From her first years in elementary school all the way up to the twelfth grade, Métis student Sara Vandal, never had an Indigenous teacher.
“I never had someone in the classroom to show me, to represent to me, that a career in education was a possibility,” Vandal said. “And I think that that’s the case for a lot of students.”
But in tenth grade, Vandal’s Indigenous grad coach encouraged her try to change that by pursuing a career in education.
Now, along with Joanna Lawrence and Mackenzie Taylor, Vandal is one of the very first students to graduate with a Bachelor of Education through the new Build From Within – Ozhitoon Onji Peenjiiee (BFW) program at the University of Winnipeg.
I saw it as an opportunity to connect with my culture, which growing up, I didn’t have a whole lot of access to.
Sara Vandal
“The three women that are graduating are rock star academic students,” said Access Education Programs manager, Kirk Dowson. “And they’ve all been hired already. They’ve got positions already lined up for September, so that’s pretty exciting.”
Through a partnership with the Winnipeg School Division and Indspire, Build From Within provides Indigenous students a pathway to an education degree along with a full complement of supports and hands-on classroom experiences.
“It allowed me to really build a strong support system within the University that I feel like I might not have had if I just went the traditional route of the regular, integrated program,” Vandal said.
BFW begins while students are still in high school. They take an Educational Assistant (EA) Diploma Program through UWinnipeg’s PACE program, and by the time they graduate high school they already have classroom experience and an EA diploma.
“Sometimes people don’t have the time, or whatever, to do the university degree,” Dowson said. “So they’ve got that certificate. They can go out and work as EAs and maybe come join a program later on.”
Cultural experiences
The goal of the BFW program is to increase the number of Indigenous teachers in classrooms. Students participate in professional development that includes cultural education, sweats, and land-based learning – something Vandal said was deeply significant to her.
“I saw it as an opportunity to connect with my culture, which growing up, I didn’t have a whole lot of access to,” Vandal said. “I definitely don’t think I would have had as much opportunity to explore my identity, which means a lot to me now after all these years.”
While in the BFW program, Vandal was able to get her Métis card, learn about her genealogy, and has even taken up beading.
“We went on a trip to Saint Laurent, where I found out I had relatives,” she said. “I got to do a bunch of traditional training, like fileting a fish, and I got to learn a whole bunch about my culture and listen to the people who were welcoming us into their house.”
“It was just a wonderful experience,” she added. “I feel like we all got an opportunity to really connect with that part of our culture.”
Build From Within is just one of the programs offered at UWinnipeg through the university’s Access Education Programs. Each program is designed to provide academic opportunities for people with inner city experience, as well as single parents, mature students, Indigenous students, and immigrants.
“I think having programs like this sets a path for students who don’t think they can do it,” Vandal said. “Or even students like me, who didn’t resonate enough with their culture and just felt like an outcast. It gives them that opportunity to learn about who they are and those who came before them.”
Vandal said the experience she gained through five years of being in classrooms has given her the confidence to have her own classroom this fall. She is excited to continue to learn and to look for ways to make positive changes in schools.
“I think we do spend a lot of time in the education setting focusing on the negatives. Orange shirt day and MMIWG are important. They are,” she said. “But just as important is Indigenous diverse culture. It’s important to show these students that they’re not just what’s happened to them, they’re their own people.”
Vandal, Lawrence, and Taylor will receive their degrees at UWinnipeg’s 126th convocation celebration.
