Student Profiles

AMAZING STORY OF LINC STUDENT PABI RIZAL

On Tuesday, June 19, I attended a gathering at the National Arts Centre  organized by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in recognition of World Refugee Day.  The gathering featured several speakers including Deputy Mayor of the City of Ottawa Eli El-Chantiry, who announced that June 19, 2012 was officially proclaimed World Refugee Day in Ottawa.  The featured speaker was Ottawa Citizen writer Luisa Taylor.  She has chronicled the plight of Bhutanese refugees at Beldangi II refugee camp in Nepal. 

http://www.thenownews.com/Slide+show+Life+limbo/6204300/story.html

For me though, the hi-light of this gathering was the testimonial of Bhutanese refugee Pabi Rizal.  After living in Beldangi, Pabi came to Canada with her parents and 4 of her siblings on July 15, 2009.  In addition to dealing with culture and climate shock, she faced an additional challenge - her deafness.  Thanks to a specialized language program at the Ottawa Catholic School Board's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program at St. Joseph Adult School and a gifted teacher named Armand Brennan , Pabi was able to learn American Sign Language and eventually go on to attend Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf in Belleville, graduating with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma this very week!   Check out the following link for more about Pabi's inspiring story:

 http://www.unhcr.org/print/4e8461276.html

L to R LINC Coordinator Salome Atandi, Pabi Rizal, Superintendent 

Peter Atkinson, & Continuing Education Manager Shailja Verma

ST.  NICHOLAS ADULT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION

Make no mistake about it - The St. Nicholas Adult High School graduation ceremony is like no other graduation!  For everyone of the nearly 300 adults who graduated this year, there is a remarkable story of perseverance and courage.  

A case in point is Principal's Award winner Cheryl Burnett, whose story was featured in the Ottawa Citizen by Kelly Egan on Friday, June 22: 



  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/All/graduation+from+high+school+from+life+streets/6821018/story.html

Congratulations to Principal John Karam, who is retiring at the end of the school year, and the dedicated teachers and staff of St. Nicholas, who do whatever it takes to help the adults who attend St. Nicholas to succeed.