In 2018, the Saskatoon Tribal Council, the Saskatoon Public School Division and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division all came together to establish the Pathways to Education program to benefit Indigenous students. Now this summer, the first co-hort of students through the Saskatoon program have graduated having started their high school career through the Pathways program back in the fall of 2019.

In total, 42 graduates walked the stage this June. Pathways Coordinator, Darlene Lanceley says the program delivers education to communities where there is disproportionately low graduation rates and low student retention. The head office of Pathways to Education is in Toronto.

Lanceley says she is extremely proud of the work done by here graduates after having powered through COVID-19, which made things a little more challenging. “We at Pathways were able to put students on Microsoft Teams, so we were still able to give them that support, tutoring support. We dropped off cultural things, like sage for them, we did mental health kits, all kinds of stuff during that time of the pandemic.”

The 42 graduates are the first to complete the Saskatoon Pathways to Education program. Lanceley expects they’ll be pushing 350 students come the fall with the current enrollment being 225.