Over 160 First Nations, Metis and Inuit students from across the province were welcomed to the University of Saskatchewan for the third annual “Indigenous Spend-a-Day” last Friday.
The numbers have increased since the previous year, but it was noted that a lot of students could not make it due to cold temperatures.
The event featured panels and workshops, highlighting program opportunities available for them at the Saskatoon campus.
The gathering also served to address concerns Indigenous youth have towards attending post-secondary institutes.
“The overall goal is to have students come onto campus and see themselves on campus. I think generally, for any high school student who’s coming onto the campus of the University of Saskatchewan, they’re wanting to know, ‘Will I be happy here? Will I belong here?’ And I think that’s particularly true for our Indigenous students,” said Patti McDougall, the university’s vice-provost of teaching, learning, and student-experience.
“We are committed to closing the gap for Indigenous and non-Indigenous degree holders, and we were just so happy to see these students come on campus and to be able to start dreaming about what they want to do, meet some role models and start to begin to make a plan for all the exciting things ahead of them.”
McDougall encouraged students to reach out to the university’s recruiting department if they missed the event but would still like to visit the university.
“If someone were to miss Indigenous Spend-a-Day, but still be interested in finding out more and making a campus visit, we’d be happy to make that happen,” said McDougall.
The U of S currently has 2,900 self-declared Indigenous students.
(PHOTO: Current Indigenous uSask students addressing prospective students. Photo courtesy of University of Saskatchewan.)