In partnership with the Town of Drayton Valley, the Norquest college was offering a ZERO FEE TUITION for the programs of Business Administration and the first year of a bachelor's degree in arts and science,that is transferable to a university, after course completion.

The town cancelled the program due to no interest.

I want them to try again and reboot the mission (so to say) because I think it's a great opportunity and they just needed to advertise more and get the word out. I'm going to request a few changes as well, I'll explain those, at the end of the email.

If you were able to receive a college course at the only expense of book fees, wouldn't u take the opportunity?? May as well, right? Even just to have something to fall back on. Maybe you're wanting better pay (everyone does, right?). Whatever the reason, it's a good idea to do it, anyway.

The college told me they've been thinking about trying again but aren't sure. The college told me to email the town ( info@draytonvalley.ca ) and to also email "Zero Tuition" ( zerofee@draytonvalley.ca ) ;; they also told me if a person were to gather a list of people who would do the programs or even be interested in them, that they might try again. (And that's why this petition exists now. Please sign it)

My email to the town reads this;

To: The Boss,

Hi. I'm Lisa Fitzpatrick and just recently found out about the "Zero Tuition Fee" program that has recently been cancelled. I personally want to say that if you were to try this again, I would take the first year of BA of Arts and Science that you were offering. I believe there would be much more interest from the people in town, if it was advertised differently. I know so many who didn't hear about this, who would've jumped all over it. I've built an online petition so I can gather a list for you, of people who would take the opportunity. Also, I have some ideas, if you wouldn't mind giving me a few minutes to explain.

Instead of only allowing 5 applicants to have their program paid for and instead of only having 2 programs to choose from, what should happen is, say, for example, the first 20 or 50 that are absolutely serious about taking and completing the program, should be aloud to chose any program that they would like to take, that the college has to offer. I say this because to only have 2 to chose from, will limit the amount of interest. To increase incentive to join, there should be more options to choose from.

In order to make sure that they'll complete the program, there should be a clause where say, if up to 25% of the program has been completed and the student decides to drop out or stop showing up, they have to pay for all expenses, including tuition. That allows a person the chance to see if that's what they're interested in doing and it also harbours the people who weren't serious to begin with.

I believe there's many people that would love the chance at a college diploma or certificate but was never able to afford it or maybe it'll be a person that thought they'd never go to college and they now regret that decision, but can't do anything about the situation. Maybe it's someone that wants a change in career or just another profession under their belt, but already has student loans and can't. It would be the chance/opportunity of a lifetime, for many people in this town. I also believe if the opportunity is there and people know about it, they'll take it.

It could go right back into our community by having people that are more educated, thus able to move up in their business or even change their life by having to work at Walmart as a cashier to working as the higher paid manager or from cashier to business administrator...
That, in turn, would open up positions for the next generation to move in and begin getting the foundation for their life, built.

If there's a good turn out, this could be something that could be done for a few years. The first year would catch people's interest, they'll see others doing it and be like, "Hey, I could do that too."; meaning the second year would have a better turn out. And the third year would have the best turn out, then all of a sudden, the norquest college in Drayton Valley is thriving. Who knows, we could start a trend and have other colleges/schools follow. It could literally change this province, if not the country, if everyone could get on board with free tuition. We must think of the future generations. To do that, there must be change.

Thank you for your time and I hope to receive a response.

Sincerely,

Lisa Fitzpatrick