People of Georgian: Student success takes centre field for Muskoka Campus manager

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The Georgian community is full of unique, inspiring perspectives —and we’re sharing them as part of an ongoing series.

People of Georgian: Meet James Fielding

It’s total teamwork at the Muskoka Campus.

We’re a pretty small team and we do a lot of great work but that’s because everybody pitches in. It’s hard to even think of a project where it’s just one person doing it.

That’s a real strength.

A person with a red shirt and backwards grey cap holds up a camera to their face and looks forward while standing in front of a lake.

‘Teamwork makes the dream work’

Michelle Kennedy, Academic Campus Support Officer at Muskoka, always says, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” That seems to be our motto.

We also are exposed to a lot of different areas of business.

We don’t do near the volume that the Barrie Campus does, but our students have the same needs. Registration, purchasing, facilities, and student support are all examples of things a campus staff member may need to navigate over the course of their workday.

We are supported by so many great departments at Georgian, but when something breaks we can often be the only people on the scene to deal with it.

“There’s a real sense of ongoing accomplishments here.”
James Fielding

That’s the part that I love about Muskoka is that team atmosphere.

We also like being innovative and creative. For example, we have pre-apprenticeship that feeds into apprenticeship, but we can tailor those programs to meet local labour market needs.

There’s a real sense of ongoing accomplishments here.

Often, students come in through academic upgrading, then they end up in pre-apprenticeship, then they end up in a workplace, and then they end up coming back for three levels of apprenticeship.

We get to experience the success of the students in a way that some people at the bigger campuses maybe don’t get to see.

Finding a parallel between coaching sports, supporting students

Outside of work, I love coaching hockey and lacrosse.

Coaching is much more exhilarating, in some ways, than the wins and losses.

As a coach, the longer you’re in it, your players’ individual successes become just as important if not more important than those big championships.

It’s like seeing a student come to Georgian and, through a lot of hard work on their part and some help along the way from staff, they were able to really turn their life around. It’s the same feeling when you see a kid on the ice score.