Saskatoon student keeps an eye on his goals

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Energetic, optimistic and active are just some of the words you can use to describe Matthew Dunn. Another word is successful.

The 21-year old Metis youth from Saskatoon has excelled academically, in sports, and as an actor, and has received numerous awards in recognition of his accomplishments.

Dunn has received scholarships from Weyerhaueser, Xerox, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and Alliance Pipeline, and in 1999, he received a Sasktel Aboriginal Youth Award of Excellence. His latest recognition will come at the end of March, when he received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the youth category, which comes with a $10,000 scholarship.

Dunn was born in Saskatoon, but spent most of his childhood dividing his time between Saskatoon and Watrous after his parents divorced when he was three.

"So what I did when growing up, I would spend one year with my mom, and then the next year with my dad. I went back and forth between the two."

Sports have always been a big component of Dunn's life. While he has mainly concentrated on playing baseball, volleyball, and doing track-and-field, Dunn has also tried his hand at basketball, soccer, badminton, curling, ultimate frisbee, and mount biking.

In 1999, Dunn was on the provincial volleyball team, and won a gold medal at the Canada Western Summer Games.

"In university, I joined a track-and-field team . . . it was great for me because it was a good balance with school. It was really good stress relief. And I just met a lot of wonderful people, and made some really good friends," he said.

He was introduced to acting at the age of 10 when his mother, brought him to an audition for the show Moccasins Flats, which was filmed in Edmonton and aired on CTV. Later on, Dunn took part in drama school plays. "It's something that I'd would like to possibly approach later on," he said.

Dunn was also chosen to take part in the National Native Role Model Program from 1991 to 2001. As a role model, Dunn visited many communities, schools and conferences where he talked about "the importance of education, and of being active and keeping busy, and just to not limit your options, try as many different things as you can."

In his life, he has never had a shortage of role models and people to look up to, he explained.

"You know, the biggest role models in my life have been just those people surrounding me, my friends, my family, my teachers," he said. "It's good to look up to famous people and strive for what they have accomplished but I also want to do my own thing."

He added, "Right now, a big inspiration for me is Matthew Coon Come. He is just an incredible leader."

Dunn is currently in his fourth year at the University of Saskatchewan's mechanical engineering program. Once he's earned his degree, he'd like to spend the summer travelling before he decides on the next direction he'd like to go in.

"I kind of have two options. I'll either go back to school right off the bat and try to get my masters degree in aerospace engineering.

If I don't do that, I may take two years off to work. If I could find a job with an aerospace company, that would be wonderful," he said.

He doesn't hesitate to dream of a career in space.

"If for whatever reason that doesn't pan out or I have my career as an engineer, in about 10 to 20 years I would love to explore the possibility of either getting back into acting or even getting into politics at a certain level," said Dunn.

He said he plans to achieve success "by taking it one month, one year at a time."

"I feel very fortunate to be recognized with this award (National Aboriginal Achievement Award) for simply doing those things that I love, I enjoy. I enjoy school-something you don't hear too often. But I do enjoy the things that I am learning. I enjoy staying active with sports, and when I was part of the role model program, I had a great time making those visits . . . doing those things, and getting those experience and then to actually be recognized for that on such a national level, it is overwhelming in a wonderful way," he said.

"I think that the reason that I was recognized was just because those things that I have done are achievable by anyone in the community. It's not like I've been on an Olympic team. It's not like I've discovered some incredible scientific thing. All I've done is go to university and stay active, and try as many different things as I can."

Dunn said Metis youth should recognize many opportunities and options available today and seize them.

"I think self-esteem is a big issue. As a community, we need to embrace our identity and our culture. We have a very unique background and heritage that we should be proud of," he said.

"There is no limit to what we as a people can accomplish. So I am really looking forward to the future to see where we end up a generation or two from now, and it will be good."