ABORIGINAL PROGRAM June 2012

1. ABORIGINAL PROGRAM June 2012 Ruby Littlechild, M.Ed Email: rlittlechild@apega.ca

2. The goal of the Aboriginal Program is to increase the participation of Aboriginal people in engineering and geoscience professions to 2% by 2030. APEGA’s Outreach Strategy; to work more strategically with leaders in education and the Aboriginal community GOAL

3. What does the Aboriginal Program do? • 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

4. Why are we Interested? • 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

5. Highlights of Aboriginal Program • There are 48 First Nations communities in Alberta and 8 Metis Settlements • Edmonton has the 2nd 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

6. 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

7. Current Collaborations • 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

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