(Brockville) - Nearly two dozen students enrolled in an innovative co-op program will discover if there really is no life like it.

Twenty students from ten high schools in the Lanark, Leeds, and Grenville area are getting a taste of military life through the Military Co-operative Education Initiative.  Under the innovative, one-semester course the students will gain basic military training through the Brockville Rifles reserve regiment while obtaining credits toward their high school diploma.  The students will learn basics such as weapons handling and drill as well as earning academic credits by completing an intensive historical research project.  Successful students will not only gain basic combat skills and four co-operative education credits, but will get paid while they learn.

 “There are some obvious incentives here,” says Major Roger Hum, Operations Officer with the Brockville Rifles.  “The kids walk away with four credits from co-op – and do it through the only co-op program that actually pays them a salary for attending.  Upon completion of the program they have the option of staying with the reserves, having a summer job, and a part-time job throughout the year.  Qualified applicants can even access money for college or university.”

The program, a joint initiative of the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB), the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, and the Brockville Rifles, is being offered as a way to engage students looking for an alternative to standard classroom lectures, says Robert Poirier, a UCDSB Special Assignment Teacher who helped design the course.

The soldiers report to the regiment five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. – much as they would during an average school day.  In the morning, students learn basic military skills.  In the afternoon, they participate in the UCDSB’s award-winning Lest We Forget project.  The recruits are encouraged to complete an in-depth research project on the life and service history of a fallen soldier from the First World War.  The project will help them develop their literacy, research, and presentation skills.

The students will use the regiment’s cutting-edge simulator for weapons training, and will also go on a field exercise at CFB Kingston to develop their winter survival and combat skills, says Hum.

Students such as Private Recruit Jonathan Lane of Prescott are excited about the program.  He says he’s interested in the course because his family has a history of military service.  His father was a reservist and his grandfather served as a paratrooper in the Second World War.

“I think this will give me some important skills and the personal discipline that will be useful later in life whether I carry on with the military or not,” said Lane of the course.

While he is unsure where the course will take him, the South Grenville District High School student hopes to eventually serve with the Canadian Forces on peacekeeping duties in places such as Bosnia and Afghanistan.

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For More Information Please Call:

Robert Poirier

Special Assignment Teacher

Upper Canada District School Board

Gateway Region Education Centre 

(613) 346-1044 ext. 4294

Pat Remmer

Special Assignment Teacher

Upper Canada District School Board

St. Lawrence Region Education Centre

(613) 925-3244

Major Roger Hum

Operations Officer

Brockville Rifles Reserve Unit

(613) 342-2755 ext. 2845