{"id":40024,"date":"2016-07-06T14:51:49","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T18:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=40024"},"modified":"2017-07-04T16:03:39","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T20:03:39","slug":"alumna-sees-program-she-helped-start-benefit-her-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/07\/alumna-sees-program-she-helped-start-benefit-her-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna sees program she helped start benefit her students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"page-intro dropcap\">As Jennifer Currie watches her students enjoy their activity-filled day at Brock University, she&#8217;s proud of how much the PALS program has grown since she helped create\u00a0it 21 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something to feel good about,\u201d the Brock alumna and Prince of Wales principal said recently, as she shared laughs and memories with old friends.<\/p>\n<p>She visited with a class taking part in the Positive Active Living for Students (PALS) program, which aims to\u00a0expose students to a variety of sports and activities that are inclusive for all students.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pull-quote\">I started the program in 1995 to expose local students to Brock and the facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Currie\u2019s history with PALS dates back more than two decades,\u00a0when she was an undergrad student in the Physical Education program.<\/p>\n<p>Through the next several years, she would earn her Masters in Education from Brock, while serving as the team captain and eventual head coach of the women\u2019s volleyball team. Once she landed a full-time position at Brock, Currie knew there was more she could do to build on the University\u2019s connection to the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started the program in 1995 to expose local students to Brock and the facilities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to give students a positive experience on campus and provide them with the opportunity to participate in activities that they wouldn\u2019t otherwise have at their schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seven-year-old Ruth Rix came to Brock for the day with her Grade 2\u00a0class, and enjoyed \u201clearning about different games\u201d she hadn&#8217;t heard about before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really liked archery because we get to shoot the arrows,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to try rowing later because we get to go in the kayak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, 196 classes and 4,442 students from 67 different schools from the Niagara Region and Greater Toronto Area attended between May to June, and the program continues to sell out each year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high quality instructors and the varsity athletes who understand the importance of physical education help make this program thrive,\u201d Currie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Jennifer Currie watches her students enjoy their activity-filled day at Brock University, she&#8217;s proud of how much the PALS program has grown since she helped create it 21 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":40025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,1],"tags":[5521,2028],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40026,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40024\/revisions\/40026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}