![\"Students](\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/PFN1.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s an honour for CMU to work in partnership with Peguis First Nation to make this program possible,\u201d says CMU President Cheryl Pauls. \u201cThere is significant evidence that\u00a0quality of academic and life learning can be correlated directly to quality of relationships students have with instructors and peers. The cohort model of this Transition Program builds on and strengthens the relational commitments of the CMU learning community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transition program includes a combination of life skills training, an Indigenous cultural awareness component, as well as university courses accredited through CMU.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything they learn in this program is going to be the skills they use in the future,\u201d says Clairissa Kelly, Program Coordinator and Student Counsellor. \u201cIt\u2019s about setting them up for success in the future.<\/p>\n
Drawing on the medicine wheel, the transition program offers supports in four key areas, explains Kelly: physical\u2014focusing on housing, transportation, and physical health; social \u2014focusing on relationship building, peer-to-peer learning, recreation, and volunteering; mental\u2014including setting education and employment goals and meeting mental health needs; and spiritual\u2014including cultural components and learning such as smudging and participating in a traditional sweat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see this program as a way of reconciliation\u2014an example of how reconciliation can be achieved between First Nations people and Canadian society,\u201d says Kelly.<\/p>\n
Through the life skills training, students will learn about their history, culture, and heritage. Guest speakers and elders will share about traditional knowledge, teachings, and ceremonies, with opportunities given for students to participate in ceremonies.<\/p>\n
The transition program includes 15 credit hours of university courses: Introduction to Computers, Introduction to University, Academic Writing, and a two-part course on Indigenous Knowledge.<\/p>\n
Each course has been developed from an Indigenous perspective and will be taught by instructors associated with the transition program. The courses are accredited by CMU and will operate according to CMU policies. Students will emerge with CMU credits that are transferrable to other universities or to additional CMU programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal at the end of the program is for students to have employment\u2014part time or summer employment\u2014or that they are attending post-secondary education,\u201d says Kelly.<\/p>\n
The idea for the program grew out of observations and experience that the transition from high school to university can be challenging for students, says Wayne Mason, who helped develop the transition program while working at MFNERC.<\/p>\n
Moving away from their supportive home community, family, and friends, adjusting to life in Winnipeg, and differences between high school and university atmospheres can sometimes hinder students\u2019 success, explains Mason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make changes that will help our young people to succeed and overcome a lot of those negative aspects that may hold them back,\u201d says Mason. \u201cThe transition program is needed and hopefully we can work ourselves out of transition programs when all students can go directly from high school to university or college.\u201d<\/p>\n
About CMU
\n<\/strong>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n