Wider Horizons

Anna Marie WilleyAnna Marie Willey, Regina

Communication Arts - Print Journalism 1976

Forty years ago this fall, Anna Marie Willey stepped on a Greyhound bus and rode 500 miles to arrive at the place that she says ended up shaping her whole professional life: Lethbridge College.

Since her graduation from the Communication Arts – Journalism program in 1976, Willey has held more than a dozen full-time positions, including information officer at Parkland Community College, newspaper reporter at the Rosetown Eagle, vice-president of communications and public affairs at SaskPower, and chief of communications for the Government of Saskatchewan. Most recently, she had worked as director of communications, marketing and alumni relations at the University of Regina before deciding last fall to transition to “semi-retirement” and enjoy even more time with family and friends and working as president of her own Regina-based business, Total Communications Services Ltd.

She says she has witnessed some significant changes during the course of her career. “Over the years, the changes in technology have been beyond imagination,” she says. “We used ‘Justowriter’ technology – that was even before photo typesetting – for the Endeavour. Now individuals can publish anything instantly from anywhere in the world using a cell phone.” But other aspects of the business – accuracy, meeting deadlines, developing good relationships with sources and colleagues – have stayed as important as they were when she was in the classroom with the inspirational Georgia Fooks.

Willey says her greatest joy during her college years was meeting Wade Willey, who was enrolled in Radio Arts. Last year, the couple celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary with family and friends. During the celebration, they fondly recall classmates Terry Willock and Roy Thurston who were members of their wedding party as well as classmates in Journalism and Radio Arts.

“Both Wade and I found employment in our chosen fields as a result of what we learned at Lethbridge College,” she says of choices made nearly four decades ago. “Unquestionably, that early life choice positively rooted my journey of working with words and continues to affect who I am today.”

Shantell Winter, Swift Current

Child and Youth Care 1995

For Shantell Winter, it’s all about the relationships. The 1995 graduate of the Child and Youth Care program acknowledges that there are some stresses that come with being a youth worker – “mostly that there are never enough hours in a day,” she explains. But those are far outweighed by the connections that last long after students move on.

“The relationships I make with students and their families are just awesome and last such a long time,” says Winter, who works in the Chinook School Division in Swift Current. “A young man recently added me as a friend on Facebook and wished me a happy birthday. I had worked with him when he was 12, and he’s 29 now.”

Winter came to the college specifically for the Child and Youth Care program and returned to her home province to work. She was, as far as she has been able to determine, the first youth worker in southwestern Saskatchewan, and she is thrilled that youth workers are now found in every school in her division. She says much of her work involves helping students with problem solving skills. “They just need an adult to help give them the tools,” she says. “I spend a lot of time just trying to teach them how to work things out themselves.”

Wider Horizons
Lethbridge College
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