Kayla's PhD
Donation protected
My next challenging adventure is about to begin! I will officially begin my PhD studies of Education in Lifelong Learning at Acadia University this July. Right now, I'm in fundraising mode.
This incredible 3-4 year journey comes with costs. With limitations on number of hours allowed to work (if time allows) each week, and with only a few months to secure my first tuition payment, I've set up this GoFundMe Page to help fundraise.
*Update - our team has secured funds for the June 1st payment, leaving the Dec 1st tuition fees, not including reoccurring program fees. This is wonderful news to share, and as a result, we were able to lower the GoFundMe goal to reflect.
PhD Costs to get started:
$7,830 is due June 1st, 2021
$4,300 is due on December 1st, 2021
= $12,130
Kayla is working closely with her supervisor to continue and apply for other bursary and scholarship opportunities as they arise to help with additional costs related to the program and research.
Any and all support is incredibly appreciated!
*For every $25 contribution, you'll receive a Kayla's Custom Postcard.
($25 receive 1, $50 receive 2, $75 receive 3, $100 receive all 4!)
__________
A bit about Kayla, her journey, and her passion for education.
Kayla Mansfield-Brown (Dancing Deer) is a Mi’kmaw woman and mother of four, who has completed a Masters of Education in Leadership, Acadia University 2019. Kayla holds Degrees in Community Development (Major: Environmental Sustainability Studies) Acadia University 2014 and Recreation Leadership 2012. Kayla is an advocate for social justice most notably in Indigenous rights, environmental justice and gender equity. Kayla is a recognized and active member of the Native Council of Nova Scotia, the largest self-governing organizations dedicated to non-status Indigenous peoples.
Kayla was recognized by the Association of Alumni at Acadia University as the 2021 ‘Outstanding Young Alumni’, a prestigious Award presented to an Alumni who has greatly contributed to the Acadia community. Kayla was also selected in the Fall of 2020 with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, ‘Dwight Dorey Youth Advocacy Award’, presented to an Indigenous youth who works in bringing awareness to Indigenous rights, culture, education and language. In the Spring of 2018, she received an Award from One Woman, an International Organization dedicated to female empowerment, with a 'Fearless Leader' Award for her leadership. In 2019, Kayla was named 'Graduate Student of the Year' Award, presented to a student deemed most outstanding among their Graduate level peers in academics and community involvement. In May of 2019, Kayla also landed a Scholarship from the National Canadian Evaluation Society to attend their National Evaluation Conference titled ‘Building Bridges’ which fostered learning and expanding knowledge on evaluation practices in communities, while fostering attributes of diversity and inclusion.
In the Winter of 2020, Kayla designed and Lectured CODE 1963 Decolonizing Community Development, a course that explored Indigenous ways of knowing in contrast to colonial ways of knowing in an effort to better understand community engagement within Canada, the first of its kind within the Department of Community Development at Acadia University.
In her approach, Kayla fosters Indigenous pedagogies in order to create a holistic framework that looks at historical, and current cultural identity to ensure a just future, such as; Two-Eyed Seeing, Traditional Knowledge, 7 Sacred Teachings, and the Medicine Wheel. Kayla recently consulted alongside Architect, Omar Gandhi, Co-Lab, and other engagement leaders across Mi’kma’ki to co-create the Engagement Strategy for the newly designed Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS).
Additionally, Kayla has recently been offered admission within the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies and Lifelong Learning, fostering integrated Indigenous knowledge in post-secondary institutions for 2021 at Acadia University. Kayla will be furthering her understanding of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Methods to better understand decolonization and the value of integrating Indigenous worldviews within post-secondary institutions.
Kayla has overcome many adversities in her lifetime. She understand the intergenerational poverty that impacts many First Nation people, as it played out in her early home life. At the age of 14, Kayla became pregnant with her son and with challenges including school bureaucracy and lack of support to First Nation students and young mothers at the local High School, she left to attend an Alternative Education Centre. There, she was offered more support and empathy to pursue her education. At 16, Kayla moved out on her own with her son.
With so many obstacles and hurdles, Kayla still succeeded in education with Academic honors and graduated from high school with her peers. Kayla was determined to make a better life for herself and her son.
In 2010, Kayla was accepted into NSCC Truro Campus and with little support, she ventured across the province to pursue higher education. While there, Kayla and her son lived in a local Women’s Shelter dedicated to First Nations mothers. Kayla built upon her networks and finished the two-year program in 2012. However, she faced extensive systemic racism within the welfare and educational systems, and was often scrutinized for being a young Mi’kmaw mother, trying her best to provide. Shortly after her graduation, Kayla applied for the Community Development and Environmental Sustainability Studies program at Acadia University, where she was accepted and moved to the Valley.
