Connect with us

Local Education

RDC’s Donald School of Business leaving downtown to return to main campus

Published

5 minute read

From RDC Communications

RDC announces changes to its downtown campus as it looks to the future

New opportunities will support students and businesses

As RDC plans for the future and grows learning opportunities for all students, the Donald School of Business will move from its current downtown location in the Millennium Centre back to RDC’s main campus. This move will take place in January 2021.

In 2011, Red Deer College’s downtown campus in the Millennium Centre first opened. RDC has achieved great success there, with faculty creating unique learning experiences for our students and valuable connections with our local business community. These same successes will continue to thrive as we move the Donald School of Business back to main campus. RDC’s Donald School of Business is expecting almost 900 students to attend classes in the School’s nine programs during the upcoming 2020/2021 academic year.

“The reputation we’ve grown, and the core principles we’ve created within the Donald School of Business are embedded in our everyday fabric as a post-secondary institution. As we consider our future as Red Deer University, we are excited to provide all our students with increasing opportunities to engage with our local business community and prepare for successful careers. We anticipate this will be one of the areas that we’ll continue to grow in creating a signature RDU student experience,” says Dr. Peter Nunoda, RDC President.

The relationships that the College has built through its downtown campus with business leaders and organizations, and the entrepreneurial spirit at the core of RDC’s Donald School of Business, will open doors to new experiences for all RDC students. The College’s main campus is uniquely situated in our city and region to serve its students, and to allow the ability to grow connections with members of the business community, wherever they are housed, whether it be downtown, industrial parks, or in surrounding communities.

Through practicum and work integrated learning opportunities, guest speakers, seminars and workshops, and other mentorship opportunities, these are meaningful learning experiences that will grow on RDC’s main campus for all students. Synergy between students, instructors and the business community will continue to grow in unique teaching and learning spaces such as RDC’s Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing and Alternative Energy Lab, achieving practical solutions to real-world problems that will positively impact our communities.

Red Deer College’s connection with, and support of, the heart of this city will remain strong. At our downtown campus, the College will leverage and grow the strong relationships we’ve already built as we continue our commitment to meet the needs of our diverse group of learners with an equally diverse range of programs and services.

Examples of serving these varied opportunities include providing customized corporate and executive training solutions and seminars, guest speakers, professional development opportunities, and more, for adult learners and businesses through RDC’s School of Continuing Education. Many of these individuals also provide meaningful mentorship and real-world experiences for students in the College’s other programs.

As another opportunity, RDC’s English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, offered through the School of Continuing Education, will now be centrally located close to organizations such as Central Alberta Refugee Effort (CARE) and Catholic Social Services, to better meet the needs of ESL learners as they access learning and essential community resources.

Housing these types of lifelong learning opportunities at a downtown campus is something that is often seen within the post-secondary sector, and so the College believes this will fit well as the institution continues to serve all central Albertans.

Students in all RDC programs will always be welcome at the downtown campus, using this space for seminars, mentorship engagement and other possibilities yet to be imagined, continuing to create robust connections between students and with community members.

“Through the shifts we are making in where our programming is housed now, we are building for an exciting future as a polytechnic university. We will continue to instill an entrepreneurial spirit within all of our students, create meaningful connections with our business community, and innovate to serve our region with practical solutions in a variety of sectors that contribute to the economic well-being of our region,” says Dr. Nunoda.

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

Follow Author

Education

Catholic school board members oust fellow trustee for opposing LGBT agenda, talking to media

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

One of Monique LaGrange’s fellow trustees said she ‘violated the Trustee Code of Conduct by speaking to the media about what the Board did and about gender ideology.’

A Canadian Catholic school trustee opposed to extreme gender ideology and who compared the LGBT agenda targeting kids to that of “brainwashing” Nazi propaganda has been “disqualified” from her position after her fellow board members voted her out because she spoke to alternative media.

On Tuesday, the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) board of directors voted 3-1 to disqualify Trustee Monique LaGrange. As a result of being voted out, LaGrange later resigned from her position.

LaGrange’s lawyer, Alberta-based attorney James Kitchen of Liberty Coalition Canada, told LifeSiteNews that the RDCRS voted to kick her out “pursuant to section 87 of the Education Act (disqualification).”

Kitchen said that one of LaGrange’s fellow trustees “submitted a second complaint that Monique had violated the Trustee Code of Conduct by speaking to the media (specially Laura-Lynn and Talk Truth) about what the Board did and about gender ideology.”

On September 26, the RDCS passed a motion to mandate that LaGrange undergo “LGBTQ+” and holocaust “sensitivity” training for her social media post.

One of her fellow trustees had complained that because she spoke to the media against gender ideology, after she was ordered to undergo the training, she should be “disqualified.”

LaGrange said that her being disqualified shows that “Alberta has an abuse of power happening, beginning at the lowest level of politics,” in comments made to alternative non-legacy media.

She added that she hopes her removal “motivates Albertans to step up and replace these woke boards in our province.”

LaGrange said she will continue to “move forward and defend our families, our children and our freedom.”

LifeSiteNews contacted LaGrange for additional comment and will later provide more information on her ousting.

In a media statement yesterday, the RDCRS said that LaGrange had violated “sanctions issued on September 26, 2023, and further violations of Board Policy and the Education Act.”

