Metis woman going to McGill

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Kate Harris has found the solution to fitting more hours into the day-or so it would seem. Given the number of projects and activities this 19-year-old, straight A student is involved in, you would have to assume a normal 24-hour day just wouldn't do.

Harris is a Metis from Duncan. She is one of five 2003 winners of the national Royal Bank Aboriginal Scholarship, which is a full four-year scholarship to McGill University in Montreal.

The requirements for the scholarship are quite stringent, said Moria Jenkins, a Royal Bank business banking manager.

"It's quite difficult to get it. We want to promote leaders in the Aboriginal market. We want to see them thrive and shine. Kate's incredible and just fascinating. She has unbelievable commitment to so many things."

The list of Harris' commitments is daunting. One of her passions is economics and international development and she has been a member of Canadian government trade missions to Taiwan and Thailand as well as having participated in the prime minister's trade mission to the United States in 2002.

Harris also has just graduated from Pearson College in Victoria, where she spent two years on a full scholarship. Pearson is one of 10 United World Colleges that attract students from every country in the world.

"It has been an invaluable educational experience," Harris said.

"You're learning from world-class teachers and you're learning from other students who are all brilliant people."

But while her focus is on a global market, Harris' heart is very deeply embedded in her heritage, a heritage she is only beginning to discover. Although her father, a Cree, works with First Nations and Harris grew up with many close First Nation friends, it was not until recently that she immersed herself in Native culture.

"The Metis part is actually quite new to me," Harris said.

"So I'm trying to learn. Right now I'm doing a Rediscovery Leadership program at Pearson College."

The two-week course helps Aboriginal youths rediscover their roots. The program involves Elders and many healing rituals. The youths learn Native songs, games, crafts and languages.

"It is the most beautiful experience," Harris said.

"I'm really learning about my culture first-hand, and I'm immersed. The Elders very much consider you an extended family and it's the most beautiful honesty. You're really a family. The honesty is absolutely overwhelming. What I've really found is the true healing of being in such a close, safe, and healing environment."

The Rediscovery Leadership program has deepened Harris' commitment to an Aboriginal education project she began in Duncan last year, where the school dropout rate before Grade 12 is 75 per cent, with the majority being in the Native community. Harris has recruited Aboriginal role models to work with children in the elementary schools, talking with them about setting goals and going after their dreams. After starting the program in Duncan, Harris recently brought it to the Beecher Bay reserve in Victoria where she is working on implementation with schools and local youth workers.

Along with her academic and volunteer work, Harris has also found time to become a proficient violinist and has even helped to build her own violin. She learned to play at age six; in 2000, at age 17, Harris won the National Youth Talent Award in Halifax.

Her goal is to go into International law or International economic development, but no matter where her work takes her, a large part of her heart will always be here with Aboriginal people, she said.

"Of all the things I've been doing it's been a challenge to put these local programs together and to make them work, but it's by far the most gratifying thing I've done. It's really like doing international development at home. I think that sometimes people need to be humble. It might not sound as flashy to work in Metchosin as it does to work in Nepal, but really there is just as much need here."