Photo Credit: Don Erhardt
On Saturday, May 23, the First Nations House of Learning celebrated 50 Aboriginal students in the largest graduation ceremony to date in the Longhouse at UBC Vancouver. Friends and family, including many young children, helped to fill the venue to its capacity of 350.
Provost and Vice-President Academic David Farrar, Associate Vice President and Registrar Kate Ross, Dean of Arts Gage Averill, Dean of Education Blye Frank and many others joined the event to congratulate our newest Aboriginal alumni from the Vancouver campus.
Bachelor of Science graduate and member of the Xwemalhkwu Nation Molly Billows was selected to be the grad class speaker, and she shared her experience about how university has been a place for learning and unlearning, transformative experiences, and the pursuit of ideas.
“This degree is part of ʔәms taʔaw – our lifelong teachings, our lifelong learnings. The process of transformation is never ending.”
-Molly Billows, BSc in Global Resource Systems
More than 200 Aboriginal students graduated from the Okanagan and Vancouver campuses in 2014/2015.
Links
- The May 2015 graduation ceremony was webcast live, and a recording is available here.