“As a result of the disqualification, as per Section 90 of the Education Act, LaGrange resigned from her position this morning. Effective today, Mrs. LaGrange is no longer a member of the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Board of Trustees,” the RDCRS noted.

The RDCS did not specify which sanctions LaGrange had violated.

LaGrange initially came under fire when she posted to social media in September an image showing kids in Nazi Germany waving swastika flags during a parade, with the bottom of the post showing an image of kids waving LGBT “pride” flags along with the text, “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”

After her post went viral, calls for her to step down grew from leftist Alberta politicians and others. This culminated in her removal as director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association (ACSTA).

LaGrange was elected in 2021 and said about being kicked out of the ACSTA that it was “unfortunate that ACSTA decided to make a rash decision to remove me, refusing to acknowledge that the heart of my message was to protect our children and to nourish their God-given identities.”

LaGrange to fight her removal

Kitchen told LifeSiteNews that as far as the next steps for LaGrange, they are looking to have her disqualification reviewed by a court.

They want a “Judicial review application to the Alberta King’s Bench,” Kitchen said.

“We will be doing that here in December,” he said.

“This meme is not comparing or attacking the LGBTQ community, it is about protecting our children and keeping parents as the primary educators,” she added.

There has been growing opposition in Canada to the teaching of radical transgender ideology in schools, which not only impacts children but also those in education who voice their opposition to such teaching.

In recent months, many concerned Canadians have protested LGBT indoctrination in the nation’s schools. In September, thousands from coast to coast participated in the Million Person March.

Extreme leftists trying to push their LGBT agenda in the classrooms has led to the conservative-led governments of Saskatchewan and New Brunswick implementing parental consent policies into law.

Saskatchewan, under Premier Scott Moe, recently passed a new policy protecting parental rights that states parents must be told if their child changes “genders” at school.

Moe followed the example of New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, who was condemned earlier this year by LGBT activists for reviewing the province’s “gender identity” policy that allowed schools to hide students’ “transgender” status from parents.

Under the new policy, teachers need parental consent to use different names or pronouns for students younger than 16.

At its recent AGM, members of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) under leader Danielle Smith passed a host of resolutions calling for parental rights to be protected.

Smith told 3,800 UCP members that she unequivocally defends parental rights, saying society depends on “strong and nurturing families” and parents are the “primary caregivers and educators” of their children.

Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader and MP Pierre Poilievre recently blasted what he called “radical gender ideology” targeting kids in public schools.

While LGBT activists have gone after the likes of Higgs and Moe for their slight pushback against gender ideology, a recent Leger poll has shown that Canadians in general favor parental rights in education, especially regarding the material being shared with children.

Continue Reading

Education

Jessica Snyder honoured as 2021 Gateway Christian School Valedictorian

Published on

Gateway Valedictorian to become a teacher to make a difference

Following in her mother’s footsteps after seeing the difference she has made in the lives of students is Jessica Snyder’s goal in becoming a teacher after she graduates from Gateway Christian School this month.

Jessica has been named the Gateway’s valedictorian this year. Graduation ceremonies will take place June 29 at Canyon Ski Resort.

“I was so excited to learn I was named valedictorian. I was so happy!” said Jessica. “It’s such a huge honour that I get to address my class and congratulate them.”

She added being named valedictorian has been a goal of hers since middle school.

“It took a lot of hard work and I had to be very dedicated to my work. It took a lot of strength especially through COVID,” said Jessica. “My family and friends really helped me to keep going and keep learning. It’s all a learning experience, so that was a motivator to me – the more I devoted myself to my work, the more I learned.”

Completing high school in a global pandemic has presented a number of challenges, but Jessica didn’t let that stop her from achieving her goals.

“It has been hard. The biggest thing that has helped me this year has been the support of my family and the Lord too – just praying for the strength to get through it and find the best path for me and my family to navigate this,” she said. “Having that steady anchor of my family and the Lord has definitely helped me keep committed and keep going.”

Looking back at her time in school, Jessica said there were many highlights, but it’s the small moments that stand out to her the most.

“Most people like to remember the big things that happen like school trips, which were so much fun. But I think the real moments where I bonded with my class were the small moments like sitting and playing Uno at lunch, and if it’s a hot day outside, we go and play at the park. It’s those small moments which meant the most to me.”

As for her future, Jessica will attend Red Deer College next year as she has been accepted to the Bachelor of Education program.

“I am going to go with the secondary route, which means I will be teaching in the higher grades,” she said. “My mom is a teacher, so I have taken after that just seeing the impact she has had on students’ lives. Growing up in a family with a teacher has definitely helped shape my life, so I think it would be great for me to follow in her path and make it my own.”

Jessica added she is excited to address her fellow classmates during graduation.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve had to show a steadfast character – being loyal and committed, devoted and dedicated whether that’s with our relationships or working towards finding a job,” she said. “I want to encourage my class to keep going with that because it helps us get to great goals like achieving our graduation.”

Chris Kooman, Vice Principal at Gateway Christian School, said he is extremely proud of Jessica.

“Jessica is a hard working student with attention to detail and a love of learning. She takes her studies seriously, working diligently to excel in every area,” he said. “She cares about her classmates, is fun and energetic, and works on relationships as much as her studies. Jessica’s willingness to help others, improve herself, and constantly improve are qualities that will take her far in life!”

Continue Reading

Trending

X