Helen’s Story

My name is Helen Michell; I am a friendly and caring person. My culture is Cree and I speak it fluently. I was born on a reserve called Pelican Narrows, and our band is called The Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. I have two sisters and four brothers who all live on the reserve. Both my parents are deceased. My son Will is fourteen years old; he attends City Park Collegiate. He helps me a lot with his sisters. His goal is to someday join the army. The three girls are younger: Angie is ten years old, Jessica is six years old, and they both attend Westmount School, and our baby Arianna is three years old. She is the light of our lives.

The reason we moved to Saskatoon was for education reasons my husband is in his fourth year at the U of S. He is taking ITEP (Indian Teacher Education Program). I decided to go back to school while we are in the city. I wanted to take a Teacher’s Aide program here at SIAST, but when I tried to send for my transcripts in Regina they could not find them. I have my Adult Basic Education Grade 11, and I have also taken an office education course, but I wanted to work with children. I worked as a teacher aide before when I was back on my reserve. Now I have to try and get some kind of marks for myself so that I can take a Teacher Aide course. I have really enjoyed being at SIAST; I enjoyed meeting the students, instructors and new friends. I hope I can finish my Grade Twelve here and then go on to a post secondary program.

Helen Michell