Alumni Journeys

When Evin arrived in Saint John in Grade 7, she faced a challenge she wasn’t sure she could overcome: learning English. After being displaced by war and living in Kurdistan, Syria, and Turkey, she was no stranger to change. But adapting to life in Canada felt overwhelming, especially when she struggled to connect with classmates.

“It was a huge adjustment,” Evin recalls. “I would come home crying because I’d see people speaking English while I couldn’t. I was trying to learn a new school system and culture, too.” Struggling to find her footing, Evin began to wonder whether her dream of becoming a doctor was still within reach.

Growing up, Evin had watched both of her parents battle cancer at different moments. The experience defined what she wanted to do with her life. “It was a difficult time and affected us a lot. This made me want to be a doctor to help people and their loved ones who go through the same thing.” After arriving in Canada, Evin wasn’t sure if a medical career was possible because of the language barrier—but joining Pathways changed that.

When Evin started Grade 9, a friend told her about the Pathways Program. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ I’m a social person, and I would love to get involved in any opportunity out there.” Walking through the doors on the first day, however, uncertainty returned. “I felt awkward and asked myself, ‘What am I doing here?’” she recalls. Over time, that feeling faded as she built friendships and found a community that believed in her.

Pathways staff supported Evin by sitting with her one-on-one to work through readings and assignments. “We’d take turns reading pages, and if there was a word I didn’t understand, they would explain the meaning in an easier way.” Gradually, her confidence grew and she became more comfortable expressing herself in English.

By the end of high school, Evin graduated with high honours. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Health at the University of New Brunswick, specializing in Biomedical Sciences. She now works as a research assistant at the Horizon Health Network while preparing for the MCAT.

Looking back, Evin believes her Grade 7 self would be proud that she never gave up. “She would be happy I kept going and got to where I wanted to be.”

Trevaun was 12, painting a mural in his neighbourhood, when a Toronto Community Housing manager stopped him. “She said I seemed mature for a kid my age,” he recalls. “And then she said, ‘I want you to work for me.’” Trevaun had been volunteering in the community for a year, planting flowers and helping with gardening projects. The offer couldn’t have come at a better time. His single mother was struggling to support Trevaun and his sisters. Trips to the food bank often yielded too little, and at school, some teachers openly predicted that kids from Lawrence Heights wouldn’t amount to much. Around the same time, a neighbourhood gang was trying to recruit him.

“I always wonder, if I hadn’t had that opportunity with Toronto Community Housing, would I be here today?”

Trevaun took on the role of youth animator, going door to door to invite residents to community meetings. The first lesson he learned was persistence. To get 40 people to attend, he had to knock on 300 doors.

In Grade 9, Trevaun joined Pathways, following in his older sister’s footsteps. The bus tickets and grocery cards eased the pressure at home, but there was something else he needed from the program. “I loved the feeling of connection, the vibe in that room,” he says. “My support worker, Zach, was just a funny, uplifting person. He really helped guide me.” In his off hours, Zach ran fitness trainings at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre, creating a fun, competitive spirit that filled the gym with people of all ages. Before sessions, he texted Trevaun to make sure he’d be there. “He could have just gone home at the end of his shift, but he didn’t,” says Trevaun. “It was such a selfless act.”

Growing up without his father, Trevaun saw Zach as a role model, someone who consistently showed up for young people. It was an example he wanted to follow.

After high school, he continued his outreach work with Toronto Community Housing while working a series of jobs to help support his family: maintenance worker, deli clerk, drug store cashier, bike mechanic, basketball coach. He was also an after-school counsellor at the community centre, helping young people through the same challenges he faced growing up. “My goal was to make people’s lives easier,” he says. “I think it stemmed from seeing my mother struggle. I don’t want anyone to have to experience what we did.”

In 2019, Trevaun founded Mind on Strength, combining fitness and mental health workshops to create a safe, supportive space for youth. “I want youth to know that no matter what they’re going through, they will get through it,” he explains. “It’s about resilience, and it all starts in the mind.”

To raise awareness and funds for the program, Trevaun began taking on long-distance walks across southern Ontario, often wearing a 55-pound weighted vest. Ahead of Mother’s Day in 2024, he walked more than 100,000 steps from Toronto to Hamilton to fund a spa day for hardworking mothers in Lawrence Heights.

When young people join him on these walks, he shares the advice that has kept him going since he was a teen: just keep putting one foot in front of the other. “I always tell youth, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” he says. “It may look like a rough season now, but one day, one year, one opportunity can change everything.”

Perseverance is an important word for Gabrielle. It’s what set her on the path to a career in special education, helping young people build skills to overcome the obstacles in their way. It’s also a force that has influenced her own life, giving her the strength to face one setback after another.

