Jaime Friesen-Pankratz: “If a student says, ‘I’m confident now,’ that is huge,” she said.
As Jaime Friesen-Pankratz prepares to leave Regional Connections after 14 years, she’s reflecting on the people who shaped her journey as an educator.
While she spent years teaching literacy and language skills, she says her students taught her lessons of their own.
Friesen-Pankratz joined Regional Connections in 2012, working primarily in the Adult Literacy Program and Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program.
As she prepares to begin a new role teaching adult education in northern British Columbia, she says the relationships built over the years are what she’ll carry with her most.
“My students have taught me what courage really means,” she said.
“My students have taught me what courage really means,” she said.
Throughout her career, Friesen-Pankratz worked with newcomers learning English and adults upgrading their literacy skills, often while balancing work, family responsibilities, and major life transitions.
She believes many people underestimate what goes into language instruction.
“I think there’s sometimes this idea of, ‘Oh, well, you just teach English,'” she said.
In reality, she says teachers help learners navigate far more than vocabulary and grammar.
Students learn communication skills, cultural expectations, workplace language, and practical tools for everyday life in Canada.
“Teaching English is very involved, but also very gratifying and very rewarding.”
Over the years, she watched Regional Connections evolve alongside the community it serves.
When she first began teaching, most of her students came from Low German-speaking Mennonite backgrounds with ties to Latin America. Today, classrooms include learners from countries and cultures around the world.
For Friesen-Pankratz, one of the greatest rewards has been watching those diverse groups connect with one another.
“You’ll have someone who maybe was born and raised in Mexico in a colony, and then you get to meet someone who’s moved here from Africa or from India,” she said. “To be a part of that in the classroom is amazing.”
Jaime Friesen-Pankratz: “You’ll have someone who maybe was born and raised in Mexico in a colony, and then you get to meet someone who’s moved here from Africa or from India,” she said. “To be a part of that in the classroom is amazing.”
While her role was to teach, Friesen-Pankratz says her students taught her just as much.
“The number one thing is generosity,” she said. “Generosity of spirit.”
She points to the courage it takes for newcomers to start over in a new country, or for adults to return to school after years away from the classroom.
“My students have taught me what courage really means.”
Their willingness to take risks has often inspired her own decisions.
“Whenever I sense myself being afraid of something, I will often look at my students and what they’ve done or what they’ve been through and think, ‘Well, look what they’re doing. I can do this too.'”
She says some of her most meaningful lessons about immigration, resilience, and perseverance came not from textbooks, but from conversations with the people sitting in her classroom.
When asked what success looks like after years of teaching, Friesen-Pankratz doesn’t point to certificates or diplomas.
Instead, she points to confidence.
“If a student says, ‘I’m confident now,’ that is huge,” she said.
“When you have that confidence, then you feel like you have so many opportunities. The doors open for you.”
She recalls seeing students complete literacy programming and continue on to earn their high school diplomas, milestones she describes as deeply rewarding.
But often, she says, the biggest transformation isn’t academic.
It’s personal.
This summer, Friesen-Pankratz and her husband will move to the Tsay Keh Dene community in northern British Columbia, where she will teach adult education and continue working with learners seeking new opportunities.
The move has been part of a long-term family plan, but leaving the Pembina Valley is still emotional.
“It feels very, very devastating in a way not to be a part of that anymore,” she admitted.
Still, she says the relationships built over the past 14 years won’t disappear.
“A piece of them is now with me,” she said of her students and colleagues.
“I’m so privileged to be able to take parts of the gifts they’ve given me, the love they’ve given me, and genuine friendship with me.”
As she prepares to begin a new adventure hundreds of kilometres away, Friesen-Pankratz says she isn’t focused on goodbyes.
Instead, she prefers a sentiment she has learned from others over the years.
“I think there’s some cultures that say you don’t say goodbye, you just say, ‘See you later.'”
Regional Connections provides services in multiple communities in rural Manitoba.
Regional Connections has 15 locations throughout Manitoba offering a variety of services.
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