From homeless mom to valedictorian

Aside from her designated laundry day at an inner-city shelter, Jolene Sumner’s schedule was wide open for self-loathing in the winter.

“I felt like a loser — a big loser,” Sumner said as she described what life was like in the leadup to her fifth and final attempt to finish high school.

“I felt so embarrassed. I never wanted this for my life, for my kids.”

The 44-year-old, along with her three youngest children, found themselves homeless on New Year’s Eve.

The family had just learned a pest infestation in their Fort Rouge rental, paid for via Employment and Income Assistance, was causing jaundice and other symptoms.

Forced to decide between their health and stable housing, Sumner chose the former. The Salvation Army allowed each of them to pack one suitcase for what would be a four-month stay at a building in the city’s core.

It was a combination of Sumner’s boredom, shame and concern about widespread suffering in and around the shelter that she said led her to enrol in the Winnipeg Adult Education Centre.

“Every day I went to school, I wasn’t just doing this for me,” she said, noting she has met with two other shelter residents to help them resume their studies.

“I felt so embarrassed. I never wanted this for my life, for my kids.”

Sumner said she wanted to inspire others experiencing poverty, social service workers and all five of her kids, ranging in age from six to 23, by achieving her longtime goal.

When she officially marks the milestone on Monday she will do so as a valedictorian for the Class of 2026.

Sumner is slated to deliver an address in celebration of roughly 150 mature students graduating from the Winnipeg School Division.

High school graduation is often viewed as “the inevitable end to 13 years of education,” said Phil Cook, a teacher on the Winnipeg Adult Education Centre’s main campus, located at 310 Vaughan St.

“This was not inevitable for our students. There’s nothing inevitable about them graduating,” Cook said, noting that the school’s convocations are celebrations of resilience involving grandchildren, children and other loved ones of all ages.

He’s taught students whose schooling careers have been interrupted by war, addiction, poverty, pregnancy and COVID-19, among other factors.

The Winnipeg School Division registers about 1,100 mature students annually. Senior administration is actively working on expanding its holistic adult education and employment pathway programs.

Principal Dino Di Fabrizio oversees the adult education centre in the downtown core and, as of last fall, four satellite sites. A fifth is anticipated to open in Weston in September.

“Every day I went to school, I wasn’t just doing this for me.”

“The impact of one of our students graduating goes beyond themselves,” Di Fabrizio said.

Not unlike other public schools, mature students have access to free meals, guidance counsellors and other wraparound services.

Di Fabrizio’s team opened a first-of-its-kind adult learning hub inside Shaughnessy Park School in November.

It was designed to make obtaining a diploma more convenient for parents of elementary students in the community. The program produced two graduates this year.

The Winnipeg Adult Education Centre’s slogan is, “We are here when you’re ready!”

Sumner proved to be ready in February, following four previous attempts, each with varying effort, to complete a Grade 12 diploma.

Raising children, work and health issues got in the way, she said.

Having grown up in poverty with a single mother in Winnipeg, making money was her main priority by the time she was 16 years old.

Sumner recalled being so exhausted from juggling multiple service jobs that she couldn’t focus when she did show up at St. John’s High School.

She spent much of her original Grade 11 and 12 years either working at a fast-food restaurant, convenience store or socializing.

Neither her parents nor any of her siblings had a high school diploma. Her mother raised the kids on social assistance. Their father, a foreman logger, was unable to work after he suffered a serious injury on the job.

For much of her young life, Sumner said she felt underestimated, both at school and at home.

She can’t name a mentor, let alone any adult who shared words of encouragement in connection to her academics or extracurriculars as a teen.

That’s one of the reasons why it was so important for her to show up to loudly cheer on her daughter at her school basketball games last winter, she said.

“I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try.”

Sumner described those outings as bright spots during the difficult period after which she, her kindergartener and two middle-years students moved into a Salvation Army-run building.

In her valedictory address, Sumner has chosen to quote an iconic Canadian known for his determination.

“Terry Fox, who was born in Winnipeg, once said, “I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try,” she wrote in a final draft she shared with the Free Press.

“For many of us, this is not our first try at graduating. No matter what it was that seemed to sidetrack us, there was an educational desire…. Our dreams of graduating Grade 12 were made possible because we tried.”

Sumner said she’s applied for financial support in the hopes of pursuing her next goal — a four-year university degree in psychology.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca