Lelaina Jules’ journey of a thousand miles began with one Adult Basic Education course at Malaspina University-College.

Actually, without her realizing exactly where it was leading, her journey really began when her husband, Alex, and her younger brother, Steve, decided to leave their jobs in Ucluelet to study at Malaspina.

Alex has since received his diploma in Tourism Management, worked for a few years, and has now returned to complete his degree. Steve has one year to go for his degree and has been working in London, England for the past three years. So we can add the names of two more Hidden Heroes to this story.

Before moving to Nanaimo, Lelaina was a stay-at-home-mom who had shown little interest in studying while she was at high school. In fact she dropped out. But that began to change as day after day she saw Alex and Steve coming home happy from school.

The next semester she decided to take the Adult Basic Education English 10 course. That was followed by two courses the next semester and a year and a half later she graduated. In fact the year she completed high school, she also completed a first year university course.

Carl Goodwin from Malaspina’s Sociology Department and Lynn Hunter from the ABE Program should also qualify as a Hidden Hero in this story. They saw Lelaina’s potential and arranged for her to take the early leap to a university course. Before that Lelaina was convinced that she could never do university level programs; however, with that success under her belt she completed her BA in sociology with a minor in First Nations Studies doing a full course load each year as well as being a mom and wife.

So we can add Carl and Lynn’s names to the list of Hidden Heroes in this story. It’s hard to say but there is a good chance that without that encouragement and the success that followed, Lelaina may never have had the courage to attempt university level courses.

The Our Hidden Heroes program that we have developed for Grades 1, 3, 5 and 7 encourages students to seek out, encourage and activate the best not only in themselves but also in people around them. What Carl and Lynn did for Lelaina is a great example of what can happen when we do that.

Since she graduated Lelaina has been working as an Aboriginal Youth Leadership and Training Coordinator at Tillicum Haus.Native Friendship Centre, a job she loves, but her plan is to go back to school to complete an Education degree before returning to her Hesquiaht Band in Hotsprings Cove to teach high school.

Lelaina says she wants her kids to grow up where she did and she also wants to support the people in her community because they helped pay her expenses to get through school.”

How many kids are going to benefit because Alex and Steve decided to go back to school; because Carl and Lynn saw Lelaina’s potential; because the members of her band chose to help her go back to school; because of the support offered through Malaspina’s ABE program; and because Lelaina was able to see her own true potential and then do the hard work needed to achieve it?