Students in a Saskatoon adult education program don’t have to look far to see words of encouragement as they walk from classroom to classroom on a daily basis.
“Follow your dreams,” reads one message, on a graffiti wall placed in one of Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s busiest hallways. Another passage explains that “education is the passport to the future.”
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The idea for the graffiti wall was conceived by Kevin Wesaquate, the school’s artist in residence. He said the goal is to spread positivity to students who study in the institution’s Davies Building.
“I want to spread encouragement and motivation,” Wesaquate said in an interview Wednesday.
“Just stick it out a little longer with school, try harder to get higher grades, you know, try to encourage one another, build community here at Sask. Polytechnic.”
The messages on the graffiti wall are produced by the students themselves. Justice Williams, 21, wrote “keep moving on” in black marker on the canvass Wednesday morning.
“I have a sticker on my fridge that says ‘keep moving on’ and I look at it every morning and it motivates me,” Williams said.
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Administrators at Saskatchewan Polytechnic hope the wall keeps its student body engaged, especially during the middle of each academic term, when times can get tough. Many of the students are returning to school to finish their high school education and face challenges outside of the classroom.
“They have to sort of balance work and home and school and so there’s lots of times where there’s lots of things that are taking their energy,” Kiyomi Kirkpatrick, a program head in the institution’s adult education program, said Wednesday.
“To have something visual that can remind them why they’re here, what they’re working towards and why they should stick with it I think is really important.”
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