She’s talking about healing, community, and responsibility.

A proud member of Timiskaming First Nations, and a graduate of �첥��Ƶ’s Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) - Waaban Indigenous Teacher Education program, McGill represents the sort of educator that leads from the front: grounded in lived experienced, guided by community, and deeply committed to change starting in the classroom.

Her path to teaching began not in a lecture hall, but an elementary school classroom.

While studying Social Services at Confederation College, McGill completed a placement at a local school where she was invited to speak with students about her Kokum’s experience at a residential school, using the national education initiative .

“I completely fell in love with the work,” McGill says. “I was welcomed into classrooms to talk about the history of my Kokum’s residential school.

“And I knew I wanted to continue working in education.”

When she learned about York’s B.Ed Waaban Indigenous Teacher Education program, the fit felt immediate, and so she applied with intention, not just to become a teacher, but to learn within a community that embodied her vision.

“I wanted to learn from Indigenous educators who understood my values,” she says. “I wanted to be surrounded by peers committed to creating meaningful change in classrooms, moving beyond cultural inclusivity toward cultural advocacy and celebration.

“And that’s exactly what I got.”

For McGill, that commitment was on display daily at through the program.

She credits her professors -- Kiera Brandt, Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing, and Andrew McConnell -- for providing the foundation in both her pedagogy and in her identity as an educator.

“Their dedication to Indigenous-led, community-informed learning, and equity-driven teaching, has helped me thrive in my role as an educator, and truly enjoy the work I am doing.”

Today, McGill teaches at North Easthope Public School with the Avon Maitland District School Board, where her classroom now reflects the values she admired through the program– student-centered learning, cultural safety, and shared knowledge.

“The program better equipped me to deliver meaningful instruction in ways that are both positive and healing,” she says. “I also learned how to find reliable resources that center Indigenous voices, which has shaped how I approach learning and teaching across cultures.”

And perhaps most transformative of all was how Waaban reframed her understanding of just what it means to teach in the first place.

“It helped me understand my role as a facilitator of learning,” she says. “We may enter the profession with excitement about the material we teach, but it is just as important to be equipped to meet students where they are. I am not the sole source of knowledge in the room, and I love that. My job would be very boring if I were.”

That philosophy reflects where education in Ontario is heading, with a strong focus on equity, reconciliation, and student wellbeing.

For McGill, the impact of York’s B.Ed Waaban Indigenous Teacher Education program extends beyond coursework. It’s a lifelong network of support.

“The small class size helped me feel supported through my courses. I am still in contact with my professors, I’m still in a book club with some of my peers from our cohort, and I know there are at least 20 people rooting for me in anything I do.”

To prospective students considering the program, her message is quite simple: “If you are open to it, you can gain so much from this program: spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally.”

Waaban’s vision is realized in educators like Bailey. More than preparing teachers, it builds leaders serious about leading Ontario classrooms with integrity, care, and purpose.

Story by Dennis Bayazitov, special contributing

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Don Galbraith Pre-Service Teacher Award of Excellence winners: Lauren Cunningham, Anthony Pereira and Elvina Patapau (From left to right)

Congratulations to Lauren, Anthony, and Elvina on this well-deserved recognition. Their achievements reflect the high calibre of �첥��Ƶ’s Bachelor of Education program and its commitment to preparing future educators who will inspire and engage learners in science education across Ontario.

Pre-service students are encouraged to explore the many subject organisations related to their teaching discipline. These organisations often offer valuable scholarships, awards, and professional development opportunities designed to support and recognise future educators. A list of subject organisations can be found on the Education Resource Centre (ERC) website, an excellent place to start building connections with your future professional community.

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The Waaban teacher education program in York’s Faculty of Education is being given a reboot designed to ensure students feel comfortable in both Indigenous and university settings.

The accelerated 16-month program is offered every two years, and applications are open through mid-January for its 2026 cohort. Cohort members move through the program together, forming a community.

Assistant Professor John Hupfield, the program co-ordinator, emphasizes Waaban’s unique pathway toward a Bachelor of Education degree and Ontario teacher accreditation.

