Seventeen-year-old James Juneau from Midland admits that he struggled with motivation in secondary school. “I’ve really had no idea where I wanted to go and I didn’t really get any ideas of what I wanted to be, or how my skills would help people,” he says. “To be honest I struggled with even knowing who I am. I just wanted to pass and got stuck in grade 11 struggling to motivate myself with seemingly little direction or guidance. Eventually I met some people – Simcoe County DSB First Nations student advisors – who gave me insight into a part of myself I hadn’t explored fully – my heritage. I began to explore what it means to be Metis and I soon realized how many doors that can open. I started participating in events and before I knew it, I was becoming an example of someone with direction. I choose the Ojibwe Language and Culture dual credit as a way to continue down this path of self-discovery.”
James is now happy to report that the dual credit course he is studying at Georgian College has increased his confidence in both his heritage and his academic ability. “I feared that I wasn’t smart enough for college and the thought of college vanished,” he admits. “Now that I’m going to college it has made me feel more confident about my work, intelligence and future. Maybe it’s the fact that it isn’t as hard as I thought it’d be, or maybe it’s just different and more grown up, or maybe it’s because it’s a subject that matters to me culturally. Either way, it pushed me toward a path and has made me start thinking about my academic future after high school.”
