Starblanket urges youth to give back to community

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There doesn't seem to be anything that 20-year-old Ariane Starblanket can't do.

The oldest of seven siblings, Starblanket graduated in June 2005 from Balcarres community school and is now finishing up her first semester of the four-year Indian Education program at First Nations University of Canada in Regina. She writes her first exam the second week in December and is confident she will do well.

Although this early in her post-secondary studies she doesn't know exactly what she wants to do after graduation, Starblanket said she plans to pursue a career working with Aboriginal people, primarily the youth.

Judging from her accomplishments so far, Starblanket will be successful in whatever she chooses to do. While attending Balcarres, Starblanket was a board member of her school's student leadership team. In addition to being chosen as room representative during all three years of high school, she helped re-establish the Students Against Drinking and Driving (SADD) chapter at the school and is still on the organization's provincial executive board. She was also president of the Building Community Bridges group and through the group participated in a YMCA youth exchange to Sept-Iles, Que.

Starblanket is an outspoken person and if she sees something wrong or that needs improvement she will freely share her opinion, especially if it affects Aboriginal people.

"In high school most of the population there is Aboriginal students and none of them really spoke up about issues facing them, therefore I thought that if they had someone to follow, to just take the initiative and do the things that were available to us, it would be better," Starblanket said.

Earlier this year, Starblanket received the SaskTel Aboriginal Youth Award for Leadership and took part in the annual E-Spirit Aboriginal Youth Business Plan competition, held this year in Edmonton.

Starblanket was also one of 34 Saskatchewan students recently selected to receive a Millennium Excellence Award from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, recognizing her dedication and hard work, community involvement, leadership abilities, innovative thinking and academic achievement.

Starblanket said she is grateful for all of the recognition and support she has received over the years, but she is most proud of her recent award from the Women of the Dawn. Starblanket was this year's recipient of the SaskPower Youth Award, given out by Women of the Dawn at its annual First Nations Awards ceremony held in Regina on Nov. 3. The award was given in recognition of Starblanket's leadership in SADD and work as a role model actively involved in leadership at the school level.

While many community members may see her as a role model, there's another group of people closer to home that Starblanket works hard to set a good example for-her younger siblings.

"I'm a role model in the community but my first priority is at home where I try to instill encouragement to my brothers and sisters," Starblanket said. "I try and help them with their homework and I'm always a sister first before anything else."

So what drives and inspires this alcohol and drug free young woman? Starblanket credits her parents, grandparents and high school teachers. Both of her parents work in the social work field and her grandfather is the chief of Star Blanket First Nation.

"We are all pretty active in our community and we just try to do our best," Starblanket said. "I would rather give than receive. I receive this knowledge and then I give it back to the community. I share my ideas, inspirations, hopes and my goals for the community to make it a better place for everybody."

Right now, she is spending a lot of her time studying or on her work with SADD, but when she has free time, she tries to spend most of it with her family.

"My little brothers and sisters just mean so much to me and I enjoy being around them because they bring me a lot of inspiration," she said.

Constantly striving for sccess and staying in school is what people, especially Aboriginal youth her age, should learn or gain from her accomplishments, she said.

"Graduate and then move on to that post-secondary life because it's a big leap forward,"

Starblanket said. "It brings you more success that way if you get educated. They should constantly work in school and be involved in extra-curricular activities because they do pass the time but yet they help you to gain so much insight into your community. It also brings pride within you."