“We’re creating a conduit for Indigenous educators,” says Hupfield, an Anishinaabe educator and grass dancer from Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ont. “We’re creating an access point for mature learners and culture-based educators so they can get into the classroom. It’s a way of giving back to our Indigenous communities.”

The accelerated 16-month program doesn’t require its candidates to have any university experience or a teachable subject; the Faculty of Education team considers an applicant’s knowledges, experience and interest in sharing it. People with a passion for their culture, whether they create beadwork or ribbon skirts, dance in pow wows or serve as knowledge keepers for their First Nation, are encouraged to apply.

“The university education system wasn’t designed by Indigenous Peoples,” Hupfield says. “That construct didn’t exist in our communities, and the education system isn’t equipped to meet our needs. The Waaban program takes into consideration the unique needs of Indigenous students, rooted in history and factoring in the residential school experience and the resulting intergenerational trauma.”

At Waaban, however, students’ Indigenous backgrounds are considered valuable and important.

“It’s not traditional teacher education,” says Gabrielle Ayotte, a 2021 Waaban graduate, who is currently working on her PhD in Indigenous education at York. “The program implements oral knowledge, and the relationship between students and teachers is at the centre. We’re able to think about land and spirit and have opportunities to bring our own stories into the classroom. Our knowledges are not usually validated in the education system.”

Ayotte grew up in Montreal as a member of Garden River First Nation. She visited her community near Sault Ste. Marie each summer.

“My Indigenous identity was never discussed growing up,” Ayotte says, “but family and friends began to ask questions about residential schools [when news broke about the Joyce Echaquan tragedy] and our identities. I wanted to learn more about my identity and colonization, and Waaban seemed like the perfect program for me. It had all the elements I needed to learn about and grow.

“It provided a space where my classmates and I could breathe and didn’t have to explain what it means to be Indigenous. I found community there.”

Hupfield says that Waaban “tries to create educators better equipped to meet the specific needs of Indigenous students. One of the ways we do that is by helping teaching candidates foster their own sense of identity and understand the values they carry and the teachings they know. I want to equip them to take on a leadership role.”

Waaban classes have generally been held at the Urban Indigenous Education Centre (UIEC) in Toronto’s East End, but this year, the York campus will host the classes throughout the summer. Hupfield is eager to see York build stronger ties between the university and local Indigenous communities.

“There are lots of opportunities for the program to grow and for York to have meaningful relationships with the Anishinaabe Nation and other First Nations,” Hupfield says.

“York will once again be hosting the winter Pow Wow on campus, and it is an opportunity for Indigenous people to see themselves on campus and consider it as a place for culture-based gatherings.”

UIEC also has a major benefit as a classroom space; it is located next to Wandering Spirit School (Kâpapâmahchakwêw), a K-12 Toronto District School Board school that “provides Indigenous children with an opportunity to learn about Anishinaabe cultural traditions in a nurturing, caring environment.”

Laurie LaBrecque, who graduated from Waaban’s first cohort, teaches land-based learning and physical education at Wandering Spirit School. A member of Dokis First Nation situated along Ontario’s French River, LaBrecque, who grew up in Toronto, says “Waaban changed my life.”

“I grew up in a white, middle-class environment and saw myself as white, even though I knew my culture. My grandfather was a residential school survivor who grew up on a trapline, and I went to Pow Wows with my aunt. But I struggled at university, and graduation felt very far away.”

A friend who taught at Wandering Spirit School encouraged her to consider Waaban, given that she had always enjoyed working with children.

“I look at people talking about Indigenous pedagogy and a lot of them have no classroom experience,” says LaBrecque, who is now working on a master’s degree at the University of Toronto. “I believe the biggest change I can make is in the classroom.

“Education was used as a weapon of violence against Indigenous people. The only way to make change is to have people with lived experience involved in the system.”

As Waaban graduate Ayotte says,

“The media frame us as broken people, but we are reframing that.”

The Waaban program is an important piece of that puzzle.

