Connecting the dots at LRSD ATC

St. Boniface

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Jobs’ infamous 2005 Stanford commencement address included this curious line: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward.”

Jobs was at the height of turning Apple into an innovation powerhouse and he shared some thoughts about the important experiences in his life that led to his success running the iconic company.

“Looking backward” requires a pause to reflect about past experiences and to ponder why they mattered.

Jobs, though, omits an important point about that backward browse. It’s hard to connect the dots without first collecting enough of them. That’s why it’s so important for high school students to participate in enough activities (or dots) in which they can try out new experiences and build new skills beyond the academic classroom experience.

Every high school is a veritable goldmine of dots. Along with those 30 required academic credits, students have access to a variety of extracurricular activities that run the gamut of interests, from sports to dancing to student council to video gaming to a Junior Achievement program.

When academic or student services teachers point students towards activities outside the conventional schedule where students can test their skills, interests and capabilities, those dots can be life-altering.

Louis Riel School Division’s Arts and Technology Centre is a learning space that moves the ‘dot’ dial in profound ways.

When students choose one of ATC’s 13 applied, technical, or apprenticeship programs for two semesters of their high school experience, they make a choice to step off the beaten path of school and invest in their ability to connect their own dots.

Broadcast media student Alexandre Lambert, from Collège Régional Gabrielle-Roy, needed to gauge his interest in the broadcast media industry to properly assess whether he wanted to work in the field and to “realize my strengths and weaknesses as a person.”

He spent two semesters learning Adobe software platforms, streaming huge events such as a high school football championship, co-producing the Adventures in Careerland podcast, hosting radio shows, filming TV broadcasts, creating and video-editing countless digital pieces, and finishing up with an internship with Radio-Canada.

ATC offers unique hands-on applications “where everything is just ‘do’,” according to Collège Béliveau and broadcast media student Zachary Bowser.

The broadcast media program has been an important dot for Alexandre, one in which he has asserted career agency over his future.

ATC students will graduate from high school like most students, but their personal awareness, skills set, and vision for the future will likely be markedly different.

Registrations for high school, post-secondary, and international students are in process with an open house slated for Feb. 22. Info about ATC programs is available at www.lrsd.net/atc