In 1978 Angela Henry was hired at Camosun to be the Program Leader of a new Aquatic Specialist Program, the first in Canada to train Recreation leaders in all aspects of Aquatics.
Angela had 10 days to prepare the curriculum overviews for the 14 courses. She survived that year working 80-hour weeks, staying just a week ahead of the students. Thus began her 29-year relationship with Camosun.
Angela recalls that her little green Cortina compact station wagon contained all the equipment for seven aquatic sports – a sailboard and a kayak on the roof racks; scuba gear in the back; along with wetsuits, mask, flippers, kayak paddle and canoe oars. It seemed rather glamorous to some of her colleagues who would see her strapping canoes onto a trailer in the sunshine and “going to work”. They didn’t smirk so much when it was raining torrentially and bitterly cold. She and Lynda Warren, her teaching partner, taught all through those cold months at a multitude of outdoor sites.
Angela taught all the courses in the Recreation Leadership program, including the interpersonal communications courses. In recognition of this, she was invited, in 1980 to become a member of the Psychology department. Thus began her dual role at the college. After completing a Masters degree in Educational Psychology/Counselling, Angela began teaching a wide range of first- and second-year Psychology courses in Communications and Counselling culminating with her writing a textbook on Interpersonal Communications.
Over the years, the Aquatic Specialist Program underwent many revisions ending its life as the Recreation Leadership Program before the curriculum elements were subsumed under Camosun’s new Centre for Sport and Exercise in 2006.
Angela continued to teach in two schools – Arts & Sciences and Health and Human Services – until her last year at Camosun when she developed the new Sports Psychology curriculum for the Sport and Recreation Management program.
In all, Angela served under six Deans and a dozen Chairs in two Schools.
Submitted by Faye Ferguson, CCARE Retiree
Comments 2
I was in the first Aquatic Specialist Program in 1978. It was an extraordinary course. Angela was an excellent instructor and amazing person. I have the utmost respect for Angela. One of my most memorable years.
I graduated in 1983 from the Aquatic Specialist Program. Fond and wet memories brings forth reflections from which I am still learning today. Angela’s guidance which was not always appreciated helped shape me as a young man. I, too, have the utmost respect for Angela.