![]() ![]() It’s easy to work at it when things are so interesting. “I feel really determined and I feel excited about the content. “It seems that it has brought out the best in me,” she said. Needless to say, Balan is loving her current program. “What helps is that I have a great daycare at the university.” Balan’s two youngest children attend the daycare while she goes to her classes. “Juggling is a good way to put it,” Balan said of her hectic family and academic life. She also has an 11-year-old, a three-year-old and an infant who is one. Balan has a 20-year-old son and two other children who are teens, aged 16 and 14. She is a full-time university student now as well as a single mother of six children (three girls and three boys). Jessica and Garrett Gee, the parents known as 'The Bucket List Family' to their millions of followers on social media, have visited more than 90 countries with their children over the years. Balan is no stranger to finding ways to make things work. “It alleviates a lot of my financial position,” Balan said of her scholarship money. NIEEF is the charitable arm of Cando, an organization that promotes economic development in Indigenous communities across the country. In fact, she is one of six individuals from across Canada this year to receive a $3,000 National Indigenous Economic Education Foundation (NIEEF) scholarship. Balan is thriving in her current program. “I feel wherever the Creator needs I’ll be placed,” she said. It seems it is still unravelling.” But she’s not worried about her future career path. “As long as it relates to Indigenous health or programming and services,” she said. But she is not quite sure what type of position she will seek after August of 2023, when she has fulfilled all of her degree requirements. “It just seemed like a broken system.” Balan believes her current program will better equip her to assist Indigenous people. So why the decision to leave her position and return to school? “One of the main drivers was when I was working as a nurse I noticed a lot of racism and a lot of the policies were not conducive to Indigenous people and marginalized people,” she said. Balan had worked several years as a nurse at a Winnipeg inner-city urgent care facility. Though several other universities offer the MDP program, Winnipeg is the only post-secondary school that has its program focus on how Indigenous knowledge and experience can shape a sustainable path for development, rooted in culture and identity. “Grad school was always something I wanted to do,” Balan said. Balan is now in her final year of studies at the University of Winnipeg in the Master’s in Development Practice (MDP): Indigenous Development program. That’s why Balan, who had graduated with a nursing degree from the University of Manitoba back in 2012, decided to head back into the classroom. But Balan, a 42-year-old Métis woman from Winnipeg, felt she could be doing even more. Métis mother of six thriving in grad school programĪmber Balan was already making a difference in the world. Daughter of Dora and the late Raymond Gee. Ranked third in the 55-meter hurdles (7.99) and fifth in the long jump (19-6) nationally. All-State 1997-99 and All-America in 1999 in the outdoor long jump. 21-time district champion and 14-time regional champion. Prep: Team captain during her senior year. Season-best jump of 19-0 1/2 and finished third at the Carolina Classic In outdoor, finished third at the second USCTFS in the long jump with a leap of 17-11. Won the long jump at Penn Relays (19-11) 2000: Injured during the indoor season. first place at the Challenge Cup in the long jump (20-2 1/4). In outdoor, competed outdoor in the 100-meter, 100-hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. 13th overall in the long jump (18-3 1/4). Third place in triple jump (40 1/2) in the Indoor ACC Championships. Successful at the ACC Championships finishing eighth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.87. Competed in the triple jump, finishing fourth in UNC Last ChanceĢ001: In indoor, competed in the triple jump, long jump, 60-meters, 60-hurdles. Finished second, third and fourth at UNC Invitational, UNC Last Chance and UNC Classic, respectively. Placed in top five in long jump at 4 meets, including a fifth place finish at ACC Championship (19-9 1/2). Took seventh in 400-hurdles at UNC Classic with a time of 1:06.30. In outdoor, earned two third place finishes in 100-hurdles at UNC Invitational (14.11) and UNC Last Chance (14.43). Also posted three top-ten finishes in the triple jump: fourth at 5 Team, eighth at Tar Heel Elite (38-9 1/2) and ninth at Fast Times. Had three top-ten finishes in the long jump finishing eighth at BH Rumble (19-0 3/4), sixth at Fast Times and 10th at 5 Team. ![]() 2002: In indoor, took sixth place at Fast Times in 60-hurdles with a time of 9.14 after running 8.93 in the preliminaries. ![]()
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