NationTalk: They say home is where the heart is, but a unique partnership between the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) and Queen’s University hopes to also make home a place of education for Indigenous students pursuing careers in the health sciences. 

For many people, the first move away from home is in young adulthood. For Jewel Chum, she was 13 and left her home in Moose Factory, Ontario, on the western James Bay coast, to attend Grade 9. The compulsory credits she needed were not available at her home high school and she said it was really difficult to be away from her family and friends for so long. “It hurt to leave my home just to go to school,” she says. “I really needed to be at home with my family and support systems.” 

For Indigenous youth like Jewel, the first step towards pursuing a local post-secondary education may actually start with travel. 

In mid-June, Jewel and 15 other young people from the Weeneebayko region visited Queen’s campus for the third annual Weeneebayko Student Summer Program. The week-long program saw them participate in various activities to orient them to what life would be like at university and introduce them to careers in the health professions. It is one of the foundational building blocks of the Weeneebayko Health Education Campus, a project to build a university health professions training program in partnership with WAHA. With the support of the Mastercard Foundation, the program will train Indigenous youth in health professions in Moosonee and coastal communities – allowing them to pursue higher education and build their careers close to home.  

Meanwhile, the Queen’s campus summer experience is meant to give youth an inkling of what that career path might look like. 

“I’m really enjoying my time here. We’re staying in residence and being treated like students, so that’s cool and really fun,” says Jewel who was visiting Kingston for the first time.  

Each day of the Summer Program saw Jewel and her fellow participants participate in orientation, group work in developing a health care innovation proposal, social activities, and several ‘hands-on’ learning opportunities including suturing, ultrasounds, administering IVs, CPR and attending a simulated labour and delivery. For Jewel, who had been at the bedside of her sister when she gave birth, this was something she already had experience with.  

This past year, Jewel started the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) program in health and wellness at Delores D. Echum Composite School (DDECS) in Moose Factory. It is the first SHSM program to be offered at a First Nations school in the province. Participating in the Weeneebayko Summer Program is part of the SHSM curriculum.  

“Having this SHSM and the support system like this has really helped me. It’s given me another mindset of what my future can be,” Jewel says. 

Dr. David Taylor, Senior Advisor, Queen’s-WAHA Partnership and Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, says the week-long immersive experience in Kingston is a key part of the SHSM. Creating educational pathways for Indigenous high school students in the Weeneebayko area lays the groundwork for local university programming. Enrollment in programs on the new Health Education Campus could start as early as September 2025. 

“These students are actually going into health care settings and higher education settings to learn – experiences they wouldn’t normally get in the classroom,” Dr. Taylor says of the SHSM. 

After her summer experience, Jewel says Queen’s is definitely in her future plans. She wants to pursue a career in mental health so she can help those in her community with mental health and addictions issues. She says having an opportunity like this has opened her eyes and is more determined than ever to seek out ways she can pursue her dreams.  

This coming September, she heads into grade 12 at DDECS and enthusiastically says she will be encouraging others to look at this program, including her younger brother who is just starting high school and wants to pursue a career in healthcare. Looking to what can be possible when post-secondary education is offered closer to home, Jewel says, “To have the opportunity to not have to leave home to go to school would be so helpful. I really encourage others to take these courses (SHSM) and the summer program here at Queen’s.”