Alberta Women's Institute - Supporting Lakeland for Years

The Alberta Women's Institute is responsible for the Alberta Women's Institute, Cornelia R, Wood Award

Lakeland College has been awarding a first year female student enrolled in full-time studies the Alberta Women’s Institute, Cornelia R. Wood Award since 1964. The successful female candidate must demonstrate a satisfactory academic record and has had to have made a positive contribution to the community and/or college. This award was named after Cornelia R. Wood (1892-1985) for her dedication to empowering women and her outstanding accomplishments in her career. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for 23 years and she was the first women to be a sitting MLA and town mayor at the same time. Along with these accomplishments, Cornelia R. Wood also composed many articles for Home and Country.

The Alberta Women’s Institute (AWI), is one of the oldest voluntary organization for women in Alberta. The goals of AWI are to help women obtain home management and leadership skills in the community and home-life. Active community involvement and beneficial social networks are also prominent goals of the AWI.

The goal for the AWI, at this time, was to provide emotional and intellectual support for all the women who had immigrated to Alberta in the early twentieth century. Many of these women did not have experience in the agricultural world and were in need of education and income.

In the early 1900s, the government started offering agriculture courses to farmers across Alberta. The farmer’s wives started to attend these courses as well, and were particularly successful in the poultry and dairy courses. Eventually the idea of the wives actively participating in the agricultural field caught on, and by the 1920s, there were over 250 WI branches across the province supporting these women.