{"id":18865,"date":"2020-01-22T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=18865"},"modified":"2020-01-23T09:26:04","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:26:04","slug":"indigenous-camosun-students-to-receive-40000-to-assist-with-food-and-housing-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/01\/22\/indigenous-camosun-students-to-receive-40000-to-assist-with-food-and-housing-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Camosun students to receive $40,000 to assist with food and housing costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victoria Foundation has granted $40,000 in funding to support Indigenous students in Camosun College\u2019s interdisciplinary Aboriginal Culinary Arts, Tourism and Hospitality program. The funding will be dispersed to students in order to provide financial support for costs associated with housing and food.<\/p>\n

Developed in partnership with the Songhees Nation, Camosun\u2019s Aboriginal Culinary Arts, Tourism and Hospitality program is a 12-month entry-level program that includes a two-month work placement and is specifically designed for Indigenous students preparing for a career in Aboriginal tourism. Students gain work experience and learn skills from a variety of applied tourism, culinary arts, and hospitality courses; upon graduation, they earn a Professional Cook 1 certification.<\/p>\n

One aspect of the program that was very important to the Victoria Foundation was that it was specifically designed to provide Indigenous students with a direct, practical road to employment that\u2019s firmly rooted in Aboriginal culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt aligns really well with our strategic priorities, because our two main focuses are housing and food security,\u201d says Victoria Foundation communications specialist Kyle Wells. \u201cSo, in this case, the bursaries will be providing financial support for housing and food costs to these students, who are also taking a course that is related to food security, and this is [meant to help] people prepare for a career in Aboriginal tourism. It fits in perfectly with all our strategic priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A strong focus of the college\u2019s program is on culinary arts, which are directly linked to the burgeoning industry of Aboriginal tourism. This focus serves to ground the program firmly in Indigenous culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of events include food, and that\u2019s a big part of our tradition, our culture,\u201d says Camosun Indigenous recruiter and on-campus support Lana Pagaduan. \u201cWhenever there\u2019s a gathering, there\u2019s food along with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Victoria Foundation has given $40,000 to Indigenous students at Camosun College (photo by Adam Marsh\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) is very supportive of the program and the $40,000 from the Victoria Foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think it\u2019s great,\u201d says CCSS external executive Fillette Umulisa. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of barriers that students face, and this type of funding by community donations definitely allows students to concentrate more on their studies. We think it\u2019s a very great initiative, especially [with the support] from the Victoria Foundation, and we\u2019d love to see more of this come around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells is enthusiastic about the practical applications of a program that is specifically tailored to help Aboriginal students excel in a field closely linked to their historical culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a great opportunity, because you\u2019re getting all these different certifications all at once, and you\u2019re working in an industry that is growing, and it\u2019s culturally relevant and creating opportunities,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Pagaduan, who has been directly involved in the program, says it\u2019s just concluding a two-year pilot project, and she has seen positive impacts on the students involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis program has helped students turn their life around,\u201d she says. \u201cIn their journey to better their health and way of living, this program helped, as it included their passion of cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pagaduan says that the program has provided a strong positive drive to help young Indigenous people move their lives forward and overcome personal roadblocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of social issues, challenges, and barriers for our people on the reserves. One of the biggest struggles for an Indigenous student is living support, as they have no income, and no means of paying rent or providing for their family,\u201d she says. \u201cThis was an awesome opportunity for those who entered and completed the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells agrees that the program could have really strong positive reverberations through the community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a really good opportunity to help young Aboriginal people\u2014who have a harder time getting started in our economy and our education system\u2014to find a way to prepare themselves for the working world and to do so in a way that is culturally relevant to them,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Victoria Foundation has granted $40,000 in funding to support Indigenous students in Camosun College\u2019s interdisciplinary Aboriginal Culinary Arts, Tourism and Hospitality program. The funding will be dispersed to students in order to provide financial support for costs associated with housing and food. Developed in partnership with the Songhees Nation, Camosun\u2019s Aboriginal Culinary Arts, Tourism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18866,"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":[13,246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-22-2020"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865","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=18865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18867,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions\/18867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}