You Can go Back Again

Highway 22 is a 600 kilometre stretch of road that runs parallel to the QE II highway up the western side of Alberta.   It’s known as the Cowboy Trail and it winds its way through a handful of small rural communities from the Crowsnest Pass north to just beyond the town of Mayerthorpe.
 
Moonlake is one of those communities on the Trail, nestled into the farmland about halfway between Drayton Valley and Entwistle and only about an hour and half to Edmonton.   

But that 90 minute drive between Moonlake and the provincial capital might as well be a world away for Deanna Lang.  With two small children and a spouse whose work hours and locations vary, it’s been a challenge for Deanna to find a way to further her own career ambitions.

A stay-at-home mom until last year, Deanna initially filled her spare hours by volunteering with community efforts focusing on women’s mental wellness and with organizations dedicated to children and family services, including a breakfast program in her children’s school.   

Deanna then became an assistant in the school in Drayton Valley, where she discovered that the school’s philosophies closely aligned with her ideas of what she saw for her community.

It was at that point the idea of teaching took hold.

The biggest challenge was to find a program that would allow her to keep her job and to remain close to her children. Despite the proximity to Edmonton, she found the geographic distance and program requirements unmanageable for her situation.

“So I started looking for opportunities to go to school while accommodating my family,” she explains, “and I came across the Werklund School at the University of Calgary.”

“In fact, the Werklund School of Education has the only Bachelor of Education program in Alberta that can accommodate my needs.”

With the ability to take the bulk of her courses on line, and by offering the possibility of fulfilling her classroom placement requirements near home, the Werklund Community-based program suited Deanna perfectly.

All that was remained was for Deanna to take her first steps towards the classroom.

And after attending her first two weeks of orientation and classwork this past summer, she knew she’d made the right choice.  “I came to Werklund thinking that maybe I was too old to go back to school and that I hadn’t written an essay in ages,” she says.

“I can now say that the Werklund School of Education takes care of their students, and they listen to their students’ needs.  There’s a strong collaborative team that enables each and every student to be successful.”

“I would recommend this program to anyone who is considering going back to school.”  

Deanna plans to earn her degree, and hopes to teach in the school where she continues to work today. And although she’s fairly certain she wants to teach in the range of kindergarten to grade three, she knows this may change as her studies progress.

What won’t be altered is her strong desire to stay in her community and to contribute in a meaningful way.