 I can't even see the speaker now, so if we can't see them, that's okay. Good afternoon. I want to thank Norquist College for inviting us to be a panelist at this conference. We are Rupert Slane Institute, we're an affiliate of the Métis Nation of Alberta, and we've been given the mandates of education, training and research, and I have the pleasure of leading Bailey Steffen-Hul, Breanne Mallets, Skylar Wong. We also have two of our student interns with us, Sam Hammond and Raelyn Anderson, and all of my team have at one time been students and have transitioned to working at Rupert Slane, so I'm really proud of that. And my team is going to talk to you about all of the fun things we do for education at Rupert Slane. So a little bit more about Rupert Slane Institute, our vision is for a skilled, reliant and knowledgeable Métis Nation, and our mission is to enhance the self-sufficiency and well-being of Alberta Métis through quality education, training and research. So who are the Métis? Self-identification is a fundamental aspect of being Métis, as it acknowledges the personal connection to Métis culture and heritage. While Indigenous communities share values, each has its distinct traditions, language and cultural practices. Being Métis means recognizing this unique identity within the broader Indigenous mosaic. Many Métis individuals can trace their ancestry to the historic Métis Nation, which emerged in the 18th century as a distinct Indigenous group here in Canada. This historical connection is an important part of Métis identity. And finally, to be considered Métis, one often needs to be recognized and accepted by the Métis Nation. So this recognition can vary among different Métis organizations and communities, but it's a crucial part of who the Métis are. If you want to learn a little bit more about who the Métis are, we have some great resources on our YouTube. In this presentation slide, we introduce and summarize the core values of Rupert Sahn Institute. So these core values are collaboration and integrity, so emphasizing open communication, honesty and accountability within the organization, continuous improvement, a commitment to enhancing the quality of programs and services, striving for excellence through high performance outcomes, self-sufficiency and sustainability, promoting this as key ideals within our mission, cultural preservation, actively working to promote and invigorate Métis culture, and finally collaborative partnerships, so developing respectful and relevant partnerships with other organizations and stakeholders. So these core values guide our activities and represent our commitment to our mission and our Métis community. So can we have some people from the audience just point out some supports that you think students need to transition into post-secondary? Anybody? That's definitely one. Any more? Yeah, that works too. And we'll get into them in the next slide. Family support, okay. Any more? That is also an important one. So here are just a couple of transition sports we offer at ROI to help students overcome educational barriers. So we help with post-secondary education applications, scholarship and grant applications, mentoring, tutoring, technology and career information. And then as technology we help out with, like we can help out with laptops, any technology that is needed for whatever program they're in and the assistance needed to complete that program. So now we'll talk about some of the supports. So first off we have the Métis access to post-secondary, which is also known as MAPS. So this program provides valuable support to Métis students as they transition from high school to post-secondary education and it offers access to funding and essential career related resources to facilitate their educational journey. Next up we have the Rupert's Land Education Community Connections Room, also known as RECC. So this serves as a hub for students offering events and resources at enhancing careers and educational success. So it provides opportunities for students to connect with their peers and access vital support services including tutoring, learning aids, like graphing calculators, access to exam bank and it also gives information on the MAPS program. Next up we have the RMSA. So this is also known as the Rupert's Land Métis Student Association, which is very important for our company and the membership is essential for those seeking post-secondary funding throughout post-secondary and it not only facilitates connections with fellow students and community members but it also provides valuable support to students in their application for Métis Nation Alberta citizenship. And then lastly we have Métis Nation Alberta citizenship and this will allow you to gain access to multiple resources from the M&A and is a main requirement when applying to RLI PSE funding. So the RMSA, so the RMSA serves as a connecting bridge for Métis students facilitating their interactions with the M&A registry. It also establishes community ran by and for Métis students and alumni to offer mutual support and moreover the RMSA offers improved access to internship opportunities and actively engages in M&A activities both in volunteered and paid roles. The association collaborates with and receives support from the M&A youth representatives. So now we have a little graphic of the current RMSA memberships that we have. So it's just over 7,300 and the number is growing daily. We're constantly getting more and more Métis students to sign up which we are very happy and proud about and hopefully we can continue growing this throughout the years and hit a couple more thousand. Sweet. So I am the