While in this program, Kayla had her second child and continued as a full-time mom and student. Kayla was heavily involved in the development and services to Indigenous students at Acadia, through planning and implementing the Sisters in Spirit annual vigils, the Circle of Hope Mawio'mi, and organizing campus events through the Indigenous Students Society and Indigenous Students Fund. After her graduation in 2015, she applied for her Masters of Education in Leadership. Kayla was highly recommended to the program and spent her time fusing Mi’kmaq culture within the classroom and work. Pushing the boundaries of Academics with Oral storytelling, Literature, Sacred teachings, Elder engagement, Language, and Art. Kayla had her third child, while in the program and maintained studies full-time.
Unfortunately, she experienced two miscarriages within the final two years of the Masters program, working with Elders and supportive faculty, Kayla maintained studies part-time and finished in 2019, with an academic Grade Point Average of 93% (3.3/4.0). Kayla has faced ongoing colonialism throughout her life as an off-reserve non-status person.
With this PhD program, through her own auto-ethnography, and research, Kayla looks to continue to better serve Indigenous sovereignty, particularly for women, and to conquer systemic racism and barriers, to ensure justice and equitable development within social systems and colonial society. Kayla’s research interests are within Indigenous methodologies that have been used since time immemorial, as a way to decolonize colonial society and to remember our interconnected relationships with ourselves, our families, communities, the land, and all our relations. Kayla would like to explore how Indigenous pedagogical frameworks are used within institutional structures, where systemic racism is embedded that the setting, structure and people themselves feel more grounded and better understand their role within reconciliation and treaty responsibilities. This research could lead me to explore first voice experiences and realities of Indigenous people within post-secondary structures. Hopefully this research will lead to meaningful policy change within departments, curriculum and the institution itself and, in effect, shift school culture.
Through ancestral resiliency and knowledge embedded in her DNA, Kayla honors the truth and past of countless Indigenous people, and her own journey to build a better future, with respect to the next seven generations.
Thank you, Welal'ioq
Kayla Mansfield-Brown
Dancing Deer
This incredible 3-4 year journey comes with costs. With limitations on number of hours allowed to work (if time allows) each week, and with only a few months to secure my first tuition payment, I've set up this GoFundMe Page to help fundraise.
*Update - our team has secured funds for the June 1st payment, leaving the Dec 1st tuition fees, not including reoccurring program fees. This is wonderful news to share, and as a result, we were able to lower the GoFundMe goal to reflect.
PhD Costs to get started:
$7,830 is due June 1st, 2021
$4,300 is due on December 1st, 2021
= $12,130
Kayla is working closely with her supervisor to continue and apply for other bursary and scholarship opportunities as they arise to help with additional costs related to the program and research.
Any and all support is incredibly appreciated!
*For every $25 contribution, you'll receive a Kayla's Custom Postcard.
($25 receive 1, $50 receive 2, $75 receive 3, $100 receive all 4!)
__________
A bit about Kayla, her journey, and her passion for education.
Kayla Mansfield-Brown (Dancing Deer) is a Mi’kmaw woman and mother of four, who has completed a Masters of Education in Leadership, Acadia University 2019. Kayla holds Degrees in Community Development (Major: Environmental Sustainability Studies) Acadia University 2014 and Recreation Leadership 2012. Kayla is an advocate for social justice most notably in Indigenous rights, environmental justice and gender equity. Kayla is a recognized and active member of the Native Council of Nova Scotia, the largest self-governing organizations dedicated to non-status Indigenous peoples.
Kayla was recognized by the Association of Alumni at Acadia University as the 2021 ‘Outstanding Young Alumni’, a prestigious Award presented to an Alumni who has greatly contributed to the Acadia community. Kayla was also selected in the Fall of 2020 with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, ‘Dwight Dorey Youth Advocacy Award’, presented to an Indigenous youth who works in bringing awareness to Indigenous rights, culture, education and language. In the Spring of 2018, she received an Award from One Woman, an International Organization dedicated to female empowerment, with a 'Fearless Leader' Award for her leadership. In 2019, Kayla was named 'Graduate Student of the Year' Award, presented to a student deemed most outstanding among their Graduate level peers in academics and community involvement. In May of 2019, Kayla also landed a Scholarship from the National Canadian Evaluation Society to attend their National Evaluation Conference titled ‘Building Bridges’ which fostered learning and expanding knowledge on evaluation practices in communities, while fostering attributes of diversity and inclusion.
