WEYBURN – The Weyburn campus of Â鶹´«Ã½AVeast College held their graduation and awards celebration on Friday afternoon at McKenna Hall, including the awarding of scholarships and bursaries.
The interim president and CEO, Stephen Eger, told the grads and the gathered audience, “Like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a whole college to create a grad.”
He paid tribute to all of the teaching staff as well as the behind-the-scenes staff, such the facilities staff, the IT team, the finance team and human resources.
In speaking of the value of the college, Eger said, “We see innovation as you decided to make a change in your life and go after that thing. We see responsibility in coming back to school as an adult. It’s hard to balance school and learning, family and your home life. And lastly we see authenticity, as you’re doing it your way and following your journey.”
There were two valedictorians for the ceremonies, Jeannie Payton of the adult basic education program, and for the skills training programs, Cassidy Sinclair of the Practical Nursing program.
Payton said as she pondered what to say in her valedictory speech, she wondered what her message should be and said, “To be honest, I didn’t know if I had it in me to do this today.”
While it was a lot of hard work as they acquired knowledge (“excluding math – math and I did not see eye to eye”), Payton said, “I love this school. I loved everybody at the school, and at times some of us questioned the need to attend class.”
She noted that coming back to school was no small feat. “It’s the most significant and life-altering achievement that all of us can claim today,” she said. “Instead of following the plan of past generations, I hope you make your own plans.”
Sinclair said while the work in the course was at times hard, “it’s one of the most rewarding decisions we could have made for ourselves” to care for the sick and the dying.
She said over the past two years, they have spent about 500 hours with patients, and they’ve all grown and learned together, and at times have cried together also.
Sinclair added that any patient would be very fortunate to have any of her nursing classmates care for them.
Graduating from the Adult 12 program was Lisa Davis, Jeannie Payton and Kelsey Ross. The Hairstylist program had the following graduates: Chloe Drader, Krystalynn Lascelle, Julie-Anne Vogel and Braeya Wotherspoon.
The graduates from the Continuing Care Assistant program were Erin Campbell, Tyrae Carter, Taylor Dukart, Desiree Focht, Kenda Gibson, Mallory Hawker, Peyton Holt, Jaylee Paterson, Samantha Rust, Lindsay Schoenthal, Kaitlyn Schweigert and Jacqueline Unrau.
The grads of the Practical Nursing program were Laura Antoine, Layne Cairns, Alana Dreher, Kennedy Herlick, Michelle King, Lauren Leier, Christina Medwid, Leaha Rogers, Cassidy Sinclair and Samantha Wharton.
The Industrial Mechanic program had graduate Stephen Bond, who took the course at the Estevan campus but chose to take part in the Weyburn graduation ceremonies.
New this year were the Student Recognition Awards. Jeannie Payton won the Board of Governors Award for Academic Excellence and the President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.
Lauren Leier won the Â鶹´«Ã½AVeast College Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Community, and the President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.
Alana Dreher won the Board of Governors Award for Academic Excellence.