communications manager at Rupert's Land Institute. I was an intern at one point. I went to school for journalism at McEwing here in Edmonton or Miss Kashiwa Sky again and I'm here to talk a little bit about our student initiatives. We have our Rupert's Land Institute. So because I am a journalism major and I focused a lot of my education on videography, I have some videos to play for you guys today. So one of the biggest student initiatives that we've launched in the last year is the Bieber's Den. This past May, RLI was able to hold our Sunyaku which is a Kree word meaning they earn money. The Side Hustle Summit where we brought together over 200 Métis youth and 35 of those youth were able to present and pitch their business ideas or side hustle concepts to a panel of judges to obtain Kickstart financial support for those side hustles as a way to generate extra income for schooling and gain confidence and able to speak in front of a crowd. So one of our biggest success stories came from Levi Wilde who is the co-founder of the Children of the North Corporation which is a corporation focused on sustainability for indigenous communities here in Canada. And Levi told us a huge thank you to Rupert's Land Institute and the Métis Nation of Alberta for generously awarding our company $2,500 for participating in the 2023 Bieber's Den Pitch competition. Levi had the opportunity to pitch his project to other Métis entrepreneurs from across Alberta and with the boost he was able to increase his ability to focus on long term strategies that promote sustainable economic development for indigenous communities both Métis as well as First Nations and Inuit. Support for those startups through organizations such as RLI and the MNA is crucial for the success of indigenous businesses and they are very excited to use this funding to give back to the communities. So we do have a short video here just to show a little bit about what the Beaver's Den was all about. I'm the host today of the Beaver's Den and Rupert's Land has been instrumental in many opportunities when it comes to me. Today is about learning, today is about having fun and celebrating. What does being a Métis entrepreneur mean to you? What sets you apart? I think the reason why they picked me to be a judge is probably because of my experience with all the pitch contests I've done. I'm really excited to be with the rest of the panelists with all of our different perspectives and experiences and knowledge. With any Aboriginal background, we never started from the top. It was never an easy ride, we've had to fight for everything that we've ever gotten. I know it's nerve-wracking to get up and you see all these eyes looking at you. I'm looking forward to seeing the youth and helping them nurture those passions and helping them find again that path. I'm not trying to make it more nervous for you but how does it feel to be up here? It's exciting. I hate it when there's somebody who comes up here who's clearly way smarter than I am. So what gave you the idea to take your heritage, your Métis heritage and put that in your passion of developing a video game? And I'm loving it back here. I get a chance to talk to each one of them. Anywhere helps. Any place. That's the most honest answer you can give. Thank you very much for coming up on stage. Thank you guys. Can you become a sustainable business off of it? I'm going to hand out these business cards because honestly these are probably some of the nicest things I've ever seen designed. I need you to redesign my cards for me. We're going to give them a number at the end of this, right? That's one of the things we're going to focus on. Now take a deep breath, work with me on this one. There's four judges watching you right now. So away you go. That's how we sell that. Oh, cool treats siblings? Oh, I like that. Cool treats siblings. Okay, very cool. So tell me a little bit where you're going to source products for your ice cream bike. Do it. This is so perfect. Does it say best judge ever? Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Oh, what? You've already got a book. What are you most proud of over the last year in your business? Our carrots. Yeah. Tell us more. You came in with confidence and passion and you are speaking my language. We also wanted to thank everyone here for this valuable opportunity and this conference as well. It's amazing. It's been very valuable and we hope to learn a lot from it. Don't stop learning. Rupert Slan has helped me. I haven't stopped learning. Don't quit. Keep on moving forward. You know, you're going to get knocked down, get back up. Having the confidence in your idea and also just having that belief that it's going to be successful. It doesn't come easy. You have to fight. You have to really push for your end goal to see it happen. You know, there's always going to be some kind of hurdle that you're going to have to get over. You just got to be resilient and just keep trying your hardest and if it's feasible enough for the work. A mistake isn't a reason to stop. Pick yourself back up. Look at what happened. Learn from it and grow from that. Somebody says, we're going to give you the opportunity. You be the first to put your hand up because you're going to love the experience. So every single person who pitched in that event was between the ages of 13 and 29 and they were a member of the Rupert's Land Métis Student and Alumni Association. So that's one of the ways that we have been creating initiatives for students across Alberta. And I'm very excited to talk about this next initiative. So can anybody tell me, oh, you put that back in there. So Shakamoto is a Mitchiff word