Like many high school graduates, Katelyn Hudgeon thought she knew what she wanted to do for post secondary. She went to Olds College to study in one of its many veterinary stream programs, but quickly realized the program wasn’t for her.
After a year, Hudgeon, who graduated from William E. Hay in 2008, returned to Stettler, where she found employment. Eventually, though, she itched to better herself, and started looking at options. All of them were expensive, and required her to move away from her family and friends in Stettler. So, she kept working.
She had seen posters and billboards for Campus Alberta Central (CAC) at Stettler Adult Learning but had never truly given it a thought until her mother, who works at the hospital, told her about a health care aide program being offered by the post-secondary institute. Hudgeon phoned the college and signed up, and in 2014 started going to college here in Stettler.
“I loved it,” she said. “I really love learning here in Stettler. There’s small classes, which offers us more one-on-one time with our teachers. You’re not intimidated, like you would be in larger classes.”
Stettler Adult Learning is partnered with Red Deer College and Olds College to offer college programs here in Stettler. The programs include a wide variety from business and administration to child care to agriculture and veterinary, to name a few. Some programs are certificate programs and others are diploma programs.
Hudgeon started working as a health care aide a month after as she started the four-month certificate program thanks to a work opportunity offered by Alberta Health Services. While some programs offered by CAC are part-time programs, the one Hudgeon was in was a full-time program.
The program allowed Hudgeon to stay in Stettler to go to school as well as find a job locally.
“It was wonderful because since I was working in the field, I could see and apply what I was learning in class in the workplace,” she said.
After finishing the program, Hudgeon knew she had found her niche, the career she wanted. She promptly went into the practical nursing program offered at Stettler Adult Learning, starting in September 2014. She graduates this December.
“I did it all here in Stettler,” she said. “The teachers actually travel from (Red Deer College) to teach us. Our clinicals happen here, we have a lab set up here, with beds and everything.”
She said the only drawback is that the campus here doesn’t have all the same resources available at Red Deer College, but students from the auxiliary campuses like Stettler are welcome in Red Deer any time.
“They even let us sit in on classes, if we want,” she said.
Despite that one drawback, Hudgeon said the smaller class sizes and the ability to stay in the home community by far make up for any shortcoming.
Increasing involvement
Last year, one of the administrators at CAC in Stettler spoke with Hudgeon, asking her if she wanted to be involved with CAC in a “greater capacity.”
“She told me I didn’t have to decide right away, so I went home and thought about it,” she recalled. “It really was a no-brainer for me.”
She found out in September that her experience with CAC, which included online upgrading in addition to the healthcare aide and practical nursing program, would be the focus of a student profile in upcoming literature about CAC programs.
“Then I didn’t hear anything about it for months,” she said. “In May, things started happening. I did the photo shoot and then the pamphlets came out.”
She said it was her wide variety of experiences, plus her stellar grades, that had her considered and eventually chosen as the “poster-child” for CAC.
“It’s made me feel empowered,” she said. “I can help others like me who want to go through post-secondary but might not know where to begin.”
“The whole experience has been wonderful,” she added. “I hope others will have the chance to have the same opportunities I have had here.”