To learn more about the Waaban teacher education program or to apply, visit /edu/students/waaban/

Article by Elaine Smith, special contributing writer

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Second-year Bachelor of Education student, Natasha Reodica talks about her experience this past summer in Freiburg, Germany.

This past summer, 8 Bachelor of Education students took their learning beyond the classroom through �첥��Ƶ’s Summer Exchange to Freiburg, Germany. For four months, they studied at the University of Education (PH Freiburg) alongside students from across Europe, Africa, and Asia, gaining fresh perspectives on teaching and learning.

Living in the heart of the Black Forest, our students immersed themselves in German culture, picked up new languages, and traveled to eight countries during their exchange.

The Summer Exchange to Freiburg is open to York BEd students, typically in their first year of the program, and offers university credit courses in English, German, or French. The program blends academic study with cultural immersion, helping teacher candidates build independence, cultural awareness, and global networks. All skills that enhance their future classrooms.

To learn more about eligibility, courses, and application details, visit the Summer Exchange to Freiburg program page.

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New artist(s) statement about the show:

Transitional Traces was a group art exhibition located at the Special Projects Gallery within the Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts building. The show featured artists Bennett De Medeiros (Year 1, BEd), Diena Howe (Year 1, BEd), and Grayson King (Year 4, BFA). Each artist explored how traces can be identified within the physical environment or emotional states.

These artworks represented shadows, frottage drawings, paleoart, industrial landscapes, printmaking, and representations of the human form. 

Traces in the environment represent shifts of time by erosion or human intervention; they provide a snapshot of time through mark making and space.

For example, one artwork by Bennett De Medeiros focuses on familiar paths the artist traversed during their childhood. These parks and spaces hold memory not only through lived experiences but the physical textures above, around, or below. Frottage is a form of documentation to recollect and trace back to all the environmental influences which shape a surface.

The paleoart in the exhibition also traces back through deep time before human existence or disturbance. Sometimes environmental traces only exist through a short period of time or require a specific list of circumstances to appear, such as through Grayson King’s shadow depictions. A form of trace which casts a subject’s shape onto a surface, a projection that is able to appear and transform shape over time. Similarly, these shadows can invoke a specific memory or time to a viewer’s own interpretation.

Finally, human presence is a major theme within the exhibition as some artworks represent how human activity is lively through emotional events and the traces of these experiences which influence personal feelings. In contrast, what happens when human representation is taken away from infrastructure? For example, Diena Howe’s work showcases familiar industrial spaces which are contrasted with little human presence, providing a colder and quiet atmosphere, but the viewer can understand that these spaces are the traces left by mankind.

Traces are tangible but also abstract concepts, the artists in this exhibition encourage the viewer to look for these traces where they go. In the end, remember these traces are ever-changing but always present. 

About The Goldfarb Gallery

The Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery of �첥��Ƶ is a socially minded not-for-profit contemporary art gallery that is a space for the creation and appreciation of art and culture. It is a supported Unit of �첥��Ƶ within the President’s Division. We are externally funded as a public art gallery through the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, local and international foundations, embassies, and our membership who support all of our programs.

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ERC Hours

The ERC operates on the following schedule:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 8:00 am to 3:00 pm

Tuesday: 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

If you have any questions or need assistance, the ERC team is here to help! You can reach out at 416-736-2100 x40565 or by email at erc@edu.yorku.ca

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�첥��Ƶ’s Top 30 Alumni Under 30 awards program is a prestigious annual recognition of outstanding young alumni who are making significant contributions in their fields and communities. This year, the Faculty of Education proudly highlights alumna Blessing Owusu, a three‑time �첥��Ƶ graduate, as one of the honorees. Blessing is an educator, children’s book author, and dedicated advocate for equity and inclusivity in education.

A leader in inclusive teaching, her master’s research on Black students’ experiences in schools led to the creation of Abena’s Adventures: A Taste of Home, a children’s book inspired by her Ghanaian‑Canadian heritage that is now used in classrooms to celebrate cultural identity and belonging. She also launched Lessons With Blessing, an online platform offering resources to help educators create equitable, affirming learning environments. These innovative contributions, reflecting her commitment to “bringing inclusivity and equity to the forefront” of teaching, research and advocacy earned her a place on York’s 2025 Top 30 Alumni Under 30 list.

