Lakeland students head to London in May to study macroeconomics Field trips to Lloyd’s of London, the Central Bank of London, and the London Stock Exchange will add a live the learning flavour to an upcoming macroeconomics course offered by Lakeland College. This spring 15 Lakeland students will spend two weeks at Regents College in London taking macroeconomics from Lakeland instructor Brad Onofrychuk. There’s no better place to take macroeconomics than in London, the financial centre of the world, says Onofrychuk. “Macroeconomics deals with issues such as employment, fiscal policy, international payments and more. We’ll study topics such as international banking systems in class and later visit the Central Bank. I think it’s a great opportunity for the students. The field trips will really complement their course work,” he says. The Lakeland contingent—which includes 14 business students and one university transfer student—will be in London from May 8 until May 22. They’ll live in residence at Regents College and classes will be held Mondays to Thursdays with tours Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Fridays are for exams and presentations, and on the weekends, they’ll sightsee. While in England the students are required to blog about their experience. “It will be great to come out of college with a unique experience that really adds to our education. I think it will broaden our thinking about business,” says Jon Hines of Marwayne, a student in the bachelor of commerce program. Katelyn Schmidt of Wainwright is the lone university transfer student on the excursion. She saw the poster promoting the opportunity to study in London and knew she had to take part. In high school she went to Italy with members of her school band and it was an incredible
Heading to London in May to study macroeconomics are, front row: Kyrsta Murphy, Raelene Winter, Ashley Gruhlke, and Adelle Peters. Second row: Shane Crooks, David Dahl and Ashley Cox. Third row: Jon Hines and Juanita Joe. Top row: Alex Scheidt, Katelyn Schmidt, Misha O’Donnell and instructor Brad Onofrychuk. Not pictured are William Brost, Marcel Alexandre and Terra Merk.
experience. “I love to travel. It’s fun and you learn so much,” she says, adding that she’s looking forward to living the college experience at Regents. Micro and macroeconomics are mandatory first year courses for Lakeland College business students. Microeconomics was offered in the fall semester and Onofrychuk is currently teaching macroeconomics to about 80 students at the Lloydminster campus. Those who chose to participate in the London trip are doing online assignments to prepare for the intense two-week course. “They need to have a certain level of understanding of macroeconomics because in London we’ll discuss more advanced topics,” says Onofrychuk. The group meets every two weeks at the Lloydminster campus to plan and
prepare for the experience. The course tuition fee is the same as what it costs at Lakeland. They plan to fundraise about $15,000 to offset some of the expenses, but students are expected to cover about half of the cost of the trip. One fundraiser is a student auction for a half day of labour. The auction will be held during the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce Feb. 9 mixer at the Lloydminster campus. Students are also selling tickets on a 50” 3D television, Blu-ray Player and 3D Shrek collection. The draw date is March 2. Study abroad opportunities are becoming more common at Lakeland. Last year about 20 students in human services programs travelled to Australia to help organize a Fun4Kids Children’s Festival.
New SLP recruits 2011-2012 A new cohort of students in the sign language interpreter program (SLIP) began their studies last month in Edmonton. Some of the students relocated to the Alberta capital from as far away as Winnipeg and Calgary to take the program. Lakeland is one of five colleges in Canada and the only one in Alberta to offer the SLIP diploma. Pictured (left to right) are: Front row: Angela Jensen, Meghan Ward and Laura Patterson. Middle row: Krista Quaife, Debbie Walker, Lisa Mahe, Erin Lorenz, Judie Bauer. Back row: Amber Miller, Karin Mclaughlin, Katie Stickney and Samantha Gurney. The program is offered in a blended format with some classes delivered face-to-face at the University of Alberta campus and some delivered online through eCampusAlberta. The group will graduate in June 2012.