By: Bethani L’Heureux(I bet a lot of you never assumed my last name had two capital letters)

SFU Academic Summer Camp for Aboriginal Students

(2015!)

Doodlethani

I’ve enjoyed the summer camp at the IRMACS facility this year so much! My fellow classmates and I have had so many great experiences, which include meeting others, partaking in fun events/classes, and just interacting with new groups of friends. We have all had assistance when need-be, and I’ve enjoyed the company and visitors (even though I hide from you guys sometimes). I’m so thankful for having this opportunity, and grateful for the experiences this camp has granted us all.

July 2015, why did you have to go by so fast?

Overview Of This Month:

To start off this slide, I’d like to point out that Microsoft PowerPoint wants me to change my name, as it assumes that Bethani does not have an “i”. It is not allowed. This is part of my identity; silly, but true.

My Aboriginal heritage is Cree, Ojibwe, and Algonquin. It reflects on how many cultures do make up my heritage in general. I’m a mixed-up person.

My Aboriginal heritage and title has put me through a lot (even before I knew I was Aboriginal), however I am thankful for this, because one of these elements is the ability to go to this camp, and meet so many people!

What is the Identity of Bethani?

In Carley’s class, we created inquiry projects based off our personal interests (mine was on Pluto). Prior-to assigning the project, we were to create a list of our personal interests, and wrote a question about a topic or interest we wanted to expand our knowledge about.

I was open to many things for my question, but making the list really allowed me to sit down and think about myself. I really wanted to connect to myself, and make a huge list about the elements in my life that appeal to me, to motivate me to come up with new projects for me as a person to do. It allowed me to expand my interests even more!

Interests in Identity:

....Plus, I got to make a page about Pluto. Pluto is the second best planet. Pluto is a good planet. Love Pluto.

Random things about me include:I like to draw (although I keep my serious drawings

secretive), and make others happy.I really like video games. I’ve been playing since I

was under two years of age.I have two middle names, one of which was

originally going to be my first name (Raven).I like to bake. Cupcakes are my speciality. I’m working on an animation series.I don’t know what else to put. I know a bunch of

random facts. Did you know that almonds are a fruit?

I have no good drawings to put.

No activities focused on my native heritages specifically, but every Friday we had Aboriginal visitors lead us through presentations and activities focused on holistic Aboriginal ideas/themes.

Aboriginal Activities:

Janelle Dobson-Kocsis is an Indigenous scholar who visited us, and spoke with us about multiple things. She also showed us how to make those cool structures Veso likes so much.

Tracy Williams, Anjie Dawson, and Norman Guerrero visited us, and showcased some Aboriginal items and artifacts to us. It was extremely neat. We broke up into two groups, and had the chances to try out some Aboriginal weapons, and play with some soothingly-scented bullrush weeds.

Dave Robinson spoke of life lessons, and carving/boxing. I will detail more about him later.

I’m good at archery.

Leslie Varley and Tysun Tallman visited from The Aboriginal Health, Provincial Health Services Authority, and shared their goals with us, including some films. One was based off colonialism in a court-based environment. It was heavy, and well made.

Sara Neuert and Scott Munro from The First Nations Financial Management Board spoke about their organisation, vacations, and bond marketing/management of finances.

Joanne Arnott (a well-known, award winning poet) visited, and let us do writing activities and poetry. I wrote a jokey story.

Noreen Pankewich came all the way from Kamloops, and taught us about spindlewhorls. We were allowed to make necklaces, which were quite fun. I made one with a cool ladybug on one side, and a doodle of myself on the other. To make sure others knew it was mine. Yes.

Dave Robinson is an Algonquin carver who visited us one Friday. He showed us his newest sculpture, which had a main focus of two-sidedness, and different wood textures.

Dave also showed us videos and pictures of his work, and spoke of lessons he learned along the way of his life. It was quite inspiring, and important to realize that even simple lessons in life can be the most important.

I’m so glad he reminded me that there are multiple grades of sandpaper.-I really enjoyed his stories, and presentation. However.. I had one issue. I know I’m not the onlyone..

Aboriginal Presentation Spotlight:

Wow! This video is so neat and interesting! Wood carving seems like such hard wor-

But then I saw the butt a ton of times...

