EMT hopeful saved by St. Luke's

An Okotoks alternative school may have helped a recent alumnus save lives in the future.

Aaron Marks received the 2015-16 Governor General’s Award as the Okotoks St. Luke’s Outreach Centre’s top student at its award ceremony Nov. 23.

The 20-year-old Marks is presently taking Bio 30 at the Okotoks campus with plans of becoming an EMT in the future.

He credits St. Luke’s for helping him get his life on track after dropping out of school in Grade 10.

“I dropped out of school for four years and I came back and I was able to get all my work done in a year-and-a-half,” Marks said. “I had issues with regular high school and I didn’t get the help I needed.”

He said after four years of doing virtually nothing, it was time to get his diploma. The alternative school fit his needs perfectly.

“I was getting to the point where I just couldn’t go back to school,” Marks said. “When I came to St. Luke’s the teachers were really nice and there weren’t a lot of people here – I could always get the help I need.”

St. Luke’s is an alternative school offering both one-and-one instruction with some classroom learning. It is ideal for students looking for an alternative to the traditional high school.

Marks said he had issues dealing with crowds at traditional schools. The small environment and more one-on-one attentions at St. Luke’s helped him. He also found a new motivator at St. Luke’s that he rarely had during his school career – success.

“I started feeling a lot more confident with doing diploma exams and now, I’m a lot more confident with helping other people with schoolwork if they needed it,” Marks said.

He got a whole lot more from St. Luke’s than the tools and confidence to get his diploma and become a Governor General Award recipient.

“I didn’t think I would ever be in this position a couple of years ago,” Marks said. “(St. Luke’s) provided me the special needs I needed that other schools couldn’t. They also helped me, not just with schoolwork, but with life in general.”

He now plans to use those tools when he studies at SAIT to become and EMT.

Marks took many of his classes from St. Luke’s teacher Chris Sciberras and things got turned around a bit in the teaching.

Sciberras said he is more often the pupil than the instructor.

“I find at St. Luke’s we are leaning more from the students than we teach them,” he said. “The issues that we face seem so minor as compared to some the kids go through. (I’ve learned) perseverance. That whatever life throws at you, you can overcome it with commitment to experience that success.”

Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools has four campuses in its division including in Okotoks and High River. For information about St. Luke’s in Okotoks call 403-995-0287 or go to redeemer.ab.ca