For as long as I can remember culture, language, and diversity have been weaved into my household. As a child of an immigrant to Canada, I was privileged to experience language, customs, and values of another culture at a young age. I had a second language spoken in my household and I have fond memories of the delicious cultural dishes prepared throughout my youth.
At the start of my grade 11 year, I moved to a new town with my family. The move gave me the opportunity to gain the confidence I needed to share my fondness for sharing culture. This appreciation grew into a drive to understand both the affairs of Canada and the international stage. My early interest in politics and how it relates to different societies was ultimately what encouraged
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I was motivated to foster spaces were people felt comfortable in discussing and debating their ideas. I found great happiness in building these spaces and helping others develop skills they desired.
Partway through my second year of university I joined the UBC Okanagan Model United Nations Club. This club experience was instrumental in helping me overcome my anxieties of presenting alone in front of my peers. Through the club activities, I was able to gain valuable experience in formulating ideas and positions, debating them, and discussing them in front of crowds.
In my third and fourth years of my degree, I joined the club’s executive team. In this position, I was able to help the incoming new students with skills relating to public speaking, debating, and writing. I felt accomplished knowing that I had helped my peers with something I once struggled with in my first years of university. I was able to help them in a way that was simple yet meaningful for both parties
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I found myself gravitating towards classes that would give me a deeper understanding of the challenges that both Canada and the international community face.
My passion for understanding people will continue to drive me to travel the world and education myself about cultural challenges and issues as they arise. In a society that as a whole is struggling to embrace the importance of diversity and understanding perspectives, I will continue to strive for these small but meaningful impacts on people’s lives. I find myself deeply invested in areas of law that allow for these meaningful impacts to be achieved. It is for this reason, I am deeply interested in Lakehead University and the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. The dynamics of Canadian federalism are nuanced, challenging, diverse, and exciting, with changings being experienced in natural resource management, indigenous rights, and environmental policy design. I have deep personal interests in environmental and indigenous issues that stem from my upbringing in a northern town in British Columbia. As a life-long learner who has and will continue to value equity and understanding, the political landscape of Canadian Indigenous people has been an area of legal interest to
Immigrants have helped shape American identity by the languages they speak from their home country. Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to making people know what culture really identifies a person rather than their race. For example, in the essay, it states that Richard Rodriguez “ is Chinese, and this is because he lives in a Chinese City and because he wants to be Chinese. But I have lived in a Chinese City for so long that my eye has taken on the palette, has come to prefer lime greens and rose reds and all the inventions of this Chinese Mediterranean. lines 163-171”.
Although the Canadian government has done a great deal to repair the injustices inflicted on the First Nations people of Canada, legislation is no where near where it needs to be to ensure future protection of aboriginal rights in the nation. An examination of the documents that comprise the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms reveal that there is very little in the supreme legal documents of the nation that protect aboriginal rights. When compared with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it is clear that the Canadian Constitution does not acknowledge numerous provisions regarding indigenous people that the UN resolution has included. The most important of these provisions is the explicit recognition of First Nations rights to their traditional lands, which have a deep societal meaning for aboriginal groups. Several issues must be discussed to understand the complex and intimate relationship all aboriginal societies have with the earth. Exploration into the effects that the absence of these rights has had the Cree of the Eastern James Bay area, will provide a more thorough understanding of the depth of the issue. Overall, the unique cultural relationship First Nations people of Canada have with Mother Earth needs to be incorporated into the documents of the Canadian Constitution to ensure the preservation and protection of Canadian First Nations cultural and heritage rights.s
Systems: The canadian Future in light of the American Past.” Ontario native Council on Justice. Toronto, Ontario.
The Indian Act no longer remains an undisputable aspect of the Aboriginal landscape in Canada. For years, this federal legislation (that was both controversial and invasive) governed practically all of the aspects of Aboriginal life, starting with the nature of band governance and land tenure. Most importantly, the Indian act defines qualifications of being a “status Indian,” and has been the source of Aboriginal hatred, due to the government attempting to control Aboriginals’ identities and status. This historical importance of this legislation is now being steadily forgotten. Politically speaking, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal critics of the Indian act often have insufferable opinions of the limits of the Indian Act’s governance, and often argue to have this administrative device completely exterminated. Simultaneously, recent modern land claim settlements bypass the authority of the Indian Act over specific groups.
Something that has always fascinated me is the confrontation with a completely different culture. We do not have to travel far to realize that people really lead different lives in other countries and that the saying "Home sweet home" often applies to most of us. What if we suddenly had to leave our homes and settle somewhere else, somewhere where other values and beliefs where common and where people spoke a different language? Would we still try to hang on to the 'old home' by speaking our mother tongue, practising our own religion and culture or would we give in to the new and exciting country and forget our past? And what would it be like for our children, and their children? In Identity Lessons - Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American I found many different stories telling us what it is like to be "trapped" between two cultures. In this short essay I aim to show that belonging to two cultures can be very confusing.
