{"id":14984,"date":"2017-11-15T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T17:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=14984"},"modified":"2017-11-22T09:32:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T17:32:37","slug":"new-ccss-first-nations-director-talks-travel-educational-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/11\/15\/new-ccss-first-nations-director-talks-travel-educational-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"New CCSS First Nations director talks travel, educational journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dust has settled and the results are in for the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) student council elections. CCSS First Nations director Katelynne Herchak says that although she\u2019s a returning member to the CCSS board, she\u2019s just as excited to be there now as she was two years ago when she was first involved with the CCSS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited to win this position,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve run in the election. I have been a representative before, but I was appointed it about two summers ago, so the election process was a lot different than the appointal process. But it was really fulfilling to get out there and have people actually care enough to vote. I kept my campaign pretty low-key. I\u2019m in the Indigenous Family Support program, so I reached out to people in my class. But I also reached out to people who aren\u2019t in my class because their perspective matters to me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Camosun College Student Society First Nations director Katelynne Herchak (photo by Adam Boyle\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Herchak says that she never thought that she was a post-secondary person to begin with, but, thanks to some friends and some time in other classes, she eventually landed in the program she\u2019s in now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated from Spectrum Community School in 2013,\u201d she says. \u201cA couple of my friends dragged me into Camosun to apply to college. I started off by taking some general courses, but then I started taking some Indigenous Studies courses, some Criminal Justice courses, and some others. I took some time off to go do an internship in South America; I was in Colombia for four months. I really enjoy education, and I know it\u2019s really important for the workplace. I found that the Indigenous Family Support program was really up my alley in that you just get to work with people and be a support for them. I\u2019m really enjoying Camosun; I\u2019ve made a lot of friends and I get to be a part of some policy work that goes on at the college, which is a real privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herchak says that the four months she spent in Colombia were some of the best times of her life. She says that although the country is so different from Canada, she wasn\u2019t fazed by it at all; instead, she was inspired by the comings and goings of daily life and by how their community worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like South America; it\u2019s given me a new perspective on Canada, not just as an Indigenous person of Canada, but just how collective Colombia was, in an individualistic sense. It seemed like more people cared about each other more, and that\u2019s something I miss,\u201d says Herchak. \u201cEven their education system is different. It was really interesting to go and speak in schools about Canada and teach kids, <\/b>which was a lot of fun. I, obviously, miss the weather, too. It\u2019s a real eye-opener to what privileges we do have and what disadvantages we have at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herchak says that she hopes to increase the voice of the indigenous students currently at Camosun while she\u2019s in the CCSS First Nations director position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to bring more of a presence to indigenous students and more open resources for us. I listen and care about their educational journeys, and their personal journeys, and I want to be able to help as best as I can,\u201d says Herchak, before offering this bit of advice to students who run for a position on the CCSS board: \u201cDo it because you want to make a difference. It doesn\u2019t have to be just for the college, but whether it\u2019s for the community or something else, do it because you want to help somebody. As long as you help one person, you\u2019re making a difference. Don\u2019t give up and don\u2019t feel intimidated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dust has settled and the results are in for the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) student council elections. CCSS First Nations director Katelynne Herchak says that although she\u2019s a returning member to the CCSS board, she\u2019s just as excited to be there now as she was two years ago when she was first involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-november-15-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14987,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions\/14987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}