North Shore's Capilano University receives $215,000 to expand Indigenous student support

Capilano University has received $215,000 from the Isabel Bader Charitable Trust to launch and expand initiatives supporting Indigenous students throughout their studies at the North Shore campus.

The funding will support recruitment efforts, professional development opportunities including conferences, and emergency funds for students facing food insecurity, unexpected travel expenses, and other financial hardships. It will also underwrite cultural workshops, the university's Indigenous graduation ceremony, revitalization of a medicine and food garden program, and a new reconciliation research project examining the story of the university's Skw'cháays legacy canoe, built in 2019.

"When Indigenous students see themselves reflected in their learning environments and feel connected to culture, community and one another, they are better positioned to achieve their goals," said Stephanie Merinuk, interim director of Indigenous education and affairs at Capilano University. She described the reconciliation research project as "much needed and long overdue."

The Isabel Bader Charitable Trust, launched in 2022, continues the work of Canadian educator and philanthropist Isabel Overton Bader, who committed to supporting Indigenous and immigrant communities, education, youth, families, and the arts. Merinuk met with the trust in February initially to discuss funding for a home for the Skw'cháays canoe. That conversation shifted to a broader proposal encompassing all Indigenous student services and programs at the university.

Indigenous student ambassador Willow Laronde, from the Teme Augama Anishinabek Hoof Clan in Northern Ontario, said the funding will have profound impacts. "It's really exciting for Indigenous students like myself to feel supported and have access to those supports in post-secondary education," Laronde said. "It lowers those barriers and makes post-secondary more accessible to the Indigenous community." She took 10 years off from schooling before returning to study psychology at CapU, where she now works in the Kéxwusm-áyakn Student Centre helping run initiatives with Indigenous students.