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A New Pathway: Why I Participate in Pathways to Education
A few months ago, Torontoist was invited to take part in Pathways to Education, a program that helps students in disadvantaged neighbourhoods stay in school, graduate, and pursue post-secondary education. As part of the Group Mentoring component this winter, Torontoist writers Karen Aagaard, Hamutal Dotan, and Suzannah Showler conducted a workshop in online journalism for some Pathways students in Lawrence Heights; another group meeting concurrently learned about photography from staff photographer Nick Kozak. We invited the students to share stories about their neighbourhood and their experiences with Pathways with you.
Photo by Mary Grace Lopez Lozano.
Pathways is an organization that works to decrease the drop-out rate for low income families. I started Pathways last year and I had a lot of fun. It began by Pathways mailing everybody in Grade 8 (going into Grade 9) to come see what Pathways is all about. When I went to go check out Pathways, I learned a lot about how they put money towards the first year of college or university, and give us free bus tickets and vouchers for lunch. My friends and I really enjoyed Pathways a lot last year. Also, in the summer they surprised us by mailing us a form to go to a Blue Jays game and sit in a box. It was so much fun: free food, great seats, and we met some other people that were also involved in Pathways.
Pathways is great for us kids because when our parents come back from work and they’re tired, we don’t want to bother them. This is a great opportunity for us to get a lot of help so we give our parents a rest from whining. And people that didn’t sign up for Pathways…it’s their loss. They could have gotten a lot of things out of it and learned how it helps us and our community.