In 2009, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) started a summer camp program to introduce indigenous students in Grades 8-11 to post-secondary life. Now, 16 years later, more than 20 students complete the program annually.
In early July, 24 students from the Montana First Nation stayed on the main SAIT campus while exploring programs like carpentry and broadcast journalism through the Youth Education and Career Pathways program.
The camp wrapped up with a ceremony featuring Indigenous prayers, dancing and drumming, acknowledging the students who participated in the program in 2025.
Jennifer Russell, SAIT’s director of Indigenous engagement, said that the program, originally called Res to Res (Reservation to Residency), was created to help students get comfortable on campus.
“It really just demystifies that experience for Indigenous students in Grade eight to 11 and it’s been two weeks sometimes, and it’s been 10 days, and it’s been a week, and it’s just kind of whatever we can fit that meets the community need and also the funding that’s available,” she said.
“It’s a really great program that we are looking at growing, from a SAIT perspective, and hopefully having other communities participate in our summer camps,” she said.
Russell said that annually offered programs vary, with students being offered a plethora of programs over the years.
“The coordinators at the school work with the kids to understand what programs they’re interested in. Of course, you can’t meet everybody’s desires, but for the most part, construction, welding and broadcast news are some of the programs that are at the top from the students’ perspective,” she said.
The program is a win, win, win, Russell said, with students, educators and SAIT itself all benefitting.
“It’s our privilege to be able to host this community and those students,” Russell said.
Community away from home helps adjustment
Time away at SAIT can be students’ first or longest time away from home, according to Russell. Students often bring elders or chaperones to campus. Russell credits SAIT’s Indigenous student centre, Natoysopoyiis, as a large factor in helping with overall student comfort.
“It’s important to mention that post-secondary or school hasn’t always been a friendly thing for indigenous people. And some of these kids are the first or second generation out, their parents or grandparents would have attended residential schools,” Russell said.
“We are starting to see that fear of colonial institutions diminish, but that’s a real thing that families have to come to terms with. Through this program and coming to see SAIT and seeing a choice apoyas and that we celebrate and we honor our Indigenous ways of knowing and being through our centre.”
Russell said that leaving a community means entering a different world, and it’s very beneficial for students to maintain their sense of community.
