GUELPH – Kerry Halliday has received a 2019-20 Everyday Hero award from the Upper Grand District School Board.
“I am so honoured that my colleagues went to the effort at a time that there’s so much going on,” said Halliday, Skills Upgrading Program manager for the Wellington Centre for Continuing Education.
“That they took time to do this is so humbling.”
Halliday has been working with adult learners at the Wellington Centre for Continuing Education for her entire career – over 30 years – moving from a part-time instructor role to manager.
The skills upgrading program helps adult learners prepare so they have the Grade 9 and 10 skills to achieve their Grade 11 and Grade 12 credits to obtain a high school diploma or be successful on their GED.
The program has sites throughout Wellington County, Dufferin County and Guelph.
“We don’t change people’s lives,” Halliday said. “We help people make a positive change in their life.
“Our learners are the ones in charge, we are only assisting them.”
One of Halliday’s nominators was Mira Clarke, executive director of Action Read, a community-based charity that aims to improve literacy, numeracy, computer and other essential skills.
The charity works with Halliday’s Skills Upgrading Program, among others, at the Wellington Literacy Services Committee.
“I am always extremely impressed with Kerry’s passion, dedication, expertise, and collaborative spirit,” Clarke said in her nomination letter.
“She is laser-focused on supporting her learners, and always speaks about her staff and the adults in her programs with the highest respect.”
Clarke said that Halliday is a creative and resourceful leader.
“Individuals who choose adult education as a career typically work with limited resources compared to other areas of education,” she wrote.
“Our sector is less known than others are, and for that reason, the tireless work of individuals like Kerry is not readily seen.
“We remain in this field because of the high job satisfaction that comes from helping individuals overcome serious barriers in their lives.”
She added, “It is special to be part of something that transforms the lives of individuals and their families in such a meaningful way.”
Halliday also said she believes in sharing information.
“I don’t think we should hold back if we’re resourcing something – we should share it throughout our community,” she said, acknowledging the UGDSB has more funding than some of the other organizations with which she works.
“We have assessment forms, we have mandates that we have to follow and I created them online and just shared them out to our community so that they could use them and tweak them to what they needed … so that we could continue to meet the mandates that our funding requires.
“And still serve our learners.”
These resources were especially helpful when the school board went to remote learning in March due to COVID-19, Halliday noted.
“As a leader, Kerry creates a work and learning environment that is relaxed, trusting, respectful and supportive,” Clarke said.
“She is open to new approaches and tools, and does not hesitate to advance a cause that she knows will benefit her learners.
“Recently for example, she took a leadership role in advocating with our local member of parliament for the return of the National Literacy Secretariat.
“She also led her team with vision and foresight through the COVID-19 crisis, and was able to guide others in our sector through the sharing of her experience, ideas and resources.”
Halliday said she loves her job because she loves seeing people succeed.
“The absolute best time for all of us is graduation,” she said.
“When you get to see adults walk across the stage and their family is … hollering and are so excited for them because this means such a big life change …
“A lot of our learners have seen success in other areas and this is the monkey on their back that … always bugs them that they haven’t done this.
“So it is a totally rewarding job.”
For more information about the Skills Upgrading Program at the UGDSB contact Halliday at kerry.halliday@ugdsb.on.ca or 226-821-2694.
Those interested can also visit getcredits.ca.
