Electronics Common Core graduate Adrienne Nisyok celebrates National Aboriginal Day on June 21

June 21st is a special day of acknowledgement for all aboriginal people. For Adrienne Nisyok, it’s a celebration of the journey of aboriginal people and efforts to achieve advanced education instrumental to achieving a balanced life. She is a proud member of the Nisga’a Nation from the remote community of Gitlakdamix (New Aiyansh) located in Northwest British Columbia. Although she has primarily resided in the beautiful community of Gitlakdamix, her heritage is also rooted with Haisla and Tsimshian ancestry.

Adrienne has worked as a Journeyman Electrician for more than nine years (receiving her credentials from Thompson Rivers University), and from those years she has observed significant changes in her field – one rapidly advancing in electronics and technology. She entered the Electronics Technician Core program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology this year to expand on her skills and knowledge with the intent to broaden her employment opportunities. Adrienne’s decision to attend BCIT was motivated by her father who attended the institute and received his Electrical Journeyman Red Seal ticket in 1978.

Adrienne discovered as a young aboriginal female working in a trade commonly dominated by individuals of the male gender, she is a role model to not only Nisga’a students, but to aboriginal men and women. She has had the most gracious opportunity to address the Nisga’a graduating class of 2003, and more recently an intermediate class in a remote aboriginal community in the North coast, encouraging them to seek advanced education. Like many aboriginal students in remote communities, she graduated from a very small school; this did not however, limit her opportunities, desire and persistence to achieve her goal. She is a testament that they too can achieve anything they desire through hard work and sacrifice.

Adrienne is happy to spread the message about BCIT and post-secondary education in general. “Education is the key to success for everyone, it embraces no specific race or gender, but benefits all those who aspire and persist”. By attending BCIT I have enhanced my skills that will broaden rather than limit my employment opportunities. I would hope that by attending this institute I influence more aboriginal youth, men and women to seek advanced education and employment in the field of trades.