Stacey Gauthier has a high-achieving daughter, Hunter, 17, and he is preparing to see her off.
“For a long, long time, she originally stated she wanted to go into the medical field as a doctor,” said Stacey. “In the last few years, she switched focus to more in the legal field.
“We were aware that she was driven to do well in school and move forward into … something more in schooling.”
The Standard interviewed four top-performing students of the graduating class of Hope Secondary School. All four of them presented a similar pattern — that they will leave for university to seek training in white-collar professions, and while all of them hope to return to Hope to settle down, some of their career and personal choices could make that more challenging.
Hunter graduated with honours from Hope Secondary School and received multiple awards. She has chosen to further her studies at the University of Alberta (UofA) in Edmonton because she has family there and she can do law school there too.
“Wherever she lands, we’ll be happy to support her anyway she can be [supported],” said Stacey. “I don’t know if she’ll ever come back.”
Hunter said she her choice to study law was inspired by a program she joined in Grade 8, called SHOUT, which was about community involvement. She also studied social justice that set her on a path to help people and create change. As a lawyer, she said she would be able to help people who would otherwise feel helpless.
Hunter said she would like to return to Hope in the future, noting that she expects that she will have to leave Hope for a while to develop her career.
“My top two choices would probably be Edmonton or Halifax,” said Hunter, adding that she was born in Halifax.
The same story repeated itself in the Sevier-Fries family. Katharina Sevier-Fries, 17 , is another honour-roll student with multiple awards, who will leave Hope to further her studies in the UofA to specialize in medicine, also because she has family there.
Her mother, Denise Sevier-Fries, said she’s used to it. Katharina is the last of five children and all of them live away from Hope.
“But I’ve never been so far away from some of my children, so it’s heartbreaking,” said Denise, who added that all her children went to the UofA while she lived in Edmonton.
Katharina said she finds biology “really fascinating,” hence the impetus to potentially become a doctor. “I want to make sure I have a job that I really enjoy,” said Katharina.
Denise added that Katharina has volunteered at hospitals since she was 13.
“She tried to become a candy striper when she was 12, but they said 13 was the minimum age. She went back the day after she turned 13,” said Denise.
Asked how she will get the grades needed to enter med school, she said, “study, study, study.”
“I know it’s really daunting… but I’d rather have tried it and come what may, rather than maybe take a safe route and always regret not trying,” said Katharina.
Katharina said that she would like to return to this area in the future.
“If I become a doctor, I’m going to want to work in lots of different places, [I’m] sure I’d like to do stuff in Africa and other countries like that,” said Katharina. “When the time comes to actually settle down and have my own family and have my own practice or something, then Hope’s definitely a great option.”
For this year’s valedictorians, their paths forward would start closer to home, and would end closer as well. Jacob Chisholm and Jessica Henderson, both 17, will go to Trinity Western University (TWU) and University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) for further studies.
According to them, becoming valedictorians meant they had good grades, a record of service to the community and positive relations with the graduating class.
Jacob wants to become a high school teacher, specializing in English or mathematics. In addition to TWU having a Christian-focused education, Jacob said the program allows him to go through professional training concurrently and that class sizes are smaller.
Jessica will study events and hospitality in UFV next year, through a partnership between HSS and UFV.
“All the trades programs are offering seats to Hope Secondary students, so hoping to get into that and see where it takes me,” she said.
She wanted to study that program because her job involves marketing events through locally-based Connect Media and independently.
Jessica has taken other first-year courses at UFV such as sociology. She liked the way UFV operated, and it was close to home, hence she chose to go there.
After graduation, Jessica said she might have to move somewhere else to start her career, adding that a place with a large population is necessary for her career.
“I do love the town and very well might come back, I feel like I owe it to myself to see a little bit more,” said Jessica. “I think I can bring something back with me if I choose to come back.”
“The type of work I’m interested in and I’m currently doing is for larger events and larger festivals, we just don’t have those opportunities here,
“If it comes to a point where I can do it from my computer, that would be awesome, but I’m not at that stage yet.”
For Jacob, he is “heavily considering” coming back to Hope after graduating from university.
“I really like small towns in general, and I’ve just had a lot of teachers growing up that have really helped me. Soccer coaches taught me a lot — I really looked up to them,” said Jacob.
“And so I would like to possibly come back here and do the same for kids here.”