With help from the TELUS Student Bursary, Tiyanetkw Manuel is studying education, aiming to change the public school system and create new opportunities in her community.Tiyanetkw Manuel, a first-year education student at UBC Okanagan, is working to build capacity among Indigenous youth in her community. Her goal is to become an Indigenous studies teacher and help students learn about Indigenous cultures, history and stories from an Indigenous perspective.
“Within the public school system, I have faced several systemic barriers, including racism, and I always thought that the school system had little hope for my education and underestimated me,” she says. “My last year in high school, I decided what I wanted to do after seeing the way my passion for helping Indigenous students with the way school courses are run led to a rise in participation, motivation, learning and curiosity.
“All youth in Canada deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential,” says Shanan Spencer-Brown, Executive Director, TELUS Friendly Future Foundation. “The bursary program will support hundreds of students each year, removing barriers to accessing education through both funding and support services that help them graduate.”
Students can apply for the TELUS Student Bursary directly through TELUS Friendly Future Foundation or through partners across the country including University of Victoria, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Humber College, McGill University and