Dr. John Hugh Gillis High and graduate Emma Smith are being recognized internationally.
The Antigonish school is first in the world to offer a Gaelic school-supported, self-taught literature course, and Smith is the first student worldwide to complete the program.
Lindsay MacInnis, the school’s international baccalaureate coordinator, tells The Hawk it was easy for students taking French to complete IB, but not Gaelic.
“We consulted with IB and said ‘This is our issue- we want to offer Gaelic in the IB program’,” she says. “We thought maybe self-taught would be the answer, and then we realized it had never been offered before.”
MacInnis says the course itself was a lot of work.
“She had to study those nine books, she had to write an exam in Gaelic,” she says. “She had to give an oral presentation that was recorded in Gaelic and sent off to a Gaelic marker, and she had to write an essay.”
The course is available for students in Antigonish.
