Steinhauer excited about new position with NAAF

As an esteemed scholar and Cree educator, Noella Steinhauer acknowledges that supporting Aboriginal identity in mainstream education is a crucial need.
She is armed with knowledge as she enters her new position as Director of Education for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF), where she will help Aboriginal students from across Canada succeed in their educational pursuits.
Until recently, Steinhauer has worked as the Director of the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program at the University of Alberta. She also has experience as a teacher and as a principal.
NAAF is a national non-profit organization that raises funds to deliver programs and provide tools for Aboriginal youth.
Since 1985, the foundation has given more than $27.3 million in scholarships and bursaries to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis students across the country in all disciplines including law, medicine, education, psychology, fine arts, business and computer sciences.
"I am confident Noella will enrich NAAF's service to Aboriginal youth throughout Canada greatly," said Roberta Jameison NAAF's chief executive officer in a press release.
"NAAF continues to strive for excellence in its programs and services and with the addition of Dr. Steinhauer I'm confident the education department will lead NAAF into a flourishing and innovative future."
Steinhauer who speaks Cree fluently grew up on the Saddle Lake First Nation until she left home to attend high school. She said growing up on the reserve provided her with a strong sense of community and an understanding of what community is about.
She starts her part-time term in March and after which she will continue full-time in June.
"I'm delighted to be part of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and I look forward to continuing to expand the already great work in the education department," she said about the new position. She first decided to work for the foundation because she saw how it would allow her to help so many different students across the country.
"They've got their various programs targeted at Aboriginal students, so I liked those projects because I think they're important. Not only are they a foundation that gives that amount of scholarships to Aboriginal students but also their commitment to exposing the various career opportunities. So those are the two main things," she said.
One of her responsibilities is to oversee the process of giving scholarships to students who need them and to ensure a jury made up of representatives from across the country making the selections.
Steinhauer trained in social studies and did her Master's thesis and PhD in the area of education. She has given presentations on topics relating to education in many settings, including at the World Indigenous Peoples' Conference on Education. She has also written several articles for academic journals, along with a Master's thesis that studied the factors that impact the academic achievement of First Nations secondary students.
"My biggest findings were that students didn't leave school because of the lack of educational achievement," she said.
"They left school because of other factors and the biggest factor was racism. And it wasn't the overt kind of racism, it was all the subtle things in their school like not seeing themselves in textbooks, not feeling like their worldview was validated, not feeling like they were a part of the system. So those kinds of issues were what students saw as affecting why they didn't do well in school."
She believes that if educators expose students to the opportunities available to them and at the same time reinforce their identities, than students will be more successful in school.
"I think we need to train our teachers to teach our students well, reinforcing and respecting their identity, respecting that people have different perspectives. And to honour them, honour the knowledge that they come to school with and the way they view the world," she said.
"A lot of what really enforces success is having students believe in themselves and having them exposed to other learning opportunities. So really that is the kind of thing that would guide the work that I would do with the foundation," she said, adding that she realizes there is a lot of opportunity for growth.
"The foundation has grown a lot in the last few years and I just want to be part of that and help it to continue to grow."