South Delta's Sherri Calder started out as a student at the Justice Institute of B.C., she returned later as an instructor and was recently honoured with the institute's Instructor of the Year award.
"Total shock," she says of her reaction to the award. "I was completely surprised."
Calder, who was born and raised in Tsawwassen, teaches conflict resolution courses at the Justice Institute's Centre for Conflict Resolution and in the Law Enforcement Studies Diploma Program.
Calder attended the Justice Institute of B.C. as a student in the 1990s. She was interested in going into mediation and was initially only going to take one class.
"I ended up loving it," she says.
She graduated with a certificate in conflict resolution in 1995.
Working in victim/ offender mediation and restorative justice, Calder returned to the institute as a coach to help students during roleplaying activities in conflict resolution classes.
She started teaching about eight years ago, and has been teaching in the diploma program for the last five years where she works with future law enforcement professionals. Calder says her award likely came about as a result of feedback from her students. "We have a lot of fun learning about conflict, which can be difficult," she says.
In addition to her teaching duties, Calder, who is married to a Delta police officer and has three children, returned to school seven years ago to complete her master's degree and now also works as a clinical counselor.
Calder says she is able to draw on her husband's experiences as a police officer to help prepare her students for what's to come. "I feel like I have an inside view," she says, adding that with the actions of police officers making the news more often, she takes the opportunity to discuss the scenarios with her students.
"We talk about doing as much as you can with integrity."
