Boulets championing rural teacher initiative

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on December 4, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The University of Lethbridge is aiming to help students in the faculty of education through a fundraising campaign that addresses the support needs of third-year student teachers pursuing rural placements and Toby and Bernadine Boulet are championing the initiative.
The campaign’s goal is to raise enough money to support students with a $1,000 bursary to help them offset the cost related to their rural placement like travelling expenses.
Doug Checkley, instructor and assistant dean of field experiences at the University of Lethbridge Faculty of Education, said the hope is to be able to support students as early as next semester but it will depend on how much money has been raised by then.
“Our hope is to raise $75,000 to offset those costs for students. That final practicum is four months and most of the costs for travel and/or living expenses are all on the students for those four months,” said Checkley.
 He said that on top of that, there are paying over $4,000 in tuition so it is important for the faculty to provide an opportunity to help them offset those costs and added that it is an honour and pleasure to have Toby and Bernadine Boulet champion the initiative.
“Toby and I were asked to be champions of the Pathway for Success campaign, which is a student teaching in rural placements bursary and it’s for supporting students who are going to do their professional semester three (PS3) practicum in rural placements,” said Bernadine Boulet.
Bernadine said both she and Toby know the importance of rural placement for students teachers as it provides students with a different view of a community and their school.
“Often when you’re in a rural area, students don’t necessarily want to go there because it’s far away, they have to pay extra for food, maybe another rent, pay for transportation to get there and the bursary will help them out,” said Boulet.
 She said it is also important for students to look for rural placements as they can create connections for future moves in their careers. Bernadine explained that students placed in rural areas have the opportunity to create connections that expand past the school walls, as often in small communities their schools are the heart of that community.
“They get that opportunity and this will help them out and make them want to be in those rural communities. And then the end goal would be that maybe they’ll go back and teach there and be part of that community permanently,” said Boulet.
 She said for some small rural communities it is hard to recruit teachers, doctors, nurses and other resources sometimes, therefore they are hopeful that by creating this bursary, both the students and small communities can benefit.
“The goal is to support 20 students per semester. PS3 students who apply for the bursary and are successful candidates will receive $1,000, which doesn’t seem like very much, but every little bit helps,” said Boulet.

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