The first came in elementary school, where she struggled to keep up with her classmates and had to repeat a grade. The second followed soon after, when she was diagnosed with a learning disability. “I was always a happy and open person,” Gabrielle recalls. “But at the end of elementary school, something changed.”

High school brought new challenges. Assignments were more difficult, and coming from a big family, Gabrielle found it nearly impossible to concentrate in her busy home. “There was a time when I wanted to drop out,” says Gabrielle. “But my mom said, ‘No, you’re going to keep going and you’ll make it.’” Her mother had always believed that, with the right support, Gabrielle could succeed in school. When a Pathways support worker showed up on their doorstep to share that a new program had started in Shawinigan, she signed her daughter up that day.

“I was shy at first,” says Gabrielle, recalling her first afternoons at Pathways. “I was there to find a quiet space to do my homework, so I focused on that.” But as she got to know her support worker, Mathieu, and the broader Pathways team, she felt her confidence starting to grow. The team helped her develop learning strategies that worked for her. With their support and her mother’s encouragement, Gabrielle persevered through four years of high school and graduated with her class.

Her next challenge came during the pandemic, when Gabrielle started CEGEP. The sudden shift to online learning made the transition especially difficult. After a tough first semester, the college called home, concerned that she might drop out. But Gabrielle had a different plan in mind. She leaned on the study habits and self-advocacy skills she had built at Pathways, lightening her course load so it was more manageable and meeting with professors for extra help.

All of it paid off. “When I found out I’d passed, I called my mom right away! We were both crying on the phone.”

Today, Gabrielle works as a special education technician. When she urges others to keep going—to trust themselves and never give up—she speaks as someone who knows what it takes to persevere. She also knows the road ahead won’t be straightforward, but she’s ready for the challenge. “I’m staying focused on my goal, which is to have a stable job that I love,” says Gabrielle. “To wake up in the morning and love what I do.”

Shane has the unique privilege of working every day alongside the two people he says changed his life: his mother, Tracy, and the woman he calls his second mother, Elaine. The three have been connected since Pathways Winnipeg opened in 2010, when Shane was a Grade 9 student and Tracy was a mother worried about her son.

“I was a normal kid, but a little rebellious,” Shane recalls. “I wanted to fit in.” His classmates were starting to use drugs and alcohol, but Tracy was determined to keep him on a steady path. When a flyer about Pathways arrived in the mail, she handed it to him and said, “You’re going.”

Shane wasn’t convinced he needed the program, but he agreed to give it a try. Between tutoring, regular check-ins with his support worker, Elaine, and having a quiet place to study, his grades improved. Before long, he was a regular. Seeing the progress Shane was making, Tracy began volunteering at Pathways, eager to be part of a program that was helping kids in the city’s North End. She later joined the Pathways team full time.

In Grade 10, Shane was given the opportunity to transfer to the University of Winnipeg Collegiate, a small high school on the University of Winnipeg campus. It was a huge opportunity, but one Shane’s parents knew they couldn’t afford. Then they learned he had been awarded a scholarship. “It made my parents cry,” Shane recalls. “I never thought I would go to university, but being in that environment changed my perspective. I thought, ‘That’s going to be me one day.’”

Starting at the Collegiate was exciting, but it wasn’t easy. Shane was one of the few Indigenous students at the school, and at times he felt out of place. After classes, he returned to Pathways, where Elaine was always waiting, ready to listen and encourage him to keep going. Every June, she and the Pathways team took students to National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations at The Forks, where Elders, community leaders and artists came together to honour Indigenous cultures.

“I remember one speaker saying that you could achieve anything you set your mind to, no matter the colour of your skin. That really stayed with me,” Shane says.

Those events helped me connect with my culture and be more accepting of it than I used to be.

Shane looks back on his high school years with pride, even though they didn’t turn out the way he’d expected. After a setback in his final year, Shane made the difficult decision to leave the Collegiate, but he never lost sight of his goal. “I had my mind set on graduating,” he says. At 18, he enrolled himself in a new school and completed his remaining credits. His graduation photo is still hanging at home as a reminder of what he’s capable of.

Shane became the first person in his family to attend university. He’s working toward his business degree while building a life for his young children. Following in the footsteps of the two women who believed in him from the start, Shane is now also part of the Pathways Winnipeg team. As a Student Parent Support Worker, he’s proud to offer young people the same encouragement he once received.

When his children come to visit him at work, they race into the centre, greeting all the staff by name. “My daughter keeps asking, ‘Dad, when can I start the program?’ I tell her she has to be patient. She’s only in Grade 3.”