Readership Survey
“We want them to realize there are aboriginal students at Guelph and that university is a place for them”
BY REBECCA KENDALL
This year, more aboriginal students than ever before will participate in the Science @ Guelph Experience (S@GE), U of G's annual three-day science and technology program for students in grades 7 and 8. More than 130 aboriginal students are registered for the program, up from 120 last year and just nine in 2004.
That news is encouraging to Jaime Mishibinijima, aboriginal student adviser in Student Life. S@GE will offer these students a good look at the opportunities at U of G, she says, but more important, it will promote higher education in general. She notes that aboriginal enrolment at the post-secondary level is dramatically lower than enrolment among non-aboriginal populations. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the aboriginal community makes up four per cent of Canada's total population, yet represents only one per cent of university graduates and two per cent of college graduates.
“We want them to realize there are aboriginal students at Guelph and that university is a place for them,” says Mishibinijima. (About 100 U of G students are identified as native.) “The idea of going to university and being away from home can be daunting, but they belong here as much as anyone else does, and it's important that they be able to visualize themselves in a post-secondary setting and feel empowered.”
She's looking forward to seeing the 31 students from Pikangikum's Eenchokay Birchstick School (EBS) who will spend May 31 to June 2 on campus. EBS attended S@GE in 2005, marking the school's first trip to southern Ontario in 15 years and the first time away from home for some of the students.
In February, Mishibinijima led a group of U of G students who volunteered in Pikangikum, a fly-in reserve 250 kilometres north of Dryden, as part of Project Serve, an alternative Reading Week program co-ordinated by the Aboriginal Resource Centre (ARC) and the citizenship education program in Student Life.
Students who participated in the trip to Pikangikum will be spending time with the group from EBS, and ARC staff will also take time to show the visitors around campus, tour them through the centre and outline the resources and support it offers.
Another 20 native students from Cape Croker Elementary School northeast of Wiarton will attend the camp at the same time as EBS, but will arrive early to take part in programming designed exclusively for them by the ARC and the Office of Open Learning.
“It's critical to get young learners engaged early on in their education and to help them see what they're learning in a larger cultural context,” says Prof. Alan Shepard, associate vice-president (academic). “This programming helps to do that.”
This initiative builds on the current relationship U of G has with Cape Croker and the Chippewas of Nawash, says Shepard. Guelph worked with the Chippewas to develop an agreement that was signed in 2000 with the federal and provincial governments to recognize the Chippewas' aboriginal and treaty right to manage their own fishery. Last year, Prof. Steve Crawford, Integrative Biology, was named to a joint Nawash-U of G appointment in freshwater biology. More recently, Guelph and the First Nation launched a research partnership that allows for the exchange of information and resources. They also began exploring the development of a new B.Sc. program in aboriginal resource management that would blend aboriginal traditional knowledge and western science.
Richard Louttet, program development manager in the Office of Open Learning, is a member of the committee that's been identifying programming opportunities for the students coming to S@GE from Cape Croker.
“We knew they'd be participating in a rigorous science program at S@GE, so we wanted to use this additional programming to highlight aspects of U of G outside of science,” he says. “We're going to show them the great programs and activities that are available at Guelph and offer them an experience we hope will get them thinking about their futures. As a committee, we set out to develop activities relevant to the culture of the Chippewas of Nawash and the interests and pastimes of the students.”
The group will tour the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre and its extensive aboriginal art collection, receive instruction in printmaking, and learn about U of G' s arts programs and the benefits of a career in the arts.
They'll also meet with members of the varsity hockey team to hear about sports at university and life as student-athletes, tour the Hagen Aqualab to see specimens from Cape Croker in a university setting, and participate in a hands-on lab activity led by U of G student Clayton Coppaway, an Ojibwa from Curve Lake First Nation.
In addition, 80 native students from Six Nations of the Grand River will be participating in S@GE. I.L. Thomas Elementary School and Oliver M. Smith — Kawenni:io Elementary School will attend May 17 to 19. Emily C. General Elementary School will be on campus May 24 to 26, and J.C. Hill Elementary School will be here June 7 to 9.
