From the first real signs of summer after another brutal Canadian winter, to the sense of elation for the vacation time ahead, the new season tends to brings plenty of joy to a lot of people.

For Portage du Fort resident and former secretarial student at the Pontiac Continuing Education Centre (PCEC) Saphia Massarwy, the start of this year’s summer meant the end of a journey, the start of another one and a significant lifetime achievement.

On June 7, Massarwy along with around 50 other students from the Pontiac Continuing Education Centre’s Commerce and Academic programs, their family members and school staff gathered inside the PCEC to celebrate their graduation.

During the ceremony, students sat and socialized, eagerly awaiting to receive their diplomas, as the school’s principal Jennifer Dubeau called out their names one by one to be photographed holding their certificates.

While adult education institutions often get labeled as a harbor for the misfits of academia, Massarwy wasn’t one to downplay her momentous accomplishment and felt blessed with the opportunity to celebrate it with her classmates.

As a single mom raising her five-year-old son Brando, the heavily loaded secretarial program certainly provided its fair share of challenges and hardships for Massarwy.

Attending school five days per week with strict deadlines to meet, the program’s curriculum was quite demanding, according to the Portage du Fort native.

“The fact that I made it, that I graduated feels really good that I was able to accomplish that, especially as a single mom. It was really good and it was really nice seeing everybody.”

Although she was handed her diploma at last week’s graduation ceremony, Massawry officially completed her program in February.

Despite being overjoyed having finished her studies quite earlier than her curriculum suggested, it wasn’t easy saying goodbye to such great friends and familiar-faces.

“I graduated a few months before my allotted time,” she said. “I was hoping to be done a little sooner. But I formed a lot of good friendships and ties here so I was actually upset that I left as early as I did.”

Having spent a little under two years in the program, Massarwy and her classmates were together through thick and thin. As she remains in contact will many of them still going out for food and drinks on a regular basis, she believes the connection they had was special.

“We really did become a family, especially the group that came in this past September,” she said. “We all just clicked. Everybody was just supportive and encouraging.”

Out of all the wonderful things the school and its people brought to her throughout her time there, the family-like bond she shared with fellow students and teachers is what she longs for the most.

“[I’m going to miss] the sense of community that we have here,” she said. “All the teachers are always willing to help and the people are always willing to help. I was on student council. So, I was involved in a lot of things. So, I really miss that aspect of a family away from family.”

In January, shortly before completing her program, Massarwy was studying at school with one of her classmates when the municipality of Clarendon’s Director General Patricia Hobbs walked in the school for a visit looking for a student interested in a position in municipal staff.

Knowing Massarwy would be interested, her program’s coordinator Bonnie McLachlin set her up with an interview, which eventually led to having a three-week job placement where she showed quite a positive impression.

“They hired me before I was even done,” she said.

Now, Massarwy works for the municipality as an administrative assistant to Hobbs. Charged with various office duties, her responsibilities include translating documents, answering phone calls and e-mails, as well as other forms of paperwork.

Currently one of the projects taking the bulk of her time is the task of recreating the municipality’s natural disaster plan following this year’s record floods.

All in all, she finds the work quite enjoyable. Although, it could provide a little more excitement as she would prefer, she does enjoy the peaceful environment along with the amicable presences of Hobbs as her superior. Plus, the tasks are quite varied which eliminates redundancy in a days’ work.

“There’s always something to do that’s always different when you walk in there,” she said. “You can plan to do one thing and by the end of it there’s always other things to do. There’s a lot of variety, so I like that.”

Having acquired a job directly out of her studies, Massawry felt fortunate to have landed the position under such convenient circumstances.

From suitable scheduling to having such a great opportunity fall on her door step, she definitely feels blessed with her situation.

“I’m very grateful because I was very worried that I wasn’t going to find something, mainly because my schedule isn’t as open as most people,” she said. “It works with my son’s schedule and it works with mine. So, I was really lucky because I didn’t actually, unlike a lot of people, I didn’t have to go look for it. The opportunity came to me, so I’m very thankful for that.”

Now, having a secured her diploma and a gig with the Municipality of Clarendon, Massarwy doesn’t plan on stopping her progress just yet. Having originally planned to enroll in school in September she instead decided that it’s perhaps best to take it easy, at least for the next little while.

“I have a couple of things I’d like to do furthering my education,” she said. “I was supposed to go to school in September for social service worker but I decided it was just too hectic this last two years. So, I thought I’d take a break. I’d like to look into being a teacher someday. I’d like to teach and I’d also like to maybe go into anything in the psychology field as well.”

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