KSB policy keeps brilliant student away from masters at Columbia University

Accepted by prestigious university, rejected by the Kativik School Board!

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Jason Annahatak. Here is an extremely smart, motivated, confident young man from Kangirsuk, who is one of the few great role models for Inuit youth all over the North. He got his bachelors degree from McGill University, and he has traveled and studied abroad, in Hong Kong and in France. This in itself is a big accomplishment.

Now, he has been accepted into a graduate program at the world-renowned Columbia University in New York City, beating competition from the most educated and intelligent people on earth.

But Jason is not going. What is the problem?

The problem is the Kativik School Board. KSB policy says that if a program is available in Canada, it should be studied in Canada. So it doesn’t matter to them that Columbia University is a world-class university, with faculty and students who are the best from around the world. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Jason to pursue a higher education that will benefit himself and all Inuit.

KSB policies fund a lot of students who sometimes don’t have the most outstanding academic records, people who have been given multiple chances after having failed more than once. They don’t seem to realize that Jason is one of the few real success stories to have come out of the KSB system, and now they are abandoning him!

Funding Jason’s masters program would not be a waste of money. He has already proven that he has the smarts and the perseverance to reach his goals.

The Kativik Regional Government is another organization that has the capacity to fund his program, but they also have rejected him. I don’t know their policies, but I know policies are meant to be changed, and that is why they are not called laws.

Any millionaires out there who want to fund Jason Annahatak’s masters program at Columbia University? I sure would, for this one exceptional Inuk man, if I could.

Louisa Angotigirk
Montreal