Business, Arts and Sciences

Welcome from the Dean

Dr Kevin Smith

As Lethbridge College’s Dean of the Centre for Business, Arts and Sciences (CBAS), I am pleased to welcome you to our centre webpage. Whether you are a current or prospective student, a family member or part of our local, national or global community, we are glad you are here.

Deciding where to go to college and having a clear idea of your program of study are big decisions. Choosing a program in the Centre for Business, Arts and Sciences at Lethbridge College will prepare you for many exciting possibilities in the future.

Our centre provides exciting opportunities for students from all backgrounds and locations. We offer diverse programs of study that prepare learners for success in the real world. The faculty and staff are dedicated professionals who excel in connecting with students and providing educational experience equal to that of any university. Not only will you get the latest materials and resources in the classroom, but you will also have many opportunities for real life work application and experience during your studies.

While CBAS continues to grow and evolve, many of our programs (or their precursors) have been around since Lethbridge College opened in 1957. We offer a diverse variety of qualifications, including certificate and diploma programs, in a wide range of subjects and disciplines. Each year, more than 1,000 students register in a CBAS program or cluster of courses, which are taught by more than 100 experienced and qualified faculty members.

Our programs enhance the professional and personal development of our students to help them achieve their goals, at a time and way that works for them. Whether you are looking to earn your high school equivalency, master English as a second language, or obtain a qualification that enhances future opportunities and provides a springboard for further study or career aspirations, CBAS is the ideal place to start. Our programs and courses are recognized by many institutions for credit and transfer.

Every CBAS student is valued as an individual. We are proud to help our students attain their academic goals and achieve the knowledge, skills, and competencies required for success in their chosen field. Be assured that you are joining a remarkable community of faculty, staff, and students who are excited to help you develop the skills and experience needed to pursue your career goals.

Should you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our key contacts for more information.

We are available virtually or through a visit.

I hope to see you on campus soon!

Dr. Kevin Smith

Dean

Centre Spotlight

Stories of the Inni

Lethbridge College community members share aapistamikiitsinikssi* (buffalo stories)

Read in Wider Horizons

From the Court to the Class

Grad’s journey from unrecruited volleyball player to pro athlete leads him back to college in new roles.

Read in Wider Horizons

Deans Honours List

Faculty Author's textbook

Communications

Natalie Barfuss, instructor in the School of Business, is the new Canadian author for the interpersonal communication textbook: “Look: Looking out, Looking in.” The fifth edition is scheduled for publication in February 2023 and is currently used in the COM 1162 course. The new edition works to highlight equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and includes a feature from Marcia Black Water, Indigenous Coordinator for CBAS. It also presents additional work-focused content with clear connection to employability skills.

Start here.

Lethbridge College offers University transfer courses

University Transfer Start Here

General Arts & Science An affordable start to your education on a diploma course like no other

Business Administration (Accounting, Management, Operations) Business is our business

Exercise Science Ready to give your future a running start

Academic Upgrading Your future is waiting: reboot with high school equivalent courses

Honour Roll

2024

  • Chris Hotton, Instructor, PBA Professor of the Year

2023

  • Michael Kindley, General Arts and Sciences, Valedictorian
  • Simon Schaerz, General Arts and Sciences Instructor, ACAC Coach of the Year, 2023 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Indoor Track Championships
  • Gunnarr Gibb, Exercise Science Student, Second Year, ACAC all-conference team, Gold in men’s 300 metres and 4x200m relay, 2023 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Indoor Track Championships
  • Juan Carlos Olivares Contreras, ELC Student, Selected by Minister of Trades, Immigration and Multiculturalism to sit on a panel at upcoming Premier’s Summit on Fairness to Newcomers, March 17, 2023 (https://www.alberta.ca/premiers-summit-on-fairness-for-newcomers.aspx)
  • Kim Pregernig, Program Coordinator, Employee Excellence Award - Leadership
  • Karl Rejman, Instructor, Employee Excellence Award - Lifelong Learning
  • Jill Burrows, Instructor, PBA Professor of the Year

2022

  • Muneer Nazam, General Arts and Science, LCSA President
  • Joseph Dyck, General Arts and Science, Governor General Medal Winner
  • James Reimer, School of Business Instructor, LCFA/LCSA Teaching Excellence winner

2021      

  • Ashley Pierson, Business Administration, First ever Valedictorian

2020

  • Candice Crapo, Administrative Assistant, Employee Excellence Award

Lethbridge College Dual Credit Programs

CBAS contributes to the dual credit courses offered by the college to grade 11 and 12 high school students.

