Oshki-Pimache-O-Win graduate Angie Fiddler is putting the counselling and case management skills she learned in the Aboriginal Community Services Worker Diploma Program to good use.

“When I started the program I was working as a mental health worker in Sandy Lake,” says the K-Net Youth Employment Coordinator from Muskrat Dam First Nation. “A lot of what I was learning helped me as a mental health worker. They also taught us case management, which is what I’m using with my current position.”

Fiddler graduated from the two-year program in Sept. 2007 and is looking forward to continuing her education with a Bachelor of Arts Psychology distance education program through Laurentian University, with the future goal of getting back into the mental health field. Fiddler feels comfortable with the distance education model; she is currently delivering distance training to Youth ICT workers through the Internet from her home community of Muskrat Dam and she has previously completed some high school courses through Wahsa’s radio communications system while raising her daughter in her home community. She then completed her secondary education at Queen Elizabeth District High School in Sioux Lookout.

“I like the community-based learning aspect of distance education,” Fiddler says. “You can do most of your learning from home. It allows me to continue working as I learn.”

Fiddler and her husband Jesse and family returned to their home communities of Sandy Lake and Muskrat Dam a few years ago after making the decision to be closer to the land, culture and language of their own people while still continuing with their Internet-based work.

“That’s a whole other skill people need to learn to complete their program or job,” Fiddler says. “That’s a whole other concept to grasp. You know you’re going to school or work, but it’s way over there.”

Fiddler was prepared for the intensive learning required during Oshki-Pimache-O-Win’s on-campus sessions and knew that the more they learned on-campus, the less they would have to learn while at home with the pressures of home and community life and a full-time job.

“The homework and assignments were intense and required determination,” she says.

While Fiddler found that she had to find a balance between work, school, assignments, family and friends to succeed in the program, she appreciated the friendly and efficient atmosphere among the staff and instructors at Oshki-Pimache-O-Win and soon realized that the social relationships she built with the other students was an advantage.

“We got really close, helping each other with assignments,” she says, noting that she also helped many of the other students with their computers. “We really stuck together, not only with school but with our personal lives.”