Saint Michael Catholic students in Niagara Falls take French skills on jobs test drive

Personal experience suffering a serious asthma attack led Madison Bower to consider a career as a respirologist

They say when you can’t breathe, nothing else matters. Madison Bower would agree.

About a year ago, the fit, athletic student at Saint Michael Catholic High School was taking part in sports when suddenly she simply couldn’t get enough oxygen.

“I was playing hockey and out of nowhere it was like, ‘I can’t breathe,’” she said.

One-kilometre runs became ordeals that sent her home in tears, struggling to breathe.

Eventually, she had a full-blown asthma attack and had to be hospitalized overnight, leading to appointments with doctors specializing in lung and pulmonary issues that eventually resulted in a diagnosis of asthma.

When she and other Grade 10 French students at Saint Michael were charged by teacher Antoinette Lambert with looking into possible careers as part of an annual French job fair, Bower decided to look into becoming a respirologist, also known as a pulmonologist.

“I thought, wow, that would be such as cool job to have,” she said at the school on Monday, after the students had job ‘interviews’ with Lambert in French and had career displays set up in the main lobby. If she could help someone avoid what she went through, Bower figures it would be a rewarding career.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to have to experience what I went through because it was really, really terrible,” she said.

Lambert, who also had students cobble together resumés and write cover letters, said the fair was a chance for the students to put the French skills they’ve been honing under her tutelage to a test similar to what it would be like in the real world.

“Confidence in their communication skills is paramount and an integral part of their learning,” she said. “My motto is ‘L’ to the power of three: learn it, live it, love it.”

Student Lucas Beu focused on a possible career in real estate, sparked in part by the red-hot Niagara real estate market. “You hustle, you sell the house and you make money,” he said.

But along with opening many doors in jobs in government and the private sector, Beu said becoming proficient in French also opens up doors around the world. “There are 200 million people around the world who speak French,” he said. “Fifty three countries have French as their official language.”

That’s something Lambert tries to stress to her students. “In our global, economic world market, French is truly a transferable life skill,” she said.

Among careers ranging from lawyers to being an animator, Saint Michael students are also considering career paths that they feel passionate about. For Yuana Ng, that’s being a veterinarian even though it would mean many years of study at university.

“I really love animals: I’ve always been connected to nature and animals,” she said.

Fellow student Julia Schwegler thinks there can be no higher calling than becoming a registered nurse. She said the massive role nurses have played in responding to the pandemic, and how to most people they’re now seen as front-line heroes, played a big part in that.

“It was really cool to see how crucial nurses are,” she said. “Before the pandemic I didn’t know the huge role they play. It’s really important for the future generation to want that job, to want to help.”