Mi'kmaq student explains the need for Indigenous role models

Maisyn Sock, a Grade 12 student, hopes to graduate high school, go to university, become a teacher and return to Eskasoni, her First Nation community — to help improve the place where she grew up. Seeing Indigenous teachers in her schools, Maisyn says, made her believe she could do it too. Maisyn was in the audience of Checkup's live show from Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia.

Duncan McCue: What are you hoping to do once you get out of Grade 12?

Maisyn Sock: I'm going to university after high school. I'm going to Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and I hope to get my Bachelor of Arts and go into education.

DM: So you'd like to be a teacher?

MS: Yes, I feel like it's important to help people in community. I want to be a teacher here, to benefit the community that made me who I am.

DM: Have you had many indigenous, Mi'kmaq teachers in your experience at Eskasoni?

MS: I had a few in high school. It was very nice having someone you know and that has been through the same things you have and attended the high school you have, go on to post-secondary education. They know what to tell you. It's very welcoming and warm to see someone that made it in our school.

DM: Why did that make a difference for you?

MS: Because it's not that common to see Indigenous teachers and Mi'kmaq teachers in your own community. It makes a difference because you feel like since they could do it, I can.

DM: What are you hopes and fears for post-secondary?

MS: Well, I hope to graduate high school with really high marks. But my fear is flunking out, being part of that statistic of indigenous students who don't make it to post-secondary education. I want to make it.

DM: As a Grade 12 student, what advice would you give all those politicians and educators who are trying to help First Nations going to school?

MS: Don't give up on them. It's hard. With residential schools, we have a different history. What's embedded into us is different. It's important to keep working for them.

DM: What things are you seeing that are helping kids not get drawn into gangs, drugs, alcohol, that kind of thing?

MS: The staff at my school, they push you and they don't give up on you. They make you feel like you can keep going and keep on pushing and they become more than educators. They become people who really affect your life. For that, I am grateful because those people, they want to see you grow and go on to post-secondary education. They want to see you succeed. I feel like it's very common to see educators that push you and the staff that really cheer you on until you make it across that stage.

DM: Was there one person that stood out for you?

MS: Yes, she's in the audience right now. I cry when I talk about her. Her name is Newell Johnson; she has so much impact on her students. She has helped her students so much, without her even knowing. She has given me a different confidence in myself. She hasn't given up on me and I feel like she did that with so many students at my school. She has really taught me values in life and she has been a mentor. From Grade 9, Grade 10, she's been there for me and I feel like she's been there for our whole school. She's the heart of our school.

This online segment was prepared by Ilina Ghosh on February 28, 2017. Maisyn Sock's and Duncan McCue's comments have been edited and condensed.