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Goodwill on verge of obtaining business administration degree
The end is near.
After almost a decade of when she started her post-secondary studies, Jocylin Goodwill is inching up to the finish line.
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When the current school year ends, Goodwill, a member of Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, will still be three credits shy from earning her business administration degree from the University of Regina.
Goodwill does plan to take those remaining courses. But she explained she is unable to take all three in the same semester and will thus have to wait until April of 2024 to graduate.
“It’s been a super long process,” said Goodwill, who began studying at the Regina university in 2014, taking some general arts courses with a focus on Indigenous studies.
After a couple of years of doing that, Goodwill moved to British Columbia, where she enrolled at Langara College, located in Vancouver, and continued to take some Indigenous studies classes.
Upon getting pregnant and giving birth to her daughter, who is now seven, Goodwill returned to Saskatchewan.
Shortly after that she once again became a student at the University of Regina. She started off by earning a certificate for completing the school’s one-year business administration program.
Following another year of studies, she received her business administration diploma.
And since then she’s been chipping away at the requirements needed to obtain her business administration degree.
Goodwill, who is 33, received some great recent news when she was informed that she is one of eight recipients for the 2023 Indigenous Scholarship Program.
The national program is delivered by Indspire. And it is a partnership between the CIBC and the National Indigenous Economic Education Foundation (NIEEF).
NIEEF is Cando’s charitable organization, which provides scholarships, training and research funding to Indigenous students.
Goodwill was one of four individuals who received $5,000 in funding each. Two other students received the maximum of $10,000 each. And there were two $2,000 recipients.
Goodwill, who is pregnant again and expecting her second child in June, said news of her scholarship funding came at an ideal time as money was tight for her, as it is for countless other post-secondary students.
“It means so much,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. It means the world to me and allows me to be stress free.”
Goodwill added she has been unable to work lately because of her current pregnancy. So, she’s hoping to stretch her scholarship funding as far as possible.
“I’m kind of sitting on it and just paying for some basic needs,” she said.
As for her future, Goodwill is hoping to enter the workforce after earning her university degree.
“I don’t have a specific job in mind,” she said. “I just want to give back to them. They’ve supported me so much throughout my journey.”
By Sam Laskaris Cando Contributor
