When work-experience teacher Rahim Sajan introduces himself to new students at Discovering Choices High School, a Calgary Board of Education outreach school with more than 1,400 students, he says he’s a PQAWET.
“I tell them ‘I’m a Professional Question-Asker and a Work-Experience Teacher. You’ve never met a professional question-asker, have you?’” Sajan says. From there, he starts to form relationships with the students to uncover their dreams and help them succeed, something he estimates he’s done with more than 300 youths at his downtown placement.
His passion for connecting his students with opportunities to grow and succeed can be traced back to what Sajan believes was lacking from his own childhood in Tanzania. “I was a pretty bright kid, but I didn’t have anything to latch onto,” he says. When he was 15, he and his family moved to Canada, and now, more than 20 years later, Sajan is giving marginalized students something they can latch onto through his work.
More at the source: Rahim Sajan | Top 40 Under 40 | Avenue Calgary
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