Last week, the Atlantic Indigenous Mentorship Network (Atlantic-IMN) held their first Summer Institute. IMN is a regional network that offers mentorship and learning opportunities, as well as financial support, for graduate students who are interested in pursuing Indigenous health research. It’s a collaboration among universities (including the Mount), communities and community-based organizations, and Indigenous governments. 
The five-day institute involved intergenerational, land-based, and classroom learning that focused on the intersections between land, food and medicine, and health and well-being. Students and facilitators learned from Indigenous community members, elders and from each other through collaborative construction of ideas and co-learning. The inaugural Summer Institute was held at St. Francis Xavier University.
Mount Saint Vincent University attendees included Chelsey Purdy (undergraduate Applied Human Nutrition student) and Dr. Sherry Pictou (Department of Women’s Studies). Mount Supporters included Dr. Patty Williams (Department of Applied Human Nutrition), Dr. Shannan Grant (Department of Applied Human Nutrition), and Dr. Pictou.
Chelsey referred to the opportunity as a very beneficial one. “I would describe my experience with the Summer Institute as meaningful and impactful,” she said. “It gave me the opportunity to connect with people from a variety of different backgrounds and to engage with each of them in meaningful conversation and story-telling related to the content of the Institute.”
Chelsey will complete her honours thesis this coming year and will use her experience with the Summer Institute to help inform the development of evaluation methods for the NSERC PromoSci Two-Eyed Seeing Summer Science Camp offered by the Mount.