Two St. Lawrence Projects Make it to Forces Avenir Finals

Forces Avenir’s annual Cegep recognition gala took place last Wednesday, October 15^th at the Théâtre Capitole in downtown Quebec City. Forces Avenir is a province-wide funding program that supports student initiatives at the high school, cegep and university levels. The fall gala is the culmination of many months of applications and interviews by students to demonstrate the significance and impact of their work. We are thrilled to share that this year, two St. Lawrence projects made it to the Finalist stage: Daylight Projects and the Arts & Crafts Club.

Gala started off with a bang, with speeches from Pauline Marois and Bruno Marchand (Marchand was unable to attend the event in person), as well as from Forces Avenir’s founder and DG, François Grégoire. Stéphan Bureau, who hosts each year’s event, then took to the stage to kick off the interviews. For each category, student organizers from three finalist projects joined Bureau on stage for interviews, briefly explaining their projects, before the winner was announced.

The first category of the night was Arts, Literature and Culture, with St. Lawrence’s Arts and Crafts Club recognized as a finalist. Club founder and 2025 graduate Paloma Calleja spoke briefly with Bureau about the club’s origins. She shared the importance of appreciating the beauty all around oneself. Art and craft can seem inaccessible, she said, especially for those who may not feel that they have the creative knack, but everyone has a creative part inside them.

One of the Arts & Crafts Club’s biggest initiatives in its inaugural year (2024-2025) was to launch the Snail Mail program, in which students write letters to seniors in a local retirement residence. Calleja wanted to reach the anglophone community, she said, not just those her age. Starting a letter-writing program allowed students to communicate with those who have lived a full life. Snail Mail doesn’t take a pen-pal approach, she explained, with students and seniors instead sending letters to the college more generally. Anyone who wants to craft and decorate a letter can take part. Bureau likened it to sending a message in a bottle out into the ocean and seeing who writes back.

You can read about another recent initiative by the Arts & Crafts Club here.

The winner of the Arts, Literature and Culture category was Le Vieux-BazArt from Cégep du Vieux Montréal, an art fair that brought together over 400 participants working with a variety of media.

Next up was the Mutual Aid, Peace and Justice category. Once again, St. Lawrence was proud to have a finalist presenting. Daylight Projects, a charity started last year by three students, was represented at the gala by Anastasia Gaulin, a business student. Bureau remarked upon the fact that St. Lawrence had a finalist in each of the first two categories. This is an impressive feat for a cegep of our size.

Gaulin outlined the mandate of Daylight, a women-focused charity that seeks to provide resources for women at the cegep and to get involved in projects to combat gender inequality at home and around the world. While St. Lawrence is a great place for women, she explained, there were no existing initiatives at the college that existed specifically for women. One project undertaken by Daylight last fall was the CollaborArt sale (read all about it here). Female and non-binary students contributed art pieces, which were sold to students and employees to raise $1,130 for the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation. The charity has also organized other events, such as self-defense classes for students.

This category was won by Les Abris de chaleur, a team from Cégep de Trois-Rivières that mobilized students of various programs (engineering, electrical) to build a temporary, movable shelter room for those experiencing homelessness.

The rest of the category interviews followed, and the evening culminated in a dinner. It was inspiring to hear from student from all across the province and to feel their passion for their projects and initiatives. Many St. Lawrence students had the joy of attending the gala, as this year all of the college-level winners were invited. This was then not just an opportunity for students to celebrate their accomplishments, but also to reunite with friends and share in the excitement. We spoke with both interviewees about their experience at Forces Avenir.

“Being on stage was absolutely amazing,” said Gaulin, “and hearing from all of those talented young people was an inspiring experience. I think that most young people don’t realize how great it is to get involved at school. Seeing this tonight made me realize even more that getting involved is so amazing. It’s not a loss of time; it’s an investment in yourself and in your community.”

Calleja echoed her sentiments. “It’s motivating to see so many people who try so hard and who make a difference. It made me feel glad there are other people who are doing stuff like me but in different spheres.”

Congratulations to Calleja and Gaulin, as well as all members of the Arts & Crafts Club and of Daylight Projects, and to our college-level winners.

The following awards were presented during the gala:

Arts, Literature and Culture
Mutual Aid, Peace and Justice
Social Economy, Entrepreneurship and Business
Environment
Health and Healthy Living
Science and Technology
Society, Communications and Education
Projet par excellence (includes entries from all project categories)
Committed Staff Member
Committed Personality
Persevering Personality

To learn more about Forces Avenir, visit their website. To watch the full 2025 gala on YouTube, click here.