Lethbridge College Dual Credit Programs

View story archive

Schools & Programs

Academic Upgrading

School of Academic Upgrading

Whether you need to complete high school equivalency courses or upgrade your marks, our Upgrading courses can help you change directions or choose a new path to professional success. Many Upgrading courses are accepted in place of high school courses for admission at Alberta’s universities, colleges and technical institutes, as well as most colleges and universities in the United States.

Kelly Oikawa
Interim Chair
Kelly Oikawa
Candice Crapo
Administrative Assistant
Candice Crapo
School of Business

School of Business

The objective of the School of Business is to provide future business professionals with basic skills and knowledge, as well as the advanced concepts required to work in or run your own business or manage diverse office environments. With a variety of majors available, our program gives you hands-on skills and principles to succeed.

James Reimer
Interim Chair
James Reimer
Connie Wong
Program Assistant
Connie Wong
General Arts

School of General Arts and Science

The School of General Arts and Science offers courses and diplomas that are designed to prepare for employment, enter another college program or transfer to university. Students can build their own personal curriculum from an eclectic mix of courses; pursue majors in English, Psychology-Sociology or Exercise Science; or explore future career pathways from an Indigenous perspective.


University Transfer – Start here

The two-year General Arts and Science diploma program is designed to offer flexibility for students who wish to acquire a broad education in the arts and sciences in preparation for employment, entry to subsequent college programs or transfer to other post-secondary institutions and programs. The diploma offers a wide ranging curriculum with subjects in career and personal skills development, social sciences, sciences, humanities, and English.

The General Arts and Science diploma courses transfer to other colleges and about 95 per cent transfer to other post-secondary institutions. Use the diploma to enter university in year 3 of a chosen degree having used the General Arts and Science diploma as credit to cover the first two years.

Brent Cottle
Interim Chair, General Arts and Science
Brent Cottle
Marcia Black Water
Indigenous Coordinator
Marcia Black Water
Candice Crapo
Administrative Assistant
Candice Crapo
Lethbridge College Logo

Lakeshore Campus

Programming is provided at Lethbridge Correctional Center to incarcerated individuals in three educational streams – Academic Studies, Personal Development and Job Employment Training.  Each stream focuses on a different aspect of inmate education, with a universal goal of providing high quality courses that develop skills to transition successfully back into society.

Please address enquiries to 
lakeshore@lethbridgecollege.ca

English Language Centre

English Language Centre

The English Language Centre’s Pathway to English and Academic Culture (PEAC) allows you to learn English in a Languages Canada-approved program and meet most Lethbridge College post-secondary program language requirements. Admission to PEAC may also qualify you to gain a conditional offer of acceptance to a post-secondary program. Learn English and be ready with PEAC!

View our summer 2023 newsletter

Karen Smith
Manager
Karen Smith
Quentin Boehr
ELC Academic Coordinator
Quentin Boehr
Be Fit For Life

Be Fit For Life

The Be Fit for Life Centre is home to our on-campus fitness experts. We are here to support staff, students and community members to lead healthy, physically active lives. Be Fit for Life offers experience and resources for physical activity programming for all ages and abilities. This includes group exercise, workplace wellness and school programming, certifications, and occupational fitness testing and training. BFFL supports Work Integrated Learning (WIL) opportunities for students in the Centre and other college programs. We welcome collaboration with on-campus partners and the wider Lethbridge community.

Caylee Vogel
Program Administrator – Fitness & Recreation
Caylee Vogel
Diane Gallagher
Projects Coordinator - Fitness & Recreation
Diane Gallagher
Jamie Brown
Be Fit For Life Assistant
Jamie Brown

Faculty Profiles

In the News

Instructor at table with students

Accounting Dinner to Serve Up Career Advice Thanks to $18,000 Grant

The Centre for Business, Arts and Sciences at Lethbridge College will revive a once popular and influential networking event this fall to give students in its Business Administration – Accounting major an opportunity to connect with industry and potential employers.

Thanks to an $18,000 grant from the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) Education Foundation of Alberta, the School of Business will hold an Accounting Advantage Dinner this fall and again in 2025, bringing students in the Business Administration – Accounting major opportunity to connect with CPAs from business, industry, government and non-profit sectors. The students will be seated with professionals for a memorable meal, seasoned with plenty of career advice, and the evening ends with more networking.

