Tulita’s Grade 12 graduating class celebrated the end of high school with a couple hundred of their biggest supporters – about half of the community – on June 14.
Graduates Tristan MacCauley-Ayah, Damian McPherson, Jaden Lennie, Jaiden Wrigley, Gosahte Bird, Lacey Wrigley and Rachel Horassi paraded down a glitter-covered runway to pop and rock songs to mark the end of their time at Chief Albert Wright School.
Karen Christiansen, a program support teacher at the school, said this year’s graduating class is much larger than the school has had in the past few years.
Christiansen said during the Covid-19 pandemic, when school had to pivot to online learning, some students “got out of the habit” and missed a year or two of school, resulting in this year’s graduating class being composed entirely of mature students who returned to complete school.
“Two of them had returned to school after being away from school for about, I want to say, four years,” she gave as an example. These students joined the school’s True North program, which is for students who dropped out and are returning, or want to upgrade their Grade 12 courses.
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“It’s a huge thing for them to have that accomplishment, to finish school outside of the normal school setting, because when they get older, life happens, and it’s hard to be at school during the day,” Christiansen said.
She said a theme for the students this year was perseverance.
“I think that’s what a lot of these students have done. They could have given up long ago, but with the staff pushing them and them pushing us, we were able to get them through.”
The graduating class was a very lively, independent and interesting group, she said, noting they organized fundraising events throughout the year and decorated the gym with balloons, tinsel and glitter by themselves for their graduation.
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Christiansen said making the graduation into a big event is important for the younger students at the school, so they can see the significance of school and graduation.
The school holds a light ceremony at each graduation, which symbolizes the passing of knowledge.
“We have an Elder with a candle and we light that candle – she’s the knowledge holder. And all the grads have a candle, and she passes on her knowledge through the lighting of their candle. And then, in turn, the grads pass on their knowledge to someone younger,” Christiansen said.
“So it’s quite significant where they have somebody that they’re passing their knowledge on to … and you see the kids’ eyes light up. I think they get the importance of it.”
A couple of students in the graduating class are heading to post-secondary school in Fort Smith and Calgary in the next year.
Christiansen said it can be hard for students to leave such a small community and go somewhere bigger, but the year’s group is a little more mature and a little more ready to take off and try something new.
Chief Albert Wright School is poised to have an even larger group of 10 graduates next year – another set of students catching up and graduating after Covid-19.
