Ayla Brown

Ayla Brown: Bella Bella student awarded Irving K. Barber Aboriginal Teacher Education Award

A scholarship has meant the welcome difference between getting through an education and fully experiencing it for the Heiltsuk Nation's Ayla Brown, who is enrolled in UBC's Indigenous Teacher Education Program.

Ayla is one of 42 Aboriginal students who received a 2014 Irving K. Barber Aboriginal Teacher Education Award. With the $5,000 award, Ayla, 26, says she is now able to live on campus, sharpen her focus on school, and be exposed to extra lectures, discussions, and opportunities through the First Nations Learning Centre.

"It has been amazing to just focus on school," says Ayla.

But it wasn't always all roses. When Ayla first moved to Vancouver, she found an affordable apartment off campus only to discover that the apartment ahd mice. Without the extra support of the scholarship, the loss of a month's rent and having to move again would have sent her home to Bella Bella.

"I'm careful with money but as a student there are no emergency funds. The scholarship was the difference between being able to stay at school and having to move home," says Ayla.

The Aboriginal Teacher Education award supports Aboriginal students enrolled in a teacher education program at a public post-secondary institution in British Columbia. The awards are intended to provide more Aboriginal students with the opportunity to pursue careers as teachers and are $5,000 annually for a maximum of four years. 

With the scholarship in hand, this sumer Ayla was able to find time to pursue community projects in Bella Bella, including participation in the Qatuwas Festival and conservation work with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. 

Ayla spent several years in her home community of Bella Bella working with youth and seeing the transformative power of education, specifically education that integrates culture in all aspects of learning. 

"I come from a deep cultural background that is really grounded in nature and teaching those lessons, being out in the land, really contributes to my belief that education helps you grow into the person you are meant to be," says Ayla. 

Ayla's uncle instilled a powerful philosophy in her at a young age. Based on the belief that education is beyond school, he said, "you can't let your schooling interfere with your education," says Ayla. "It's out there in people and in books and you can learn anything."

With this understanding, Ayla enrolled in the Indigenous Teacher Education Program (NITEP) at UBC's Vancouver campus. NITEP is a teaching certificate program that integrates traditional values and philosophies. With field schools in Bella Bella, Duncan, and Kamloops, students in these regions can study without moving away from home. 

NITEP has allowed Ayla to honour her connection to her culture and community while completing her teacher certification; the Irving K. Barber scholarship ahs deepened that experience by giving her time to focus on learning. 

Despite fully enjoying her studies, her time in Vancouver, and her experiences outside of her community, Ayla's goal has always been to return home and work with you in Bella Bella. 

"It's about my reciprocity and my relationship to my home," says Ayla. "I was given so much and to be Heiltsuk is to be generous. It's about contributing to my own community - I need to be accountable to them in a real way."