Great Plains College to hold Virtual Grad Ceremony

By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

Graduates from Great Plains College in Kindersley will be honoured and recognized on Friday, May 28 at 3:00 p.m.; however, the event will take on a different appearance from previous graduation ceremonies. Fritz Eckstein, Region Manager, described the upcoming event.

Graduates and guests will receive an invitation via Zoom to attend the College’s Kindersley Campus 2019-2020 and 2020-21 virtual campus graduation. Approximately forty grads from three programs will be honoured. The programs are Administrative Assistant, Continuing Care Assistant and Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Systems.

This is Fritz’s tenth year with the College, but he has lived in our community for the past sixteen years. Even though the usual banquet and formal ceremony will not be held at the Kindersley Inn, as has been done in the past, Fritz stressed that they still want to acknowledge and celebrate their students.

“We want to make it as meaningful as it can be and celebrate our graduates’ great achievement. MLA’s will participate, as well as MPs, our administration, directors, and media. The format will remain the same as usual, except it will be virtual,” Fritz explained. “I usually do the speaking, and then there are readings by our invited guests, followed by the presentations when we announce the student names.” Students will receive their certificates via mail, or they can stop by and pick them up.

“This is the first-ever virtual grad. It’s new to us. It’s not our first choice, but it’s what we need to do at this time,” Fritz explained. “We look forward to having regular grad activities in the future.”

During 2020 and 2021, the College continued with its program offering while making the necessary adjustments. “We managed very well,” Fritz said. “We still have face-to-face offerings, but we reduce the class sizes. We kept our numbers the same. If we have too many students for a classroom, half of the students learn from home, and then they switch places each week.”

The College hosts close to 2000 learners annually in Personal and Professional Development and Safety Training classes, which includes courses such as H2S, First Aid, Workplace Hazardous Material Information Systems, and more.

“Going forward we will be offering more opportunity for international students,” Fritz added. “And we’ll be starting a new Educational Assistance program in January.”

Great Plains College has campuses in Biggar, Kindersley, Maple Creek, Martensville, Rosetown, Swift Current and Warman, Sask.

Fritz Eckstein, Region Manager, Great Plains College, Kindersley