Prospective students visit Thunder Bay to sample DFC Experience
Indigenous musicians, athletes leading workshops this week for both current and prospective students
Prospective high school students from remote First Nations in northern Ontario are getting a sense this week of what it might be like to live and study in Thunder Bay, Ont.
They're the guests of Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, which has flown the students to town for a week-long visit packed with workshops, activities and special guests — all aimed at making the teens feel more comfortable with the idea of one day leaving home to attend the school.
"We're hoping it will go a long way in kind of getting them adjusted before they come here," said Sean Spenrath, the First Nations student success program coordinator at the school.
"Eventually whether it's [in] one year or two years that they come here, they won't be as scared to come here."
The first-time event, dubbed the DFC Experience, was funded through a $50,000 Toronto Raptors Community Action Grant, which the school obtained last year.
At first, staff considered using the money to bring kids from various communities to the school for a basketball tournament, said Spenrath, but on second thought, they decided to go bigger and broader.
The activities of the week are meant to showcase the many strengths of the school, he said, such as art, music, technology and athletics.
Accomplished Indigenous role-models, including basketball player Michael Linklater, and musicians Classic Roots, Natasha Fisher, Shibastik and RedCloud, have been brought in to lead clinics and workshops.
As visiting teens sample the different activities, they're grouped with current students from their home communities, said Spenrath, giving older students the chance to take younger ones under their wing.
Grade 12 student Ashley McKay is one of the older students taking on a leadership role.
When the now-17-year-old first started attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, she was already living in Thunder Bay, and was familiar with the northern Ontario city.
But for other teens from her home community of Sandy Lake, a remote First Nation located approximately 600 km northwest of Thunder Bay, she knows the transition will be harder.
"I know they're shy still. They're kind of afraid of Thunder Bay, I guess," she said, referring to the students who travel far away from home each year to attend school, but she thinks the chance to visit the school, and meet the teachers will help.
"I think it'll make them feel better," she said.
As part of their efforts to make students feel more comfortable, the school also partnered with the city, Spenrath said, to take visiting teens on a guided tour of Thunder Bay on city buses.
"So that's one of the way we're trying to help these kids coming in," he said.
Spenrath said the hope is to make the DFC Experience week an annual event.
"We're hoping to just keep adding and building onto the event for next year and making it bigger and better," he said.