Continuing a trend they started a year ago, the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) has again offered a graduating student future guaranteed teaching employment.
At their June 17 Board of Trustees meeting, the CCSD presented Anjelica Collings, a Grade 12 student from All Saints high school, with a letter stating that upon finishing post-secondary and completing a practicum/student teaching placement, she will have a spot to teach within the CCSD.
Upon receiving the letter, Collings said that her drive to be a teacher started with her mother, who ran a daycare for 13 years. Now, she’s hoping to continue being a positive role model.
“As a God worthy girl, a lot of it came from spending time thinking about how I can develop my brain and my relationship with God,” she said.
“Through making an impact on other students and being around an environment where kids are soaking up information, I can give some light and positivity while being around students for a year and help them build relationships with God and become great people.”
After moving to All Saints High School towards the end of Grade 10, Collings said that the mentorship in the school was noticeable.
“I had come from Toronto, and in Toronto I didn’t have much guidance or a journey in mind, nobody was really helping me,” she said.
“I came here, I had counselors, I had every single teacher there caring for me. They wanted to see me improve. They wanted to see me do well. They continued to show me positivity when I brought forth to them what my plans were. They never shot me down. They never made me feel less. Everyone really helped me grow.”
Tina King, who is a Vice-Principal at All Saints and joined Anjelica at the meeting, was also a large mentorship figure, the newly-graduated student said.
King said that seeing Collings grow as a person to the point of now receiving the letter was a wonderful process.
“My heart goes beyond and is busting out of my chest, because Anjelica is an example of the beauty that we can discover in our students when we spend the time to get to know their story and to get to know them as a learner,” she said.
Collings path has never been certain
For Silvina Sabatini, Collings’ mom, the path towards being a teacher was not always a sure thing.
“It happened gradually,” she said.
“I started seeing how she was more attentive to wanting to do school work and wanting to be involved with the programs that were offered at school.”
Sabatini agreed that a large part of her daughter’s path was the move to Calgary.
“As she (Collings) mentioned, in Toronto, she didn’t have such follow through, she didn’t have the one-on-one experience to speak with anyone or the guidance,” she said.
This fall, Collings is starting a degree in psychology. She is not yet certain on what exactly she’d like to eventually teach, but is considering religion, psychology or even math.
“I’m leaning towards religion because I’m a very God-led girl, and I have the strength of him inside me,” she said.
“I’d love to share that with everyone else.”
