Alyssa Connelly

Graduated in Spring 2018 and working full-time in her community 

 

Alyssa Connelly was thrilled to learn from a friend about the services available from the Contact North | Contact Nord online learning centre in Englehart. She just enrolled in Northern College’s Office Administration General Certificate program and was travelling from her home in Englehart to Northern College’s Haileybury campus during the week to attend classes. With the support of staff at Contact North | Contact Nord, she was able to attend her classes using Contact North | Contact Nord’ web conferencing platform from the online learning centre in Englehart or her home computer and avoid the 100 km round trip each day.

 

After graduating from high school, she completed Northern College’s Personal Support Worker Diploma program and worked for a year in the field. When her two children were in daycare, she decided to enrol in Northern College’s Office Administration General Certificate program.

 

Online learning offered more time and flexibility while she attended school full-time. “I was first set up with distance learning at home, but I preferred to go into the online learning centre,” explains Alyssa. She likes the option of working from home when necessary but prefers the routine of getting out of the house to work at the online learning centre.

 

The flexibility of online learning is perfect for her growing family who prefer living in a small, rural community, close to family. Her favourite story about online learning is how it can be done almost anywhere; for example, she connected to her class using her mobile phone while waiting for her daughter at dance class. 

 

She also found the support of Contact North | Contact Nord invaluable, especially when she calls Contact North | Contact Nord’s Technical Support Hotline and gets an immediate response.

 

Alyssa graduated in Spring 2018 and was offered a full-time Educational Assistant position with the local school board.