Chinook Program highlights careers in commerce

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What do you think about when you hear the word commerce?

For many people, the image immediately conjured up is a banking institution.

That, in part, is what Dr. Richard Vedan, director of the First Nations House of Learning, and John Claxton, director of the Chinook Program, are trying to change.

Claxton is a professor at the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Vedan, a member of the Shuswap nation, is an associate professor at the School of Social Work.

The Chinook Program is a collaboration between the two faculties.

Claxton said at the UBC campus there are always a number of First Nations students enrolled, and the numbers range from faculty to faculty.

"For example, education," he said. "The Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP) has been around for 25 years and each year dozens of First Nations people are enrolled. Law gets something like 20 students per year. Commerce, on the other hand, gets about one a year and everybody kind of scratches their head and says 'geez this doesn't make sense, there must be all sorts of ways we can do something different (to attract for First Nations students)'."

So about five years ago, Claxton and then-director of the First Nations House of Learning Jo-ann Archibald put their heads together.

With the aid of a small amount of research money, Claxton and Archibald hired a researcher.

"He spent a lot of time running around trying to figure out what do we do to get the interest of more First Nations coming out of high school," said Claxton. "The experience there was that to some extent (there is) kind of a misperception of what commerce really is; people think commerce and think banking. And of course our perception of commerce, and the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, is really just about management: how do you get things running well and smoothly and making some money?

We are trying to get people to understand commerce is running a business, and it is about working for the band and a whole range of possibilities, not just working for a bank."

The other reason Claxton said the number of First Nations commerce students tended to be low was the lack of First Nations programming.

"An important aspect of the program-it has been developed with full participation and involvement from the (First Nations) community from the outset," said Vedan. "From a socioeconomic perspective that makes good sense from a business point of view, but also from the involvement and success of the community to take ownership of that."

Vedan worked as band manager for Neskonlith Band and said from the more personal viewpoint of that experience, Chinook is a wonderful program.

"The role-modelling benefits of this program will lead to long-term benefits as the young people who come down here go back to their communities and see that going to university and college is on the radar screen," he said.

"About a year and a half ago, Jo-ann and I put together a proposal that said basically we want to put together a set of things we will call Chinook," said Claxton. "Basically that is a set of things intended to do two things: raise interest and awareness on the one hand and also then deliver something that is relevant on the other."

Once the proposal was fully developed, the pair began to show it and caught the attention of the people at B.C. Gas.

"They said it looked really good and they'd like to do something to help. So they gave us some seed money," said Claxton.

Part of that seed money has gone into a First Nations Student Entrepreneurship Competition (STEP) for high school students.

"We did a tiny pilot last year to kind of get our feet wet, and this year, as we speak, I think there are several teams around the province, of about six kids each in Grades 10, 11, 12," Claxton explained. "Each team has a high school teacher as the coach and each is trying to think up a new business idea."

Over a period of fou months, the students will put the idea through various steps with the goal of developing a business full plan. The teams will present their ideas at UBC on May 11.

"The experience they will have in terms of the STEP program (means) they will be doing things relevant to life in the First Nations communities," said Vedan. "So that is certainly a major advantage."

Heather Commodore, competition co-ordinator, has a master's degree in education from UBC and is a First Nations member.

"There are five schools involved," said Commodore. "We had more to start, but some bowed out for one reason or another."

Commodore said she has invited a few of those who decided not to continue the competition to attend on May 11 so they will see what it is all about.

"I think a few thought is was just going to be too much, so this way they will be prepared for next year."

"This (STEP) is about helping First Nations kids realize what commerce is about," said Claxton, who has high hopes for the STEP program, as well as the Chinook program, which while not running yet, is well on the way to the final stages.

The Chinook program is a system whereby community colleges from around the province offer a two-year diploma that provides basic business education with some First Nations content and course work. Because it is going to take place at different places around the province, there will be one course that all students take that will be run via distance education from UBC.

"At this point we are meeting with the colleges and getting everyone sort of online and doing the same thing," said Claxton. "There is quite a lot of institution-to-institution discussion going on to get something set up where there is one thing (being taught) in several different places. We want to make sure there is consistency across the board."

After the two years, the students can decide whether to go on.

"Some students will say that was good, and it is enough for me, and there will be others that say, that ws good, I want to do some more," said Claxton. "And for the ones that really excel at this thing, we would then admit them to UBC and they would take two more years and end up with a bachelor of commerce degree."

Claxton said he has a good feeling the efforts that have and continue to be expended will result in the creation of a new stream in commerce education of Chinook students.

Vedan, who replaced Archibald as director of the First Nations House of Learning last July, said the concept of the Chinook program has been a real collaboration between faculties, one he is feels will benefit many First Nations people and their communities.

One stage of the Chinook program is a workshop set for this June.

"We were talking to people from the bands, and they were saying one of the difficulties they have is they've got a whole bunch of ideas of new businesses they might pursue, but they need a systematic way of wading through and deciding which ones are likely to be the winners," said Claxton.

"So we are going to have a workshop and the idea is every band that participates in the workshop sends about three people, plus a summer student (who will act as a project assistant), and we'll spend two days in sort of management development workshop, where First Nations people who have a lot of experience in this area will say 'here are the things you need to think of and here is how you can do it'."

Claxton said any band can be involved in the June workshop, which will take place at the UBC First Nations House of Learning.

"It is not an individual education thing," he said. "It is for a whole band to benefit.

Claxton added that the idea of calling the program Chinook came about because "the Chinook language that was used for trade on the West Coast in days of old."

If you would like more information about the Chinook or STEP programs, or want to attend the June workshop, call Claxton at 604-822-8323.

For information about the STEP program, which will run each year, you an also contact Heather Commodore at heathercommodore@hotmail.com or visit www.commerce.ubc.ca/chinook.