Camosun a Hart starter

Dwayne Hart, vice-president of finance and administration at Northern Lights College (NLC), credits Camosun College for re-launching his highly successful academic career.

Hart’s studies as a mature student at Camosun reignited his passion for education. He now travels the world promoting the new Centre for Clean Energy Technology, which is  situated over at NLC’s Dawson Creek campus.

“It’s a classroom that students can learn in,” says Hart, “as well as a demonstration site for the province.”

The $8-million development boasts classrooms and training facilities powered by clean energy sources, including solar panels that generate electricity and hot water, and a biomass boiler that heats the building with pine-beetle-infested wood pellets.

Hart’s love for higher education has seen him prosper in several different fields. He began his career in agriculture management after getting a diploma from the BC Institute of Technology.

After decades in the management field, and with just the single diploma, Hart decided to go back and continue his education at Camosun.

“What continuous education does is it gives you the opportunity to refresh your mind, look at things in a different way, and to continue to develop yourself,” he says.

In the late ’90s he opted for accounting, a field that had caught his eye during his management career.

“I decided to go to Camosun College because it had a reputation for being one of the best accounting and finance schools in Canada,” he says. “As a mature student, Camosun was very welcoming and an incredible place to study.”

Shortly after graduating from Camosun with a diploma in business administration-finance, Hart completed his CGA accounting designation.

He was then approached by the college and asked to be an accounting instructor, an opportunity he jumped at as it was the perfect opportunity for him to say thanks to Camosun in his own personal way.

“One of the things I wanted to do was give back to Camosun,” he says, “because I felt like they had given me such a lift in life.”

Now at NLC, Hart is dedicated to promoting the centre and inspiring students to further their education. “My ambitions,” explains Hart, “are to continue to give back to the province of BC through education.”