Janice Hill, Ed鈥99, says the idea of a Queen鈥檚 Aboriginal Alumni Chapter came from graduating students who were anticipating some separation anxiety from their close Queen鈥檚 community. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 want to lose the connection with other Aboriginal students after graduation,鈥 says Janice, the director of the Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre.
She knows the feeling. She鈥檚 always wondered what happened to her classmates in the close-knit Queen鈥檚 Aboriginal Education class of 1999.
On exploring the idea further with students, Janice realized that they also wanted to make connections with Aboriginal alumni, who could give them advice as they entered the work world. And this is something Janice wants to encourage. 鈥淚鈥檝e told students that when you have a Queen鈥檚 education, you can go anywhere in the world. Your education isn鈥檛 just your diploma, it鈥檚 your network. And you don鈥檛 necessarily realize that when you鈥檙e young.鈥
Janice tested the idea with Aboriginal alumni in her own network, and 33 of them have already signed up to be part of a new Aboriginal Alumni Chapter, connecting Aboriginal Queen鈥檚 grads and students in communities across North America. The aim is for 70 more alumni to sign up this spring. Online networking and mentoring will be key components of the Chapter, with a few face-to-face events. Janice hopes to announce a Chapter launch event in Kingston later this year.
While she sees professional networking and career advice to be a major driver to connect students past and present, Janice doesn鈥檛 want the Chapter to be limited to job advice. She wants to involve alumni who can share their stories about their experiences as Queen鈥檚 students, which could help shape programming for Aboriginal students in future. She also wants the Chapter to introduce students to alumni who may have taken detours in their career paths. Janice herself never practised teaching after getting her B.Ed from Queen鈥檚, but she still found her studies at MacArthur Hall to be invaluable in her career. Her advice to students? 鈥淒on鈥檛 limit yourself. You鈥檙e learning lessons you may not even be aware of until you have the opportunity to draw upon your knowledge鈥e open to any opportunity, because you never know what鈥檚 around the next corner.鈥
If you want to join the Queen鈥檚 Aboriginal Alumni Chapter, contact Janice at Janice.hill@queensu.ca
