4 GEORGIANVIEW FALL 2021 DIGITAL EDITION
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
With more than 90,000 Georgian alumni around the world,
I'm truly grateful for the many ways you give back – be it
as volunteer leaders, your shared valuable insights and life
experiences with our students, or your generous donations
that support Georgian's continued growth and inspire a
new generation of changemakers.
Just like our student body, our alumni community didn't
allow the pandemic to make the last 20 months any
less extraordinary. Resilient, and innovators at heart, I
congratulate all of you on your engagement with our
communities, your alumni association, and for being there
for your college when we needed you the most.
This past year, nearly 1,000 students were supported by
alumni panels and mentor relationships when their co-
op placements were impacted by the pandemic, and the
number of first-time alumni donors to our college has
grown by 30 per cent over this same period. Thank you for
being there for our next generation of alumni.
Today's students expect more flexibility in how they access
their education at Georgian. The pandemic reaffirmed
our commitment to ensuring flexible, experiential and
technology-enabled learning. And, we're steadfast in
ensuring students have more control over their personal
learning journey, letting them decide how, where and when
they study.
Today, we're focused on three inter-related strategic
priorities: digital innovation; equity, diversity, inclusion and
belonging; and fostering an agile culture throughout the
college ecosystem.
Our investment in digital innovation is all about creating
an unrivaled student experience through new education
technologies and enhanced service delivery, combined
with a college culture that embraces change. We're excited
about how this will significantly improve and transform the
Georgian student experience.
In the area of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging,
we're striving to create a learning and working environment
where everyone feels seen, heard and knows they belong.
Georgian received a $400,000 grant in the spring from
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of
Canada to deepen our work in this area.
Fostering an agile culture means being collaborative,
continuously striving to improve, and knowing it's safe
to try new things and fail. We'll empower the Georgian
community with the knowledge, tools and resources to be
changemakers who can think entrepreneurially no matter
what role they're in.
We continue to listen to the needs of our community and
local employers. We know, in particular, the pandemic has
dealt a serious blow to our health-care providers on the
frontlines and our local health-care leaders are telling us
they need more nurses – not only during the pandemic, but
in the years to come.
That's why I'm pleased to share that we'll offer a four-year
Honours Bachelor of Science – Nursing (BScN) degree at
our Barrie and Owen Sound campuses in September 2022
and wind down our collaborative BScN program with York
University. This means our students no longer have to leave
our region to complete their nursing degree. They'll stay
here to learn, make connections with local health-care
organizations, and remain in our communities to work.
As I reflect on the last 20 months, I'm proud of what our
network of loyal and connected alumni have been able to
accomplish and look forward to what's ahead.
Alumni play
pivotal role
at Georgian
Dr. MaryLynn West-Moynes
President and CEO
