Today's business students are tomorrow's trailblazers

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Angela Bellegarde is Scotiabank's director of Aboriginal business education programs, hired by the University of Saskatchewan's College of Commerce to work with the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in joint programming, a position she's held since October. Her mandate is to assist the successful entry and transition of students into the College of Commerce. Her predecessor, Kelly Lendsay, who is now the president of the Aboriginal Human Resource Development Council of Canada, held the spot for two-and-one-half years.

Now both collaborate to promote advanced education for students of business and commerce. Bellegarde says they have been looking at ways the College of Commerce could better meet Aboriginal students' needs, so Lendsay has remained part-time to oversee the master of business administration degree (MBA) program, which has a concentration in Aboriginal management, while Bellegarde is responsible for the undergraduate program.

"Part of my job is to do some targetted recruitment to the First Nations people," Bellegarde said. "As well, FSIN (Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations) has a corporate circle. I haven't linked with them yet, but they are one group I hope to tap into, which is made up of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business people.

She adds that the Aboriginal MBA is funded by the Circle of Founders, which includes many large non-Aboriginal organizations, such as Proctor & Gamble, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Scotiabank.

Sage put the question to Bellegarde, how useful are the so-called "soft" degrees, such as psychology or Native studies, to people aspiring to senior management positions?

"Whenever you've gone through a four-year program, whether it is in humanities or not, you do learn things," she says. "In our MBA program, generally, we have people who come to us with an arts degree or history. You do have some skills-such as the discipline to get things in on time. You do have something with those degrees; however, there is something to be said for learning on the job. So I think you will always find cases where there are people who have an undergraduate degree who can be very successful in senior management, given enough training and time-and mentoring is real important.

"Certainly if you have a business degree," Bellegarde continues, "either at the graduate or undergraduate level, that is very helpful, because it is a very focused program to ensure that you do take a career path that will get you to senior management, if that's what you choose.

"So, I think there's validity in both. It depends on lots of things."

She says because the College of Commerce partners with the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC), undergraduate students can choose "some unique exit and entrance points." By example, she cites SIFC's two-year certificate in Indigenous business administration (known as CIBA).

Bellegarde says students who choose to enter the work world after those two years leave school with entry-level skills in a variety of business subjects. Alternatively, they can transfer to the College of Commerce to complete a bachelor of commerce degree. After that they can pursue an MBA, which has four advanced Aboriginal courses, including "Aboriginal management systems" and "Indigenous people and economic development."

Where the focus is different from mainstream programs, Bellegarde says, is that undergraduate courses at SIFC as well as the ones at the MBA level are taught by Aboriginal people or people who have a great amount of experience in the Aboriginal community.

"Certainly the focus of course work is on Aboriginal experiences," Bellegarde says. "So the content of the course itself will look at reserves, Aboriginal government, Aboriginal culture and how that comes into play in business. And they're small class courses; the majority are Indian people in the courses-you get a real Aboriginal focus.

"For example, our visiting scholar in Aboriginal issues, Warren Weir, closed his cass yesterday with a sharing circle. So you get a little bit of a different feel to the courses.

"At the College of Commerce, we're very pleased to have an Aboriginal scholar or a visiting scholar in Aboriginal issues. . . . Besides teaching, they're struck with doing curriculum development to make sure that our courses do reflect Aboriginal experiences and to be a resource to our faculty."

What is the challenge of meshing an Aboriginal world view with that of the non-Aboriginal corporate world, Sage asked Bellegarde.