Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates at all levels of education in the Sault and the rest of Ontario have been robbed, for the second year in a row, of the enjoyment of participating in traditional, in person graduation ceremonies, with plans for virtual ceremonies in place instead.
Notwithstanding, SooToday spoke with two 2021 Sault College graduates who shared their stories with us after the second consecutive pandemic-affected academic year.
Hayden Rollin-Taylor is a graduate of the college’s 2-year Civil Engineering Technician diploma program, intending to continue his studies in September with an extra year of learning in Sudbury’s Cambrian College Civil Engineering Technologist program.
At this point, Hayden, 20, has not been informed as to whether his year with Cambrian College will be an in person or remote learning experience.
“I enjoyed it,” said Hayden of his two years at Sault College.
“Marc Pilon, our program coordinator, just recently joined Sault College and so he changed the program a bit from the previous instructors and it was very well written, very well put together. I enjoyed my time there.”
Hayden, for the second consecutive summer, is working in his field as a junior project manager and estimator at Steel Speed, a steel fabrication shop located in Batchewana First Nation’s industrial park.
The firm is currently working on various projects in the community.
“(In civil engineering) you’re sent to survey an empty field and within a year or two you see the preliminary design, the prints on the paper, and then you go back and see an actual building that you had a chance to help plan, coordinate and design. Then, going back later in life when you have family you tell your kids ‘I had a hand in building this, I was a part of this.’ I enjoy seeing something going from ‘nothing to something',” Hayden said.
He has also perfected his skills in the past school year through participation in a Capstone Design Project, which gives students a chance to design a project related to their field of study (above and beyond their usual program requirements).
“A professor finds something we have to do research on for technical merit. The college was approached by Habitat for Humanity. On Goulais Avenue, they bought a property that hasn’t been developed. So our job was to take the land survey and create the most feasible property development that they could look at.”
“Our group went through and we created a grading plan, a cost estimate, we put together proposals for townhouses, single family homes and duplexes, and provided all those options with our findings (such as) sewage requirements, the cost of tying into the main roadway. So basically a Capstone Project involves us being given a topic to research and develop a finished plan,” Hayden explained.
“It was basically a make believe role, that we were an engineering firm. We had to create our own engineering firm name, jump through all the hoops and go through all the steps that we would be required to in the field.”
Hayden’s group gave the Sault Habitat team all the information they needed to go forward, if they wished.
“Instead of them going to an engineering firm, we did a preliminary design project for them, so we actually did contribute to the Habitat cause and the community in that sense.”
“I took it on and we ran with it. It went very well. Everyone worked very hard on it and Habitat for Humanity was very pleased with the outcome.”
That provides a glimpse into the kind of person Hayden is, Sault people known for their giving spirit.
“I am a Sault boy at heart. I live and die for this city. Everything about it, I want it to be positive.”
“I’m all for industry. My grandfather on my father’s side emigrated from Jamaica and worked at Algoma Steel, and my grandfather on my mother’s side came from Blind River and went to night school to become a stationary engineer and worked his way up to be a general foreman in the utilities department while raising a family. This city’s provided a lot for us.”
“I plan to stay local. I love it here. Where else can you get off work in the winter, get on your sled and be on the trails within half an hour of getting off work. You can’t beat that,” Hayden said.
Hayden also owns and operates HRT Grounds Care, a lawn care company which he started up while in high school.
The business has done well, Hayden enjoying a 2014 GMC Sierra he purchased with money he earned through his lawn care work.
For Nicole Rahaman, a Sault College grad who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, her time in Canada was filled with challenges she met and overcame.
Nicole arrived in Sault Ste. Marie in November 2020 to study in Sault College’s one year, two semester Project Management graduate certificate program as a woman in her mid-40s, married with children.
Nicole enrolled as a student at the college with the intention of applying for permanent residency in Canada, specifically in the Sault, through the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) program, hoping for her husband and children to eventually come to Canada and join her in building a new life in this country.
“But, this pandemic had other plans for us,” Nicole said.
Nicole was originally intending to arrive in the Sault from Trinidad and Tobago in April 2020 to prepare for her studies, but COVID-19 travel restrictions forced her to start the program in September by studying remotely from her island home.
Travel restrictions were lifted for some students and Nicole arrived in the Sault in November 2020 with her daughter, but her husband was not able to join them due to other COVID travel regulations.
“It has really been something, and doing it all without the assistance of my husband,” she said.
“It’s been pretty difficult...the restrictions still don’t allow any visitors at the moment. They weren’t making exemptions for some people.”
Nevertheless, Nicole and her daughter found accommodation in the Sault upon arrival, Nicole dedicating herself to the Project Management graduate certificate program remotely, the Sault College campus closed to most students due to the pandemic.
In fact, she excelled.
“I finished with honours and I’m very proud to say that.”
Nicole said she has gotten through all the challenges involved with obtaining her certificate “by relying on the strength God has given me to get through this time, as I’ve done with other times in my life when I’ve come across some sort of challenge.”
“I’ve had to learn how to rely on God, and this past year has taught me even further to do that,” Nicole said, also grateful to United Baptist Church friends for their support.
“Project management is a field that has been growing exponentially over the years and it has become a field on its own where they have their own certification,” said Nicole, whose previous postsecondary achievements include degrees in business management and human resources in Trinidad and Tobago.
Despite the challenges of remote learning, Nicole said “I’m particularly impressed with how well Sault College managed to switch (to remote education)... I think they handled it well. The course was well delivered. The lectures were pretty amazing. Most of them became like mentors, personal coaches, people you could turn to. They weren’t just lecturers, they were people, really good people.”
Since completing her program at Sault College, Nicole and her daughter have relocated to Toronto, where she has the support of other family members living in Canada.
Nicole said she plans to return to Trinidad and Tobago to be with her husband once again, hoping to return to Canada with him and her daughter once COVID circumstances change and travel regulations allow it.
Specifically, she hopes to relocate to the Sault.
Though having visited Canada before, the 2020-21 academic year marked the first time Nicole experienced a Canadian winter from beginning to end.
“I enjoyed it. We got to do something I would never have gotten to do had I been in Trinidad, and that was to walk on frozen Lake Superior and see the ice formations. That was really, really interesting. My daughter was amazed, and I was as well.”
“I absolutely loved the people in the Sault. I’ve told my husband if we do end up coming back to Canada, we’re definitely going back to the Sault.”
While there will be no traditional, in person graduation ceremony, “the college will be showcasing grads on our graduate website,” stated Sault College spokesperson Rachel MacDonald in an email to SooToday.
“The website will highlight special ceremony video footage for each program, congratulatory messages from guests, and will showcase graduates and their programs along with personalized graduate profile pages.”
MacDonald said the college anticipates the site will be ready to launch in late June.