Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School welcomed alumni this past week, including Winnipeg Centre MP Dr. Robert Falcon Ouellette.

Oullette attended STS from grades eight to 12 after his mother insisted he take the entrance exam.

He says he looks at those years as some of the best in his life. One of the main reasons is because he learned he could succeed at anything he set his mind to.

Ouellette talked to students at the school while he was in town. Telling them about his life growing up, coming from a poor background, living in a one-bedroom apartment with his family while going to school, and how when he put on his school uniform none of that mattered because he was the same as each of his classmates.

At the end of the day it wasn't his background that would hold him back from succeeding, he was holding himself back.

"It was the prison of my own mind that limited me or didn't allow me to succeed as much as I could," he says. "When I came to STS the teachers believe in me, the other students believe in me, my mom believes in me so I would say I should succeed why am I not succeeding? I need to believe in myself to succeed."

Ouellette says the guidance and encouragement he got from his teachers pushed him during school, and it was because of his music teacher that he went on to get his bachelor of secondary music at the University of Calgary.

After graduating in 1995, Ouellette went on to get his bachelors and continued his education over the years receiving two masters degrees and a Ph.D. from the University of Laval. Ouellette did this while working for the Canadian Naval forces.

After 19 years with the Navy, Ouellette changed career paths while staying an active reservist, becoming the Director of  Aboriginal Focus Programs at the University of Manitoba.

He ran for Mayor of Winnipeg in 2014 and came in third but during the campaign facts about Ouellette's life and how he grew up where brought to light. After losing the Mayoral seat in 2014, he ran for Winnipeg Centre MP seat in 2015, winning and beating out longtime NDP MP Pat Martin.

Ouellette received the Nil Nisi award this past week because of these events in his life and career along with many others. The Nil Nisi award is named after the school's motto Nil Nisi Optimum meaning "nothing but the best," which recipients are viewed as after their notable accomplishments in leadership, service, and dedication to their profession and community.

While Ouellette's career is what earned him the award he gives the credit to his mother.

"It really is a vindication of my mother and her hard work; she worked her knuckles to the bone trying to get me through school and be able to show that even if you come from very humble circumstances, you can succeed."

Ouellete's mom took out a loan to pay for his tuition at the school, which took her many years to pay off. Her hard work and determination the support from the school, his classmates and his teachers, while he was a student is all a part of why he is amongst others who have brought great pride to the school. Ouellette says that he would never have thought he would be given the same award as the guy who climbed to the top of Mount Everest (Jamie Clark) or the guy who won the Stanley Cup twice (Craig Adams).

Ouellette says it has been a long time since he was last in the area, and it is always nice to come back and see familiar things with a new perspective.

An example Ouellette gave is since leaving Calgary his perspective on the French language has changed.

"I often had the perspective that I didn't like French or speaking French, I didn't think we should have French on the milk cartons, and then I got posted to a military base in Quebec where I had to think about French in a different way because that was the working language. I had to start looking at French in a different perspective after that."

Ouellette adds that now he speaks mostly French with his family at home because he believes that it will open more doors for them in the future.

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