Lethbridge post-secondary students return to campuses

As staff welcome students back to post-secondary institutions in Lethbridge, those on-campus are embracing a more normal feeling.

“You hear kind of a buzzing in the hallways — something that was absent for the last couple years,” Lethbridge College registrar Marko Hilgersom said.

1:55 Post-secondary students prepare for normal, full return to campus in Lethbridge

“People want to hang out on campus, I get the sense, rather than just in and out, go to class and leave.”

“It’s nice to be in-school, in-person and everything. I was a little nervous but already did my first class and it went pretty well,” said Emilio Hurtado, a student at the University of Lethbridge

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Wednesday marks the second year students have returned in-person for the fall semester at both Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

But the process hasn’t been without its challenges, as both schools shifted online for parts of the 2021-22 academic year.

The changes impacted internships for some of the U of L’s education students, who take part in a professional semester, spending roughly 15 weeks in classrooms.

“They’ve had to be flexible and adaptable with the schools and go online with a moment’s notice or be in the classroom and follow all the protocols, so that experience has been different,” said Sharon Pelech, interim assistant dean of field experience within the University’s faculty of education.

Faculty expect a return to the pre-COVID process for those interns this year, as well as for on-campus students who attended the entire winter semester virtually.

“We’re now able to do what we’re best at… which is to give them that full intensive, enriching experience,” University of Lethbridge associate vice-president of students Kathleen Massey said.

With the COVID situation evolving, the expectation of a full on-campus experience prompted one Lethbridge College student to take his first post-secondary courses this semester.

“I was supposed to start school two years ago before COVID, but when COVID hit it made everything so difficult to go back to school, so it’s really nice to have this opportunity,” said Mugisa Gany, on his first day at Lethbridge College.