ABORIGINAL PROGRAM June 2012 Ruby Littlechild, M.Ed

 The goal of the Aboriginal Program is to increase the participation of Aboriginal people in engineering and geoscience professions to 2% by  APEGA’s Outreach Strategy; to work more strategically with leaders in education and the Aboriginal community GOAL

 APEGA’S strategy is to nurture and sustain a culture of collaboration, trust, learning and high achievement within the program  APEGA works with key stakeholders to promote an understanding, appreciation, and use of the professional learning community’s diverse, cultural, social and intellectual resources  Raise Aboriginal awareness of the engineering and geoscience professions  Promote an interest in science, math and technology in First Nations and Metis communities, through the expansion of our Outreach services What does the Aboriginal Program do?

 APEGA recognizes that engineering, science and technology are an important part of Canada’s future in world markets  Statistics show that there is a need to increase University enrollment in science and math for Aboriginal people  APEGA believes more students will enter the science and math fields if their interest is nurtured throughout their primary and secondary school years  Experts predict a shortage of engineers and geoscientists in the near future which may be partly filled by Aboriginal professionals Why are we Interested?

 There are 48 First Nations communities in Alberta and 8 Metis Settlements  Edmonton has the 2 nd highest Aboriginal population in Canada, high transitory population  Aboriginal Mentoring Program; we are in five urban schools in at Ben Calf Robe, Prince Charles and St. Joseph High School in Edmonton and St. Benedict’s, St. Marthas and St. Stephen’s in Calgary  We are proud to announce that this year we have expanded our Aboriginal mentoring program into the high schools in Edmonton; providing consistency in mentoring relationships with our students who went on to Grade 10 from Ben Calf Robe Highlights of Aboriginal Program

 We work with the FNMI (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) professional learning community including the Treaty 6, 7 and 8 First Nations educators and Metis settlements in Alberta, we attend Treaty 6, Treaty 7 and Metis settlements based on invitation from the communities  In January 2012, APEGA signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta  Highlights of agreement include high levels of communication and collaboration based on a clear and shared focus for the future Treaty 8 students Highlights of Aboriginal Program

 Current and on-going collaborations include ASLA (Alberta Science Literacy Association) providing professional development teacher training to the Treaty 8 educators  Alberta Regional Consortia providing professional development teacher training to the Treaty 7 educators Current Collaborations

 APEGA Leadership  APEGA Volunteers  ASLA and EWB for their collaboration efforts with the Aboriginal community THANK YOU!