MHC Milestones continued
1995 - Summer College becomes temporary shelter for 2,000 people evacuated from their homes because of fl ood warnings.
1996 - For the fi rst time MHC is on the Internet with a website and college information.
1997 - Smoking is banned in all publicly-funded areas of the college,
1997 - A provincial grant totaling $2.5 million, in addition to $600,000 from the college, is used to replace the aging 'N' building.
1998 - Snowstorm in March closes the college down for the day, the fi rst time it has ever closed due to a storm. Classes resume the next day at noon.
1998 -Groundbreaking for a $3.2-million expansion by Advanced Education Minister Clint Dunford.
1999 - New Health Studies building offi cially opens.
2005 - Grand opening of the three-storey building and Rededication of the Vera Bracken Library, and Centennial Hall.
2009 - Offi cial opening of Encana Power Engineering Technology Centre.
2011 - Offi cial opening of the F-Wing.
2012 - September- MHC receives largest donation in history of $2.2 million from the Rodgers family.
2014 - Grand opening of the visual communications building.
2014 - MHC hosts grand opening for the Sunrise Rotary Trail.
Marketing goes to the students
PEGGY REVELL
Who wouldn’t want 22 people brainstorming to solve a business problem? And what business student wouldn’t love to hear the advertisement they created singing across the radio.
“It’s the ‘it takes a village,’” said Darren Howes, chair of Medicine Hat College’s business department, about the symbiotic relationship that has developed between the college and business community in recent years.
“I think our message is for businesses to connect with us. The more businesses we work with ... the better it is for students, the workforce, the better for everyone.”
One of the many projects has marketing students in one class put together an integrated marketing and communications plan for a local business or organization, said Howes. Past clients have included local businesses such as the Cypress School of Skating, Combing Attractions and this term’s will be the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education
Students, Howes explained, meet with the clients, find out their goals, challenges, and previous marketing efforts.
There is no exact format for developing the plan — sometimes students break up into competitive groups, other times they work all together, said Howes.
And from time to time, there’s funding for students to work with, he said.
Business can take the report, and choose to use what they feel is useful.
“Hopefully it helps the business, but it definitely helps the students,” he said, noting that in many ways the business owner’s passion transfers onto the students, who become enthusiastic about the project.
“The majority of small independent businesses in the region lack, or they are not doing full business planning, financial planning, or marketing planning,” said MHC’s Entrepreneur Development Centre manager Jon Sookocheff, about the findings of a Palliser region survey. “So that’s a place where the local small business community could use some help.”
And that’s where a summer pilot project at MHC came in.
Six small business owners with marketing projects
60 2015 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
MHC’s coat of arms was designed by the Community Art Club.
When MHC’s new building opened in 1971, there were 460 students registered as full-time studies.
were recruited, Sookocheff explained, and students were hired to do the market research, develop and execute specific marketing projects for the businesses.
Findings from the work term were presented at a provincial conference to stakeholders, Sookocheff said — but while there was interest, they weren’t able to secure funding for it to continue at any large scale.
“That being said, we are going to continue with the small business work term again this summer,” he said, this time on a smaller scale, and hopefully working with new start-up companies.
“(Students) had such a great amount of energy and knowledge base ... it was really a benefit to us as a small business,” said Greg Pahl, with Medicine Hat Meat Traders, who participated with the summer pilot project — and hopes projects like it can continue into the future.
Since working with the students, Pahl said they’ve continued to use the ideas that students brought forth — and it also gave them ideas in areas that they weren’t as familiar with, such as social media.
Being a small business, Pahl said they’re “pretty limited” as far as the resources that can be put towards marketing, and different marketing ideas.”
“So this really gave us an opportunity to use some of their expertise, some of the energy the students have towards our business that normally we wouldn’t be able to get.”
Participating in the work term and similar projects has been helpful, said MHC student Nikayla MacNaughton.
“For us we’re preparing to go out into the workforce,” she said. “It confirms my passion for marketing and what I wanted to do with my career,”
Even thought this is her last term, she has already landed a job working with Clarion Hotel, marketing for their newly renovated Art & Wine Bistro.
“Because of this job experience, it kind of launched me into that job. It’s really cool and exciting.”
For Howes, one of the best parts of the experience is seeing the transformation of students, from when they start school to graduation
“It’s just amazing, and the confidence you see in communication, knowledge, business lingo and more,” he said.
And these are just a few ways the college and business work together — locals also volunteer in to do mock interviews, and participate in the Enactus program.
“We’re lucky to have a business community who is so open to working with us.”■
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