Northern student values education
Member of Tlicho Nation accepted into research fellowship
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 3, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A member of the Tlicho Nation has earned a place in a prestigious research fellowship.
Late last year, Itoah Scott-Enns - a 26-year-old student at the University of Toronto - was named as one of nine members of the 2013-2015 Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship by the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation of Toronto.
Itoah Scott-Enns |
"I'm really, really excited about this," she said. "It's a chance to learn about a lot of different things for me."
Her research will look at ways to increase capacity in the North for collaborative indigenous land stewardship initiatives.
Scott-Enns said, as indigenous people, Dene have a right and a responsibility to be stewards of the land.
She said it is an honour to be part of the fellowship, which is designed for people aged 25 to 35.
"It's a really great opportunity for us younger people, I think, to learn about all these major issues and figure out how we can make meaningful contributions to them," she said. "This fellowship is really about giving us some guidance and some really big support to be able to pursue addressing issues. That's a pretty big honour for all of us."
The 18-month fellowship accepts young Northerners, especially aboriginal people, who want to build a strong North. It is for those who are looking for additional support, networking and guidance from mentors and peers across the North to deepen their understanding of important issues facing the region, and develop policy ideas to help address them. The fellows undertake individual research, but also work collaboratively.
Holly Mackenzie, program manager for the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation, said Scott-Enns submitted an important and solid research topic.
"We thought her research issue was very interesting," Mackenzie said.
She said Scott-Enns is also a very bright student with a good sense of what is happening in her community.
The fellowship is designed to prepare the future leaders of the North.
"It's a program that is meant to develop leadership skills and capacity," said Mackenzie, who is a member of the Tlicho Nation originally from Yellowknife, and an alumnus of the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship.
Scott-Enns said she likes to think of herself as a future leader, although she added, "But I think maybe not in the common vision of what is a leader in the North. I don't necessarily mean in the sense of political leadership or anything like that, but I think leaders can be many things, especially in the North, and traditionally in our culture. So absolutely I would like to be able to be a good role model and to know that I am contributing something meaningful to the Tlicho people."
She also hopes she is a good role model in education, including an appreciation of traditional knowledge.
"Education for me is a lot more than university and I definitely think pursuing all types of education is important," she said.
Scott-Enns graduated from Yellowknife's Sir John Franklin High School in 2005.
Afterward, she was a flight attendant with First Air for six years.
"While I was a flight attendant, I did a year in Edmonton at the University of Alberta," she noted. "But, at the time, I was only 19 and I really didn't know what I wanted to do quite yet. So that's why I made the decision to leave school for then, and just keep working."
She said working with First Air was great because it allowed her to see the entire North.
"But after a few years I felt like I just needed something more than what the job was offering, and I started gaining a curiosity mainly in indigenous issues," she said, noting she studied communications for a year in Vancouver before transferring to the University of Toronto for an opportunity to learn about indigenous history and issues.
Scott-Enns will be graduating in April with a Bachelor of Arts honours degree, majoring in aboriginal studies and ethics, society and law.
She hopes to return to university in the future for a degree in law.
"That's the hope and dream," she said. "I was hoping to go into law school next fall, but I am actually expecting a baby in June, so that sort of changed my plans a little bit. I'm going to come back to the North and just focus on starting my family first for at least a year, maybe two, before I try to head to law school."
While back in Yellowknife, where her husband and her family live, she will also do research as part of the fellowship.
She also hopes to learn more of the Tlicho language.
Scott-Enns was born in Fort Simpson, but grew up in Yellowknife.
The 2013-2015 Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship includes three others from Yellowknife. They are Moses Hernandez, Nina Larsson of theGwich'in Nation, and Jessie MacKenzie.
