NORTH BATTLEFORD — Supported by the provincial government, North West College students were in the spotlight this week as $60,000 in scholarships between the North Battleford campus and Meadow Lake campus were awarded Nov. 6, to support their continued education and future careers.
For many students, including Shona Poitras, the scholarship means less burden for her family – makes her think of her children, ages 18 and nine. Her 18-year-old just graduated from high school and her nine-year-old was present at the annual awards ceremony, proudly supporting her mother.
“I am a single mom, so I even have family stuff, but kind of by myself, I try to go to school and take care of my kids,” Shona said. “It's hard, but I manage.”
Poitras, who lives near Cochin, travels half an hour each way to school to take the course: “There's lots of opportunities taking this course like you could do all kinds of stuff with it, like working in a bank, accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, like all those things interest me. I wish I could do them all.”
The students in the class represent a wide array of backgrounds, with some hailing from Canada, India, the Philippines, and Russia, bringing diverse perspectives to the classroom: "a diverse class with different thinking," as instructor Modupe Oyebanji called it.
Oyebanji teaches a range of subjects at North West College, from finance to entrepreneurship, emphasized the value of hands-on learning. "I like impacting young adults. One of my students is like 18 years old, and the oldest is about 39 so I think that I am impacting the next generation of future business leaders."Oyebanji added that she sees the scholarships as a “motivation” for people like Poitras, one of many adult students in the class.
“I've seen them analyze business scenarios. I've seen them develop actionable solutions… I've also seen them dive into their topical area of interest, like marketing, like financial analysis, like operational management. I have seen them do well, and I know that these experiences will provide these students an actual business environment and prepare them for internships or the future schools.
“Scholarship is one of the ways to just say: ‘Well done. I know that you will do better next year,’” Oyebanji said.
The scholarships are part of a larger push to provide accessible education in North Battleford, reducing the need for young people to move away for schooling. Outgoing City Mayor David Gillan, who has long advocated for better local educational facilities since elected, said “We want them [students] to stay here.”
“I come to this every year, and I've seen the amount of scholarships going up and up each year. It's really amazing.
"We've been working really hard for four years, and I've been working very closely with the Board of Governors of the college and the management of Northwest College to get a new campus here with the province of Saskatchewan. So I'm hoping that in the next couple years, that's going to happen," said Gillan.
After the ceremony and photos with students and their scholarship packages, North West College President Eli Ahlquist said he learned “how important this can be for our students,” he continued. “We saw that they had their children, their family here, and so it really is a community that ensures that people are successful.”
“... Lots of the new programs that we've added, so things like expansions to psychiatric nursing, the addition of different trades programs, and even looking to our early childhood education programs, and how critical all those are to not just our local economy, but to the province as a whole, and furthermore, with Canada,” Ahlquist said. “We're really looking to the future as we try to align what we're providing for education and what's needed within the communities.”
A year ago, before deciding to return to school, Poitras felt stuck.
"I didn't know what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do. I wasn’t happy," she said. "Now that I'm in school, I feel happier and proud of myself."
Poitras encourages others to believe in themselves and not be afraid to return to school if they feel it’s right for them.
When asked about her plans for the rest of the day, Poitras said she just wanted to relax and soak in the joy: "I’m going to take my little girl swimming and maybe go out to eat to celebrate. Even my friend there, we're in the same program, and she won the same (scholarship) as me, so our class will be pretty excited."
