Youth succeed with Lakehead’s Achievement Program

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY – Pic Mobert’s Sheldon Childforever is building towards his future education goals by accumulating credits towards university tuition fees through Lakehead University’s Achievement Program.

“It’s been great because you get to build anything and also you can do active things,” says Childforever, who has been involved in the program since 2011. “My teacher said I should try this out, so I said okay, I might as well, because I was finished most of my work for the whole year.”

The program is aimed at students from Grades 4-12. It provides students with the opportunity to participate in a variety of projects, such as the building of robots, paper airplanes and race cars.

“(I enjoyed) building those little (race) cars,” Childforever says. “I have a creative mind so I just like to build stuff.”

Childforever also enjoyed working with the other students during the program. Thirteen students enrolled in the program in 2011 and the number of students has since grown to about 27. About half of the students are First Nations.

“It’s been great,” Childforever says. “I made a couple of new friends.”

Childforever looks forward to pursuing a career in the electrical or engineering fields in the future.

“I just want to build stuff or try to fix things,” Childforever says.

The Achievement Program was initiated by Lakehead University President and Vice-Chancellor Brian Stevenson to help students who might not have been able to attend university to achieve credits towards their university tuition. Students are selected for the program based on their financial need.

“The Achievement Program is important because financial need should not be a barrier for young people to live their dreams,” Stevenson says. “The exceptional education offered at Lakehead University allows our students to reach their full potential.”

Lakehead University hosted the students on June 1 during the annual Achievement Program Day at the Thunder Bay campus, where they participated in educational activities in the Faculty of Natural Resources Management and the School of Nursing, recreational programs with varsity athletes and cultural programming with the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives.

“More youth are participating in this program than ever before, and more volunteers are involved in the organization of activities and outreach than ever before,” Stevenson says. “I am very pleased to see how our idea to help youth understand and feel welcome in a university environment continues to grow.”

The program enables students to participate in programming yearly in their school, community and at Lakehead University.

“This program is about inspiring young people to believe in themselves and their future goals, and to have fun doing it,” says Amanda Stefanile, Achievement Program coordinator.

Stefanile says another 20 students will be joining the program in the upcoming school year.

“It’s really important for kids to believe in themselves and be provided an opportunity for them regardless of their financial background … to attend post-secondary education,” Stefanile says. “Not only that, but let’s encourage our kids to grow in their academics and grow socially and grow with the different activities we do on campus with them. We really try to give them a snippet of a sort of mini-university so they can see themselves wanting to be a nurse or see themselves wanting to work outside in the forestry department.”