Anishinaabe students announced as recipients of RBC Future Launch Indigenous Youth Scholarships

By Rick Garrick

SUDBURY — Dokis First Nation’s Connor Lafortune looks forward to the opportunity to focus more on his studies after receiving one of 20 2023 RBC Future Launch Indigenous Youth Scholarships.

The scholarship recipients, which also included Chippewas of Georgina Island’s Tanner Big Canoe, were announced on June 14.

The scholarships are valued up to $10,000 each per year for up to 4 years.

“This scholarship is just going to help me take a step back, take a breath and really focus on my studies because I tend to overload my schedule with work and things in order to continue to financially support myself,” says Lafortune, a Nipissing University graduate who will be pursuing a Masters in Indigenous Relations at Laurentian University. “I originally was going to law school and then I got a contract with the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation to work in life promotion with Indigenous youth, which is mental health, health, and healing, and all those wonderful things, and it sparked a passion in me to work with our communities, to learn how to navigate the systems that have been historically oppressing our people. So the Masters in Indigenous Relations was something that naturally evolved from the work I’ve been doing with community.”

Lafortune says he always puts his whole heart into his studies by attending every class, reading every lecture and trying to engage fully in class discussions.

“That’s something I take very much to heart and I think it’s where we get most of our learning is those engaging pieces when talking to professors and other students,” Lafortune says. “As far as my community work, I volunteer heavily in my communities, whether that be in Indigenous communities or in the city I work and live in. I also volunteer with Black Lives Matter Sudbury, which is our local chapter, and engage in solidarity between Black and Indigenous communities. I also work with youth, First Nations youth mostly, but Indigenous youth more broadly on issues of substance use, harm reduction, and really trying to promote the lives in our community to regain that sense of community and belonging and hope for our next generation.”

Lafortune says he has a lot of goals for the future, including continuing his work with mental health for local school boards and mental health organizations across Canada and his independent work with youth.

“Eventually, I do want to return to my community, open a practice of some sort, whether that be for mental health or for supports, or to create youth camps in my community so the kids of the youth I grew up with will have the opportunities that other Indigenous youth are having in cities or in the larger areas,” Lafortune says. “So my goal is to give back to the community that has always supported me and to really flourish those connections with other communities around.”

The RBC Future Launch Indigenous Youth Scholarship recognizes the recipients’ strong academic performance and community involvement as key elements of their success and inspiring career plans. The recipients are pursuing a multitude of academic disciplines, including Healthcare, Engineering, Business, Sociology, Law, Dentistry, Education, and the Arts.

“We know that access to education plays a vital role in preparing young people for their futures,” says Mark Beckles, vice president, Social Impact and Innovation, RBC. “This scholarship was designed in partnership with the Indigenous community to support their scholars as they pursue their chosen academic path. It is such an honour to read their stories and learn how they are making an impact in their respective fields and supporting Indigenous peoples.”

RBC has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to about 258 Indigenous youth since 1992.