School of Business Chair James Reimer (Business Administration 1990) says the event revives the concept previously known as the CMA Advantage Dinner, which promised “one evening, four courses and no final exam.” CMA stands for Certified Management Accountant, a legacy designation along with Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified General Accountant (CGA) that merged into CPA in 2015.

Reimer, who remembers attending the CMA events, said alumni still talk about how impactful it was. They remember the professionals they sat with and the advice they shared. "We’re so pleased to have the foundation’s support to revive this important event,” Reimer says. “We can always learn from colleagues in the industry, and this is especially vital to students who are about to graduate with their diploma and who are facing important choices about their career goals.”

Nicole Freeman (Business Administration – Accounting 2012), a School of Business instructor, says she remembers attending the dinner as a student, and it was “inspiring.” Hearing from accountants in Lethbridge, particularly the many who started their educational journey at Lethbridge, is important, she says. About half of the college’s graduating accounting majors continue to university, and many of them go on to a CPA designation.

But those who don’t continue to designation have many career options with their diploma, and the dinner is a chance to learn more about what they can expect once they graduate. Other opportunities that enhance classroom learning for Business Administration students include visits with CPA recruiters on campus, promotion of CPA-sponsored events to students and “speed dating”-style activities for students to connect with people working in the industry.

PBA Photo Op

Chris Hotton named PBA Professor of the Year

Congratulations to Chris Hotton, Business instructor, who was named Professor of the Year by the Prairie Baseball Academy (PBA). This student-nominated award recognizes one instructor or professor each year from both the college and the University of Lethbridge. This award has been offered for more than 20 years as the PBA’s way to show appreciation for the efforts made by instructors, advisors and other academic support staff who enable their student-athletes to succeed. Congrats and well done, Chris!

Kelly Thompson who joined a former student, Josh Helmer, on a podcast to discuss her project management class where students are building, managing, and implementing group projects (typically fundraisers for local charities). Podcast link is at:https://learninginnovation.podbean.com/e/e45-student-led-learning-%E2%80%93-shifting-theory-into-practice-with-real-world-project-management/

Nicole Freeman, who has secured repeat grant funding ($3,040) from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to allow students to prepare tax returns during the 2023 tax season for the WIL component of the TAX-2251 Taxation course. This effort as part of the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) was recently recognised by a Letter and Certificate of Appreciation signed by the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of National Revenue.

Michelle Garcia-Vega, instructor in English, was invited as a plenary speaker (talk entitled Totonacan Ideophones) at this year's Alberta Conference on Linguistics (https://sites.google.com/view/acol2023/) on November 25 at the University of Lethbridge.

Sophie Kerneis-Golsteyn organized the college’s response to antibiotic awareness week, November 18-24. Students from Cell Bio and Microbiology presented to other students and members of the college and put up posters to inform about antimicrobial resistance.

Simon Schaerz, whose research from his 2021-2022 CARIF project has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Electronic Gaming and E-Sports (JEGE). Two EXS students (Amanda Mohamed and Morgan Boyes) who assisted with the project are co-authors of the study.

Kristen DeMone, who chaired a session at the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce woman’s conference (Bold Move from Bold Conversation) on November 22/23.

Sandra Atwood on being the recipient of our college award, ENVS Publication of the Year 2024 from the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University for her article “Níksókowaawák as Axiom: The Indispensability of Comprehensive Relational Animacy in Blackfoot Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing” published in the Society and Natural Resources (https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2023.2180696)

Divisional/School Shout-Out:

  • BFFL on the success of their Fall programs, which include the continuation of Alberta Cancer and Exercise group and ‘Baby and Mama’ classes. New programs include:
    • Bridge Trekkers – an indoor walking program for older adults in partnership with the YMCA and Nordbridge.
    • Collaborating with Alberta Yoga College (Calgary) to provide space and support for their 200h certification process.
    • Running a training workshop for after-school leaders and teachers from Everactive Schools (Medicine Hat) to satisfy new provincial guidelines.
SILP Photo OP

Pathways to the Trades

Ian Bullock (centre) representing the Lethbridge Construction Association and Lethbridge Regional Safety Committee presents a cheque for a donation of $2,400 to support students enrolled in Lethbridge College’s Pathways to the Trades program.

