Master of Education Student Jackie Chan Wins 3M Fellowship Award

Master of Education student Jackie Chan was awarded the prestigious 3M National Student Leadership Fellowship – an award from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education that recognizes students who demonstrate outstanding leadership in their lives, at their post-secondary institution.

Jackie is the first Lakehead University student to win this award, which recognizes his many notable leadership and mentorship initiatives relating to social justice for youth, and his passionate commitment to building relationships across culture, class, and race.

One of these initiatives was Jackie’s involvement in running a land-based, well-being camp at Kingfisher Outdoor Education Centre last March. At the camp he worked with 18 Indigenous high school students as part of his research into play-based, laughter-based community building and mental health leadership.

“Before we deal with this issue of decolonizing, we have to build relationships of trust, and that can be done through laughter and play,” he explained in a recent news article.

The Kingfisher camp was part of his work with the Tikkun Indigenous Youth Project, a SSHRC-funded project out the University of Windsor exploring how young people are contributing to social healing and change.

This summer, Jackie took one of the Indigenous youth from the Kingfisher camp to Camp Arowhon, a private summer camp in Algonquin Park where he works. He also started a penpal program between Jamaican youth and elementary students at the inner-city Ogden Community Public School in Thunder Bay, and he is co-founder and director of Zen's Outdoor Leadership Camp for Youth, an NGO where he leads groups to Jamaica and Nepal to facilitate volunteer-driven service learning programs.

Dr. Lisa Korteweg is Jackie’s MEd research supervisor.

Jackie says that receiving the 3M award is “validation and motivation for me to continue on the path I am on.”