In the Winter of 2020, Kayla designed and Lectured CODE 1963 Decolonizing Community Development, a course that explored Indigenous ways of knowing in contrast to colonial ways of knowing in an effort to better understand community engagement within Canada, the first of its kind within the Department of Community Development at Acadia University.
In her approach, Kayla fosters Indigenous pedagogies in order to create a holistic framework that looks at historical, and current cultural identity to ensure a just future, such as; Two-Eyed Seeing, Traditional Knowledge, 7 Sacred Teachings, and the Medicine Wheel. Kayla recently consulted alongside Architect, Omar Gandhi, Co-Lab, and other engagement leaders across Mi’kma’ki to co-create the Engagement Strategy for the newly designed Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS).
Additionally, Kayla has recently been offered admission within the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies and Lifelong Learning, fostering integrated Indigenous knowledge in post-secondary institutions for 2021 at Acadia University. Kayla will be furthering her understanding of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Methods to better understand decolonization and the value of integrating Indigenous worldviews within post-secondary institutions.
Kayla has overcome many adversities in her lifetime. She understand the intergenerational poverty that impacts many First Nation people, as it played out in her early home life. At the age of 14, Kayla became pregnant with her son and with challenges including school bureaucracy and lack of support to First Nation students and young mothers at the local High School, she left to attend an Alternative Education Centre. There, she was offered more support and empathy to pursue her education. At 16, Kayla moved out on her own with her son.
With so many obstacles and hurdles, Kayla still succeeded in education with Academic honors and graduated from high school with her peers. Kayla was determined to make a better life for herself and her son.
In 2010, Kayla was accepted into NSCC Truro Campus and with little support, she ventured across the province to pursue higher education. While there, Kayla and her son lived in a local Women’s Shelter dedicated to First Nations mothers. Kayla built upon her networks and finished the two-year program in 2012. However, she faced extensive systemic racism within the welfare and educational systems, and was often scrutinized for being a young Mi’kmaw mother, trying her best to provide. Shortly after her graduation, Kayla applied for the Community Development and Environmental Sustainability Studies program at Acadia University, where she was accepted and moved to the Valley.
While in this program, Kayla had her second child and continued as a full-time mom and student. Kayla was heavily involved in the development and services to Indigenous students at Acadia, through planning and implementing the Sisters in Spirit annual vigils, the Circle of Hope Mawio'mi, and organizing campus events through the Indigenous Students Society and Indigenous Students Fund. After her graduation in 2015, she applied for her Masters of Education in Leadership. Kayla was highly recommended to the program and spent her time fusing Mi’kmaq culture within the classroom and work. Pushing the boundaries of Academics with Oral storytelling, Literature, Sacred teachings, Elder engagement, Language, and Art. Kayla had her third child, while in the program and maintained studies full-time.
Unfortunately, she experienced two miscarriages within the final two years of the Masters program, working with Elders and supportive faculty, Kayla maintained studies part-time and finished in 2019, with an academic Grade Point Average of 93% (3.3/4.0). Kayla has faced ongoing colonialism throughout her life as an off-reserve non-status person.
With this PhD program, through her own auto-ethnography, and research, Kayla looks to continue to better serve Indigenous sovereignty, particularly for women, and to conquer systemic racism and barriers, to ensure justice and equitable development within social systems and colonial society. Kayla’s research interests are within Indigenous methodologies that have been used since time immemorial, as a way to decolonize colonial society and to remember our interconnected relationships with ourselves, our families, communities, the land, and all our relations. Kayla would like to explore how Indigenous pedagogical frameworks are used within institutional structures, where systemic racism is embedded that the setting, structure and people themselves feel more grounded and better understand their role within reconciliation and treaty responsibilities. This research could lead me to explore first voice experiences and realities of Indigenous people within post-secondary structures. Hopefully this research will lead to meaningful policy change within departments, curriculum and the institution itself and, in effect, shift school culture.
Through ancestral resiliency and knowledge embedded in her DNA, Kayla honors the truth and past of countless Indigenous people, and her own journey to build a better future, with respect to the next seven generations.
Thank you, Welal'ioq
Kayla Mansfield-Brown
Dancing Deer
Organizer
Kayla Mansfield- Brown
Organizer
Kentville, NS