"The End"

I thought I was done with the previous blog, but I was suggested to take pictures of today's set up of the exhibition.  All the IS (Integrating Seminar) students are to present their projects in the Agora.  The exhibition is from December 1 to December 3.

A friend of mine, Jessica.  Finishing up with her cool project.

Jessica and I in the Agora.

Lucy with our IS teacher Daniel.  They both hold the IS event poster:

The End.

Much Needed Help Study Sessions

As well as the help from counsellors, Inuit who come to college also get a lot of help in terms of school work and homework.  As most Inuit students from up north are not used to the hectic school system that the colleges have, they get a lot of help from KSB's own academic counsellor, The Aboriginal Resource Center at the college and other held study sessions with personal tutors.

You are most likely to have study sessions with Sheri (The KSB academic counsellor) when you have your first humanities classes such as "Body & Mind," "Western Civ," "Universe of the Arts" and so on..  In the sessions, you go through your homework line by line and learn to study your homework and how to do your homework properly.  This kind of help is much needed and it helps a lot for a first-year student.

In the photo(s):  You see Sheri, our academic counsellor, helping students with their work.

Pauyungie, A John Abbott Mom

As we know (well, some won't know about this), there are a number of Inuit girls and ladies that are mothers.  Some of them don't get to finish high school or some of them finish high school and don't continue off to college.  As I know most of the moms, they are kind of "stuck" somewhere and maybe have lost their hope.  However, For this blog, I just wanted to inspire the young moms up there by sharing a photo of one of the moms who goes to John Abbott College.

There are a number of Inuit moms that are studying at John Abbott.  Pauyungie, my super star for this blog, is one of them.  Since I came to college, I've learned many things about her.  She is a mother of two young boys (3 and 7 years of age).  Her program is Theatre which is really interesting.  She juggles with school and her children, which can get pretty hard.  It might not be an easy life, but by watching Pauyungie stand tall, she becomes one of the very good role models.

For all the young Inuit parents out there, you guys can still have hope and apply for college in the future.  There is all the help you could need!

Counseling Sessions

One of the topics I wanted to capture and share were counseling sessions.  As a college student, it is nice to have a counsellor to talk to.  Most Inuit students are required to meet a counselor every week for one hour.  As for me, I think it is good to go.  From the start of the mid-semester throughout the end , it gets pretty frustrating and it is great to have someone to talk to.

Gail is one of the good counselors KSB has and her office is pretty home-y.  

Fresh-Out-of-High-School to College

The meaning of writing this blog is to point out the change that Inuit students usually experience when they come to college from high school (up north).  It comes to be a challenge for most Inuit students when they come to College as the Education system is really low up north.  Those who come to college jump to a high new level of education.

In college, each semester lasts 15 weeks.  Those who come to college get five-to-eight courses a week depending on which program they are in.  Some courses last one and a half hours and some last three hours long.  Some classes start at 8:30 in the morning and some classes last until 5:30 in the evening.  It is important for a college student to attend all, if not, most classes.  In all courses, there is a limited number of courses you can skip depending on which courses you are taking.

One simple, but difficult change that an Inuk student experience is the size of class.  In high school (up north), classes are as small as 10 to 15 students whereas in college, each class can total up to 30 to 40 students.

The workload in college is much more heavier than in high school up north.  Students are required to: take notes in classes and study them at home, write essays, write journals, write quizzes, do a presentation and tests that can be worth 30%.  Last, but not least, students are required to read books that are given in classes.

Homework...  Homework is really important.  You may not realize it up north, but in college, homework is the key point to getting marks in college.  It is really important to do homework in every class.  Even some Phys. Ed. classes assign homework.  There are due dates for every homework and deadlines need to be respected.  You do the homework, you get marks.  You don't do any homework, you don't get marks.  You give in an assignment late, you lose marks.

Lucy

 

   This entry contains more of the work that is required in some courses that we take.  There are a variety of programs that we can choose.  In this case, Lucy is in Creative Arts (Media).  Media Arts is a program where you can take courses such as Photography, Filmmaking, Video Production, Animation, Digital Media and so on.  There are also courses like Creative Writing, Theater and Professional Theater, Painting and drawing and so on.

   In this photo, Lucy was taking photos for her class.  She is Inuk, but she lived most of her life in the south.  So she doesn't really experience the homesickness and culture shock like some of us do.

   Lucy is now on her graduating semester and she plans to move on to university.  Her specific goal after cegep is to go into Communications at Concordia.

Food, Glorious Food

   As we all know, food is obviously important.  Each and every one of us have our own cultural delicacy that we grew up with or that we love.  Most of us have the need or craving for food when that specific food isn't around.

   We, Inuit students, grew up with our own Inuit delicacy.  Most of us know what kind of food I am talking about.  The main meat we eat now is caribou and arctic char.  The other animals we can eat are goose meat, ptarmigan.  However, they are all only available to pursue in the north.

   Most of us are not able to have our own kind of food here in the south, but sometimes it is made possible to have it brought down.  We either bring the food with us or have someone send it.

   The first photo is of my cousin, Igulik, who just made her suvalik.  Suvalik is popular in the summertime when the berries are available.  It is made with fish eggs crushed and stirred by hand with oil and water.  It is not an easy task to make it.  Suvalik is like our own dessert.  The creamy-like suvaklik is added with berries and it's delicious even though most might find it appetizing by the sounds of it.

   Igulik is a first-year college student.  She goes to Marie-Victorin in Montreal-North.  She is experiencing the life in the south for the first time.  It's not easy for most of us, but she is still standing high.  She was able to have her berries and fish eggs brought down by a friend.

   The second photo is of my friend who was kind enough to bring and share her food with me.  In the photo, she is plugging the feathers and fur off of a ptarmigan.  In the wintertime, ptarmigans are available.  It is also a good delicacy.

Student Activities

   Today's entry contains a picture of Inuit students.  I took this picture after one of our student activities.  Kativik School Board (KSB) organizes activities after every two weekends.  To name a few, some of the common organized activities are: Tour around Montreal, water sliding at the water park, paintball, horseback riding, LaRonde, hockey game, zip-lining at Arbraska, Laser Quest, skiing/snowboarding, ice skating and so on.  These activities are given in order to help the Inuit students cope with being away from home.  Mostly, the activities are held to entertain the Inuit students.

   This photo was taken right after zip lining at Arbraska.  The photo contains a bunch of Inuit students who go to John Abbott and Marie-Victorin.

Project Proposal

Project Proposal

Artist Statement:

My project will be photography.  Photography is my favorite way of expressing myself and my point of views.  As I am not keen to communicate verbally, I prefer to take some images to express things and moments that are important to me as an Inuk.

My idea is to capture the moments which I had shared and still share with other Inuit in college.  In Northern Quebec, we finish off high school from a really low educational system.  When we decide to further our education, we push ourselves to continue our education in the south because there are no Post-secondary schools up north.  For those of us who do decide to go to college, we experience severe culture shock and strong homesickness.  

What inspired me to do this project was because I have experience this myself.  I really admire those who do decide to take the chance to get a better education far from home.  I want to express this feeling of hope and appreciation of being able to accomplish something that looks very difficult.  Not many of the Inuit get to experience this and not many get to fly thousands of miles to get a better education.  With this project, I am hoping to inspire, show and encourage the Inuit youth.

Description:

I am going to show my project on a Blog.  I will make the Blog on one of the website I have Blogged on since I am familiar with how things work.  I will update my Blog with a picture and a written description of the image.  For example, I will take an image of an Inuk student and post it on my blog and then write about that person.

Schedule:

I will take three photos max per week and update my Blog weekly with those three photos.