Sometimes what career path a student decides to follow, comes from discovering a hidden talent. Perhaps that inspiration comes from taking a class they wouldn’t normally have taken or the influence of a remarkable teacher who inspires them. Along that path, it can also cause students to look back at where they come from or the history of their community. For a group of grade 9 students at Chestermere Lake Middle School, a photojournalism project under the direction of Mr. James and Mr. Hoffman did exactly that.
The goal of the project was to design and publish a magazine in partnership with the Canadian Geographic Magazine! The magazine is titled, “Chestermere – The Land, The People, The Places” and was presented at a book launch January 11, 2016. There were fifteen grade nine students who participated in the magazine including; Claire Barnes, Yvette Bumakil, Jasmin Dosanjh, Shaelynn Doughty, Keely Evanoff, T.J. Hayes, Evan Lloyd, Christina Maida-Cook, Avril Perrin, Melyssa Randolph, Abby Simpson, Nichole Storvold, Emily Tosh, Alexa van Ree, Max Watts.
One of the teachers involved, Adam James, said, “Over the course of the last three months, students have been busy taking photos, interviewing various members of the community and collecting data based on the guiding question, “How is Chestermere Lake important?” The students were responsible for writing their own articles and photographing their own pictures for their articles. They even learned how to use a program called Lucidpress in order to format the articles and get them ready for printing. It was a lot of work for both the students and the teachers, but they all agree the end product is definitely worth it!”
Jennifer Peddlesden, President of the Chestermere Historical Foundation attended the launch party and commented, “‘I continue to be pleased and heartened when projects arise that celebrate the history of Chestermere, its natural feature as a wetland, its significance in the history of the west (i.e. irrigation), and the stories that make it a unique and special place to live. That the students, our next generation, reached out to the Chestermere Historical Foundation testifies to CHF being successful in creating awareness of the importance of Chestermere’s history, one of the ten objectives of the CHF. I am sure I can speak for other CHF members that these projects tell us that the work we do on Chestermere’s history is very worthwhile”.
If you’d like to check out the amazing work of these talented students, you can order a copy of the magazine by contacting Adam James at Chestermere Lake Middle School via email at ajames@rvschools.ab.ca or by calling 403-273-1343 (Ext. 8473). Magazines are $10 each. All money goes toward the cost of the magazine printing. The school does not make a profit off the sale of the magazines.
