JORDAN TWISS
Shellbrook Chronicle Reporter
Coral Frenette knew something was up when one of her teachers began asking her a bunch of questions unrelated to schoolwork.
A few years ago, a friend of hers had been named a Saskatchewan Junior Citizen of the Year, and she quickly realized the questions she was being asked were in line with criteria for the award.
Earlier this month, the 17-year-old, who lives in the R.M. of Shellbrook and is a Grade 12 student at Prince Albert’s Carlton Comprehensive High School, had her suspicions confirmed, when it was announced that she was one of five recipients of a 2025 Junior Citizen of the Year Award.
“Being named a Junior Citizen means so much,” she said. “It’s an acknowledgement of all the work I’ve been doing, and that this work does matter and makes a contribution to our society.”
Sponsored by the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association, in partnership with SaskPower and the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, the Junior Citizen of the Year Award is presented to youth between the ages of 8 and 18 who reside in Saskatchewan, have a positive lifestyle, volunteer within their community and school, possess a strong sense of caring and responsibility, and have overcome a personal life challenge (physical, emotional, an/or environmental).
Recipients of the award receive a $3,000 bursary, provided by SaskPower.
To say Frenette fits the criteria for the award is perhaps a bit of an understatement. Rather, she embodies the spirit of what the award represents.
Within her school, she’s actively involved with the Student Leadership Council, serves as the editor of the yearbook, and is a member of the graduation planning and fundraising committees.
This year, she’s taken her commitment to education beyond her school by joining Saskatchewan Rivers Students for Change, a student-led initiative that brings together student leaders from high schools across the school division to offer insight and direction to the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division Board of Education, and was nominated to serve as the urban school representative.
Beyond her commitment to quality education and her fellow students, Frenette is a patient advocate for improving health and mental healthcare services in her community and across Saskatchewan, drawing on her experiences as a patient at the Dube Centre for Mental Health, and the loss of her father to brain cancer in May 2022.
“I’ve used all these experiences to try to hold empathy for other people going through similar experiences,” Frenette said.
Frenette’s interest in healthcare began in her childhood, when her aunt was in nursing school and would bring home her textbooks. Though she doesn’t even know if she could read at the time, Frenette says her curiosity about what was in them was immediately piqued.
This early curiosity about healthcare blossomed into an interest in psychology. And following her stay at the Dube Centre, where she says she received excellent care and witnessed the compassion with which healthcare workers treated other patients, she was further inspired to become an advocate for healthcare and mental healthcare.
She’s done so in a big way, serving on the Dube Child and Youth Quality Improvement Committee and the Trauma Informed Committee, and she’s also a member of the Community Mental Health and Addictions Services Committee, and the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Youth Partnership Council.
As a member of the Trauma Informed Committee, Frenette advocated for the implementation of co-regulation, de-escalation, and self-compassion training for inpatient psychiatric staff, working with professionals across multiple fields to lessen the use of restraints and seclusions in inpatient and emergency settings.
Meanwhile, her role on the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Youth Partnership Council earned her a trip to the 2025 Children’s Healthcare Canada conference in Ottawa, where she got to network with healthcare professionals and medical students, and deepen her knowledge and passion for healthcare.
“I want to make connections with different people and get to know them,” Frenette said. “For all the healthcare committees I’m involved in, I want to use my experience to advocate for change and a better healthcare system for all people going through what I was going through.”
Looking to the future, Frenette plans to attend the UofS in the fall to pursue a bachelor’s in psychology. From there, she hopes to go into medical school and become a child and youth psychiatrist.
She says she would love to work in Saskatchewan, as the province is lacking in healthcare professionals.
