PRINCE GEORGE – The College’s commitment is, literally, written on the walls of the Gathering Place. Even the name highlights that engagement.
Enter, Dr. Jesse King. She is the new Vice President of Indigenization.
“I was chatting with some folks last week. I started in what was known as Northwest Community College, now Coast Mountain College in Prince Rupert, when we were in the basement of the museum and I was studying different university transfer courses, I was doing psychology, anthropology, all of that,” says Dr. King. “So I’ve seen the full spectrum of college and university struggling as a student, being concerned that I wasn’t studying anything about myself. My people. Not seeing myself in the institution.”
And hers is a big job: Guiding the College through truth and reconciliation while supporting students.
“I read a quote, almost 20 years ago, and it’s by James Youngblood Henderson and it said ‘Being an Indigenous student in a university is like looking into a still lake and not seeing your reflection.’ And that quote has stuck with me for almost two decades now. So I’m hoping that my work and my experience will shift that quote into something that allows Indigenous students to see themselves within these walls.”
Marlene Erickson has been the voice behind Indigenous education at the College for many years. Much has changed since those early days.
“When I first started working here back in the 1990s. We were in an agricultural area out on the front lawn of CNC. Gradually over the years, we’ve very much moved to Indigenous Education and the needs of Indigenous communities from the margins to the center of CNC.”
But this is the next generation of the college’s evolution on the journey through Truth and Reconciliation. And Dr. King hopes to achieve one goal above all else.
“I hope that the students also see that they inspire me, that the reason I’m here is because of them. I want them to succeed.”