White, G. (2002). Treaty Federalism in Northern Canada: Aboriginal-Government Land Claims Board. Publius Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 89-114
After taking up the role of an SRC Rep. and House Vice Captain, I enjoyed them and learnt valuable skills in organisation and public speaking. My confident, respectful and fearless interaction with my peers and teachers has given me confidence in standing tall and expressing my
In conclusion, this book gave me a whole new view on life and how we can interact better with different people. The book emphasized that culture is key to understanding people. Sometimes it is hard to connect with others because they are indicated as different but in due time we can adjust. Every culture has their own traditions when it comes to what they eat, what to wear, dating, various ceremonies, holidays and more. Reading this book helped me become more accepting of who I am and where I come from.
Over the four years that I have spent at Good Counsel, I became part of many activities. Each helping me evolve as a person and become stronger yet. Simple lists could be made of every activity that I have ever been involved in but it could never express to a person what I have learned and how it helped me to grow. Every environmental club, science club, political science club, service work, and S.A.D.D. club I was part of had a very special message to deliver to me. Whether the message was one of responsibility, or a life lesson, I grew from it. The Political Science club opened me to many new experiences. It allowed me the chance to attend the Model U.N., where I was asked to address today's top world issues. This club was very beneficial to me because I was exposed to topics and ideas that I had not previously been able to discuss or learn about in a classroom situation. The science club allowed for me to experience extra educational situations as well. I took part in a hovercraft competition, which was very educational while also allowing me the chance to work with others for a common goal.
If I were given the economic resources and political influence to reduce a major social problem, I would choose one which I believe is a detrimental nation-wide issue: Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. This is my issue of choice because I am thoroughly convinced that it is a Canadian crisis which requires immediate correction. Indigenous women are disproportionately abused, murdered, exploited, and dehumanized within the boundaries of this country; in our contemporary societal era, their human rights are utterly disregarded. It is widely recognized that there are obvious “connections between higher rates of violence facing Indigenous women — eight times more likely to disappear and five times more likely to be murdered — and colonial
The most important issue that the Canadian government urgently needs to address is education. The education of the First Nations should be taken more seriously by the Canadian government because the funding given to the First Nation schools is not enough to support the schools, there are no educational standards for the schools, and lastly, non-First Nation students are excelling more in school than First Nation students. First and foremost, the First Nations’ school systems get funding from the Canadian government, but funding is not enough to help the First Nation students receive the education the students deserve. The Fraser Institute is an organization that wants to improve the quality of life for Canadians. Ravina Bains, the associate
The federal government of Canada does play an important role in higher education policy, but it is a role that has evolved through the constant dancing of federal-provincial relations to the frequently discordant tune of Canada’s constitutional debate (Jones 2004). The Canadian federal system with responsibility for high education is like no other in the developed industrialised world. In effect the federal government is constitutionally deprived for social welfare, health and education. On the other hand it is the federal responsibility for concerns of national interest, equality of treatment and opportunity, economic development, and Indians and lands reserved for Indians. A very unique paradox which has led to several clashes between the feds and the provinces.
For instance, I’ve continued to work with the Henrico County Public Library system (HCPL) to develop a publicity campaign for the 2017 summer reading program with the unique twist, this year, of incorporating the theme of “Building a Better Tomorrow” through public education and library systems. Moreover, I’ve blended my leadership role in my school’s National English Honor Society with my role as a member of the Leadership Team of the HCPL Teen Advisory Board to initiate a book drive at Henrico High School to benefit East End libraries, which are systematically less well-funded than are wealthier West End libraries. Among the achievements I’ve attained over the past few months, however, I am proudest to have continued work in my role as Captain of the Henrico High School Debate
We all work together as a community and most importantly a team to think of ideas towards the common goal. While working with either the team or the members of the student council, I began to learn more about myself and how working towards a common goal with great support can teach you to become someone to turn to in the need of hard times in our
My junior year, I was elected as the Key Club’s President, ASB Leadership’s Secretary, and the California Scholarship Foundation’s Secretary. My freshman and junior year, I received the Academic E award for maintaining my academic excellence and being an athlete. I also have received the Top Notch award, which recognizes students for being a role model and a positive influence to students, staff, and community members. During my Junior year, I was the Key Club President, Associated Student Body Secretary, and California Scholarship Foundation Secretary. In 2015, I planned and coordinated events at The First Baptist Church of Elverta.