Tooooooo many times..

I still enjoyed the presentation!

I had two presentations/activities that were my favourites; bees, and Gail Anderson.

I loved Gail’s presentation. As melancholic as it was, I love gore, and controversial topics, so this presentation was definitely my favourite. I loved Gail’s humour, and her views on issues. I really appreciated such an important lady coming in. It was an experience I hope never to forget.

Presentation Spotlight(s):

Erin Barley taught us about bees, flies, wasps, and multiple animals. Mainly due to the fact that they all connect via pollination habits.

I loved looking at the insects (flies, wasps, and bees) under the microscopes, and picking out my favourites. I favoured the bees.

My favourite part was definitely being near the live drones. You could hear their busy buzzing, and smell the honey they were currently producing.

Bees!

We were luckily allowed to attend a tour of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, and it was so much fun! I saw so many objects that I wanted to look into more.

We didn’t have enough time to do everything I’m assuming we all wanted to do, but at least I got a bunch of cool pictures!

The small time amount we had inspired me to want to go back. I hope to in August, long bus ride and all.

UBC!

Our tour guide was quite polite.

We spent the afternoon learning about particles and magnetism. The particle accelerator was so cool! I loved the paperclip trick. Plus, Bruno (our bus driver) was very fun to talk to. Thank you to everyone who allowed us to have that experience.

We also went to Triumf!

My major career goal is to be a voice actress, as I've expressed multiple times to multiple people here. I really want my voice to be recognized as certain characters (probably as a lesser goal), and I hope to inspire others to take part in the profession. I'm a great actress, and my voice is flexible, so I really want to become a voice actress! Plus,

I'm too shy to act in front of too many cameras.. I don't know why, but it is the profession of my dreams.

We actually spoke about Vincent Price with Carley. One does not realize how happy that made Bethani. It kind of inspired me to delve deeper into things faster. Why? Not sure. Inspiration comes in many packages. Thank you, Carley.

Post-Secondary Goals?Blah!

To get onto the future/planning side of things, Ciera Morgan-Fier reminded us about importance of course planning, and interests. She informed me that SFU has an acting/drama facility, however, I'm not sure how much it'll relate enough to voice acting. I can't find too many helpful, local websites either. I may go to a library and look into books on voice-over work or acting in general.

I plan to look more in depth into the websites Kay has suggested to me, as I haven’t had proper time to look into them as much as I’d like to. Who knows, maybe one day you'll all hear my voice behind some miscellaneous Disney character! I really want to become part of this career. I feel like this profession requires connections, and confidence. I am not the most confident person in general, but I'm very confident about my acting most of the time. Wish me luck!

Help? Planning! How?!

That is not a problem, though! I know it helped others in the camp with their professions, and it just motivates me to search more for assistance with my dream!

Bethani: The Girl with Fifty Voices.. That will be me some day. I hope.

I wish YOU all good luck with your post-secondary goals.

I just need to find a place to start, is all. I have all my required classes to go near and far, so voice-acting, here I come!

SFU may not have connected me much to my goal...

Overall, I enjoyed this camp so much, again! We all were lucky enough to get so many new opportunities this year, and most of them a lot of us probably never knew existed. I’ve met and have interacted with so many new, nice people during this camp, and I’m so thankful I had this opportunity once more.

However, I won’t be able to come back here for camp anymore (due to going into grade twelve), but if any of you return, you may spy me visiting.

I’m so thankful for being able to participate in this math camp. We have learned so much!

Thank You to Everyone!

Our teachers Jordan and Carley have been so fun to work with. They both make learning a friendly enviroment.

My favourite activity in English was doing the horror stories. Multiple people took on prompts by others, and wrote a part, which lead to others following. My story turned out really off, but it was fun!

My favourite part of math is definitely the stuff I started to learn recently. Logarithms are so fun and interesting. I don’t know why. Also, I’m so glad we did the riddles, as well. I was too humble, though.

Math! English!

Miscellaneous Photos:

Robito Jr.

SET Cards

Constellation Charts

Spectrum!

Pigeon Friend

Leaf Bug

Have a good summer, all of you!

Thank You Everyone!