OSCA Teacher Awards 2022

Sherri Vansickle has worked as a Native Education Counsellor in Grand Erie secondary schools since 1996, primarily at Pauline Johnson Collegiate and Brantford Collegiate Institute. Having a Masters in Education, with Specialist qualifications in Guidance and Special Education, she has used her training to build collaborative relationships with students, parents, colleagues, elementary cohorts and community partners around Grand Erie, within Six Nations, and throughout the province.  Bridging the gap between cultures is a balancing act, and she equips her students with the skills needed to navigate this challenge as they work towards graduation and post-secondary aspirations.  

As a Native woman, Sherri approaches her responsibilities to future generations with both passion and compassion. She has a full appreciation of the need for further understanding of the educational concerns of First Nations students. Frustrated by the number of at-risk Native students who are not graduating from high school, she works tirelessly to advocate and lead in her gentle way. She has applied for and received thousands of dollars in grant money to help her students reclaim their heritage through drum making workshops and teachings, ribbon shirt making workshops, elders visits, socials, and so much more. Her work with students and elders on a residential school survivor encaustic art project travelled to museums throughout Canada.  She gives students a voice and tirelessly advocates for them. She has personally sponsored thousands of dollars in Seventh Generation Awards for her school’s graduating students and has personally funded one of our students to learn Mohawk language so that she can become a teacher and come back to their school system. 

Sherri's leadership in improving relationships between Native and non-native communities is illustrated by her workshops on topics such as Native Wellness and Cultural Awareness to a variety of audiences: Grand Erie District School Board administration and staff, Elementary Teachers Federation, Ontario Public School Boards Association, R.C.M.P., O.P.P., Hamilton Police Services, Six Nations Police, Brantford Police Services, Brock University Continuing Education students and Ministry of Education curriculum writing teams. Within the school, she has facilitated grief counselling sessions, anger management groups, young men's and young women's groups. She has been invited into various classrooms to discuss native issues and to teach native culture (moccasins, beadwork, literature, dream catchers, medicine wheels, and traditional nutrition).  She has provided leadership to staff and students to help create understanding and to ease tensions with respect to the Caledonia land claim issues. All of these skills help her bridge the gap between Native and non-native values, beliefs and modes of thought and this benefits her students.