OTTAWA (FEB. 8, 2022) – Algonquin College is announcing the launch of two new bursaries that will be available to students in the Practical Nursing and Personal Support Worker (PSW) programs.
The new bursaries — established by a generous gift of more than $50,000 from longtime community volunteer and philanthropist Susan Prior — support and encourage student enrolment in the PSW program and support health care workers who wish to upgrade their education to become a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN).
The “Semira Saba Kifle Practical Nursing Bursary” honours Semira Saba Kifle, who, after 18 years working as a PSW and with four children at home, returned to school to advance her education. She graduated from the Algonquin College Practical Nursing diploma program in 2018. The bursary will be awarded annually to a student in financial need who is a health care worker and enrolled in the first semester of the Practical Nursing program.
A second bursary, the “Thank You PSW Bursary,” will be awarded to a student with a financial need registered in the second semester of the Personal Support Worker program.
“Susan’s service in the community is impressive and makes a difference not only for our community members, but also for our learners. Her generosity and keen support for effective health care, the need of which she has long recognized, will transform the lives of many students for years to come,” said Algonquin College President and CEO, Claude Brulé. “In honouring one of our graduates and PSW workers everywhere, Susan makes the important connection between our students’ learning and the health of our communities. This has become especially important over the past two years as we cope with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Susan’s own experience with health challenges and that of her late husband, Jack, a pioneer in the computer software industry, as well as witnessing the care her 99-year-old mother receives at her retirement home, drives her commitment to health care. She also recognizes that supporting student practical nurses and PSWs means more care in retirement homes, long-term care facilities, home care agencies and hospitals.
“These health care workers are phenomenal. They don’t have much time right now because of pandemic protocols, but they’re always really good to my mother,” she said. “We need more of them and providing bursaries will help them get the training they need.”
These new bursaries come at a time when the province is facing a critical shortage of RPNs and PSWs, especially in home and long-term care. The Ontario government recently announced an investment of up to $100 million to train an additional 2,000 nurses, RPNs and PSWs by 2024-2025.
The Personal Support Worker Ontario College Certificate program prepares students for work in a range of healthcare settings. Students develop the ability to engage with persons and families of various ages and health-related needs while deliver person-centred care, encouraging independence and improving the quality of their clients’ lives.
About the Registered Practical Nursing Program:
The Practical Nursing Ontario College Diploma program prepares students for work in the health care system, providing nursing care to those of all ages. Students learn through theory and applied experiences, lab work, and independent study. They gain hands-on experience in school and through placements in community settings such as retirement homes, long-term care homes and hospitals.
About Algonquin College:
The mission of Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is to transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success. Algonquin College, an Ontario public sector community college, does this by offering hands-on, digitally connected, experiential learning in more than 185 programs. Based in the Ottawa Valley, Algonquin College is the largest polytechnic institute in Eastern Ontario.
I am proud to announce that Algonquin College has been named a National Capital Region’s Top Employer for 2022, making this the ninth year in a row that the College has been recognized for this accomplishment.
Now celebrating its 22nd year, Canada’s Top 100 Employers is an annual competition organized by MediaCorp Canada Inc., which awards exceptional workplaces on both a national and regional basis. Algonquin College has won an award in the National Capital Region category every year since 2014.
This is a meaningful achievement for our institution. One of the foundational goals in the College’s Strategic Plan is to be recognized as an exceptional place to work by our employees – and because of all of your contributions, we have been recognized again.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the College continues to focus on the health and safety of our employees and learners. Our award was driven by a number of key initiatives focused on supporting our employees during these challenging times.
Focus on Employee Learning and Resources:
Learning and Teaching Services offers innovative training and resources for faculty needing to transition to virtual learning activities at a high level of excellence. The Centre for Organizational Learning also provides resources for all College employees through various learning sessions, workshops, programs, conferences, activities and one-on-one support.
Employee resource sites keep employees up-to-date about matters relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a Human Resources Employee Toolkit with tips for making remote work (and working at home with children) a success, as well as access to wellness resources in a stressful time. The Communications department maintains a Coronavirus Information page that continues to be updated with the latest news affecting the College community through the pandemic.
Leveraging Technology to Integrate and Collaborate:
Virtual activities also allow the College to engage, encourage and inform employees. One unexpected result of the pandemic is that employees from all three campuses (Ottawa, Perth and Pembroke) are able to participate in one another’s events virtually. They also have access to many student activities and events.
Maintaining Our Commitment to Inclusion and Diversity:
At Algonquin College, we strive to anticipate our employees’ needs and meet challenges head on. We were the first college in Ontario to adopt an equity, diversity and inclusion policy. We demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Truth and Reconciliation by embedding Indigenous knowledge in everything we do as an organization.
More than anything, this award speaks to the efforts of each and every one of our employees. It is your continued dedication to our learners, your colleagues and the entire College community that drives our unique, inclusive and dynamic culture. You inspire the College to keep building on our strengths and finding ways to do better.
In a time of unique challenges, I am proud that the College continues to build on its record of accomplishment for engaging the strengths of our employees, offering opportunities for further performance and professional growth – building a vibrant, resilient and diverse workforce.
Most importantly, thank you to our employees working on-campus and remotely for your hard work, continued focus on learners and our people, and for preserving our community.
As you know, Algonquin College is currently providing academic programming in a hybrid delivery mode until March 6, 2022, with the majority of theory courses being delivered virtually, and applied learning activities continuing in-person on campus.
Last week the Ontario Provincial government outlined the incremental steps it will take to lift public health measures between January 31 and March 14, 2022.
