Close X
Monday, November 11, 2024
ADVT 
National

Montreal school salutes alumna, VP Kamala Harris

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 20 Jan, 2021 10:40 PM
  • Montreal school salutes alumna, VP Kamala Harris

Students at Montreal's Westmount High School spent Wednesday morning watching a former graduate ascend to one of the highest political offices in the world, with Kamala Harris's new post as U.S. vice-president sending a message that nothing is beyond reach.

"When we stay in the same high school for five years, it can make the world seem quite small," Ava Oxilia, a Grade 10 student at the school, said in a video call organized by the board.

"To know that she was in a very similar place to a lot of our students here, and then she reached one of the highest positions in the U.S. government, it's just incredible to believe anyone of us could obtain such a high position."

Harris, 56, moved briefly to Montreal at age 12, attending Face and later Westmount High School before graduating in 1981.

It was in those halls that Wanda Kagan, a good friend to Harris during her time in Montreal, met the new U.S. vice-president and even ended up living with her for a time.

How many people can say they bunked with a vice-president, Kagan asked with a laugh on Wednesday as she said she was elated for her friend.

“Anyone can make history, but only a great woman can write history, and that’s what she’s going to do,” Kagan said in an interview.

Kagan said the pair became close friends, two children from biracial families navigating a bigger high school. “We were just trying to find our way, fitting in, and we just fit in together,” she said.

Kagan would confide in Harris during those school years that she was being abused at home, and Harris’s late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, insisted she come live with them. “They just treated me like family. I just hung out with Kamala in her room listening to music, doing homework,” Kagan said. “They instilled a lot of my values that I carried on later in life.”

After reconnecting in the mid-2000s, Kagan said Harris told her that helping her friend during their high school years inspired her legal career defending women and children from abuse.

Kagan said she had no doubt Harris and her family helped shape her life. “But to know that I impacted hers was huge,” Kagan said. “She was a trailblazer back then, fighting for my rights, my dignity, my humanity.”

The school has been paying close attention as Harris's political career took off, and on social media Wednesday it congratulated its illustrious alumna on her swearing-in as the 49th U.S. vice-president.

Students streamed the inauguration during second period, with Grade 10 student A.J. Itovitch later describing the pride felt in seeing someone who walked the same halls rise to such heights.

"The energy has been absolutely palpable over the past few weeks at the school, and it's just so difficult to wrap our head around the fact that the 49th vice-president came ... right out of Montreal," the 15-year-old said. "We have been doing all we can just to take in all of this."

Principal Demetra Droutsas said Harris's rise has been inspirational. "I want our students to really retain they should dream big, they should never limit themselves and they can do anything they set their minds to," she said.

MORE National ARTICLES

CBSA manager told not to take notes on Meng arrest

CBSA manager told not to take notes on Meng arrest
Goodman testified she wanted to create a case summary or timeline of events, but MacVicar warned that the record could later be obtained through an access to information request.

CBSA manager told not to take notes on Meng arrest

Permanent fishway to be built at Fraser landslide

Permanent fishway to be built at Fraser landslide
But Fisheries and Oceans says record-breaking high water levels in the Fraser River this year affected the migration of salmon that are already facing threats including habitat degradation and warming ocean waters.

Permanent fishway to be built at Fraser landslide

Surrey RCMP need help finding 33 year old suspect Jeremy Morgan

Surrey RCMP need help finding 33 year old suspect Jeremy Morgan
33 year old Jeremy Morgan is currently wanted on warrants for robbery, use of an imitation firearm to commit a crime, possession of a loaded restricted firearm, and breach of probation.

Surrey RCMP need help finding 33 year old suspect Jeremy Morgan

Minks test positive for COVID in B.C.

Minks test positive for COVID in B.C.
The provincial Ministry of Agriculture says the samples were gathered after several workers on the farm tested positive for the illness.

Minks test positive for COVID in B.C.

Canada and U.K. ink post-Brexit trade agreement

Canada and U.K. ink post-Brexit trade agreement
The Liberal government has given notice that a bill to implement the deal in Canadian law is coming to the House of Commons imminently.

Canada and U.K. ink post-Brexit trade agreement

Bank of Canada keeps rates on hold at 0.25%

Bank of Canada keeps rates on hold at 0.25%
Since then, the country has clawed back just over four-fifths of those job losses, with growth for the last quarter of 2020 outpacing what the bank expected.

Bank of Canada keeps rates on hold at 0.25%