Fort Smith (May 09/05) - Faye Johnson is not really sure why she was named Thebacha Campus's student of the year.

"I asked, but nobody told me," Johnson says.

Faye Johnson proudly displays the Student of the Year plaque she received during the April 23 convocation ceremonies at Aurora College's Thebacha Campus.

However, the Aurora College student suspects it was for her 'A' grade average and her volunteer work. "And doing that while I have a three-year-old daughter."

The 33-year-old is in the second year of the teacher education program at the Fort Smith campus. She plans to take the full four years of the program for an education degree.

She already has an applied degree in forest management from Aurora College and before that completed the then Renewable Resources Technology Program. Since 1993, she has attended Thebacha Campus on and off for about five years.

Johnson found out she was going to be named student of the year about a week before the April 23 convocation.

"I was really surprised," she says. "It took a while to hit me. Then I felt really happy and honoured."

The award is given by the Thebacha Campus Student Association, which decided this year among four nominees for the honour.

Among Johnson's recent volunteer work, she helped out with Wood Buffalo Frolics and the NWT Winter Games.

"You just make the time," she says, explaining it's important to the community to make such events are successful.

Student and mother

Johnson says it's a challenge attending school and being a mother, noting she often doesn't get to her homework until 10 p.m.

"I have to work around a three-year-old's schedule," she says.

However, she credits her partner, Greg Heron, with sharing the duties of raising their daughter, Chelsea.

Johnson says she decided to become a teacher because she was unable to find a full-time, indeterminate job with her applied degree in forest management.

Plus, she says she wants to stay in Fort Smith.

"It's a good place for children to grow up in," she says.

Johnson, who is of Dogrib and French-Canadian heritage, was born in Yellowknife, but grew up in Fort Smith.