Largest class ever set to graduate in Kuujjuaq

Pamela Stevenson, 17, who will be heading to John Abbott College near Montreal next year, puts the finishing touches on her graduation poster. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Hannah Tooktoo, 18, seen here making a poster for her June 13 graduation ceremony, plans to study creative arts next year at John Abbott College near Montreal. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

KUUJJUAQ — When the class of 2013 at Kuujjuaq’s Jaanimmarik School walks up to collect their high school diplomas June 13, the 23 graduates will also make history.

They’re the largest graduating class ever in the history of the school — or in Kuujjuaq, at 2,200 Nunavik’s largest community.

“I’m so proud of my classmates,” said future grad Hannah Tooktoo, 18. “We cheer each other on.”

A talk with many of Tooktoo’s fellow students reveals they’re also determined to continue their studies and take on a variety of jobs — in the trades, as mechanics, or professions like social worker and as small-business owners.

Even more impressive is how this group of 13 teenaged girls and 10 teenaged boys views their school.

“It was a place you came to hang out and get together with your friends,” said one girl.

Another described her classmates as a second “family” — the students offered a listening ear to anyone who was depressed and would even help each other with hard subjects.

Still another girl said she wouldn’t have known what to do with herself if she hadn’t gotten up to go to school every day.

“All your friends are at school? Why not go?”

Many of 2013 graduates have been together since Grade 3.

But for these 23, there are also about 80 similarly-aged students in Kuujjuaq who didn’t finish high school.

Some girls dropped out to have kids and then started to party to make up for lost time, a girl said. Another said she has a friend who dropped out and now smokes weed all day and does… “nothing.”

One girl said she has a friend no longer in school who’s now jealous that her friends are now graduating.

Not that finishing school was always easy: in Secondary 4, this year’s graduates said they had a revolving door of teachers who didn’t seem to know anything about Inuit or Kuujjuaq, although for Secondary 5 they had only praise for their teachers Véronique Gilbert and Cyril Boone, because they could tell that these teachers cared.

Many say they stayed in school thanks to their family members, who stepped up to encourage them — one girl described her mother as her “rock.”

Another girl said all the members of her family had graduated from high school, so she didn’t dare let them down.

A third said she would be the first to attend college.

Of the 23, four or five are likely to go to a Secondary 6 course (equivalent to Grade 12) in Kangiqsujuaq to boost their academics before college and nine plan to attend college in Montreal — one at Collège Marie-Victorin and eight at the English-language John Abbott College, although four of these students studied at Jaanimmarik in French.

Others say they want to work for a year to save money.

While drop-out levels at college have also been high among Nunavik students, members of the class of 2013 say they’re hopeful — if they can pass their secondary school exams which they need for college admission — that they’ll be okay.

After graduation, one plans to study creative arts, another to study math after spending a year in Secondary 6 to improve his English.

Among their immediate plans: travel, on a class trip to Paris and Rome, and then summer jobs as a lifeguard or for the municipal office.

Future goals include working at a mine as a mechanic for one and starting small businesses for at least two students — a hair dressing salon for Larisa Annahatak and a boutique for Eva Saunders who’s already making money by selling hand-crafted bracelets and earrings.

On June 4, everyone is still in school: in art class, the students work on finishing posters, which show their names and graduation photos — these will be on display for their friends to sign.

And so, it’s all coming to an end — with the June 13 convocation and prom.

“The years went by so fast,” said Annahatak, one of several students who said the same thing. “But I’m happy to be finished!”

Jaanimmarik vice-principal Andrea Glazer called Annahatak and the other students in the class of 2013 an “amazing class of graduates.”

“It will be exciting to see what the future holds for them, and the positive impact they will have on our community. I wish them all the best,” Glazer said.