{"id":39549,"date":"2016-06-10T09:23:04","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T13:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=39549"},"modified":"2018-07-17T13:59:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T17:59:46","slug":"chancellor-cheechoo-delivers-heartfelt-daily-messages-to-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/06\/chancellor-cheechoo-delivers-heartfelt-daily-messages-to-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor Cheechoo delivers heartfelt daily messages to students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"page-intro dropcap\">Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo knows what it&#8217;s like to struggle for success.\u00a0Growing up in residential schools, Cheechoo has survived abuse, poverty and racism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Through it all, she managed to persevere, heal and follow her passions. She&#8217;s become a world-renowned filmmaker, actor and visual artist.<\/p>\n<p>As Brock University&#8217;s Chancellor, she is embracing the opportunity to share what she&#8217;s learned with graduating students.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pull-quote\">I have fears that I will destroy this opportunity, but I trust that this University will back me up and you shall hear more of me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the first time in my life, I feel I have been given back my voice,\u201d she\u00a0told a group of graduating students from the Faculties of Humanities and Math and Science.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have fears that I will destroy this opportunity, but I trust that this University will back me up and you shall hear more of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cheechoo said she sometimes worries about offending people with her comments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFear is one of the most self-destructive, sabotaging behaviours you\u2019ll face on a daily basis,\u201d she told the grads. \u201cNo one prepares you for it and it will sneak up on you. You are the master of your own destiny. Don\u2019t let fear control your life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Chancellor, it\u2019s Cheechoo\u2019s role to stand in front of each convocation ceremony and deliver a message to the graduating students.\u00a0For someone who typically works at a film school with a dozen or so graduates a year, inspiring more than 3,500 students has been somewhat intimidating.<\/p>\n<p>The acclaimed\u00a0Indigenous artist is overseeing her first Spring Convocation as the University\u2019s Chancellor, and has inspired the Brock grads with her twice-daily addresses.<\/p>\n<p>Other than common introductions, Cheechoo has written eight unique convocation addresses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day is a new day so I believe in giving new things each day. I prepared them using my experience with education and working with youth all my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the Goodman School of Business Convocation Thursday morning, Cheechoo told the crowd that every single one of them has an equal chance to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll my life I have been judged because of the colour of my skin, the fact I was a woman and because I was Indigenous,\u201d she said. \u201cNever give up. Never say I can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone sitting in this room is equal. Remember that when you go into your first interview, no one is better than you. We\u2019re all equal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39530\" style=\"width: 1290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39530\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-39530\" src=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/IMG_9670-1280x750.jpg\" alt=\"Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo confers graduates Thursday.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"750\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-39530\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo confers graduates Thursday.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo knows what it&#8217;s like to struggle for success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":39550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,4052,6833,1,4],"tags":[2141,156,3262],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39549"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39556,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39549\/revisions\/39556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}