College launching unique program in fall

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Negahneewin College of Indigenous Studies, which operates in and as part of Confederation College in Thunder Bay, has recently taken another step forward in providing a quality education within an Aboriginal cultural context.

When the Ontario government recently implemented a new type of community college program known as an "applied degree program," Negahneewin College got on board fast. Negahneewin is the first and only college in Ontario to obtain approval for an Aboriginal applied-degree program, which it will have up and running in September 2004.

Aboriginal community liaison for Negahneewin College, David Lapointe, said the applied degree program will be known as a "bachelor of human services applied degree in Indigenous leadership and community development." It will require eight semesters over four years to complete, and it includes "two paid, mandatory" summer co-op placements.

The applied degree courses are tied to four underlying principles of "responsibility, relationship, reciprocity and realization," Lapointe added, which will be emphasized throughout the program and find a practical application during the co-op placements. The co-op portions of the applied degree program ensure that anyone wanting to get into Indigenous leadership and community development "will actually have to go to a community and do community development with the community.

These will take place after the second and third years, will run from May to August and encompass such topics as intellectual property. "So when (students) would go and work with a community (the project that is developed) would stay with the community," Lapointe explained.

The applied degree program will be available to non-Aboriginal students as well, both nationally and internationally.

Because the program is unique "we feel this has very much a national focus as much as it has an Ontario regional focus," said Lapointe, "because it's Indigenous-specific. It has to do with leadership and it's also community development from a number of different modalities like human capacity."

The initiative is supported by a large Aboriginal community in northwestern Ontario that expresses its views on matters relating to Negahneewin College through the Negahneewin Council. The council is comprised of Aboriginal representatives from the communities and from organizations with a stake in Aboriginal education: they include the Oshki-Anishnabeg Student Association, Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre, Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Ontario Metis and Aboriginal Association, Metis Nation of Ontario, and the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council. Lapointe said, "They help guide the development of programs and services."

The council acts as a liaison between Confederation College and the far-flung Aboriginal communities across the province, and it has input into curriculum design, funding, program review and other day-to-day concerns of Negahneewin College. Its task is to ensure Negahneewin's programs reflect what the Aboriginal community requires. Typically, council members are very involved with their communities and are therefore able to make a very meaningful contribution to the direction of Indigenous studies at the college. Nicole Perrault, a second-year Aboriginal law and advocacy student, is president of the Oshki-Anishnabeg Student Association. She said her role on Negahneewin Council is to relay students' opinions and concerns on issues that arise affecting them.

"I also sit on the college planning committee, the academic council and the student union board," said Perrault. ... I can just tell you from my experience this past year, sitting on those councils has helped me with my organizational skills and professional skills in general. You just learn from seeing how things are organized and the long process that things take to become a reality."

Because of the interest and dedication of a lot of people like Perrult, Negahneewin College has made an applied degree program its new reality.

Other programs offered by Negahneewin College include Aboriginal Community Services Worker; Aboriginal Law and Advocacy; Aboriginal Transition Program; Business Management (Aboriginal Wellness); Indigenous Wellness and Addictions Program; and Native Family Worker.