Ontario universities look to increase Aboriginal scholarship
On Feb. 4, 2016, the University of Guelph, as a part of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), launched the “Let’s Take our Future Further” campaign.
The provincial initiative is intended to encourage Aboriginal students to consider and pursue post-secondary education. The campaign includes a group of 13 role models whose stories will be used to inspire Aboriginal students.
Among the group is University of Guelph biological sciences student, Isaac Wolfe. According to Wolfe, “The project is like a pilot. It’s really the first time [that] any major promotional/marketing campaign has been put out focusing only on Native youth, saying that you can achieve so much. You can go past secondary education, go to university, and there is all of this support that is available to you.”
Wolfe grew up in Ottawa, as a member of the Curve Lake First Nation. After he completes his bachelor of science degree, Wolfe hopes to pursue a career in medicine and use his “medical degree to work with Health Canada on public policy issues in the area of First Nations health and wellness.”
Wolfe added that he feels that, in his involvement in the program, “there is not a lot of role models or support systems available to Native youth.”
According to Wolfe the other 12 role models “are from all over the province; many of them are from reserves in northern Ontario or from remote communities. All the role models attend, or have attended universities in Ontario. A lot are very successful, doing research, post-doctorate, working on their PhDs. One girl, Donna, was the first Inuit heart surgeon. I thought that was really incredible. Even as part of this campaign, I have developed role models for myself.”
Aside from the role models, the campaign includes an Aboriginal student resource website, FutureFurther.ca, which serves as a portal to a variety of material on Ontario universities. Information on topics like student and campus life, academics, as well as the different resources available to Aboriginal students are included on the website.
The launch of the website coincided with the launch of an online video contest. Wolfe says that “any Native or Aboriginal learner in Ontario that [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…to consider and pursue post-secondary education.[/pullquote]
is attending university can make a video about their university experience and can enter that video into a contest to win $1000 for themselves, and $1000 for their Aboriginal Student Resource Centre. The COU would really like people to get involved.”
The announcement of the “Let’s Take Our Future Further” campaign comes on the heels of a report released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Wolfe says that “there was a call for improving the access and retention for Native Learners, and the campaign is relevant to this. Around nine per cent of Native learners our age are attending university, versus 23 per cent of non-natives which is a huge disparity. The fact that there is change coming out of the commission, that someone actually took the initiative and decided to do something, speaks volumes about the the time we live in.”