Katherine Bear credits her children with giving her the motivation to finish high school.
"I'm a single mother. I've raised my kids for eight years on my own and it's hard, and I only had a Grade 9," she said. "I wanted to come and get my education so I could get a better job and care for my children on my own."
So, two years ago, she applied for the first ever Adult Basic Education program to be offered at Muskoday First Nation through Cumberland College.
That meant she didn't have to travel to Prince Albert or Melfort to go to school, which helped her finish the program once she started.
"It feels really good," she said at the graduation ceremony Friday night before she donned her robes and cap. "My whole family is (here)."
She was one of 14 students to be the first to graduate from the program, which began in January 2008 with Grade 10, and finished Grade 12 in December.
The graduates filled the band office Friday with family, friends and children carrying balloons behind them through the gym.
The class is a partnership between Cumberland College and the Muskoday First Nation, with the provincial government providing program funding and the band office providing an allowance to pay for daily needs and daycare, which adds up to about an equal partnership.
Ten of the 14 students who completed the Grade 10 program a year ago also graduated Friday, and Linda Kerslake, ABE program manager for Cumberland College, said the success rate in this class has been above average at about 75 per cent completion.
"The main reason to bring it right into the community to remove the barriers that adult students often face in terms of travelling. Many don't have a vehicle," she said, adding that helped many students graduate.
The next program they will offer is a skills catch-up course to get students ready for Grade 10, before cycling through the grades again.
The unique program came together after years of work and persuading by Ronald M. Bear, the social development director for Muskoday First Nation.
He first proposed a program that would have begun with life skills training and history on Muskoday itself, and later created a high school completion program, but funding came through for ABE first.
He said at first there was opposition to Muskoday offering the service, but that changed over time.
"I first heard people could go off reserve for that," he said. "It opened the eyes to a lot of people in the community who really want to support this kind of thing," he said.
