
Status:
Graduated in June 2019
After caring for her elderly and sick father, Ashley Roy enrolled in Confederation College’s Personal Support Worker program. Living in Marathon, she connected to her classes using Contact North | Contact Nord’s web conferencing platform.
“We actually had a classroom dedicated to the PSW students,” explains Ashley. There were three other students connecting to the larger class in Thunder Bay. “Loved doing online,” she says.
As a mother of four, with her youngest only four months old when she started the program, she relied on the ability to participate in her classes from home. “If one of the children were sick and had to stay at home, I could just log on from my home computer.”
Although the majority of her classmates were at Confederation College’s Thunder Bay campus, the instructors always included them in class discussions by asking them questions and assigning group projects. The distance students living in Marathon, Terrace Bay, Wawa and Nipigon met up a few times and worked on assignments together.
Ashley graduated in June 2019 with a small ceremony in Marathon with 11 other graduates. She is planning to work for the next year and will consider enrolling in the Registered Practical Nurse program.