By Monday morning, Morgan Lilly Smith will be planning for life in at the University of Winnipeg as she takes aim at attaining a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry. 

The grade 12 student and fifteen of her classmates are graduating from Roseau Valley School (RVS) in Dominion City Saturday afternoon.

Smith and Triton Schuck were chosen as the valedictorians for the high school's Class of 2023.

"I'm trying to put it in a way that doesn't make us sound bad," chuckles Smith. "We pick on each other, but we'd all help each other out if we needed. Sometimes people clash, but that's just a normal part of high school. But for the most part we all get along. We all have separate friends outside of school, right? But when we're together it's pretty much, us against everything else. Like, I'd have their back, they'd have mine."

Vice principal Jennifer Collette describes the school's class of 2023 as a group of determined kids. 

"From my perspective, they are motivated and go-getters and have provided some leadership in our school for younger students, not just sports-wise but academically too. They shown some really great examples for our younger high school kids. We're going to miss them."

Twelve of the graduates will enter the work force. A couple of students who took the Red River Technical Vocational Area (RRTVA) trades program have carpentry jobs lined up. Four students will pursue post-secondary studies, including Smith, who has dreamed of becoming a veterinarian since her elementary days. 

"I've been planning for my university since I was 12. After I hit Grade 9 and I started seeing elements of chemistry and biology, I loved it! So instead of doing a more biology route with a veterinarian or any other career like that, I decided to shift it into something else."

A friend of Smith's brought up the option of biochemistry. 

"It's a combination of all the things I like and it offers a broader career path once I graduate from university. It was only about four years ago that I really started planning for it. I knew that I had to step up my game and I needed to get good grades in all those classes because I needed scholarships. I don't have any financial support going into university. It's kind of just, all me. I need grants, bursaries, whatever I can get."

Vice Principal Jennifer Collette, who taught Morgan in Grade 3, remembers thinking even back then, that this eight-year-old visionary was going to do something incredible with her life.

"In a small school setting, where staff watch a child go from kindergarten to Grade 12, progressing as a person, it's the most amazing thing. Not a lot of people get to see those things. We see people's children more hours in a day than sometimes their parents do. It's a pretty incredible experience."

Schuck says his favorite memories all involve connections, whether it was spending time with classmates, joining the basketball team or learning from teachers.

Both students took their high school education during the pandemic when there was little else to do but schoolwork. 

"It was kind of a blur if I'm being completely honest," recalls Smith. "I remember doing all my work, but all the days just blended together into waking up and doing work that I don't remember anything significant other than turning 15 when COVID hit."

Looking back, Smith feels that period worked to her advantage.

"I did a Cultural Exploration credit, basically a course I made myself on Norse mythology and culture. I made the criteria for all my own assignments, but they were still marked by someone else. I was also able to finish school early. Then I worked for Hylife in pig barns for four months and I actually got a high school apprenticeship credit through that."

The past year was draining, confesses Smith, working one job through Grade12 and adding a second job towards the end of the year. 

"It's just a lot of pressure. Now it's almost done. For a bit. Until university. Then it's all going to start up again."

Collette believes going through a remote learning experience during the pandemic helped prepare students for striking out on their own.

School staff have been amazing, said Smith, providing academic support and teaching her life skills such as how to do taxes online and applying for apartments.

"At this school, everyone knows each other. Even in kindergarten, I had cousins in grade 1, grade 2, grade 5 because out here it's all families who will move back. You came here and you felt welcomed. Yes, you found your own friends eventually. But you weren't the new kids or the outcast. Everyone knows everybody, everyone's parents know each other. It's just a nice community to be in."

Schuck 's advice to his classmates? 

"Live a fulfilling life and do the things that YOU want to do because we only have one life to live and we have to live it to the fullest."


With files from Candace Derksen