Adult Education

Sherice
The Adult Education Partnership had 535 students registered for the 23-24 school year working towards their Ontario Secondary School Diploma or taking upgrader courses.

Throughout the year we offered a variety of opportunities via independent learning and google classroom course options, as well as a spring Building Skills for Success Dual Credit course in partnership with Confederation College.

Alex
The Sioux lookout site partnered with the AZH program to deliver the education portion. The Azhemiinigoziwin Program focuses on participants revitalizing their inherent strength through education, cultural engagement, and other learning or skill development. Students are empowered to further their high school or post secondary pathways, or enter the workforce. During the program students reclaim their self-esteem, self-confidence, and renew their Anishinaabe identities.

Angie
In June, we were excited and proud to celebrate 31 graduates across the region as they received their High School Diploma at our annual grad ceremony held in Kenora at Manidoo Baawaatig. No matter how old or what stage in life our students are at, we ensure they are able to continue their studies in a flexible manner that suits their lifestyle and personal circumstances. We enable them to grow, expand their possibilities and reinforce that they are closer than they think!…

Candace Field, our valedictorian, was one of those Graduates and she shares her experience with us….

Hello everyone, thank you for coming out to celebrate with us today. To my fellow graduates, congratulations! This was a long day coming, and we did it!

My name is Candace, I am forty-eight and thought this day would never come. I know many of you went through your own trials and tribulations to get here today, I am happy and proud that we made it here together. Today will not be one we ever forget. When I was younger, I wasn’t ready for school, I thought I already knew everything there was to know, so I dropped out very early. I then landed myself into a phase one open custody facility for almost a year. I did however do correspondence from my hometown high school and even managed to get down to only a couple credits.

(Unfortunately, I found out just over a year ago, they were lost and never made onto my transcript.)

Then I started my family. Very quickly school was put on the back burner. I had two amazing kids to raise. With a family comes responsibility. Family always did and always will come first. When my kids got older, we looked into me going back to school, and given incorrect information, I didn’t go ahead with it.

In 2015 I was a passenger in a car accident. I am now disabled. My BISNO (Brain Injury Services Northwest Ontario) worker talked me into taking another look at it. Scott took me into the Adult Education office, Marg and Angie got me started right away. They even talked me into taking extra courses. I really enjoyed going back, with the exceptions of essays lol, I’d rather pick fly poop out of pepper with boxing gloves on than write essays and believe me I’ve said that a lot. Lol. I set a goal, I wanted to be part of the graduating class of 2024. So I worked hard, I was determined I needed to get this done.

I felt ready and wanting to learn now. My family, friends, my worker, and my teachers were great. When I got stuck on one of the lessons, they helped me though it. Having the support team that I did was more helpful than they will ever be aware of, I am grateful and incredibly lucky to have them.

In conclusion, No matter what we went through in life, it’s never too late to make good choices and succeed. Once again CONGRATULATIONS to my fellow graduates.

WE DID IT. WE ARE THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 2024.