New students attending Mount Royal University for their first days of orientation will share many experiences.
Meeting strangers who might become close friends over the next few years; the nerves that clutch at your gut as you enter the massive auditorium and look for your program; and, for the first time, hearing faculty acknowledge the school’s presence on Treaty 7 land.
The motto for Mount Royal University’s recruiting campaign is “You Belong Here”. But, not all students feel welcome in academic institutions.
The university’s Indigenous Strategic Plan wants to change this. And one man works every day to fix it.
VIDEO BY: Chris Campbell, Victoria Ashley, Jo Horwood
Dion Simon is dedicated to creating an environment where indigenous students feel welcome and are able to succeed. He works as the Medicine Trail Coordinator for the Iniskim Centre in Mount Royal University.
“In the last seven years, one of the strategic goals was to increase Mount Royal’s indigenous population to 7%,” says Simon.
“That requires a lot of outreach.”
Simon works with faculty and students across the school to build Aboriginal education programs that embrace indigenous ways of knowing. The Iniskim Centre provides a space for indigenous practices and a place for the indigenous community to grow.
“We see a high a mount of students graduating from our Aboriginal Education Program and from Mount Royal in general because of the support that they receive here,” Simon continues.
Simon says that the Iniskim Centre community plays a role in student success.
“First Nations, or Metis, or Inuit people can come into classrooms where they feel that their identity is acknowledged, their are heard … and they have a sense of purpose in that community,” says Simon.
Simon’s dedication brings him to many corners of the campus. Every year, he teaches a class of students how to set up a tipi.
That tipi acts as a symbol for indigenous inclusion and representation on campus.
To Simon, it shows that the indigenous identity is here – and it’s alive.