This past Wednesday in the Macoun Lounge at Moose Jaw's Sask Polytechnic Campus, the 2017 Indigenous Honour Ceremony took place, with parents, friends, staff and distinguished guests in attendance.

"We wanted to acknowledge and honour our Sask Polytechnic students where they are in their program. It's actually a retention strategy that we've developed, "said the Director of Aboriginal Strategy Jason Seright. "We're very close to graduation, but it was something to give them that little push and to help them make it over that last little hump."

There was a full agenda of prayers, an honour song, speeches and warm wishes for the graduates as they reach the final weeks before completing their programs. 

Seright had advice for all students currently nearing graduation at all education levels.

"Don't give up, you never know what life has in-store for you or where your journey is going to take you. You finish this off and 10-15 years from now you may be doing something bigger and better. Keep going, don't give up."

There was a special presentation on behalf of the students from Conner LaPointe, who is about to graduate from the Instrumentation Engineering Technology program. 

He spoke about his own life and the obstacles he faced once he was looking for a career and realized he hadn't pushed himself to his full potential in high school. Which led to more challenges as he began to apply to Sask Polytechnic and was browsing through courses in which he didn't meet the criteria. 

LaPointe was able to obtain the proper requirements after taking classes to upgrade in the evenings at the Moose Jaw campus, which then enabled him to venture into his post secondary education into instrumentation engineering technology. 

He noted what he loved about the industry and what lead him to choosing this path. 

"Process control and automation is definitely a growing industry... I wanted to go towards it as it's something that's going to be needed in the future. It's such a dynamic industry, it's always changing, the learning process is always continuing." 

Like many who leave home for post secondary education, he said he'll miss his classmates and is looking forward to reflecting on his time at the Moose Jaw campus and laughing at how stressed he was.

This was the 25th year for the Indigenous Honour Ceremony for all Sask Polytechnic campuses and the first year for celebrations to be held at all of them.