LAC LA BICHE - Sitting in the interview room for a new job at Portage College that would bring the one-time Upgrading student back home, Shelley Jackson recalls fondly that she had family on her side. Well not right by her side — a little up and to the left ... and 40 years in the past.
It was 2003 and Jackson was interviewing for a job with the college's student recruitment office. She was paying attention to the people interviewing her — including the college's vice president at the time — but also to her uncle, William Erasmus. He was featured in a series of framed photographs hanging on the interview room's wall. The photos depicted a student and community lead sit-in protest that fought to keep the facility's doors open when federal funding was cut just a year after the school opened in 1968. Her uncle, a well-known Métis leader from Kikino with strong political and family ties across the region, was one of dozens of Indigenous people credited with saving the college.
"I remember that the vice president is interviewing me, and I keep looking to the wall, seeing my uncle looking back at me — that gave me some confidence," said Jackson, who got the job and continues to work in the Lac La Biche campus, now as the coordinator of the Public Legal Education Program.
Her connection to the foundations of the college are a strong part of who she is now. She says her family always told her that education is important. Her uncle William said it was a way for all people, especially Indigenous people, to succeed.
"He had a vision that education was the key to success for Aboriginal people," says Jackson, whose own parents are also alumni of college courses — her dad taking mechanics and her mom a Social Work graduate. "I have always had a close affinity with the college. It has been a huge part of my life from when I was a baby. I grew up hearing these stories over family get-togethers and teas. I grew up knowing that education was key."
She also grew up — literally — in the college. Jackson jokes that she's the same age as the college, born the same year the facility first opened, and was a toddler in the school's daycare while her parents attended classes in the 1970s.
Jackson herself graduated from the Portage Upgrading program 20 years later. She used those classes to further her education with a university Bachelor of Arts degree in Native Studies. She went on from there to work with the Métis Settlements General Council and the Mountain Plains Family Services Society in Edmonton before the interview that helped to bring her family's connection to the college full-circle.
It's been a loop that has merged her Métis culture with education, her own perseverance and her family's belief in fighting to create opportunities.
"I am a beneficiary of their legacy, and I am truly thankful," she said last week, as the college celebrates and supports the thousands of alumni and alumni supporters who have played a role in the success stories like Jackson's.
While hers is based on the strong Indigenous foundations of the college, Jackson says the opportunities within each campus of the college in communities across northeastern Alberta, as well as the individualized programming and virtual learning make it a true learning environment for anyone. "This college is based on a foundation where everyone is welcome ... like a family .. everyone is welcome in the circle, making it better and stronger."
Portage College and all of its services have been part of the local, and regional landscape for more than 50 years. Over that time, says Rick Flumian, the Manager of Community Relations at Portage, there is a continuing drive to connect people with knowledge, skills and opportunities.
We want to empower are learners to transform and make a difference in our communities. Portage wants to continue to engage our former students and employees and celebrate their accomplishments and be Voyageurs for Life. Please join our Alumni today! For more information on Portage College Alumni contact Rick Flumian at (780)623-5591 or https://www.portagecollege.ca/Alumni.
*Portage College plans to highlight alumni stories in a series of promotions throughout the year.