Feb 18-22

While Ross is busy traveling internationally, I spent the last week attending British Columbia’s Education and Career Fairs in Vancouver and Kelowna. These are BC’s largest career and planning events and bring in thousands of participants and exhibitors.

SAIT is building awareness in these areas so it was a great opportunity to promote programs and career opportunities for students. I had a lot of questions about the employability of SAIT graduates and referred to SAIT’s Graduate Employment Statistics. People were very impressed to learn that our graduate employment rate is 99%.

I will be back in BC next week for another week with Educational Liaison Association of Alberta (ELAA) answering students questions and giving information about SAIT's programs..

Update from the International Side... aka: The Sunny Side of the Street

OK, up till now it's been all "domestic" talk on the SAIT blog, but guess what? SAIT Polytechnic is also very active in reaching out to international students too. We even have an international centre website for these potential students. And as you may have guessed, I'm the lucky duck that does a great deal of the overseas travel.

That's me in the photo, Ross, standing in front of the entranceway into the Forbidden City in Beijing. Technically, I'm standing at the edge of Tiananmen Square. And for a vicarious look into the Forbidden City check out the flick The Last Emperor. Very cool ending but I won't give it away.

So my 2008 travel first took me to Beijing for "Canada Information Days" It was basically a mini Canadian Education Fair, held on January 8 & 9th. Most of the events I attend are sponsored by the Canadian Education Centre Network, a non-profit group founded in 1995 with support from the Government of Canada to promote Canada's exceptional education system. SAIT programs were a big hit at this annual Beijing event.

In fact, the largest group of international students on SAIT's campus are from China. But as any SAIT student will tell you, ours is a very ethnically diverse campus. This year alone we have over 840 international students on campus, and we have SAIT graduates from over 55 different countries around the world! Very cool stuff.

Also in January, I attended CEC Network events in three cities in Indonesia (Surabaya, Jakarta, and Bandung) and one stop in Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City, aka: Saigon). We actually have over 20 Vietnamese students currently on campus, who knew? And as if my schedule wasn't tight enough on this January travel, I slipped in and out of Singapore and visited the CEC office there where I met with three students.

One student, with a medical background, applied for our Diagnostic Medical Sonography program (...the what? You know, ultra-sound stuff). Recently all our Health and Public Safety programs opened up to our international student and since then the response has been very high. The other two students I met at the CEC Singapore office began the application process for Hospitality Management and Business Administration. Both are always favorites among our international students as both programs offer some very unique features.

And in an unrelated story, I've seen some interesting things on my travels so I thought I'd include a few crazy picks here. Why not, eh? It the photo of an indoor ski hill in Dubai. Below the photo is of cows chillin' out on the city streets of New Delhi. I actually grew up on dairy farm near a ski hill but somehow the memories didn't look like this!

Feb 1st- Feb 2nd

Another successful Open House!

This weekend SAIT opened its doors to thousands interested in learning about SAIT’s programs and services. Each school had exhibits, tours and instructors available to answer questions. There was also a SAIT lifestyle area which displayed student clubs, sports and services available.

Those who attended were able to fill out a complimentary application and also entered our contest to win tuition. This prize package includes:

- Up to $5,000 towards tuition and fees in a full-time day program beginning fall 2008. Tuition applies to first year of study.
- On-campus food services ($1,000 meal card)
- On-campus parking vouchers for 8 months
- $200 gift certificate to the SAIT Bookstore
- Season pass to Trojan Athletics 2008-09 plus $100 gift certificate for the Trojan Pro Shop

Please visit www.sait.ca for more information.