Carmangay Outreach School

School News

Carmangay Graduate 2012

Posted on October 30th, 2013

Margaret Harms

Margaret Harms, Carmangay Outreach School, Carmangay

2012

Margaret Harms has made history in more ways than one.

Harms is the first graduate from Carmangay Outreach School, and the first in her family to earn a high school diploma.

For Harms, the second eldest of four children in a family from the Low German Mennonite community, the diploma has been a personal goal for the past three years.

“It’s important to me” Harms says. “It’s just something I wanted to accomplish.”

The outreach school program opened just two years ago, serving as an extension of Barons School. Although the outreach is open to all students from the area looking for an alternative to traditional high school programming, its students now come entirely from the Low German Mennonite community. The families tend not to have a tradition of education, and the outreach program is flexible enough so students can work and complete high school. With space at a premium at Barons School, a Low German Mennonite alternative school, Carmangay has students from Grade 8 and up this year, and Grade 7 and up next year.

Harms, who works part-time at a coffee shop, says she’s interested in pursuing a career in landscaping and she’s not closing the door on continuing her education