Young Nunavik students tackle college cultural divide

Melissa Ruston, from Kuujjuaq, will graduate from John Abbott college this December. The 22-year-old hopes to study psychology at Concordia in the spring. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Melissa Ruston is in the final stretch.

The 22-year-old student from Kuujjuaq is completing her last semester at John Abbott College in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, where she’ll graduate with a social sciences diploma this winter.

“The humanities and the world view courses I took here really helped me focus my decision,” Ruston said in a recent interview.

As Ruston completes one program, she’s already gearing up for the next: she plans to apply to study psychology at Concordia University in the spring.

“It’s hard to see ahead that far,” Ruston said. “It doesn’t feel overwhelming, but I feel scared.”

Ruston has come a long way from the first few months she spent at college, when she went from a community of about 2,000 to a college with a student population three times that size.

The change of location, climate and language is a cultural shock for most Nunavimmiut students who travel south to pursue education, she said

“I was actually well prepared (for the change) besides the difference in language,” Ruston said. “But at some point, the culture shock kicks in. So many things are so distant in the city.

“Back home, everyone knows everyone,” she added. “Here, no one looks you in the eye.”

In that way Ruston has achieved more than just a diploma, because she survived the shift. Many of her peers do not.

Ruston said she sees it happen all the time— students who come south from Nunavik to study, only to return home weeks or months later. Ruston’s twin brother was one of them.

Some students discover they’re not academically prepared for the courses they’ve enrolled in. Others can’t bridge the gap between northern and urban southern Quebec.

Integration can be tough for Inuit students, said Louise Legault, coordinator of John Abbott’s Aboriginal resource centre. Her job is to help ease that process.

At the resource centre, the college’s 24 Inuit and another 36 Aboriginal students can come to chat, use a computer or eat lunch.

The centre opened in 1989, when the first crop of Cree nursing students came to John Abbott.

Legault thinks the campus is already so multi-cultural – 100 nationalities – that Nunavimmiut can blend in. And, if they want to stand out, they have the chance to showcase their traditions during the college’s cultural week.

Although Inuit come from a different landscape and culture than other Algonquin or Mohawk students, Ruston said she can relate to other First Nations students in how they are all stereotyped.

“They [some other students] think all Aboriginal people drink,” Ruston said. “I don’t drink. We try to raise awareness.”

But Ruston admits alcohol and its availability is a big distraction for some students coming from Nunavik communities, where access to alcohol is much more limited.

“I would encourage someone to come to college,” she said. “Have fun, after the work is done.”

Steps from John Abbott’s main campus is the student residence where first-year Nunavik students board, a brick duplex managed by the Kativik School Board’s post-secondary services.

Inside, first-year student Anna Kristensen is relaxing on the couch in the residence’s living area. Kristensen was one of four high school graduates from Kangiqsujuaq to arrive at John Abbott last month.

Today, she’s the only Kangiqsujuamiut left, along with roughly a dozen other students from across Nunavik.

She hates waking up so early in the morning, but Kristensen said she’s putting in a big effort and that she has a good chance of passing her courses.

“Some of my classes were too hard for me so I exchanged them, and now I’m liking [college] more,” Kristensen said. “It is nothing like high school. I would suggest that Nunavik high school teachers give more homework to secondary students to be more prepared for college.”