So for her to get valedictorian at UNB this year was very special, very appropriate.'īear-Hetherington said she finally found her voice as a university student through support at the university's environmental and natural resources faculty and through leadership roles she adopted. 'It's really quite an impressive attitude toward everything - education and life. 'If she gets knocked back a bit, she gets back up and keeps going,' said Forbes. He said she's invested, gets involved and often makes a course better for everyone.

Graham Forbes, a professor of wildlife ecology, taught Bear-Hetherington in some of her upper-level classes. She said 'the struggles we face in this world only shape our purpose.' But I really wanted to use this platform to uplift others to allow them to reclaim themselves.' 'As an Indigenous youth, we have a lot of people who feel this intergenerational pain. 'I was trying to deal with a lot of sadness and pain within myself, you know, I'm not the only one to feel like this,' she said. So it was very healing for me to go back to my roots.'īear-Hetherington said that she has had to overcome addiction, which she struggled with at the beginning of university, and has now been sober for two years. The program 'has you outdoors in the field at least two to three days a week, rather than just sitting in a classroom all day.

'Once I entered university, I really knew this program was for me,' said Bear-Hetherington. It was her father who encouraged her to pursue the water resource management program at UNB, and she said it was the hands-on learning environment she had longed for. Bear-Hetherington has accepted a position as a fisheries technician with Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick.

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