Hello! I would like to begin with acknowledging that we are on the unceded ancestral territory of the Lheidli Tāenneh where I am grateful to live, share, and be.
My name is Sage Desjardins, or Ms. Sage or Ms. D, still deciding on that one. Ā I am a current teacher candidate in the Bachelor of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia. I previously graduated with my Undergraduate degree in Urban Planning from the University of Calgary where I lived for six years and was lucky enough to be on scholarship playing for their female hockey team at the University. Prior to all that however, I was born and grew up in the small northern town of Terrace British Columbia. In Terrace I loved to go fishing and be in nature, my family owned a fish hatchery in the town, so a lot of my childhood surrounded being on the river and around nature. When I was not doing that, I was playing hockey, this ultimately led me to moving to Prince George in my Grade 10 year to continue pursing my hockey goals at a higher level. I was incredibly lucky to have my whole family follow me to Prince George, and with that my families new home base became and is still Prince George BC.
At 24 years of age to encapsulate everything about me would take some time. The most important thing to understand about me and what has driven me in arguably every aspect of my life thus far has been my love of hockey. I have loved and played the sport since the age of 5, I was lucky enough to play it all the way up to one of the highest possible levels of female hockey in Canada playing at the University of Calgary. Hockey has given me so much, it has shaped the person that I am, and it gave me the drive to pursue the life of becoming a teacherā¦ As my hockey career was coming to an end in Calgary, I knew I needed a new driver, a new meaningful purpose to wake up every day, and teaching/working with youth became that thing.
Last year I was lucky to get to volunteer coach every Sunday with a hockey program that kids with exceptionalities got to participate in. This program is what really gave me that moment of saying to myself āyes Sage you need to pursue becoming a teacherā. Amongst many opportunities I have had to work with youth, this moment put a lot of things in perspective for me. As a teacher I hope to be someone who students feel comfortable coming to, I want a classroom that is inclusive and welcoming and above all else safe. I strongly believe that if you can make students feel safe you can get the most out of them, and that is my goal.
Thank You!
