Students learn business skills in a cultural context

FNHL and Commerce combine for Chinook program

The Chinook program currently under development by the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration and the First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) will provide an undergraduate education in management and entrepreneurship to First Nations students.

The program, named after the trade language used by First Nations people of North America's West Coast, will admit students in 2002, and is based on the Commerce undergraduate program with the addition of culturally relevant First Nations electives.

The first two years will be offered off-campus through formal partnership agreements with BC community colleges. A transition program that involves peer support and faculty mentoring will be offered to students before they arrive at UBC for the final two years of the program. Students will graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration.

"We want to do a better job of connecting with First Nations by making our curriculum more relevant and accessible," says Commerce Assoc. Prof. John Claxton, who designed the program with former fnhl director Jo-Ann Archibald. "We need to build awareness among aboriginal youth that commerce means more than banking. There are lots of opportunities available with this degree."

To stimulate interest among First Nation youth in the Chinook program, Claxton and Archibald created 1^stNations Student EntrePreneurship (1^st N-STEP), a student entrepreneurship competition. In the winning business plan at the inaugural competition, First Nations high school students from Merritt presented a plan to make and sell bannock bread at a stand at the Merritt Country Music Festival.

The two junior entrepreneurs described their business plan to a group of First Nations entrepreneurs and high-school students from the Lower Mainland who took part in a 1^st N-STEP workshop at FNHL last month.

Teachers, economic development officers and others will be introduced to the 1^st N-STEP program in a training session to be held this fall at FNHL. In January, organizers will start planning the Chinook program of study and finalizing agreements with colleges.

For more information on Chinook check the Web site at www.commerce.ubc.ca/chinook/.