Kalemi Dene School grads excited for future
Three new alumni receive laptop and moccasins as parting gifts
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Kalemi Dene School's three new graduates say they are excited for the future ahead of them.
Graduate Autumn Baton, left, hugs her high school teacher David Ryan, while Eileen Erasmus, the principal, watches. Raymond Bernarde and Walter Johnson Black, Kalemi Dene School's two other graduates, are seated. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo
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Raymond Bernarde, Autumn Baton and Walter Johnson Black put their caps and gowns on for their graduation ceremony in Ndilo on Saturday. After the festivities, they took some time to describe how the accomplishment felt.
"It's a big relief," said Baton. "Like a stress reliever."
Bernarde echoed his former classmate's sentiments.
"I feel really good," he added. "Like, overwhelmed with happiness."
Eileen Erasmus, Kalemi Dene School principal, said enrollment at the K-12 school is 120 students, and although not every senior graduated this year, she's incredibly proud of the three that did.
Because of the small graduating class size, the school decided not to have a prom and instead gave the students gifts to mark their achievement. Each went home with a new laptop and pair moccasins made by an elder at the school.
After the ceremony, the school put on a steak dinner for the graduates and their families and friends. The school then rented the bowling alley and ordered pizza so they could continue the celebration.
"(I'm) very proud of our students," Erasmus said.
Black said he's nervous to start his adult life. He said there were struggles to get to this point and he's glad to have overcome them. But at the same time, he said Kalemi Dene School has been his entire life.
He is the only student out of the three that started at the school in kindergarten.
"This is all of my life," he said. "This school is my life."
Each of the graduates have identified career paths they want to pursue. Baton said she wants to become a teacher, saying this would make her mother proud. Bernarde said he wants to be a renewable resources officer, something he's wanted to do since he was a child. Black said he's hoping to become a plumber's apprentice.
But before making the next leap forward, Bernarde reflected one last time on his accomplishment.
"There were good times and bad times but we stayed in school," he said. "I'm pretty happy about that."
