Glen McCabe, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, has been recognized as an Outstanding Role Model by the Westland Foundation for his lifelong commitment to education as a means to achieve success in life.

In a recent ceremony at Migiizi Agamik (Bald Eagle Lodge) McCabe, a Metis psychologist and a professor in the Educational Administration, Foundations & Psychology department, received the inaugural $5,000 award from John Prystanski of the Westland Foundation.

Prystanski said McCabe, who grew up in inner city Winnipeg, exemplifies the type of role model the Westland Foundation needs to inspire its students. The Westland Foundation focuses on encouraging Winnipeg’s inner city youth to pursue higher education via scholarships.

McCabe grew up in a family where “education wasn’t necessarily valued,” said Prystanski.

By deciding to go to university, eventually receiving his PhD in clinical psychology, “Glen has overcome many of those challenges in terms of what may have been a stigma of education,” said Prystanski.

“He’s made a huge difference. More kids need to know about him. More kids need to know about role models.”

In accepting his award at the ceremony, McCabe said he was “very very honoured.”

“My hope is that someday it will help the Foundation to do more for the whole community, not jut the Aboriginal community.”

He spoke about growing up in what was essentially an “aboriginal ghetto” in the inner city, where life was tough. Streets were filled with drunkenness and fighting and people were lost and lonely, he said. But what made the difference for him, said McCabe, was a loving mother and father who supported him.

When he went to university, his family feared he would turn his back on them once he was educated—and for a time, he did, McCabe said. But once he realized he could be both Aboriginal and educated, he was able to understand who he was.

“It encouraged me to think maybe education would be the answer to me about a lot of things. About a family that cared about me, that wanted me to have success and not stand in my way.”

McCabe has returned to the inner city to work on healing with various groups, including men’s groups, which is part of the reason he was recognized by the Westland Foundation.

His current research interests include: worldwide Indigenous healing methodologies and the relationship between them and current conventional psychological approaches; and the role of community and psychosocial factors in levels of academic success and rates of academic program completion in Aboriginal populations.

Prystanski said that the Foundation hopes to continue the role model program in the future by having students identify individuals who went to their schools and went on to university—in order to emphasize to disadvantaged youth the value of a university education. McCabe exemplifies the kind of role model that the Westland Foundation supports, he said.

“Here’s an individual who grew up in the inner city and decided that I’m going to get an education, and I’m going to make a difference.”

The Foundation provides students who attend eligible inner Winnipeg schools and who achieve an A or B at the end of the year with credits toward university scholarships. Since its inception, the Westland Foundation has raised $1.6 million toward scholarships.

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