After a two-year hiatus, the Lethbridge College English Language Centre has brought back its Explore program, looking to help students learn their second official language.
Students spend their weekday mornings in English language classes, and participate in various cultural activities and workshops in the afternoons. Weekends are spent visiting Indigenous-focused areas like Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park and Fort Whoop-Up.
“Some institutions did try to do it virtually during COVID, and we are very face-on, on campus and it really didn’t work for us. The interest we have, I think, is probably about 20 percent more students than we had in 2019,” says Kevin Smith, Dean at the Centre for Business, Arts, and Sciences.
Each year, the program hosts students from Quebec and, this summer, is hosting participants from Slovakia and Venezuela.
“Coming here, it’s kind of a vacation with a very big family and I’ve only been here for about a week and a half, but I’m sure that, at the end of the program, every student here will be like one big family and we’re all gonna be united, so it’s really a nice experience to come here,” says Philipe Bouvier, a student from Montreal.
The program kicked off on July 4 and will be running until August 5.
