HATS OFF TO NEW GRADUATES
Assiniboine‘s Dauphin campus celebrated their inaugural Applied Plumbing Installation program graduation
Eight graduates received Applied Plumbing Installation certificates on February 21 after successfully completing the year-long program at Assiniboine Community College’s Parkland campus. Friends and family filled the Dauphin Friendship Centre to cheer the graduates’ success in the program. The Applied Plumbing Installation program began in January 2019 and was open to First Nations and Métis students from in and around the Parkland region. Assiniboine is a national leader in community-based program delivery, and programs like this allow the college to offer opportunities close to home for Indigenous learners while responding to Manitoba’s labour needs. One plumbing graduate, Charlie McKay, has observed a need for Indigenous plumbers. “On the reserve, there are not many plumbers and plumbers outside the community are very busy,” said McKay. McKay has worked in home renovations for many years and first saw the demand from that perspective, noting that he was often waiting for a plumber for weeks to finish jobs. McKay, along with several others in his class Below: Wesley Pelletier and Charlie McKay hang out outside of class after becoming good friends during the program.
“I’m 51 years old now and I was kind of like, ‘Do I really want to do this? Do I belong here? Am I going to be able to do this?’ I was kind of doubting myself,”
- Wesley Pelletier
returned to school as mature students after decades outside of a classroom setting. When asked about the biggest challenge in the program, McKay responded, “Sitting in a classroom for six hours a day.” Fellow graduate, Wesley Pelletier, also saw his age as a hurdle, even before starting the program. “I’m 51 years old now and I was kind of like, ‘Do I really want to do this? Do I belong here? Am I going to be able to do this?’ I was kind of doubting myself,” said Pelletier. Outside of this internal monologue, Pelletier had a couple other challenges: he had never graduated high school and he’d recently been severely injured in a car accident resulting in physical limitations. It turns out, these challenges doubled as good reasons to take the leap and go back to school.
The program format kicked off with six months of preparation in the form of condensed high school courses. All students participated in the preparation courses and students like Pelletier, who did not previously have a high school diploma, graduated with their Mature Student High School diploma as well. “As a result of my accident I knew I wouldn’t be able to work at my previous job for a while, so instead of just wasting the year, I thought there was an opportunity for me, if anything, to get my grade 12 education and the plumbing certificate as well.” Aside from the satisfaction of completing the program and receiving his certificate, McKay says, he enjoyed the return to learning. “The whole learning process I found rewarding — learning and then asking questions. I enjoyed all of it.” Valedictorian of the class, Clarence Catcheway, echoed these thoughts. “What I enjoyed was finding out about all the work that’s involved in piping. There’s a lot of science. It’s quite a bit of work to know.” In their coursework, Catcheway and McKay said that science gave them quite a challenge. Pelletier battled against math and also looks back on the learning experience as positive.
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Did you know Assiniboine Community College was founded in 1961 and has more than 48,000 alumni?