2022 Winter Term The College leadership team has weighed a range of recommendations and factors to decide how the second half of the winter term will be delivered. These factors included:
Provincial regulations
Public health recommendations
The impact of physical distancing on the capacity of instructional spaces
The availability of our learners including our international learners to come to their campus
The results of the recent pulse survey on learner preference for the end of the term
The need for consistency and stability for the remainder of the term
We recognize there is no one single decision that will satisfy everyone’s desired approach. The recent pulse survey conducted with our learners indicates that the vast majority of students would prefer to remain virtual or hybrid for the remainder of the winter term.
To commemorate the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, Algonquin College is raising awareness for the next generation of leaders. The pedestrian link between the ARC building and the Student Commons will be lit up in yellow on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.
“Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the 77th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp,” said Hillel Ottawa Director Sasha Kathron. “As we move further away from the Holocaust it is frightening to see instances of antisemitism continue to rise. Jews are the most targeted victims of hate crimes in Canada. Now more than ever we must uphold our vow to remember the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust so they may never be forgotten and history may never repeat itself. Education continues to be the most valuable tool we have, it is the key to keeping our promise: Never again.”
A major winter storm system tracking south of the Great Lakes will bring significant snowfall to the region throughout Monday with snow accumulations between 30 and 40cm and potentially localized accumulations up to 50cm. In addition, the storm may be accompanied by winds up to 60km/hr. These conditions will make travel dangerous.
All on-campus instruction is cancelled for Monday, January 17th for all campuses. However, all instruction that was scheduled to be virtual will continue as planned.
All employees who are able to work from home should do so. Employees should contact their manager if there is question about the requirement to come to campus.
If you must travel, please take all reasonable precautions and be safe. We anticipate that regular activity will resume on Tuesday. Please continue to monitor Algonquin College email and social media for updates.
As we prepare for AC Day 1 to kick off our 2022 Winter term, the Province of Ontario has recently announced new public health measures aimed at slowing the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant. This is in addition to the safety measures we had already put in place for the Winter term.
The announcement temporarily moves the province into Step Two of its Roadmap to Reopen with modifications and comes as Ottawa Public Health reported this week that we are facing a significant challenge with Omicron “rising exponentially” across the city.
Included in this week’s Provincial announcement is that social gathering limits have been reduced to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors, capacity at organized public events is limited to five people indoors, and employees are required to work remotely unless the nature of their work requires them to be on-site.
December 20, 2021, Ottawa, Ontario —Algonquin College has entered into an official partnership with the Canadian College of Health Information Management, which will benefit learners and faculty in the health information fields.
The Canadian College of Health Information Management is a national, not-for-profit corporation that sets the accreditation standards for educational institutions and certification standards for health information professionals in Canada. Together with the Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA), Algonquin student’s institution-wide are now welcome to become CHIMA student members.
Our College leadership team is closely monitoring all recent government-issued responses to rising COVID-19 case counts, with particular emphasis on the risks associated with the highly transmissible Omicron variant of concern.
As we have done throughout this pandemic, we need to adapt quickly to these changing circumstances and ensure the safety of all employees and learners, particularly those who are required to be on campus. As a result, I want to convey some important messages and decisions.
The majority of our academic programming for the Winter term will begin as scheduled on January 10, but in a primarily virtual (remote) delivery mode. Every class where remote delivery is possible will begin as a virtual class. For those learning activities that cannot be delivered virtually, on-campus delivery will continue, but with physical distancing requirements in place for the entire campus. We will continually review the need for virtual delivery, but it is expected to continue in this manner until March 7, i.e. until the end of our Winter mid-term break.
Similar to the direction that was provided in the Fall, only those learners and employees required to be on campus should be attending campus in-person. If you are not required to be on campus, we strongly encourage you to work remotely from home. The more we can limit unnecessary in-person activity on our campuses, the more we can reduce the risk of transmission. Managers can help answer employees’ questions should further clarification be required, and students can speak with their professors – please do not hesitate to reach out.
We will also be pausing all in-person, non-academic events and social gatherings on our campuses until it is safe to gather again. I would like to strongly encourage you to consider extending a pause to college-related off-campus activities as well. I can confirm that our upcoming AC Day 1 activities will be conducted virtually, however there will be individuals in-person, operating our Here-2-Help booths.
These are difficult times, and as such, can impact us all differently. If you are looking for support, there are numerous resources available to employees and learners. Learners can access program, financial and personal supports via this link, and employees can find a full range of resources here.
We are continuing to monitor all developments and public health directives, and review our policies accordingly. Any further changes to operations will be communicated immediately to all employees and learners.
Over the past year and a half, you have been called upon to make more sacrifices, to exercise more patience and adapt to new and challenging sets of circumstances. I know it is not easy; thank you for your ongoing commitment and resiliency.
OTTAWA (December 15, 2021) – WPBS will be airing a series of short documentaries produced by Algonquin College Film and Media Production students this Saturday night, Dec. 18, starting at 10 p.m.
Students have been creating the short films over the past number of months, and PBS has agreed to give them each a world premier this Saturday. For those wishing to watch the events online, WPBS will be also be airing them over Facebook Live using this link. Some of the documentaries featured include:
The Show Must Go On(line) shows the versatility of artists during the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring the long-running musical career of Algonquin College professor and New York Times interviewee Danielle Allard. This documentary follows Prof. Allard as she increases traction on social media/streaming sites during the pandemic and serves as an example to the public to show the direction in which modern day entertainment is going. The Show Must Go On(line) is directed by Min (Lexie) Hsu.
leaders. The pedestrian link between the ARC building and the Student Commons will be lit up in yellow on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. 
For Immediate Release
