VIU supports multi-generational learning

For Irene Kopec, TJ Bickerton and Deb Bickerton, studying at Vancouver Island University is a family affair.

Three generations - grandmother, mother and daughter - all attended VIU.

“I love it. It’s fantastic,” said TJ Bickerton, 28, a third-year student in the Bachelor of Science program, majoring in Biology. “The teachers are passionate and approachable.”

TJ’s mom Deb is a third-year Fisheries and Aquaculture student at the Nanaimo campus. TJ’s 81-year-old grandmother, Irene Kopec, completed a beginners computer course last year.

Kopec has always valued education. She was a teacher in Saskatchewan in 1945 in a one-room school house after only 14 weeks of training. “I taught grades 1 to 12 for a few years,” said Kopec. “Things were simpler back then.” Eventually, Kopec married and raised her family in Nanaimo while operating a garage in Departure Bay with her husband. She enjoyed a long career working at Sears, and for the past 10 years, she’s been a home-stay mother to VIU international students.

TJ’s mom Deb took part-time art classes from 1996 to 2006 while raising kids and working full-time. “I had the benefit of trying a lot of different jobs,” she said. “I’ve worked as a professional seamstress, butcher and cashier, and taught fitness classes.”

When her marriage ended in 2006, Deb got serious about her education. She completed the Fisheries and Aquaculture diploma program at VIU. After working for a few years as an independent environmental monitor in Toba Inlet (across from Powell River) and at a hatchery and with Mainstream Biological in Campbell River, she returned to school full-time.

“I want to reach a higher level and knew I needed more education,” she said. Deb upgraded math, chemistry and physics through VIU’s Adult Basic Education (ABE) program. She’s now a third-year student in the Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and Aquaculture degree program. “It’s tough but I’m getting through it,” she said.

TJ also returned to school as a mature student and upgraded through ABE after years of working as a restaurant server. She dropped out of grade 12 just before graduation, after her parents split up. “Life was upside-down,” she recalled. At 24, while working in Chemainus she met a counsellor from VIU’s Adult Basic Education program and he convinced her to go back to school. She upgraded through ABE at the Cowichan campus and then enrolled full-time in the science program.

“I’m so glad I made the decision to go back to school,” said TJ. “It’s neat that my grandma and mom are both at university, too. My grandma is more like a sister to me.”

Kopec hopes to take another computer course in the New Year. “My granddaughter gave me an old computer so I thought I better learn how to use it,” she said. “It’s been fun learning something new.”

Kopec is also delighted her granddaughter and daughter are pursuing their education, and that.another granddaughter, 18-year-old Shayne Kopec, is also studying at VIU with dreams to become a teacher.

“Education is always great,” she said. “You can never learn too much.”