College honors graduates

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Dressed in traditional graduation gowns and mortar boards, the class of 2005 graduated from Northern Lakes College on June 10.

The convocation ceremonies included graduates from outlying campuses who travelled to the main campus in Slave Lake.

Graduates included students from diverse fields such as academic upgrading, nursing, computer networking, business administration, social work, and Aboriginal arts and design.

"The choice you made to return to school and complete your dream of a career is not chance ... but choice. It took hard work and commitment and this day is the beginning of that destiny you have determined," said Pearl Calahasen, MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, and Alberta minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Northern Lakes College provides education that is tailored primarily to mature students.

It is also tailored for the Aboriginal community.

"We don't just put the word Aboriginal in our program. It is a way of life," said Trevor Gladue, chairman of the Board of Governors of Northern Lakes College.

Gladue said the college is unique in its relationship with the Aboriginal community. Most of the students, staff, and half the board of governors are Aboriginal, said Gladue.

Northern Lakes College didn't get its name until 1999. It began back in 1970-71 when education technicians were trained at Alberta Vocational Centre Grouard. Education technicians were students of Native ancestry who were prepared to instruct in adult basic education in Community Vocational Centres (CVCs).

By 1974, 26 CVCs were scattered across northern Alberta. In 1988 Alberta Vocational Centre Grouard and the CVCs amalgamated into Alberta Vocational Centre- Lesser Slave Lake.

Today Northern Lakes College has campuses in more than two dozen locations across northern Alberta.

"One of the most outstanding features is community based accessibility," said Dan Vandermeulen, president of Northern Lakes College.

"As opposed to having one great big building in one community, as happens in many other colleges, we have a whole series of buildings from large buildings to classroom trailers. In many of our communities students don't have to leave home to start their adult education," he said.

Graduate Wendy Whiskeyjack completed a bachelor degree in Social Work.

"It was accessible. I have a family and the program here has everything that I needed, so why go anywhere else," she said.

"They made it very convenient and basically worked around my schedule. I didn't have to quit my job or anything. I worked full-time [while attending school]," Whiskeyjack said.

Judy Rose is a graduate of the Practical Nurse Program from the Peace River campus.

"I was in a nursing program 25 years ago and my husband got transferred. I decided that after my children went to university I wanted to complete my dream, and that was to become a nurse," said Rose.

"It was very convenient for me," she said.

Sharon Nahachick took academic upgrading at the Slave Lake campus. She intends to continue her education and has been accepted into the bachelor program in education.

"We are like the tip of an arrowhead being thrust through the air by our instructors," she said.