Sandy Lake brings university home

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For reserve dwellers, going back to school usually means leaving the family behind to study in the city - a daunting thought for many, particularly for adults with small children.

So, when faced with tight resources and a growing number of members who wanted to complete their teaching degrees, residents at a remote fly-in community in Ontario decided to put a twist on going back to school - they brought the school to the community.

For two years, the small northern community hosted instructors from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay for four weeks at a time while 17 students worked toward their Ontario teacher certifications. The university profs brought along knowledge and lap-top computers while the Sandy Bay residents brought determination .

"We told (Lakehead University) it's time for them to come to the people," said Ralph Bekintis, vice-principal of Thomas Fidler Memorial School in Sandy Lake.

Affectionately known as "the man who talks too much," Bekintis helped spearhead the innovative program by lobbying Lakehead officials and prompting councillors to be creative in delegating funding towards the program.

They were experienced teacher's aids in the community who wanted to upgrade their educations to obtain teaching certificates, but didn't want to leave their families in Sandy Lake, Bekintis said.

"We found the social problems often sent students back to the community - problems of feeling isolated and homesick" he said. "I saw that they had gone from a two-year program in teaching to four years - they lost the north, here," Bekintis remembered. "It was devastating enough to go away for two years.

"No one was looking after the people up here and something had to be done. Then we thought 'why send 17 individuals down to the university, when we can send one person up?"

A team of Sandy Lake representatives descended on the university in the spring of 1992 and by August the program was on a roll.

Course work took place on the reserve and Thunder Bay, with practice teaching locations in Kenora, Big Trout Lake and Deer Lake. Sandy Lake is located approximately 650 km northwest of the Thunder Bay institution, from which both Bekintis and principal Sarah Sawanas graduated.

"There is no doubt in my mind that there are people in this course who would not have found their way into university without this opportunity," said Professor David Bates, director of the School of Education at Lakehead. "It is the education authority of Sandy Lake who selected and recommended the students. It is the community, including the Elders, that saw the need to get local Native peoples qualified to teach in their own schools."

Having people from the community interested in obtaining teaching certificates is a tremendous bonus for isolated communities like Sandy Lake, added Bekintis.

"We were losing our teachers because they were from the outside. How can you build on that?"

The 17 students first went to Lakehead University for a month, then three professors flew in during the winter, said Sawanas. In the spring they took student teaching practices in Thunder Bay and on different reserves, and courses again with the flying profs.

The entire community was involved in the process because it took all the community's teacher aids away, she said.

"There were 12 on staff. All our T.A.'s were gone and we had to juggle our staff for two years. But we managed," Sawanas said, with a laugh.

"If we looked at all the things that would stop us from doing the things we wanted to, we'd never do anything," said Bekintis.

All 15 graduates of the program will be employed by the Sandy Lake Education Authority.