Gurpreet Kaur Bains has been a teacher for 20 years and is the Languages Department Head at LA Matheson Secondary School in Surrey, British Columbia. Bains helped establish the first ever Punjabi Youth Dhahan Prize in BC, an initiative that is allowing winning students at LA Matheson and other schools all over BC to have their work published as an anthology. Bains began her studies in Amritsar in the eventually earning a Master’s in Science and a Bachelor’s of education. She immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. Bains first taught at Khalsa School as a science teacher, but was later hired by the Surrey School District in 2004 as a science teacher. Bains tells us that her interest in Punjabi language arose from how Punjabis in BC were adamant about preserving their culture. She noticed how her students celebrated the culture at school and openly embraced Punjabi classes. This inspired her to teach Punjabi, and she began doing so in 2006.

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Explore PUNJABI IN BC, for Interviews with K-12 EDUCATORS, ADVOCATES AND ACTIVISTS, STUDENTS, and WRITERS/JOURNALISTS.