Community Highlight

AFNTS strongly believes in promoting innovation in technology and encouraging communities to do the same. As part of this initiative, we are proud to feature a school community that is making great strides with technology. In this instance, we would like to acknowledge the efforts of Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni, who have been doing wonderful things with tech in their school. We spoke to Craig MacDonald, and here is what he had to say about it.

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"Lewis Paul, a resident of Eskasoni, took part in a new initiative between McMaster University and Allison Bernard Memorial High School. McMaster representative Chris Anand visited ABMHS to teach students a new programming coding language designed to support Mi’kmaq language learning.

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As part of the class, students used Shape Creator to design digital representations of animals, aiming to incorporate them into a game that promotes language proficiency. The students excelled, and several were selected for a summer work program to further develop their programming skills.

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This is where Lewis took the lead. With support from coordinator Newell Johnson, principal of ABMHS, he secured a dedicated space at Kji-Wilkum Studios—the first Mi’kmaq language studio in Eskasoni. Established to increase fluency by dubbing popular media into Mi’kmaq, the studio became the perfect environment for Lewis to continue learning.

Under the guidance of McMaster University tutors, Lewis mastered the intricacies of the Elm programming language.  This programming language is specifically designed for front-end web development. He coded an escape room-style game where younger students solved puzzles to progress. Once he gained confidence in his coding abilities, he began teaching others how to program using Elm.

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Beyond coding, Lewis also contributed to studio projects, discovering a passion for hands-on work that could shape his future career.

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Overall, the project was a success! There is hope that this partnership will continue, empowering more students to explore coding while strengthening the Mi’kmaq language for generations to come—a bridge between two languages that benefits all involved."