Bucket List and a role model: hanging out with happy people can lighten the education load

Sheila Cote-Meek. Photo by Minor Details Photography
Sheila Cote-Meek. Photo by Minor Details Photography

By Laura E. Young
SUDBURY – It’s a case of who you know that can make for a smoother journey through university for Sheila Cote-Meek, the head of academic and Indigenous Programs at Laurentian University, and one of 13 role models for a new program to help indigenous students succeed at higher education.

In February, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) announced the Let’s take our Future Further campaign. The campaign is multi-fold. It aims to inspire aboriginal students to follow their dreams through education and finish their degrees.

The COU’s campaign honours the achievements of the chosen role models who, in turn, offer key messages and words of encouragement to current and future students.

It’s all about surrounding oneself with goodness and good people, for Cote-Meek who says she does better when she is around people with a positive outlook on life.

“It’s trying to maintain a frame of reference, of goodness, especially when there’s a lot going on in the world for an indigenous student,” she says.

“It’s hard to keep your head above the water sometimes when they’re facing racism, there’s bullying going on, they might have had family experiences, separation in the family. There are a lot of different factors – and they’re very complicated – that would affect the life of an indigenous student.”

As well as Cote-Meek, Amy Shawanda, a Laurentian alumna, is now a master’s of indigenous studies student from Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation on Manitoulin Island was also selected as a COU role model.

“Trying to surround one’s self with people who’ve made themselves a good life, that goes a long way in helping you move along your own path,” says Cote-Meek. “There will be challenges. That’s not to say there isn’t. None of the role models ever said it was easy. “

Cote-Meek’s early challenges including enduring bullying and racism growing up in northeastern Ontario.

Yet through those challenges, she found her passion for change and her way to indigenous education. “I can actually trace it back to those early experiences. I can make a change because I don’t want other students to have to go through that.”

In 2006, Cote-Meek became the head of aboriginal affairs at Laurentian and developed an unofficial bucket list that includes the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre (ISLC).

This one-stop hub will house and centralize all aboriginal student affairs services in a 7,500-foot square foot space. The ISLC is currently scheduled for completion in September 2016.

As well, the number of indigenous faculty on campus increased: there are currently 24 indigenous faculty, including Laurentian, the three federated universities and the East campus of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

“All the aboriginal faculty hires, they’ve gone back to their own disciplines and started developing courses that are within their areas of expertise.”

Cote-Meek, also a mother of three and grandmother of seven, will conclude her position as head of indigenous affairs in April 2017.

She will then return as a full professor in the school of rural and northern health. She will teach indigenous perspective course on health and wellness and develop and indigenous PhD stream in rural and northern health.

“It’s the opportunity help develop a PhD program and to support other young people who are doing PhDs, providing mentorship and supervision. I don’t think my job is done yet.”

She will continue her research and publish. She may write another book.

She would like to further explore the issue of racism in post-secondary education systems.

“I know we’re doing a lot of great things. A lot of racism is built on misconceptions about people and misguided understandings. I think with the big push from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we’re seeing a shift in the education system.”

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKypa50Q5aA&feature=youtu.be
http://cou.on.ca/