They’re there to help with the teaching, but two teachers’ assistants at Roland Michener Secondary in Slave Lake insist they’re learning as much as their students.
Canada World Youth participants Joseph Boulos from Montreal and Vitaliy Przhyyevskyy from Ukraine are both lawyers in training. But for the next two months or so they’ve traded their law books for teachers’ caps. And while they won’t likely change their majors when they’re back in university next spring, the two are enthused about their time in these western halls of learning.
“It couldn’t be any better,” says Joseph, who admits Alberta has offered his first of two cultural shocks he expects to experience in the next six months.
As well as “interacting and learning what students think,” he says volunteer days at the school also give them a feel for the entire community.
“We’re learning about the school system and the mentality of the community,” he adds.
Joseph says he was overwhelmed by the abundance of religions in Slave Lake and what seems to be a zeal for those religions by their respective congregations.
Agreeing, his Ukrainian counterpart says he’s just as surprised by the number of different sports that Canadian children can choose from.
He’s always participated in sports, he says, but those are primarily those played with large balls – like basketball, soccer and volleyball. He played hockey as he was growing up, too, but it wasn’t on skates. And before coming to Alberta, he knew very little about golf, Frisbees and other such sports.
“We play a lot of street hockey,” he says.
Vitaliy helps in computer and phys ed classes, and while a computer is a computer anywhere in the world, he says students here are fortunate because they have just one keyboard to deal with – rather than the three he works on at the National University of Ostrosth Academy.
He says he was anxious to arrive in this community because he’d heard all about it from a roommate – Vasyl Buchko — who took part in the CWY exchange here last year. As well, several other friends and roommates at the university have taken similar adventures, too, so were filled with descriptions of the western world.
“I was eager to learn about Canada and the program,” he says, “but we have a saying that it’s better to see once with your own eyes than hear about it 200 times.”
And after having that first-hand experience, he agrees with all those glowing compliments.
“You have a very beautiful nature of people.”
Helping students in music class has been rewarding, says his Montreal-born counterpart.
“This job’s not routine, it’s like leisure,” says Joseph. And it’s fulfilling, too, when he sees students succeed on their respective musical instruments. He’s helping them learn and get ready for provincial and national competitions, adding he’s particularly excited because he’ll be able to go with them to provincial competitions in Canmore this fall.
Even better, he says when CWY participants wrap up their stay in Poland early next year, he’ll be back in this country and his hometown to meet with RMSS band students who’ll head there late next spring. “But it’s great to communicate with people. My students teach me lots too – about groups, drugs. It’s spontaneous, each day is different and I’m very happy.”
He, too, was encourage to get involved with the Canada World Youth by a friend, but admits he didn’t take much convincing.
“I wanted to discover the world, learn another language and try to make a difference in a community,” he says, this program allows him to do all that –and have fun while he’s doing it.
Vitaly says he’s also looking forward to the second half of the exchange that’ll participants living in Poland for several weeks, but he doesn’t expect many surprises there either.
The CWY selection process both this year and last have allowed him develop several friendships in Poland, he admits. And he’s also had an opportunity to visit that country. That’s taught him that while participants will be living in villages where few people speak English, he adds “the people in Poland are very friendly.”
It’s that comfort zone that allowed him to get comfortable with the Polish language, he said, making Polish his fourth language.
He’s already very comfortable with English, too, praises Joseph who hopes he can learn a little more Polish before he heads to that country.
“Vitaliy is very good at English. I was very impressed when I was twinned with him, and discovered he knows English better than me.

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