Supporting Indigenous Student Needs in Post-Secondary Education

When he graduated from high school in Neepawa, Cecil Roulette was adamant that he was never going on to further education. But after leaving the community, and after a few years of working in restaurant and gas station jobs, he got tired of that type of work and wanted something more. When he was young, he says, he’d always wanted to do work that helped people but had been discouraged from that out of concern that he would be hurt. As an adult, he returned to the idea and decided to look into courses that could take his life in that direction.

The courses he found were first the Community Social Development Worker program at Assiniboine Community College and subsequently the First Nations Counselling degree at Brandon University. It wasn't as straightforward a path as that, though. Recognising how challenging he was finding the work, Roulette paused after the first year of his community college program and took a year to upgrade his diploma, repeating his grades 11 and 12 courses in a single year.

Despite the challenges, he was inspired to keep pushing towards his goals after watching his mother return to school later in life to complete a Health Care Aide program. If she can do it, he told himself, then I can do it too.

It was a combination of his education, his interests, and a reconnection to his Indigenous heritage that led Roulette to the position he's in now. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which was funded by the government in response to calls for reconciliation, funded a three-year term for a new position called "Aboriginal Counsellor Cultural Consultant" at Assiniboine Community College. The role has, in the years since, evolved to become the Indigenous Student Success Advisor.

“Culture has really helped me out quite a bit,” says Roulette. “It’s given me a sense of pride in myself. When I was in Neepawa, I didn’t feel very proud to be an Indigenous person. I think there was a lot of shame there. I never had my hair long.” He adds that he is now growing his hair long for the first time, inspired by discovery of the unmarked graves at Kamloops Residential School and the idea that he is able to do something connected to his culture that those students never were.

Roulette's own struggles, both with schooling and with connecting to his heritage, now support his work with students. Many of them are facing the same issues he did, and he is able to relate to their challenges and share his own journey. A big part of his role is helping change the mindset of students, who are in many cases working through trauma and hurt, to believe that there is value in finishing their degree and that they as individuals are valued.

Roulette ensures his office is a safe space for Indigenous students and offers Indigenous-specific supports such as smudging to help reduce anxiety. He also tries to offer a broad spectrum of help and advice, not just academic but also things like housing and budgeting and anything else that might help or hinder a student from reaching their potential.

Roulette's current goal, he says, is supporting students in starting their own businesses, to provide increased job opportunities for Indigenous people.