Indigenous student leader wants to inspire others with her success story

When Jennifer Sylvester was preparing to graduate from high school, she says school counsellorstold her that university wasn't the best avenue for her, and that she would be better suited for clerical work.

On June 20the Indigenous Studies major will walk across the stage at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall and is preparing to start her masters degreein the fall. She says she hopes to be an inspiration to others.

"It's important for me to inspire the indigenous women, specifically single mothers because often they feel like they don't have the abilities or they don't have the potential but it's a matter of saying that you can do it."

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Sylvester, 41, says she reached heights far greater than she ever imagined at U of T. She was the driving force that helped encourage the campus bookstore to carry Indigenous Studies hooded sweatshirts.

She served as president and communications coordinator for the Indigenous Studies Student Union *!SSU).

Sylvester alsohad a hand in organizing a massive powwow at the downtown Toronto campus, attractinghundreds of people anevent that helped the ISSUwin the Arts & Science Student Union's Course Union of the Year Award.

She says her biggest accomplishment, by far, was achieving all of those things while being a single mother with a full course load. She says she often had to bring her young son, who was five at the time, to lectures and classes with her.

"One of the hardest things was that I had a good job at the time and I was financially stable. Just making that change and that shift, you realize the financial burden of going back to school and being a single parent."

Sylvester was raised in Toronto and went to a Catholic school, though her home community is Beausoleil First Nation, near Georgian Bay. She says as a teen she often felt she had less potential and opportunity than other students.

"As other students were hearing, 'You guys can be doctors or lawyers,' I was being told to get clerical or factory work. I was always wondering whywasn't I being told that Icould be a doctor or a lawyer."

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For years Sylvester worked in various clerical positions, eventually ending up in the social work field assisting homeless and recently-housed clients. She says the work was rewarding, but that she knew she was destined forgreater things in life.

"I just knew that there was something more for me out there in the world."

'Dream big, follow through, and don't give up'

She says her biggest source of encouragement and support was her mother, who continuallytold her to go back to school if that's what her heart desired. When Sylvester's mother died, she said she could still hear her mom's voice telling her to "just do it."

So she finally did. Sylvester says she discovered a missing piece of herself when she found Indigenous Studies at U of T. She says the faculty and student union were an amazing source of support for her over the years as she juggled single parenthood and full-time school.

Sylvester says her journey is far from over ....it's just beginning.She'll be starting amaster's program insocial justice educationat the Ontario Institutefor Studies in Education this fall and plansto eventually teach Indigenous Studies.

"There needs to be more Indigenous, experienced voices teaching the content in academic settings. So it's very important for me to become a lecturer or professor in an academic institution."

She says she will continue to get the message out to young, indigenous women that anything is possible.

"Dream big, follow through, and don't give up."