Herzing Blog

Campus President Kevin Crupi, National Director of Academics Robin Day, The Hon. Jill Dunlop, and Academic Dean Lama Ziad

This week, Herzing College Ottawa was pleased to host The Honourable Jill Dunlop, Ontario’s Minister of Colleges and Universities, for her first visit since her appointment in 2021. 

Minister Dunlop was welcomed by several members of Herzing staff, who provided a guided tour of the campus’s classrooms and facilities. The minister also spoke with students in our Personal Support Worker program and met with some of our employer partners.

To succeed as a medical office administrator, you need to be both highly organized and deeply caring. You must be motivated by a desire to make a positive difference in the lives of patients.

Chantelle Ducolon exemplifies all of these traits. Her dedication and commitment to delivering the best possible educational experience consistently earns her the respect of her students—and recently, it earned her recognition as Herzing College Ottawa’s instructor of the year!

We caught up with Chantelle this week to get her reflections on the honour, the MOA program, and her own career journey.

Here’s her story.

When you think of a community services worker, you might picture someone helping out in shelters, halfway houses, or youth centres. A high school classroom probably doesn’t come to mind.

But that’s because you haven’t met Sarah Laham.

Sarah completed Herzing’s Community Services Worker program with a stellar GPA and fully expected to follow the typical CSW career path. Instead, she landed a position as an educational assistant in an Ottawa high school—and found it was exactly where she was meant to be.

Here’s her story.

Since it first opened back in 1970, Herzing College Ottawa has helped more than 9,000 people prepare for rewarding new careers.

After years of working various retail jobs and then staying home to raise her three kids, Amanda Gauthier decided it was time to get some career training.

She had no post-secondary education and was nervous about going back to school in her 30s. She also struggled with “mom guilt” for taking on this new challenge while her children were still very little. Her youngest was not even school age yet.

But she was passionate about helping people and ready to pursue a new path. So she took the plunge and enrolled in the Community Services Worker program at Herzing College.

It was a decision that changed her life.

We spoke with Amanda recently to learn about her experience with the course, the instructor, and the internship.

Here are the highlights of our conversation.

When Kris Wattie was finishing high school, he didn’t really know what he wanted to do with his life.

He did know that he enjoyed gaming. He got very involved in the gaming community, and a game server owner gave him a chance to start learning about the administration aspect.

That inspired him to pursue a career in network administration. But first he needed some quality training.

Kris looked around for a course that reflected his learning style. He wanted a program that would let him explore one topic fully before moving on to the next.

He found it in the Computer Networking Technology program at Herzing College.

Kris successfully completed the program—and landed a job as an IT administrator at Novotech!

We caught up with him recently to get his take on the course, the staff, and his experiences during training.

Here’s his story.

Marina Denisova always knew she wanted to help people change their lives for the better.

She completed graduate studies in social work in her native Russia. But when she came to Canada, she knew she needed additional training.

She needed to build on her English language skills and learn about the social programs and systems that were in place in this country.

That’s what led her to enrol in the Community Services Worker (CSW) program at Herzing.

Marina graduated from the program and is now an ECE assistant with the Ottawa Catholic School Board.

We spoke with her recently to get her thoughts on the CSW course, the instructor, and the overall Herzing experience.

Here’s what she had to say.

Photo: A.J. Cote (right) with Big Jump co-founder Cory Morrison (left) in an interview with CTV News about the Ottawa animation industry.

This week, we talked with the creator of Herzing's 2D Animation program, the amazingly talented (and generally awesome) A.J. Cote.

We wanted to learn about the alleged "job boom" for animators in Ottawa, and find out what's driving this trend.

A.J. has worked as an animator in Ottawa for decades, so he definitely has his finger on the pulse of hiring trends and the industry as a whole.

He also helped develop Herzing's animation program, which he says was designed to produce grads for local studios to hire.

In this interview, A.J. explains what's going on with Ottawa's animation scene, why there's a shortage of talent, and how Herzing is filling that gap.

Considering a career in animation? Here's what you need to know.

Photo: Shannon McGrath in her personal support worker uniform

After working at Tim Hortons for 18 years, Shannon McGrath was ready for a change.

She wanted a job with more meaning. She wanted a career that felt challenging, where she could actually make people's lives better.

So, despite deep fears about returning to school, Shannon took a leap of faith and enrolled in the Personal Support Worker program at Herzing College Ottawa.

She struggled with a learning disability and battled with anxiety, but in the end, Shannon made it through.

In fact, she was so successful, she was offered a PSW job after her internship at Cité Parkway Retirement Residence, where she still works today.

We interviewed Shannon to get her review of the PSW program. We asked about her experience in class and how she feels about her new career.

Read on for the full story.

Photo: Megan Winters, 2D animation graduate, Herzing College Ottawa

Wondering what it's like to take an 2D animation course? Have questions about breaking into the animation industry?

Megan Winters is the perfect person to talk to.

She got into 2D animation a bit later in life, after putting several years into an office job. She tried out some different animation schools but struggled to find the right fit.

She even landed a few animation gigs, but needed more advanced software skills to really get her career off the ground.

Fast-forward a few years and Megan's just about finished the 2D animation course at Herzing. The best part? She has already been hired by a major Ottawa animation studio.

We interviewed Megan to get her opinion of the 2D program, and learn more about her career plans after graduation.

Find out what to expect in class and if this training might be right for you.