Thank you for choosing to come to Coast Mountain College – Canada’s leading College in experiential place-based learning!
What does that mean? It means every day you get to learn in the forests, glaciers, oceans and rivers that surround our campuses. Our instructors are constantly looking for ways to enhance your learning experience. Daily I hear of new examples of our teachers trying out new places and ideas. Social work classes taking place in the forest. Trades students building sheds for use in the community. Freda Diesing students creating art that is hanging in the Vancouver international airport. The list is endless.
Of course, the most obvious example of experiential learning is our field schools. If you haven’t had a chance to take part in one of our world-famous field schools, I strongly encourage you to join in a future offering. Every year we are adding more adventures and we want to share with as many students as possible.
Even when you are not outside the campuses, our instructors are still world leaders in bringing the world inside your class, whether you are in a traditional classroom or even our yurt. We also have the opportunity to learn from the many Indigenous leaders in our region. We are so grateful they are sharing this knowledge with us and the way it has shaped who we are and who we are becoming as a college.
For those of you who are not in our classrooms, we are also coming to you. From Haida Gwaii to Houston, from Kitimat to the Yukon border, we are privileged to work in 34 communities. Our mobile classrooms allow us to effectively teach in every one of those areas and we are committed to growing those offerings in the future.
This year, we are also excited to be offering new services. We have just finished renovating our student residences and we are about to begin work on brand new residences for the future. We have opened a new gym at the Terrace campus. And our student services team is working with the student association to offer more events and activities than ever before.
When you have completed your time at the College, we also encourage you to continue your adventure. We hope your pathway will include moving into the workforce or moving on to further study. To assist, we have set up pathways across Canada and even around the world. We currently have students who either have completed or are about to take on new study and work opportunities, not just in our region, but also across the world.
I hope your adventure at Coast Mountain College exceeds your expectations. If you have ideas as to how we can continue improving your experience, please come talk to me. I would love to learn from you.
Best of luck!
Sincerely,
Justin Kohlman
President and CEO