The Street Humanities Program gives many students the chance to experience college

By Tommy Osborne

CNC

CNC’s Street Humanities Program offers potential life changing experience

Feb 13, 2024 | 5:29 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The College of New Caledonia’s (CNC) Street Humanities Program is set to begin in two weeks, and since it started in 2005 it has seen hundreds of students graduate. The program gives students who may be socially or economically disadvantaged the chance to do what many of us take for granted: go to college and receive an education.

Michelle Stewart is one of many who found success through the program, as she graduated six years ago and was able to find work with Positive Living North, where she worked for several years and has since moved to Alberta.

“I was given some real opportunities afterwards. I’m very blessed that I was able to work there for about four years,” she said.

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Stewart says the Street Humanities Program opened up these opportunities for her, and it also helped her grow and gave her motivation to pursue what she previously thought was an impossibility.

“It made me want to do more. I really wanted to work and I wanted to continue on with my school, but I ended up choosing work over school. It was a great program,” she said.

The program lasts for ten weeks and covers a wide variety of subjects, like literature, astronomy, Indigenous studies, and more. It also gives students a bus pass and hot meals, so all you have to focus on is your education. While education is obviously a key focus with the Street Humanities Program, another equally as important aspect is creating a sense of community and belonging.

“It was awesome to go in in the evening and eat and sit as a group and talk about class before we got into it. And at the time I just felt really grown up because I was in college and it felt really cool,” she said.

Since the program started more than 230 students graduated, and 26% of those pursued further education with CNC. If you’re hoping to pursue further education but don’t have the financial means to do so, CNC’s School of Access and Continuing Education Dean Amelia Merrick said the College has supports to help with this too.

“If a student wants to complete their Adult Dogwood (Grade 12 program), it’s actually tuition free in British Columbia so they can come to school at any point and say, ‘I want to finish.’ We also have an adult upgrading grant which will help support some of those other financial costs. Like you got to buy books, you’ve got to buy pens, and so there are grants available to help support students when there are financial needs to further education,” Merrick said.

As for why CNC goes through all this effort to run the program, the community college says it’s in their name: Community.

“We know that there’s a lot of struggles that are facing us in the north right now. We know that our labor market is changing, we see that there is a drug crisis before us, we see that there’s a housing crisis before us. The future can continue to happen to us, or we can get ahead of it and we can create the future that we want, and at CNC, we believe that the future we want, it can be created, but it has to happen through learning,” she said.

If you’re interested in the program, applications are open until February 16, and the program will begin on February 27. You can learn more about how to apply HERE.

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