CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR POST-SECONDARY GRADUATES FOR SPRING 2008 by Marlene G. Head
(click image for enlargement)
Congratulations to Dr. Alexandria Wilson!
Our First Harvard Graduate.
Alexandria (better known as Sandee to her close family and old friends at Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN).
She enjoyed a fairly idyllic childhood on OCN west of the town of The Pas where her dad raised cattle and horses as a hobby while always working in the field of education. She always came home from school to family meals and lively physical outdoor activity. She and her brothers built forts in the trees, skated on their homemade rink on the creek behind their house, and rode their own horses.
Education was always a positive, living expectation in her life. As a young child her parents worked on their own doctoral degrees in California. While doing so they gave their three kids the experience of attending schools in California, of traveling to many new places and of meeting new and exciting people from all over the world. One of Alex's early memories is of sitting at the kitchen table when she was about three years old, drawing pictures and pretending to write as her Dad studied and wrote his papers. She recalls her many trips as a child and remembers what it was like to come home and fit back into her community. She always knew that she had a home community and a solid sense of place.
Then, as she entered junior and senior high school in The Pas she began to sense the racism (combined with homophobia) that began to shake her foundations as a well-grounded young Aboriginal teen. Although she finished grade twelve there, she did not graduate but went on to enter university; experiencing all that same negative energy that had surrounded her in high school. Racism was rampant as was homophobia. She left university and became a heavy equipment operator at Manfor (now Tolko). She worked as a labourer there for a number of years before getting up the courage to return to university.
Those years away from school gave her the courage, the experience and the knowledge to return to university, knowing that she did not want to be a labourer forever. She entered the undergraduate Psychology program at California State University in Sacramento. She graduated from CSUS in 1994 as the top psychology student for the state.
Alex was then recruited by a number of universities in the US and Canada. Harvard offered her scholarships and acceptance into their Developmental Psychology program at the Masters level. She completed that degree and was accepted into their doctoral program.
During her years at Harvard Alex represented that University in meeting and greeting many officials and world dignitaries. She particularly remembers being chosen as the representative that would greet the Dalai Lama. She presented him with a braid of sweetgrass and was surprised not only that he knew what it was, but also knew its purpose and significance. Being surrounded by famous scholars, mingling with keen intellectuals was a highlight of her experience there.
While at Harvard, Alex assisted in the development of Nation Building courses and later taught these courses to both graduate and undergraduate students there.
It was while she was enrolled in the doctoral program at Harvard that Alex and her business partner, Dwayne Shuttleworth set up their own consultancy business. Blue Sky Event Planners operates out of her home on Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Between the two partners their firm conducts research, does event planning and cultural awareness training in Canada and the U.S.
Alex has excelled in the academic world. She has already conducted significant research for the Department of Justice in the US, for Aboriginal Women's groups and for AIDS Foundations and Networks. Her work is published in over 40 scholarly journals and book chapters.
Throughout and after all these achievements, Alex remains a humble and caring person and she teaches from this place of deep humility. Her Kookoom is still her role model and she strives to honour her late grandmother's memory. It was this Kookoom who said, "The sky is the limit, You can do anything you set your mind to do."
Alex will begin a tenured track professorship at the University of Saskatchewan in September. But she will also always maintain her home and connection on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
