Oshki-Pimache-O-Win students return to campus

Priscilla King is studying Oshki-Pimache-O-Win’s Native Early Childhood Education program so she can eventually open up a daycare centre in her own community.
“I’ve always wanted to take this program,” said the second-year student from Kingfisher Lake. “My dream was to start a daycare in my community, which we don’t have yet.”
King and nine other students, including her husband Chris King, began the third semester of the five-semester NECE diploma program Aug. 21 with a two-week on-campus session at Oshki-Pimache-O-Win in Thunder Bay.
“The reason why I took this program is I don’t have to come out here and live in the city,” said King, who has two children and works as the Healthy Baby and Healthy Children co-ordinator in Kingfisher. “We’re just here for a couple of weeks at a time.”
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win’s programs enable students to study most of their required courses while remaining in their home communities, with just one or two on-campus sessions required per semester at the Thunder Bay campus.
King enjoys the friendly atmosphere at the Oshki-Pimache-O-Win campus.
“Oshki is a very good place,” King said. “People are very welcoming and right away you feel like you just fit in the atmosphere.”
Oshki-Pimache-O-Win’s NECE program provides students with an opportunity to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to organize and maintain a safe, stimulating learning environment that ensures the total development of the young child.
Students examine the social, emotional, physical and intellectual growth of the child through academic studies as well as practical experiences.
Michelle Moses, a mother of one daughter, is also studying in the NECE program.
“The first year was kind of rough because I was away from home and my family and my child,” Moses said, who is originally from Fort William but now lives in Pic River. “We’re doing a full course load, with two weeks on campus and then six weeks at home.”
Moses said the two-week on-campus sessions involve a full 14 days of learning.
“We’re learning about dealing with children in a early-childhood setting with an Aboriginal component, the language, the culture and how it affects the child and the family,” Moses said.
Moses appreciates she doesn’t have to move her family to the city to study at Oshki-Pimache-O-Win.
“I don’t have to worry about finding a job back home,” Moses said. “Whereas at home I can retain my job and go to school.”
Moses said the staff and the teachers at Oshki-Pimache-O-Win are very knowledgeable in their fields.
“They are awesome,” Moses said. “They know what we are going through to come here and leave our families, so they are very flexible to help us. They are very accommodating that way.”
The second year of the NECE program runs for three straight semesters from Aug. 2010 to Aug. 2011.
“It’s not going to be any fun going through the summer but the good thing about it is we are only doing two weeks out of the summer, the rest is all at home,” Moses said. “That’s the sacrifice you have to make to go to school.”