The funding will enhance services for current aboriginal students, including peer mentoring and student leadership, writing support, and laptop lending. It will also help attract more aboriginal students to York through high-school visits by an aboriginal recruiter, community outreach, bridging programs with service agencies, and by establishing an Aboriginal Alumni Association.

York will also use the funds to enhance its youth engagement strategy, such as the Riverdale Project, which gives aboriginal students from Riverdale Collegiate Institute the opportunity to take a York University course and receive a credit toward future studies.

“These funds will allow York to greatly enhance the support services to the aboriginal student population on campus and to develop the necessary resources in place to allow this expansion, such as additional staff and space,” says Randy Pitawanakwat, coordinator of Aboriginal Student Community in the Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development.

York also plans to improve cultural programs, including elders-in-residence, an indigenous speaker series and the Aboriginal Awareness Days and powwow event.

These connections attract students, help retain them and add to their satisfaction and success, says Pitawanakwat.

More than 60 per cent of Ontario’s aboriginals live in urban areas. Thirty-two per cent reside in Central Ontario, including the Greater Toronto Area, which accounts for 86 per cent of York’s aboriginal applicants. The majority of these applicants self-identify as North American Indian.

The MTCU’s new consolidated funding approach will track progress in improving postsecondary education and training outcomes for aboriginal learners. That could mean an additional $400,000 for each of the two subsequent school years – 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.

The approach builds on the Aboriginal Education & Training Strategy, as well as investments made through the Reaching Higher Plan’s Access to Opportunities Strategy (aboriginal-specific component), and other special purpose grants targeted to aboriginal postsecondary education initiatives.

For more information, contact Randy Pitawanakwat, coordinator of Aboriginal Student Community in the Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development, at ext. 22607 or rpitawan@yorku.ca .

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

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Media Contact:

Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x 22097, mehughes@yorku.ca