{"id":4494,"date":"2010-08-11T12:45:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-11T17:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=4494"},"modified":"2015-09-25T13:33:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:33:23","slug":"alumna-comes-home-to-celebrate-ccovi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2010\/08\/alumna-comes-home-to-celebrate-ccovi\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna comes home to celebrate CCOVI"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Elizabeth

"I really do have a dream job," Elizabeth Grant-Douglas says.<\/p><\/div>\n

Brock’s Oenology and Viticulture (OEVI) program can be tough. The hours are long. The workload is heavy. It combines several disciplines tackled by its multitasking students.<\/p>\n

But Elizabeth Grant-Douglas has seen the result – a career that has taken her to the position of head winemaker at an acclaimed California winery.<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas will attend the 10th anniversary of the OEVI program on Aug. 20. As a member of its first graduating class, she wants current students to know that the hard work is worth it.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy to come home and let everyone know that a CCOVI degree opens a lot of doors for people,” she said. “The light at the end of the tunnel is a fantastic career.”<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas started university life as an undergraduate Economics student at the University of Waterloo. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as a career, she said.<\/p>\n

Then her father, retired Brock employee Brian Grant, told her about the new OEVI program at Brock.<\/p>\n

“It never crossed my mind that I could study wine making until Brock started this program,” she said.<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas enrolled and loved it. An added bonus was walking the same halls as her father, who retired last year as CCOVI’s experiential learning\/co-op program co-ordinator.<\/p>\n

Upon graduation, Grant-Douglas briefly worked in Niagara before moving to eastern Washington State to do a harvest at Columbia Crest. She moved to La Crema Winery in 2001. This year, facing her 10th harvest, she was promoted to head winemaker.<\/p>\n

The job is exhilarating and constantly changing, she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s science. There’s art. There are a lot of elements to what I do,” she said. “Whether I’m in the cellar or walking through the vineyards, my job changes constantly with the seasons.”<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas has found that her CCOVI degree is easily accepted at U.S. wineries. Her current employer wanted someone with cool climate experience, and “they knew I had it,” she said. “It’s right in the name.”<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas’ husband, David Douglas, was also in OEVI’s first graduating class. He works at Laffort, a wine making supply company.<\/p>\n

Grant-Douglas will attend the OEVI anniversary with her husband, her parents, and her 15-month-old son, Malcolm. She is eager to celebrate a program that has brought her so much happiness.<\/p>\n

“This career is better than I ever hoped,” she said. “I really do have a dream job.”<\/p>\n

The OEVI reunion will be at 6 p.m. at Pond Inlet. The celebration will include culinary treats and local wines. The musical act Chefs Without Hats will perform.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $65, with a portion of the ticket price going to CCOVI student awards. For more information, call 905-688-5550 x4949 or visit brocku.ca\/ccovi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Grant-Douglas was one of the first graduates of Brock’s 10-year-old Oenology and Viticulture program. This month, she’ll return to share where she’s been since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3,1],"tags":[237,61,236,3328],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8679,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions\/8679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}