Persistence paid off

Page 9

It seems only natural to enter Sharon Calf Robe's home and find her seated at the kitchen doing beadwork.

After all, she just graduated from the Native Clothing Design course at Alberta Vocational College in Grouard at the top of her class.

Not only that, she was selected to deliver the valedictorian address at the AVC convocation ceremonies for 314 students held in High Prairie June 19.

Either achievement would be tough enough for any student. But Calf Robe accomplished both honors while attending college far from her home on the Blackfoot Reserve near Gleichen, Alta. She's also the single parent of two of her children , one of them handicapped.

Then, to top it ll off, she received the Native Traditional Arts Achievement Award from the High Prairie Native Friendship Centre for showing outstanding achievement and contribution in the Native Traditional Arts program.

She also served as treasurer of the student council and was on the convocation committee.

Calf Robe put her beading aside and talked about her 10 months at Grouard. She sat surrounded by packing boxes, evidence of her impending move home. Her six-year-old son, Christopher, who has Down's Syndrome, was asleep on the carpet. Her 12-year-old son, Steven, wearing a cast on his leg from a sporting accident, worked on his fishing reel. Her third child, 10, remained home on the reserve with her sister.

Moving away from home was the hardest part of returning to school, said a soft-spoken Calf Robe.

"I never moved away from home before," she said. "It was quite difficult, a real change."

It was also hard on her son Steven, she added.

Christopher is "happy wherever he is, so long as Steven and I are around," she said.

Calf Robe, who lives in a comfortable four-bedroom townhouse in the student housing complex, said she wouldn't have come to Grouard without the student housing.

That made it easier. That, and the fact that day-care for Christopher was just across the road and Steven's school was within walking distance. Both served lunches,

so she didn't have to worry about making lunches every evening.

Finances were difficult. Trying to make ends meet on a limited student allowance often discouraged her, and many times she thought about quitting.

The stress was complicated by being far from friends and relatives who gave her support and helped with the children.

"Christopher is a very active child," she said, and he is just learning to speak. Lack of transportation made it hard for her to do things with the children, unlike on the reserve where there was always something to do.

"Quite a few times I felt like giving up," she said.

But Calf Robe was lucky. Whenever she got really discouraged she had a talk with Jackie Kellock, student support co-ordinator. Kellock would "give me the boost," she said, that enabled her to carry on.

Her son Steven was also a big help.

"As young as he is, he can really set my head straight sometimes," she said.

She smiled at Steven, who was standing nearby.

"He's my little man," she said. Whenever the strain began to tell, he would remind her there "are a lot more things for me out there than just going home and doing nothing."

Calf Robe went to high school in Drumheller, then took one-and-a-half years of teacher education courses from the University of Calgary extension program offered on the reserve.

"Teaching wasn't for me."

She spent several years at home with her children before working in the clothing factory on the reserve.

"I love sewing," she said. That was the deciding factor in choosing Native Clothing Design at Grouard. Both she her niece Laura Calf applied and were accepted.

Calf Robe is unsure of her plans once she returns home, but she would like to start her own clothing design business.

Calf Robe advises others contemplating going back to school to not be afraid to take that leap.

"There will always be someone there to catch you," she said.