Georgian College

INDIGENOUS …and the award for achievement in acting goes to…Nadia George, for her role as Jolene in Her Water Drum. As a young girl, this moment was a dream that seemed out of reach for a 2009 graduate from Georgian's Social Service Worker program, but in 2018 – it happened. Growing up as a mixed Indigenous youth was a struggle, and often confusing for Nadia. Her father was incarcerated most of her childhood, and her mother struggled with mental health and addictions challenges, leading to frequent intervention with the child welfare system. Nadia grew up not knowing much about her Indigenous roots, and at the age of 14, while living on Rama Reservation in Ontario, began to question what it meant to be Indigenous. "I was labelled as being an in-care alumni," recalls Nadia, "otherwise known as a child of the welfare system." But, she knew her story was bigger than this. It was then that she began to ask her father about her culture, and began to learn about many of the challenges that Indigenous people experience: the loss of identify, stories, and language. Nadia never graduated high school with her peers. "I survived various forms of trauma and abuse as a child and an adult," she notes, "and at 18, I became a young mom." She grew up believing that a postsecondary education was unattainable for someone of her circum- stances, but with the encouragement of a friend, applied to Georgian College in 2007. "I was in shock when I got my acceptance letter," she recalls. "I had no idea how much this was going to change my future." EMPOWERING FUTURE GENERATIONS Nadia George Social Service Worker, class of 2009 "When you measure the impact of your support, don't just measure it based on what you've done for me. Measure it based on what I've been able to do for others because of what you gave to me." – Nadia George addressing Georgian donors at the 2019 Crystal Ball 32 GEORGIANvIEW 2019-20 WINTER Photo credit: Denise Grant

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