News
DTI La Loche ABE Student Awarded This Year’s Cameco Literacy Learner Award
By Fernando Araujo, DTI Adult Basic Education Faculty
Jul 12, 2024
Posted in: achievement, Adult Basic Education, La Loche
The following article was originally published in the GDI Communicator Vol. 18 Issue 5, May 2024. The Communicator is a monthly internal newsletter intended to celebrate the achievements of the management and staff of the Gabriel Dumont Institute. You can find the archive of previous issues in the Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture.
Dumont Technical Institute (DTI) La Loche Level 2 learner, Allen Claude Janvier was awarded the prestigious 2024 Cameco Literacy Learner Award and Bursary at the Saskatchewan Literacy Network’s 2024 Saskatchewan Literacy Awards of Merit held at Government House in Regina on May 14th. Attendees were welcomed by His Honour, the Honourable Russ Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, and Donna Woloshyn, Board of Director, Saskatchewan Literacy Network, who presented the awards.
Allen is a 67-year-young single parent with four children. Losing his spouse in September 1997, Allen helped raise his children by working in the mines. After he was laid off, Allen stayed home with his grandchildren to help care for them. Once all his grandchildren entered school, Allen enrolled at DTI in La Loche to learn to read and write.
As Allen said last fall, “I worked for about forty years in the Cluff Lake and Rabbit Lake Mines. When I was laid off in 2016, I was sixty years old. After that, I had nothing to do, and that is why I am in school. There are things I don’t understand, and I can’t read or write much.” Since beginning just this past fall, Allen has already improved immensely in his communication and math skills, and he will be in Level 3 this fall.
With his dedication and desire to learn, his instructors are confident that he will complete his Level 4 adult grade 12. Allen is often seen helping other learners in class, uplifting others in the community, and sharing his knowledge of the Dene language and culture. In attendance at the ceremony in Regina, Allen’s teacher, DTI veteran instructor, Ernestine McNeil commented, “It is a pleasure to have Allen in my class. My younger students see him as a role model who wants to learn new things.”
Not one to speak unnecessarily, Allen quietly leads by example, demonstrating the profound impact that embracing education can have at any stage of life. DTI La Loche staff and Allen’s fellow classmates extend their congratulations to Allen on his meritorious achievement.
