By Greg Nikkel
The Weyburn Comprehensive School’s Class of 2016 was urged to go out and make a difference in the world after finishing their 13 years of education, with principal Wade Oberg noting they are the last class of a Grade 10-12 school.
In his address to the grads on stage at the Cugnet Centre, and to their parents and friends filling the audience, Oberg said, “This is a time of enormous change. You will be making big decisions that will affect the rest of your life. It’s now your choice and you are in control.”
He noted there will be big challenges to face in their lives ahead, but the input provided to them over the last 13 years by their teachers and parents will help them meet those challenges.
Quoting Darwin, Oberg told the grads, it’s not the strongest and most healthy who will make it, but those who best manage change.
“Our world is challenging and constantly changing. You just have to watch the news to see that. Remember to be flexible. Change is an opportunity to grow,” said Oberg. “It’s an opportunity to take your talents and make our world a better place.”
Warren Betker from the Southeast Cornerstone School Division, and a former principal and teacher from the junior high, said one of the most important goals of the division is to facilitate their education.
“When you are successful, we are successful,” he said, noting they had finally arrived at the day they had been anticipating for the last 13 years.
As they now look forward to their lives ahead, he said, “be careful what you wish for. (The future) is kind of scary but it’s kind of exhilarating too. In the next few years, I suspect many of you will look back fondly on the years you spent here and you will remember how good you had it here.”
Betker noted the old saying is that it takes a village to raise a child, and equated that to the many people who were involved “to raise a graduate” and educate them over the years.
He pointed out the many staff involved in a student’s life over the years, from teachers to bus drivers and other support staff, in this school and in their elementary and junior high grades prior to arriving at the Comp, as well as parents and other family members, and added an encouragement for each grad to hug their parents for the support and love they’ve provided over the years.
Betker noted that as a parent, he has three daughters who all went through and graduated from the Comp, and said that raising them to adulthood was “the most fulfilling thing I have ever done.”
Merv and Karen Ochitwa, parents of graduate Tyler Ochitwa, spoke on behalf of the parents.
Merv noted that the question of “why?” helped fuel their thirst for knowledge from early on, until the teen years arrived and “they no longer asked why. They knew all the answers.”
Karen added that “even Google couldn’t answer all of life’s questions. As parents we knew this was a part of life. … There were times we smothered them, and times when we stood back. As parents we helped influence you in your morals and values.”
She added as she looked out at the large audience of parents listening, “You should be proud of the young men and women sitting here today.”
Graduate Kearstin Pfeifer gave a tribute to the teachers, noting they were there every step of the way through their education “as we tried to figure out who we are and where we fit in. … They were more than teachers, they were role models. Our teachers have been the ones showing us how to really care. I’d like to thank every teacher in this building. I’ve never met any teacher who doesn’t care about us.”
She noted one example of caring in relation to her friend, exchange student Giovanna Palhares, who is from Brazil. She had trouble figuring how the gym lockers worked, and their gym teacher, Jacquie Williams, very patiently stood by and showed her how to do it.
“They want us to achieve to do great things, and they push us and challenge us to do great things,” she said. “No teacher has ever given up on us. They are the first ones to pick us up and dust us off when we fall.”
Teacher Kyla Moffatt gave the reply, and spoke of some of the teachers who influenced her to become a teacher, such as her kindergarten teacher, Ella Lewis, and her Grade 1 teacher, Esther Verity, the latter of whom “literally got me hooked on phonics.”
She also paid tribute to teacher Brenda King for telling her that she was wasting her potential by only being adequate.
“I had an 80 average, so I didn’t understand what the problem was,” said Moffatt, noting she later learned that Brenda had seen much more potential in her. “These teachers pushed for excellence and never let me settle for second best.”
As a teacher herself now, she said she tries to emulate what these teachers have taught her, and noted there are times when she pushes her students, “some surprise themselves by stretching our of their comfort zone.”
Moffatt challenged each graduate “to enhance the potential that we’ve seen in you … live full lives, have fun and make good choices.”
