Baby Willow, daughter of Psych. instructor Zoe Dennison, has been accompanying her mum on campus lately. Convocation corner Countdown to Convocation The countdown continues towards Convocation °97 , June 19 at the Chilliwack Alliance Church. With two ceremonies this year, UCFV’s Convocation committee members have had to double their efforts to ensure everything will be ready — twice. . “There have been a few unexpected wrinkles to iron out, because of going to the two-ceremonies-in-a-day format,” notes Convocation coordinator Dave Stephen, “but we have, I believe, anticipated most of the changes and adapted. The committee really needs to be commended for the extra effort and organization this year.” Invitations and Convocation information have gone out to some 800 degree, diploma, and certificate graduates. Convocation day will start early — workers will probably start arriving at the Convocation site by 7:30 that morning, followed 30 minutes later by the first grads, as they prepare for the 9:30am ceremony for graduates from the Faculty of Access and CE and Faculty of Science and Technology. The 2:30 ceremony is for the Faculty of Applied programs, Headlines/June 12, 1997 ECCO grads finding jobs in real world The Exploring College and Career Options program will be around for another year. This program, designed to help people with disabilities prepare for work or further schooling, escaped being eliminated in this year’s budget process by a last-minute injection of funds. It will run as-is in Chilliwack for the coming year, after which it will probably be replaced by new part-time programs for students with disabilities in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. ECCO instructor Bonnie Hamilton is happy to report some positive results from this year’s class of 11 students. The ECCO program is a combination of classroom time spent learning employment, communication, and job skills, and work experience time spent in employment settings. One of Hamilton’s students has turned his work experience with a contractor responsible for maintaining the Hayward Lake recreation area into a full-time job. “This employer couldn’t say enough about our program,” notes Hamilton. “He was very happy he’d got involved with us, and very impressed with our student’s reliability.” Another ECCO grad is working on-call as a short-order cook at a Ricky’s -restaurant, and one is working regular - part-time at IGA in the bakery. A fourth grad has entered the Family Childcare program at UCFV after discovering that she like working with - children through her ECCO work - experience. A fifth is planning to train as a resident care attendant after doing work experience in a care home. The others are all seeking work. Hamilton says she has plenty of potential students for September. “T have 38 inquiries for 15 spots, and enough students from the north side of the river to run another program in Mission. Although the program is based in Chilliwack, this year we had students from Hope, Agassiz, Maple Ridge, and Abbotsford, as well as Chilliwack. In September, one student will be moving to - Agassiz from Boston Bar so she can attend.” ~ Harv’s version of stress-relieving activity — Trades held their annual student barbecue recently. featuring the ever-popular dunk tank. Trades director Harv McCullough didn't go in the tank, but he did take his turn chucking a few pitches, some of them successtully dunking Trades instructors and staff, including program assistant Don Sciotti.