|
Garden Valley Collegiate has changed a lot and adapted well
to the recent immigration of several German families to the community.
Starting over in a new country and now enrolled in grade 12,
Lilli Friesen and Irena Derksen are finding out where they belong
in a new culture.
Lilli Friesen immigrated to Canada in the summer of 1998.
Since then, she has been attending high school and considering
the possible avenues that her life could take. She says that
she does not really want to go to university, but she would like
to attend college or a Bible school. Like many young immigrants,
she misses her friends back in Germany, and wants to go visit
them this summer.
Friesen said she would like to see how the town has changed,
and she wants to see her friends again, but she is happy living
in Canada, and doesn't think that she would ever move back.
Friesen speaks four languages--Russian, German, Low German,
and English and she hopes to go into a career that involve languages.
She is also very interested in office work involving computers.
She learned how to use computers only when she came to Canada,
even though they had a few computers at her school in Germany.
She was finished her grade 10 level in Germany, which meant she
would have graduated, but she said that she was glad to have
these two additional years of school so she could think about
the future and what it holds for her.
Another student who has immigrated from Germany in the last
few years is Irena Derksen. She is also a grade 12 student at
Garden Valley Collegiate. Unlike Lilli, Irena would like to attend
university after high school. She, too, would like to use her
languages in a career. She would like to study at university
to learn French and Spanish, and then move into a career where
she could use them. Her plans for the future have changed since
she moved to Canada, because now she is interested in going to
university.
In Germany, after grade ten, university students have to go
to another school for three years before university. Irena said
that she never wanted to attend university because it took so
long. Now, her only obstacle for university is the cost. She
would like to get a job, so that she can start
earning money and fulfill her dreams. She also wants to earn
some money so that she can go back to Germany to visit her friends
and family. |