For the complete list of recipients and their profiles, visit �첥��Ƶ’s official Top 30 Alumni Under 30 awards page.

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Article by Deirdre Kelly ()

Photography by Horst Herget

Marnie and Rena Schwartz are a force to be reckoned with. The identical twins, who both earned double degrees (BA ’01, BEd ’01) from �첥��Ƶ, have spent more than two decades transforming the Greater Toronto Area’s dance scene through their ViBE Dance and Fitness Studio.

Founded in 2002, ViBE is no ordinary dance school. From its inception, the Schwartz sisters envisioned a space where creativity trumped competition – a sprawling 12,000-square-foot studio in Vaughan where students of all ages could focus on self-expression rather than scorecards or trophies. “We wanted to create a place where everyone felt welcome,” says Marnie, who oversees the business side of operations. “It’s about joy, not judgment.”

That vision has resonated with thousands of students over the years. ViBE’s inclusive approach treats every dancer equally – whether they’re three years old, or an adult – and emphasizes fun over pressure. “We believe in building confidence through movement,” adds Rena, who leads the artistic side of their business.

Education has always been central to their lives. Their mother, Susan Schwartz (BA ’80), is an accomplished educator and author of teaching manuals used at York and beyond. Growing up surrounded by her passion for learning and teaching left a lasting impression on Marnie and Rena, who credit their own time at the University for shaping their approach to leadership and innovative thinking. “York taught us how to manage our time and think creatively. It really ignited our passion for lifelong learning.”...

For more, check out the full article in the

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Participants explored the Camerise Project–an online hub designed to support FSL teachers in sharing and adapting classroom resources, learned about Open Education, Creative Commons licensing, and effective strategies for collaborating online.

The workshop included a panel discussion featuring experts in FSL education, who shared insights on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference), the action-oriented approach, and ways to incorporate diverse Francophone perspectives into teaching materials.

First-year Glendon BEd students played an important role in the workshop. Having completed the Camerise online asynchronous course on Creative Commons licensing and resource sharing (), the students contributed valuable knowledge to experienced teachers who may be new to open licensing practices. The students also collaborated with teachers to co-create classroom resources, giving them an opportunity to apply their learning in a practical setting.

“This collaboration offers mutual benefits: experienced teachers gain fresh insights from students engaged in current research, while BEd students gain a deeper understanding of real-world classroom challenges”, said Muriel Péguret Co-lead of the Camerise Project (FSL hub) which has been funded for the past five years by MOE and Heritage Canada. “By working together, participants created resources that are not only effective but also responsive to the evolving needs of FSL classrooms”.

The resources that were created will be shared publicly via the , allowing other educators to re-use, adapt them and re-share their adaptation for the benefit of the community.

The workshop’s broader goal was to build a community of practice that connects future and experienced educators. By fostering dialogue and collaboration, the workshop helped BEd students to feel connected to the profession before they officially enter the classroom. For experienced teachers, this opportunity to exchange ideas and collaborate with peers outside their school boards encourages fresh approaches to lesson planning.

By combining the expertise of seasoned educators with the fresh perspectives of Glendon BEd students, the workshop aims to build a community of practice to generate high-quality resources that will enrich FSL classrooms. The initiative highlights how resource sharing can save teachers time while enhancing student learning in FSL classrooms across Ontario.

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In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Report, the Faculty in collaboration with the Toronto District School Board Indigenous Education Centre offers admission to a special cohort of students who will complete the Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree with a focus on Indigenous worldviews. Waaban Indigenous Teacher Education will educate a new generation of teachers prepared to address the needs of First Nation, Métis and Inuit students, families and communities. Waaban will be grounded in Indigenous Knowledge and Pedagogy and will include teachings from Indigenous Elders, educators, and community leaders.

For more information, please visit /edu/students/waaban/.

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