With only 47 per cent of B.C. Aboriginal students graduating high school, many kids need an extra push to beat the statistics.
Britannia High School teacher Vicki Vidas has found the ultimate motivator: Money.
Passionate about helping aboriginal kids with their studies, the math teacher lobbied the government to pay Aboriginal students to attend her thrice weekly study sessions -- $50 a week.
"At first the money is an incentive to come, but these are scholarships," she said. "If they miss a class, the scholarship decreases."
Vidas, who has been with Britannia for 20 years, used to use her own money to buy food to keep the kids interested in the after-school study program.
"There are all the excuses, but that's not good enough," she said.
Students agree the economic stipend is a great motivator, but that's not all.
"The money helps out with the family...[but] the money is not the only reason kids go," grade 12 student Johnson Wilson said.
"It's an upside at the beginning but then it becomes a habit and you like going because it's a community...family."
All the hard work has paid off -- Wilson is one of only five aboriginal students in Vancouver who will graduate this year with the academic Math 12. It's a first in Britannia High School.
"It's almost a lifetime achievement," Vidas said. "I feel so proud of him."
Wilson's mother, Margaret, says her son is changed for the better because of the program.
"She's had a very impact on his life," she said. "Changed him by 100 per cent."
But the unique program may be in jeopardy. Vicki Vidas is exhausted most days and says she doesn't know how long she can continue the unique program. She's hoping the Vancouver School Board will provide her support so it can continue in September.
"For me, to close the door at 3 o'clock would be the easiest thing in the world but then these kids would just continue to drift and fall through and there's so much available to them," Vidas said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee
