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.
Brandon Bell had never played a down of football before suiting up for Saint Michael this fall.
Saint Michael alumnus Anthony Federico was named the Ontario University Athletics defensive football player of the week.