy for instructors to remember their students years after they have graduated.

“We like to like to remind everyone that we will remember you 10 years down the road. I graduated in 2010, I came back to work in 2017 and all of the instructors that still taught here still remembered me by name,” said Virag.

One of the programs taking part of the Open House was Environmental Sciences which includes three diplomas for natural resource compliance, renewable resource management and environmental assessment and restoration. They were offering students an opportunity to join their club called LPSA Ecological Restoration regardless of the program they enrolled.

“There are a variety of different clubs, but the Ducks Unlimited and the Wildlife Society are kind of more geared towards the wildlife stream and the conservation stream, so we haven’t really had anything that’s mostly focused on plants, habitat restoration and reclamation for the environmental assessment and restoration,” said Kelsey Beadell secretary of the club.

She said they are focused on volunteer events that revolve around habitat reclamation and some of their past events include the Sage Seed Harvest and the Whitebark Pine Tree Planting.

“For the sage seed harvest we work with the Orphan Wells Association and Jorgensen Land Management cleaning up these decommissioned oil and gas sites so that they can start restoring the population for the greater sage grouse in Alberta,” said Beadell.

She said they have already started to see a recovery of the species in the area because they live in the deep South of Alberta.

“We are encouraging our club members to get involved, to go out into nature, to really start connecting with it, because then these opportunities make it all the more special,” said Beadell.