TEENS EXPRESS THEIR GRATITUDE FOR ONE WORLD CHILD CENTRE
From preschool program to high school diploma, girls set for post-secondary studies
“I feel accomplished and amazing.”
When I ask Tanesha Kequahtooway how she feels about herself today, she offers the inspiring answer with the kind of quiet confidence you wish you could bottle up and give to every teenager.
She’s the first to admit, though, that when it comes to her healthy self-esteem and optimism, the recent Bowness High School graduate had much help along the way.
“The people here really helped build a sense of community,” she says as we meet at the CUPS One World Child Care Centre, the place she spent her preschool years. “They have guided me through the years, were always there when I needed help or advice.”
On Monday morning, the charming 17-year-old is accompanied by her mom, Pam Kequahtooway, along with another One World graduate, Jordan Lindstedt, 18, and her mom, Jenny.
The teens are just two of the approximately 300 children who have “graduated” from the centre since it first opened in 2002.
Yet on this day, they and the centre are celebrating another major milestone: the girls are the first to not only graduate from the preschool program, they have also just graduated from high school — the first generation of the centre’s students now ready for post-secondary education.
If you aren’t already familiar with the Calgary gem that is the One World Child Development Centre, here’s what you need to know: focusing on children and families living in poverty, it has long provided a preschool environment for high-risk children, attending to their specific needs in a nurturing, caring environment. The centre’s ultimate goal is to see their little graduates enter Grade 1 at an academic level on par with their peers.
“We don’t just look at the child,” explains Amber Luft, the centre’s longtime manager. “We wrap around the whole family.”
The One World Child Development Centre is one of the many services provided by Calgary Urban Project Society, or CUPS, a social agency that has for nearly three decades been working to help people overcome the challenges of poverty through integrated health care, education and housing.
Along with the first former students now graduating high school, Kequahtooway and Lindstedt will also be the first One World students to take advantage of scholarships promised to them way back on kindergarten graduation day, thanks to an anonymous donor in its early years.
While Tanesha Kequahtooway’s recollections of those early days as a One World student are hazy, her mom Pam has no trouble recalling how thrilled she was when her then-fouryear-old daughter was accepted into the program.
“I was a teenage mother with three little ones,” says Pam. “Seeing the care and attention she was getting eased my mind — there’s really nothing to compare to this place.”
Pam says the program also made her a strong advocate for her children’s education. “As a parent, it gave me confidence,” she says. “They taught me how to connect with teachers.”
When Tanesha was being bullied in junior high, she once again turned to her “second family” at One World, along with a school counsellor who encouraged her to start writing in a journal.
“I realized I loved to write,” she says, noting she has been accepted into hairstyling school this fall and also plans to take creative writing classes. “If that hadn’t happened, I might never have discovered writing.”
Jenny Lindstedt was also struggling in the early 2000s when she heard about One World. “They provided us with parenting classes, so many resources,” she says of the whole family approach.
“It gave Jordan another place where she felt she belonged,” adds Jenny, who has for years worked as a One World school bus driver. “It’s been a second family for all of us.”
This fall, Jordan, a graduate of James Fowler High School, will begin a sports performance program at college, her ultimate goal a career in a related field. “I like fitness and health,” says the shy teen. “I’d like to study cooking, nutrition.”
Their futures look bright, indeed, as they prepare for their next stage of education. Or, as Tanesha Kequahtooway puts it, “I’m this powerful woman who can do anything.”
Seeing the care and attention she was getting eased my mind — there’s really nothing to compare to this place.