Approximately 600 guests converged at the St. Boniface Cathedral on June 25 in support and celebration of 65 École Régional Gabrielle-Roy (Gab-Roy) graduates. This year’s Grade Twelve class saw a 100 percent graduation rate.
One week prior, the graduating class was treated to a banquet held in their honour at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg.
Joel Mangin, Director of Student Services with the DSFM, opened the convocation with an address to the students. He admits to having felt a keen sense of connection with them since he’d spent almost 20 years of his career as an educator and administrator at Gab-Roy.
Based on input from the senior years teachers, Mangin says this particular group of graduates will be remembered as an athletic group of peers who were incredibly engaged, responsible, pleasant and balanced.
“I congratulated them on leaving their mark so positively with staff,” Mangin told The Citizen. “Gab-Roy does an evening graduation [ceremony] and yet the staff are all there: EAs, secretaries, teachers, and some early years teachers that wanted to see some of their kids that they’d had earlier in their students’ careers. They’re not being paid to be there… but it is a very close-knit school in terms of the staff.”
He commended the graduates for having the resilience to get through 13 years of education in the French language.
“I always encourage them to keep a place for the French language later in life, whether it’s at work, with their friends or kids because its very important, for the French language to thrive, that people speak the language.”
This year’s valedictorian duo were Renelle Saurette and Lauren Evason. Saurette was also the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s bronze medal.
Their reminiscences took them back to the ninth grade, which at the time felt surreal.
“We only came to school part-time, wore masks constantly, and were a very divided class,” they told those gathered. “Usually teachers find the chatter during their classes annoying, but in our case they always tried to encourage us to participate, normally without success. We were quiet.”
Eventually, they said, that turned around and the group built bonds.
“Success is not the key to happiness,” they said. “Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you do, you will succeed. Be open to change, because that’s often where the greatest opportunities for growth lie.”
And when in doubt, they told their peers, use ChatGPT.
The pair thanked the many parents who’d given all of this year’s graduates the gift of a French education.
“This gift has given us many advantages for our future and introduced us to French culture,” they said. “From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you. We couldn’t have succeeded without you.”