Languages Canada Logo

English Language Centre Passes Rigorous Languages Canada Accreditation

The college’s English Language Centre (ELC) remains in good standing with its governing agency, Languages Canada, after passing a rigorous accreditation process for the second time in eight years.

The audit, done every four years, ensures the ELC maintains acceptable standards across several categories including admissions, instruction, curriculum, finances, occupational health and safety, records management and more. Documents, some thousands of pages in length, are produced and cover everything from policies to student rights.

“If you don’t have this accreditation, you can’t recruit and register international students,” says Karen Smith, manager, English Language Centre. “Meeting the strict standards of Languages Canada is an accomplishment in itself – hearing that our services are ‘above average’ is a point of pride.”

Languages Canada accreditation is recognized by the Government of Canada and internationally.

Karen says preparing for the audit took months of hard work, not only from herself, but from her entire ELC team as well as Marko Hilgersom, Registrar, and Chiye Kinjo, manager, International Services who sat in on focus groups and helped prepare documents.

“It was a lot of work, and everyone came together to get it done,” she says. “One thing the auditor mentioned is the great collaborative team we have, and I couldn’t agree more. I have the best team. I’m very lucky.”

Congratulations to everyone who worked tirelessly over the past several months so the college’s ELC could pass this accreditation with flying colours. Well done!

School Supplies

Business Student Success

Project Management student projects fall 2022

LC NAVI – Mobile application that will simplify your student life. Our project was to make the LC Navigation application to assist students, and staff members to find their destinations in the college. We find it difficult to locate classrooms in the college, hence we decided to go with this idea. We worked with three CIT students to develop a prototype. Starting with the mapping of the main floor of the IB Commons.

Art for a Cause – Designed to bring together a set of individuals who are interested in the arts and in helping the homeless at the same time. Our main goal was to raise money to contribute to a non-profit organization that supports homes people in the Lethbridge area. We picked Lethbridge Shelter and Stabilization Centre.

Business Club Creation - Our project this semester was restarting the Business Club. We started by re-writing the constitution, re-vamping our vision and mission statements, and then becoming ratified by the LCSA.

Community Service - Our project was a food give back to our fellow students. We accomplished this by working with the local community of Lethbridge to obtain non-perishable food donations to give back to students at the Lethbridge College. We also provided more information and awareness of possible jobs being offered from PepsiCo. A major goal of ours was to put a smile on people’s faces. We obtained a generous donation from PepsiCo. They donated over 2000 single serve chips. The local Save-On Foods on the west side also assisted us and donated over 300 regular sized water bottles.

Salon Fundraiser - The Twisted Salon’s Grand Opening Fundraiser was a huge success, we were able to raise more than our initial goal, the salon was busy with new clientele and we were able to bring awareness for the mindful munchies program. All donations from the silent auction were donated (over $750) to ‘The Mindful Munchies Program’. This program provides lunches to schools all over Lethbridge for less fortunate students. 

School Supplies Drive/Swap – Our project was a fundraising campaign where we gathered school supplies from donors and set up in the center core where student were able to take what they needed for free. Our mission was to make much needed school supplies readily accessible to those who may not be able to afford them in hopes of making the lives of the students at Lethbridge College easer and less stressful. 

Business Club Fundraising - The Business Club would like to start a funding program within the campus of Lethbridge College to which we can assist students and staff of all trades. The event will be fun for both the club, students, and staff who will participate in the event. Participants will be provided with three professional headshots in exchange for a small fee. The purpose of this project is to provide the community Lethbridge College with an opportunity of professional development.

CPA Logo

Business Administration program CPA recognition

The Lethbridge College Business Administration program is once again excited to share it has maintained recognition with the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA).

The annual CPA reporting and evaluation process is significant.  Our result is always good news for a number of reasons including the reassurance that our Business program, in particular Accounting, is doing what it should be doing, including preparing our students for success and further education including pursuing Canada’s only accounting designation – CPA.

Courses that receive transfer recognition with CPA: Acc1170, Acc1175, Acc2250, Acc2251, Acc2271, Acc2273, Bus1166, Bus2292, Ecn1180, Ecn2253, Sts2250, and Tax2251. With these courses our Business grads are well positioned to pursue the CPA designation.

Key Contacts

Kevin Smith
Dean
Kevin Smith
Kate Galbraith
Senior Administrative Assistant
Kate Galbraith
Julie Stocker
SILP/WIL Administrative Assistant
Julie Stocker
Marda Schindeler
Associate Dean
Marda Schindeler