Middle-school student Dana Strauss, of Cornwall, Ontario, said she wants to rehabilitate horses when she’s older.
While taking a course called Animals: Friends, Family and Food, taught by Craig McFarlane, she said she jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the Enrichment Mini-Course Program (EMCP) not only because of the course offerings, but because her older brother had went to Carleton for a mini-course last year.
“I really wanted to go to prove that I could do it to,” she says.
Nearly 1,000 students from middle and secondary schools in the surrounding areas descended on the Carleton University campus May 4 to 8 to take part in the annual program.
The program provides students in Grades 8-12 (Ontario) and Secondary II to V (Quebec) an enriched learning chance to experience “what it is like in university,” says Nestor Querido of CUTV Support Services, who organizes the EMCP at Carleton. The program is also offered at the University of Ottawa and La Cite Collegiale.
When the time comes for Strauss to choose a university, if she comes to Carleton she may receive something extra for taking part in the program. Students who have participated in the EMCP in the past and are accepted into a full-time first-year program by one of the participating post-secondary institutions, have the chance of receiving an EMCP Award of Excellence.
“Each year we award four $500 awards, enough for textbooks or whatever,” says Querido.
Querido cites the opportunity to participate in interesting and engaging mini-courses and the chance to meet students from other schools and school boards as the reasons for the programs ongoing success. EMCP began in 1981 and has hosted over 40,000 students.
“There is also the prestige of being selected by these institutions,” Querido says.
Halfway through the week, Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor, Dr Roseanne Runte, addressed the students saying, “Congratulations on having been chosen to be part of this week. I know that not everybody in your school got chosen, but you did, and so, I think you should applaud yourself.”
“There is no other investment that you can make that’s better,” she said speaking to the importance of higher education. “You go to university, and you invest in yourself and your future.”
More than 2,500 students were sent to take part in the program this year at the three institutions, which offered 125 different courses combined.