LCI grads ready to meet challenges of the future

By Herald on June 2, 2021.

This year’s LCI valedictorian Isaac Fletcher, at centre, stands with Principal’s Award winners Kimoya Edwards, and Clara Lebon-Volia and Asher Bridge and Wesley Tews. Herald photo by Tim Kalinowski

Tim Kalinowski – Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Collegiate Institute’s graduating class of 2021 is ready to meet the challenges of the future, says valedictorian Isaac Fletcher, and can be proud of the way it has overcome the challenges of this year.

“It has definitely been a brutal journey,” says Fletcher referring to the 2020-2021 school year, “but it is nice to see all the hard work pay off here at the end. This past year COVID especially has been really hard with online schooling and everything to try to keep my grades up, and to try to stand up to all this school work and everything. But, I think, LCI did a great job. The teachers went the extra mile with scheduling option time when we needed extra help just to try to help us get through this pandemic.”

While online schooling, strict cohorting and additional health restrictions have been challenging to many graduating students in Lethbridge this year, Fletcher says it was particularly hard for those involved in school athletics.

“I am actually a competitive swimmer with the Lethbridge Amateur Swim Club,” Fletcher explains. “With swimming especially, with the restrictions the pools have been opened, they have been closed, opened, and closed over and over again. My routines have been constantly broken up. It has been really hard just to have to live without that very important aspect of your life.

“I actually went swimming in Park Lake last year,” he adds. “It was pretty nasty, but it was my way of getting my laps in.”

Fletcher’s perseverance paid off, and he has been awarded a swimming scholarship to the University of Nebraska, Omaha this fall where he will study chemistry with a concentration in medicine. Fletcher says he hopes to one day become a doctor, and looks forward to returning to Nebraska where his mom grew up and where he still has family to this day.

“The recruiting process with the university there was extremely kind,” he says, “and I felt at home immediately.”

Fletcher says he has one simple and direct message to his fellow graduating LCI classmates.

“I think the biggest thing is to try your best in whatever you do,” he says. “That has always been my mindset going into the athletic aspect of my life, and also the academics. I think if I were to try my best, at the end of the day, I don’t really care about the end result. Because I know I have done everything I possibly can. So I think for the class of 2021, whatever path you follow in life, always try your best.”

Besides Fletcher’s Valedictorian Award, LCI also bestowed its Principal’s Awards to students Kimoya Edwards, Clara Lebon-Volia, Wesley Tews, and Asher Bridge for school leadership. Kimoya Edwards and Asher Bridge also received the Pat Adams Memorial Scholarship for excellence in both fine arts and academics.

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