Okanagan College staff build Connections every year

This summer at Okanagan College, the president and some department deans gamely took their turns perching on the seat of a dunk tank as professors and staff from across the institution took their best shots.

“You could not believe the excitement that created,” Dean Warner, an accounting and finance professor in the college’s business school, says with a laugh. The event, part of Okanagan College’s annual Connections conference, raised some $2,000 for the student food bank.

Connections, now running for nearly two decades, has become a beloved tradition for much of the college’s faculty and staff. Put on by and for employees just before the start of a new school year, Connections brings colleagues together for a day of socializing and workshops that cover topics ranging from the work-relevant, like copyright in the classroom and artificial intelligence basics, to hobbies and curiosities, such as the art of brewing beer, gardening, the James Webb Space telescope and how one professor learned to fly a plane at age 68. Food truck lunches and afternoon socials with music from an all-employee band and sports games round out the day.

“It’s not meant to be a total work day, it’s meant to bring us together,” says Warner, who has been the chair of the Connections organizing committee for a decade.

The college’s people services department provides funding for the event and usually puts on a workshop or two. Gillian Henderson, the head of that department, says she looks forward to the conference every year and always participates in the bocce tournament.

“You meet new people and get the opportunity to learn about what people are passionate about,” she says. In past years, she’s attended a “riveting” talk on fungi, and artistic sessions such as painting little windows. “It is quite unique. I’ve never seen anything like this in any other organization.”

Henderson says she’s quickly learned over her three years at the college that “as soon as the conference email goes out, register straightaway.”

The Kelowna-based college, which also has campuses in Penticton, Vernon and Salmon Arm and two additional centres in Revelstoke and Oliver, offers a range of degree, diploma and certificate programs.

With more than 1,200 employees spread out across those locations, Henderson says the college has needed to be “really intentional” about making sure that it celebrates the diversity of its campuses and centres, while also trying to ensure employees at the smaller campuses feel like part of a connected whole.

“Each Okanagan College campus has a different feel, a different student population, some facilities that only exist there,” she says. “We see ourselves as one college and talk about that, and acknowledge the wonderful differences in the campuses.”

Connections helps, Warner says, as many colleagues come from across the region to attend the conference in Kelowna. He says the committee also encourages new staff members to attend each year.

“So often we’ve heard, ‘This really helped me meet people’ – we really get the reinforcement of the value people have in it,” Warner says. “During the pandemic, we almost gave up, but when we did it online, people were really appreciative. And when we got back to in-person, people were so thankful.”

The conference is just one example of Okanagan’s “collegial” culture, Warner says. Faculty often jump in to help new colleagues by sharing their course notes and prep materials for classes they’ve taught before. The collective agreement allows staff to donate sick days to their colleagues, and people often do, he says. “If the union puts out a call, they get inundated,” he says. “If anyone needs help, people jump up and step in.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's BC’s Top Employers winners, published February 11, 2025 in the Vancouver Sun. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.