February 12, 2021

Students at Medicine Hat College (MHC) participated in a Virtual Critical Thinking Tournament last week, coming up with creative solutions on how to support our city’s vulnerable populations during the COVID -19 pandemic.

Making a difference in our community, students in COMM 253 focused on helping the homeless, while learners in APRO 167 found ways to support our seniors.

According to Marla Freitag, coordinator for the administrative office professional program, the project helped her students develop critical thinking as well as interpersonal and teamwork skills, while focusing on current and important societal issues.

"I was inspired by the students’ accomplishments on the project.  They worked hard to provide solutions to the challenge,” says Freitag. “They also showed great empathy and understanding to the situations others may face.” 

Community partners supplied the students with background information for the projects and judged the final work, a role that Shantel Ottenbreit, community resource worker for the City of Medicine Hat was grateful to have.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to see how the students were able to take a real world problem and come up with creative solutions in addressing it,” says Ottenbreit. “I worked with the students who were focused on helping our seniors. Social isolation amongst our older adult population has become a very real concern during this pandemic.  I appreciate the research that was done, the time that went into coming up with these creative solutions, and the empathy that the students displayed for the difficulty many seniors are facing in Medicine Hat.”

Preetkamal Kaur, a business student, mentions that she not only learned about organizations like the Salvation Army, but took this project as an opportunity to research homelessness in a broader sense to see how people are impacted on a national scale.

“I put myself in the place of someone who was struggling, how they are suffering from circumstances like a lack of food, the cold weather and COVID-19. As we did this project, we really thought emotionally, it made me thankful for all that I have, and it was a good experience overall. This assignment gave me a lesson in life - as I earn more, I will now give more to causes like this.”

For more information on the business program and the hands-on learning, visit www.mhc.ab.ca.For details on the administrative office professional program, click here.

Interested in partnering in our classrooms? Contact Marla at mfreitag@mhc.ab.ca.