7S Senior Student Spotlight: Aisha Goertzen
By Seven Summits Centre for Learning
Opting out of the traditional classroom to stay at home for school is a growing option for students in BC.
Parents take on the role of teaching and motivating their children to learn. However, like any parent and child model, eventually, homeschooling challenges can appear.
Therefore, senior student Aisha Goertzen started Seven Summits Centre for Learning in Grade 8 to seek out alternative support options.
“My parents just didn’t have time and didn’t always have the skills to teach me the higher grades for Math, Science, and English; as well, I wanted to meet friends and reduce the isolation,” says Goertzen. As a previously homeschooled student, Goertzen found herself looking for a high school option that was like the intimate learning environment she was accustomed to but with the support and guidance of BC-certified teachers.
“It was in Grade seven that I started to look at options and wanted to get started in a system before all the high school friends were made. I had friends who went to 7S and liked the small, personalized class size.” As the student council marketing and public relations coordinator, Goertzen has many opportunities to have friends in an ongoing leadership role.
“When I joined the student council originally, it was with senior students I looked up to. The example they modelled has served me well to be able to support and add my knowledge to help the current council make good decisions.”
Goertzen was also accustomed to the self-directed independent learning style and found herself the perfect fit for the blending learning model of 7S.
“I really liked the specialized courses that were available through the NIDES Navigate platform, like the Veterinary Sciences course, which may lead me to explore an eventual career path in animal psychology.
“For post-secondary, I plan to pursue Biology and apply to veterinarian school. I think this is a growing field of opportunity. My family has many pets, and my Career Life Connections course is on finding out whether or not becoming a vet is a good fit for me.”
Goertzen found her passion in Biology, especially during the Biology 11 experiential field trip last May.
“It was on the bio trip that I first experienced hands-on science involving wolves. I enjoyed learning about the wolves and their behaviours. During this trip, I reconnected with my old passion of wanting to work at a sanctuary for wildlife and find solutions for us to understand animals better. The wolf fears new things, and farmers could use this to keep wolves out of livestock. I want to make a difference by learning how to symbiotically live alongside predatory animals versus shooting first and asking later.”
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