Charting A Course

Philip Pocock Secondary School played host to a bustling information market place one evening last week, as emissaries from a number of colleges and universities set up shop in the spacious atrium/cafeteria to help near-graduates and their parents chart a course for the future in terms of higher education.

The gathering, first of its kind at Philip Pocock, encouraged families from the school and other local Dufferin-Peel Catholic high schools (Father Michael Goetz, John Cabot, St. Francis Xavier and St. Paul) to tour booths laden with fact sheets and brochures and talk to spokespeople primed to answer all questions about courses, costs and campus life.

The list of colleges and universities represented included Conestoga, George Brown, Guelph, Humber, Laurentian, Laurier, McMaster, Seneca, Sheridan, Western and York.

Individual presentations in the library during the month of October give students an opportunity to get acquainted with what post-secondary schools have to offer, explains chief organizer Kathleen McOuat, head of guidance; but it can be difficult in a large group session to get answers to specific questions and concerns.

The information fair concept has a couple of major advantages, she says: it allows students to zero in on the school(s) of their choice and to have direct contact with a representative, and it allows parents to be actively involved in the process.

Principal Henry Tyndorf is most pleased that the school was able to stage the attraction in a neighbourhood setting. The GTA mega-version held annually at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre – big crowds, high decibels, glitz and clamour – can be quite overwhelming, he says.

Not that the local event was a quiet and lonely affair: despite the competition of a Leaf game and the World Series on the telly, people turned out in large and enthusiastic numbers and business was brisk.

Another feature attracting a great deal of attention was a booth, run by the school’s co-op education staff, dispensing information about the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP). OYAP is a school-to-work transition initiative which provides grade 11 and 12 students not heading for college or university with a chance to earn co-op credits through work placements in skilled trades and to be registered in an apprenticeship at graduation.

Looking back on a very successful inaugural effort, McOuat is eager to acknowledge and express thanks for the help and support of guidance department colleagues Delia Cicconi, Ginny Saddlemyer and Franca Tasciotti, co-op teachers Steve Bator, John Iantorno and Mike Volpe, principal Tyndorf, and hospitality department teacher Jane Glavac, whose food & nutrition classes provided delectable baked treats for the occasion.