that means connect. And it is also the name of our podcast that is entirely run by students in journalism, communications and audio engineering. So the podcast, I'll actually let the students talk a little bit about that. Let's play that video. Shakamoto is the brand new podcast for Rupert's Land Institute. Well, technically it's only brand new if you're listening to this trailer within a certain time frame after the show starts and... Yes, that's a good point. But what's important right now is that Rupert's Land Institute has a new podcast called Shakamoto. Shakamoto is the heritage Mitchiff translation for connect. And that is exactly the mission we have with our new show. You'll be connected to stories of Métis excellence throughout the Métis nation with a variety of interview guests and tales of Métis history. You may even learn some northern Mitchiff along the way. So say hello, bonjour, au tant chi to the new Rupert's Land Institute podcast. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. So every single episode of Shakamoto follows a different topic or theme, such as language, art, culture, food. And they all are something that brings people together, both Métis, non-Métis, non-Indigenous and Indigenous. Our most recent episode actually came out this past Monday. And it featured high-level handball players, Haven and Ireland Wong, who are actually Skyla's older sisters and my cousins. And they're actually representing Canada and the Métis nation at the Pan-American Games this week in Santiago, Chile for handball. And we were able to interview them on the podcast. We've also interviewed renowned artist David Garno, chefs like Ginger Oje and Jenny Lissard. And just being able to connect our students with people in the Métis community who are excelling in so many things that it's hard to even put into one conversation. So you can find Shakamoto wherever you listen to podcasts. So Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon. We're working on getting every episode up onto our YouTube channel as well. And actually, Sam here is one of our hosts in the front there, if you want to give a wave, Sam. Yeah, so that's all about Shakamoto. Shakamoto. And I'll hand it over to Lisa. Awesome, thank you. I'm going to speak a little bit about our student ambassadors. Rupert Slant can't be everywhere. We get invited to go to a lot of events. People want us in schools, post-secondaries. So we wanted to give students opportunities to build their connection to the community as well as gain some meaningful skills. So we've created a student ambassador program. We're in the final stages of creating it, but we will send out passionate Métis student and alumni volunteers to represent Rupert Slant as well as the Métis Nation. They will receive training in public speaking, in leadership, team building. They'll be able to expand on their networking skills. We're going to have exclusive apparel so people will know that they're representing Rupert Slant and the Métis Nation. And we will give them reference letters and connect them more deeply with their culture. And they will be part of our team. Next slide. And this slide here is about our internship program. And I'm really extremely proud of this one because all of our Métis citizens that are with us right now, we're at one time part of we're a Rupert Slant intern. So we've created an internship program at Rupert Slant to offer Métis students a chance to gain practical work experience while they're in school so that they can transition into their chosen careers. We also do have a summer student project placement program that is funded by the government of Canada as well. And it's designed for Métis youth ages 15 to 30 who are going back directly into school. So we've done that program at Rupert Slant for over 25 years. And it provides students with meaningful work experience as well. That brings us to the end of our presentation. Thank you. I don't know if anyone has any questions but me and my team would be happy to answer any questions anyone has. Tansi, this is not necessarily a question but more of a plug for Rupert Slant. Hello, my name's Kayla. I was the keynote speaker this morning. I'm an M&A member and I'm from Muscogee. I grew up in Tolefield. It's like 30 minutes east of here and I'm home for doing this keynote. But I also wanted to give a plug for Rupert Slant because in 2016 I was a Métis education. I got funding from you in 2016 from the Métis education, the MEF funding that is available. And it's without organizations like this that fund Indigenous students, scholars, Métis folks, folks like myself wouldn't be able to graduate with our degrees and go on to explore our passions and be standing in front of you today on stage. So I just wanted to say hi hi and also in Salish protocol, I'm lifting my hands to you because yeah, without funding from Rupert Slant I would not be here today. So thank you. Thank you for your kind words. We actually have fairly easy jobs because we really love what we do every day. Any other question? Well, thank you very much for your time this afternoon and we wanna thank NorQuest for inviting us. We also, I just realized we didn't speak about one important partnership that we do have with NorQuest. Oh, that's okay. We are creating the very first in the universe, Métis Student Center in partnership with NorQuest and it's launching November 9th. So mark your calendars and please come out to NorQuest and join us. Thank you everyone. I also wanted to plug for that that it is being catered by a Beaver's Den alum, a 15 year old who has a baking business because of the Beaver's Den. She'll be catering that event.