Powering Through Hardship, and Inspiring Others: Bree Menge
Some of the core motivations Bree Menge has for helping Indigenous students achieve their university goals come from her own struggles, as well as her culture. Bree is from Eskasoni First Nation, and recently accepted the role of Enrolment Services Specialist 鈥� Indigenous Student Success, with Cape Breton University鈥檚 Unama鈥檏i College.
Prior to joining the CBU team, Bree was employed with the Eskasoni Band under the Economic Development and Training Department for four years before spending the next five years working with Mi鈥檏maw Family Children Services. 鈥淚 started out as the receptionist, worked my way towards becoming a case aide and then I became a family support worker,鈥� Bree explains. However, after experiencing personal family trauma in 2018, Bree had to take a step back from her job as a family support worker. Since then, she has been able to focus on healing, which allowed her to work up the courage to chase her dream of working at CBU. 鈥淐reator has a beautiful way of making your dreams a reality,鈥� Bree says.聽
Within this role, Bree says her main priority is Indigenous students and their success while they are here at CBU. 鈥淚鈥檓 responsible for working with high school students, scholarships and bursaries, tutoring services and other committees within and outside of the 福利免费在线看 to help bring initiatives or opportunities to Indigenous students,鈥� Bree explains.聽
Bree鈥檚 biggest motivation is her four children and ensuring they know they can choose any path they want in their life. 鈥淚 want my children to know that they will have the support of their family, individuals in the institution who are of status, who are L鈥檔u and non-L鈥檔u, and they will see that whatever they decide to dream will become a reality as long as they do the work,鈥� Bree shares.
While working with CBU, Bree is also pursuing her MBA in Community Economic Development. 鈥淲hat I truly believe will allow any individual to succeed in their post-secondary education is drive, desire, an ultimate goal and having those pieces in front of them at all times,鈥� Bree says. 鈥淚 would not have imagined myself doing an MBA after I was diagnosed with PTSD in 2018, so when I say dream big, dream big!鈥澛�
Bree admits her first attempt with post-secondary education didn鈥檛 go as planned, but seven years later, she came back to CBU and excelled after gaining more work and life experience.
This International Women鈥檚 Day, Bree believes it is extremely important for Indigenous and non-Indigenous women to lift one another up, and if we don鈥檛 demonstrate this now, the issues women face will continue to exist.聽
鈥淎s Indigenous women, prior to colonialism, women were the leaders of our people,鈥� Bree explains. 鈥淥ur Indigenous women are starting to recognize that exact fact, and we are now owning our power as women!鈥