National Adult Literacy Database

March 27, 2000

This story was written by Olivia Daniels from the Nakoda First Nation, Morley, Alberta. The Nakoda Reserve is located halfway between Calgary and Banff in the breathtaking Rocky Mountains. Olivia is 21 years old and is an easy going person with infectious laughter. She is doing upgrading to eventually run her own business. Her goal is to complete high school. Last year was Olivia's first year in upgrading.

The following introduction was written by an Elder on the reserve, Irane Baptiste.

"I tell all my sons and grandsons to stay in school. Education is important. But they don't want to listen. So I've come back to school for myself."

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by Olivia Daniels

My name is Olivia Daniels and I am 21 years old. I joined a Treaty Seven youth conference just a week ago and it turned out to be very interesting. It was about "how to run your own business." I joined the conference because I plan to run my own service Station and Snack bar on this reserve later in the future. I never thought I would be accepted but I was one of the lucky ones. I met so many new people from the different reserves in Alberta and made many new friends. We all had a business plan when we left the camp. A few of us came out with ideas to help us in the future.

The most important of all is, the group gave me a lot of encouragement to go back to school, no matter how old I am and no matter where I go. My goal is to graduate and get my business management diploma, then I could go on and make my business happen. (Here's my advice to all you readers.) Go out there and be the best you could at any thing you do, have faith and knowledge in yourself because its going to take "you" to go where you want to be.