The fall semester of 2020 was the first semester that was required to be done completely online due to COVID. During this time I was finishing my last year of my BA studies, and was enrolled in four upper level English courses; including, Advanced Poetry Writing, Poetics of Indigenous Drama, Queer Identities and Sexualities, and Empathy in Literature.
This was truly my last semester in my BA, it was a full circle moment for me because it was the end of my BA, but the start of my journey towards teaching. In the last two years of my BA studies I had started to branch out and take classes that encompassed more than just Aboriginal disparity. I started taking classes on the disparity of woman, and the strength of the LQBTQ2S+ community. This was me truly trying to diversify the way I thought about inclusivity. Being aware of my Indigenous students, and wanting to bring awareness to their history is only one piece of the puzzle for me. I want to be sensitive and aware to the needs of all my students. I want them to feel safe, and I want to understand the reasons why they have not felt safe historically. To be able to take these classes and finish them with excellence shows me that my commitment to learning all ways of knowing and being was not a superficial endeavor.
Deans-List-Fall-2020