Backgrounder: Le,Nonet Project Influencing Aboriginal Post-Secondary Retention
According to the LE,NONET Interim Evaluation Report, the three-year-old LE,NONET project at the University of Victoria has created a welcoming institutional climate, provided better financial aid, created links with surrounding First Nations communities and contributed to the students’ decision to return to school the following year. The project was developed and funded by UVic and the Millennium Scholarship Foundation.
Student participants in the LE,NONET (le-non-git) project—a Sencoten (sen-chaw-then), word meaning “success after enduring hardships”—were very clear that their personal definition of success was as important to them as traditional means of measuring academic achievement.
“That connection contributes to overall academic success,” says project co-principal director Chris Lalonde. “One of the primary goals of LE,NONET is to provide a more positive post-secondary experience for Aboriginal students and they told us at the outset that success to them was more than just graduating—it also involved affirming, acknowledging and reinforcing their Aboriginal identity and using their new-found knowledge to improve living conditions for their families and communities.”
The majority of the 139 participants (77 per cent) reported that their participation in the program contributed to the development of their sense of self as an Aboriginal person and even more (87 per cent) agreed that their participation in the programs contributed to their sense of connection to the on-campus Aboriginal community.
LE,NONET comprises four components: bursaries, research apprenticeships with faculty and graduate student advisors, community internships in Aboriginal communities and organizations, and peer mentoring, matching upper level Aboriginal students with new students. The project participants each took part in one or more of the components between August 2005 and December 2007. The average age of student participants is 29.9 years old and the majority of the participants are female (69.8 per cent).
The LE,NONET program will run until July 2009 and qualitative research will continue until then. A final report will compare results from LE,NONET participants to those of Aboriginal students who attended UVic but did not participate in the project. It will be submitted to the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, which developed and funded the project with UVic.The executive summary of the LE,NONET Interim Evaluation Report is available at www.millenniumscholarships.ca/en/research/AllPublications.asp. The complete interim report will be available in December 2008.
Establishing a supportive learning environment where Aboriginal students make a successful transition from high school to university is one of UVic’s top strategic priorities. As well as the LE,NONET project, UVic has launched a number of Aboriginal Initiatives including: the Aboriginal Students Mini-U Summer Camp that allows students grades 8 through 11 to experience university life, and the First Peoples House—a building that will create a welcoming environment for UVic Aboriginal students that respects their culture and values. The number of Aboriginal students at UVic has increased by more than 700 per cent since 1999, with over 600 Aboriginal students attending classes on campus.
< Back to ReleaseStudent participants in the LE,NONET (le-non-git) project—a Sencoten (sen-chaw-then), word meaning “success after enduring hardships”—were very clear that their personal definition of success was as important to them as traditional means of measuring academic achievement.
“That connection contributes to overall academic success,” says project co-principal director Chris Lalonde. “One of the primary goals of LE,NONET is to provide a more positive post-secondary experience for Aboriginal students and they told us at the outset that success to them was more than just graduating—it also involved affirming, acknowledging and reinforcing their Aboriginal identity and using their new-found knowledge to improve living conditions for their families and communities.”
The majority of the 139 participants (77 per cent) reported that their participation in the program contributed to the development of their sense of self as an Aboriginal person and even more (87 per cent) agreed that their participation in the programs contributed to their sense of connection to the on-campus Aboriginal community.
LE,NONET comprises four components: bursaries, research apprenticeships with faculty and graduate student advisors, community internships in Aboriginal communities and organizations, and peer mentoring, matching upper level Aboriginal students with new students. The project participants each took part in one or more of the components between August 2005 and December 2007. The average age of student participants is 29.9 years old and the majority of the participants are female (69.8 per cent).
The LE,NONET program will run until July 2009 and qualitative research will continue until then. A final report will compare results from LE,NONET participants to those of Aboriginal students who attended UVic but did not participate in the project. It will be submitted to the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, which developed and funded the project with UVic.The executive summary of the LE,NONET Interim Evaluation Report is available at www.millenniumscholarships.ca/en/research/AllPublications.asp. The complete interim report will be available in December 2008.
Establishing a supportive learning environment where Aboriginal students make a successful transition from high school to university is one of UVic’s top strategic priorities. As well as the LE,NONET project, UVic has launched a number of Aboriginal Initiatives including: the Aboriginal Students Mini-U Summer Camp that allows students grades 8 through 11 to experience university life, and the First Peoples House—a building that will create a welcoming environment for UVic Aboriginal students that respects their culture and values. The number of Aboriginal students at UVic has increased by more than 700 per cent since 1999, with over 600 Aboriginal students attending classes on campus.