TORONTO
Parr Josephee found a high school that allowed him to make screened T-shirts, paint skateboards and learn the basics of running a business.

Cape Dorset's Parr Josephee poses in his cap and gown with his grandmother, Letia Etidloi, and with his housemates, Patrick Thompson and Alexa Hatanaka, on graduation day at the Oasis Skateboard Factory in Toronto, June 16. - photo courtesy of Oasis Skateboard Factory

"I did hands-on work, so it was better. I don't like to sit in a classroom for hours writing notes," said, Josephee, an 18-year-old from Cape Dorset who graduated from Oasis Skateboard Factory in Toronto on June 16.

He doesn't aspire to be an English major or a scientist, he said. He knows he wants to continue pursuing art and eventually become an entrepreneur. Oasis Skateboard Factory, an alternative high school program approved by the Toronto District School Board, taught him how to pay a mortgage, rent a car and manage a budget, practical lessons that he feels will be more useful than what's found in a history textbook.

"It actually helped me for the future compared to a regular school teaching you about the past," he said.

"It was all this entrepreneurial stuff (at Oasis) so that I can actually have a career that I might like... 'normal school' isn't the best for me."

A few years ago in Cape Dorset, a struggling Josephee had severe doubts that he would ever attain his high school diploma. That changed when he met a few people from Ontario through a Grade 10 exchange trip and others through Embassy of Imagination, which organizes mural projects. Some of the people he met allowed him to move in and start over in the south.

"At the beginning it wasn't easy because I was homesick," Josephee admitted. "But I think about my future and what's going to happen and it's mostly good stuff so it helped me a lot. I'm not as homesick anymore. It was hard at first but now I'm loving it. I don't want to leave Toronto anymore."

At Oasis Skateboard Factory, where he started school in 2016, Josephee printed many T-shirts and hats, which brought him great satisfaction.

"I was actually designing merchandise," he said. "Now I know if I want to (design) a T-shirt, I've got screens and I know how to shoot them and all."

He's the first in his family to graduate high school, but not the first artist. His father and grandfather were carvers while his grandfather produced drawings.

"I came from a long line of artists," he said. "It's just in the blood."

Josephee will spend part of his summer in Ottawa and in Cape Dorset painting more murals with Embassy of Imagination. While back in his hometown, he said he plans to inform others about Oasis Skateboard Factory.

"I will tell the whole community about it. It's just such an amazing program," he said.

In the fall, he's heading to Ottawa to attend the Nunavut Sivuniksavut college program, which he sees as a springboard to the Ontario College of Art and Design next year.

"I want to learn different styles of art and try new stuff," he said. "That's my goal."

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