Summer Programs in Full Swing

FOCUS ON YOUTH

The Focus on Youth program is a partnership involving the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Ottawa Catholic School Board, and local not-for-profit community agencies.   The objective of Focus on Youth is to enhance summer program opportunities for children and youth by offering free use of school space for organized not-for-profit community-based programs and by providing employment opportunities and leadership activities for high school students. 

Through the leadership of teacher Randy Baird and a team of monitors, 85 high school students have been employed this summer - 64 as camp counselors and 21 as custodial helpers.

On July 3, students in the Focus on Youth program gathered at the Catholic Education Centre for orientation.  I was pleased to welcome them officially to the program on behalf of the Board of Trustees and our Director, Mr. Julian Hanlon.  I also challenged them to work conscientiously and enthusiastically and to be good ambassadors for Catholic education.

Over the past few weeks, I visited some of the students at their placements.  One student in our custodial program whom I spent some time with is St. Paul graduate Austin Buchan-Semple.  When I arrived at All Saints High School, I found him busy cleaning out lockers and  preparing classrooms for the return of students in September.  The caretaker he was assisting, Mr. Peter McLean, had high praise for Austin's work and clearly articulated one of the benefits of the Focus on Youth custodial program:  "When students help clean schools, they become more responsible in how they treat their own school."

St Paul Gradute Austin Buchan-Semple Hard at Work at All Saints

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGES SUMMER PROGRAM

The Continuing & Community Education Department with the Ottawa Catholic School Board is also pleased to be offering International Languages programs at 5 of our schools during the summer: Notre Dame High School, St. Clare, St. Elizabeth, St. Emily, and St. Luke (Barrhaven).  

Approximately 1,000 elementary students are spending their mornings receiving instruction in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Italian, Russian, Korean, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

My visit with Chinese Mandarin Kindergarten Students at Notre Dame - July 2012

During my visits to these schools, I was very impressd with the range of activities the children experienced and the enthusiasm and creativity of the instructors.  The children sang songs, played games, and created stories and wonderful art work in order to learn the language and culture of their heritage.  They also enjoyed special activities such as a visit by Litte Ray's Reptiles.





Graduations & Year-end Celebrations

Graduations

On Thursday, June 28, I was honoured to attend the graduation ceremonies at Mother Teresa, St. Francis Xavier, and St. Joseph High School.  I brought congratulations from Ottawa Catholic School Board Director of Education Julian Hanlon and senior management.  I also shared the following remarks with the graduates of these 3 schools:



During today’s graduation ceremony, you will hear a number of speeches, but really, the memorable graduation address for 2012 has already been delivered and viewed by millions of people throughout the world on YouTube.  It’s by David McCullough Jr., an English teacher, and was addressed to the graduates at Wellesley High School, which is near the City of Boston.

"None of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional.  Do not get the idea you're anything special because you're not. If everyone is special, then no one is.  If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.”

Now to be fair, Mr. McCullough said these words to make a point – that none of us should approach life from the standpoint of entitlement.  Instead of expecting or even demanding all the good things that our world offers, each of us has to take responsibility for him/herself, “get busy” (to use his words), and take the initiative needed to achieve your dreams.

It’s good advice, but … Mr. McCullough is nonetheless wrong to say, even somewhat facetiously, that each of you is not special.

Your years in Catholic education have taught you the exact opposite: Each of you is a unique creation of God.  Each of you is a part of a divine plan, and when any one person fails to live according to the will of God, our world is diminished.  And God does have a trophy at the end of this earthly life specifically intended for each of you, and if you don’t believe me on this point, check out Revelation 2:10 or 1 Peter 5:4 and several other bible passages for that matter.

So as you leave here today, know with certainty that you are special, but also that every other person you encounter now and in the future is special too, and honour your parents, your teachers, yourself, and God by living a life that is worthy of someone who is truly special.

E. S. L. Year-end Celebrations

On Friday, June 29, I celebrated the end of the regular school year with the dedicated instructors of the Ottawa Catholic School Board's adult non-credit English as a Second Language program.  In the morning, I visited the ESL site at St. Joseph's Adult School, and in the afternoon, I traveled to St. Patrick's Adult School for the retirement party of Jiwan Dixit, who was an ESL instructor for 21 years. 



I used the occasion of Jiwan's retirement party to speak about the incredible influence our ESL instructors have on newcomers - not just through helping them learn English, but more profoundly, by giving them confidence in themselves and hope for a brighter future in Canada .

To illustrate their impact, I shared the story of LINC student Pabi Rizal, who ironically, was featured in a front-page article in the Ottawa Citizen on Canada Day!

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Canada+Three+meals+awesome+technology/6861449/story.html

The following poem by ESL instructor Heather Davis eloquently demonstrates that our ESL instructors are truly purveyors of hope for newcomers: 

Every Day A Surprise

This week, a smiling Chinese postal worker,

a Vietnamese farmer, a Cambodian dental assistant,

and a Polish shark hunter whose horizon,

after class, will be scanned for taxi fares.

A Ukrainian mining engineer drills English verbs.

A Philippine midwife delivers herself to class.

And a learned man from Haiti

thinks about Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin,

and in his pocket, carries a tattered copy

of C S Lewis’s, The Problem of Pain

for comfort and inspiration.

At The Queen, a Bahraini human rights activist,

- tortured in prison and deafened by sharpened pencils -

writes of his gratitude,

while upstairs, a Vietnamese statistics professor

is learning how to sew.

And in a church basement across the city,

A young, internationally acclaimed Egyptian

Koptic chorister and lutist -

in Canada for less than two weeks -

quietly plays a piano at break-time

and thinks about his wife ... Soon, we will be three!

At night school, a Bangladeshi poet and journalist,

who wrote thirty-five books in his native tongue

-      and was sentenced and penned for it -

eagerly learns to write in his new one.

Pilar, a Peruvian actress – 45 years on the stage -

arrives with rouged cheeks and upswept hair.

She's mastering a difficult script

and rehearses her lines like a pro.

(Her instructor /'director', herself, a

performance artist and published poet.)

No stage fright, here ...

As, with head up and arms outstretched,

she steps out of the wings, into her new life.

HD 2012 ©