Ashley Maracle (Artsci'09) shares her university experience with Aboriginal youth across Ontario as the Aboriginal Recruitment and Admission Representative.

Ashley Maracle (Artsci’09) travels to Aboriginal communities across Ontario raising awareness of Queen’s as an option for First Nations, Métis and Inuit students. The trips can take her far from campus. This past spring she spent a week in James Bay visiting career fairs in Moosonee, Moose Factory and Attawapiskat as a member of the Aboriginal Post-Secondary Information Program, also known as the “Road Warriors.”

“In total, there were 42 hours of travel that week including an eight-hour drive on the ice road to Attawapiskat. It was crazy but amazing,” says Ms Maracle, Aboriginal Recruitment and Admissions Representative, Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre (FDASC). “As a Haudenosaunee woman, I like sharing my experience with Aboriginal youth and showing them that university, and more specifically, Queen’s can help them achieve their goals and contribute back to their community.”

Ms Maracle has helped grow the key campus outreach event, Discover the Path to Your Future. Participation has grown from six students when the event was established three years ago to 23 students this year. Programming has also expanded from a focus on health sciences to include engineering, drama, computing, and a mock lecture by Robert Lovelace.

Ms Maracle believes the outreach efforts are having a positive impact. Applications for Aboriginal students have increased and awareness of the Admission Policy for Aboriginal Students has grown in recent years.

She studied history and global development at Queen’s. Her undergraduate experience gave her the academic foundation to pursue a master’s degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. She also volunteered with the Queen’s Native Students Association, Frontier College, and FDASC, and she studied in Scotland and Ireland for a year.

More information about FDASC and its resources