Elephant steps for small feet
If there were only more Cree scientists there would be less of a gap when it comes to delivering medical services to the Cree communities, Hydro Quebec would see their tech employees mandate filled and young Crees would want to follow in the footsteps of those who blazed the trail first….
Though the charitable group Elephant Thoughts has been working with Niskamoon Corporation for years, trying to interest Cree children in science has always been a point of difficulty. The organization’s mandate is to promote high standards of education initiatives internationally. In Canada one of their main goals is to deliver auxiliary science education to school-aged First Nation communities.
“What we have been finding is that the students are having a difficult time seeing the link between them as the student and them as a future worker in a technology field. So, we decided to get them to work with us so that they can see, at least on the teaching end, that being a teacher in the science field is a viable career,” said Michael Paulin, Elephant Thoughts’ vice-president for northern programs.
Paulin is describing a new mentorship program that they set up in two Cree communities. Though the group has been running day camps, after-school programs and helping kids with their science fair projects for years, there were few role models. Paulin said that he was unaware if there were any actual Crees teaching science in Cree. He also noted that there are 10 Native doctors in all of Quebec.
To bridge the gap, Elephant Thoughts created a program for science-oriented youth mentors through their after-school programs. The idea is to find good students from the Cree School Board and encourage them to assist the adults from Elephant Thoughts to teach the younger groups.
“If we can get younger kids to see older kids, one of their own, in a job that they enjoy, performing the explosions and the chemical reactions we have in the program, it is a big eye-opener for them. They then start thinking that yes, this is possible for me too,” said Paulin.
So far these programs are already underway in Chisasibi and in Waskaganish and Elephant Thoughts are presently working on of bringing the youth mentorship to every community in Eeyou Istchee.
Students selected to teach the programs must speak Cree, English and French and have a very good attendance record. These students also need the agreement of their teachers and require a recommendation from a science teacher and a vice-principal or principal.
The older students not only get the benefit of being paid for their work but they gain experience teaching science. That earns them the opportunity to work as a junior camp councilor for the Elephant Thoughts’ summer camps.
Not only does this group run science-oriented day camps throughout the Cree communities as they do for First Nations communities throughout Canada where junior camp counsellors are needed, there are other projects in the midst.
“What we would like to do is train a half dozen Cree kids here for two weeks at our facility so that they could be junior camp counsellors. We would then hook them up with a traveling show that goes across the country. We wind up teaching Haida kids out in BC or Cree kids out in Northern Alberta or Ojibwa kids in southern Manitoba. So we could actually bring these northern Cree kids to all these other First Nations communities and have them teach science and have them help us teach other kids,” said Paulin.
The Cree Regional Authority is already very “keen” on this concept to further science education within the Cree Nation and beyond, Paulin said.
The youth mentorship program will be making its way to all nine of the communities eventually. For more information on Elephant Thoughts, their mandate and their many programs, go to: www.elephantthoughts.com