In Conversation
Jaye Fredrickson: A Change-Maker
Jaye Fredrickson recently stepped down from her position as VP Academic at NorQuest College. She will be sorely missed, not just by her former colleagues there, but by everyone who worked with Jaye in ATESL.
Jaye is a remarkable person. Her earliest years were spent in an isolated fishing village on the shores of Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba, the daughter of an Icelandic fishing family. Jaye’s mum was a teacher, and she home-schooled Jaye and her siblings in the early grades. Her dad fished, hunted and trapped, which led Jaye to have a fascination with the fur trade, and particularly the intercultural relations between First Nations people and those of European descent. Jaye also had a strong interest in languages, so it made sense that she studied History and German at university, later receiving a Master’s in History from the University of Manitoba. Her thesis became a book: Fredrickson, J. & Gibb, S. (1980). The Covenant chain: Indian ceremonial and trade silver. Not only did she publish, but she mounted an exhibition at the Museum of Man (now the Museum of Civilization) in Ottawa, and was fêted by Governor General Ed Schreyer and his wife shortly after the opening.
Jaye’s curiosity and her love of writing eventually led her into other directions. She worked as a writer and communications director for the Canadian International Grains Institute for three years, and then moved on to Cargill for eight years, where she managed the Canadian Seed Division; this meant she was responsible for planning, policy development, marketing and administration, among many other things. To support her new directions, Jaye obtained an MBA from the University of Manitoba in marketing and public policy. Jaye then became the founding General Manager for Agri-Tec, Canada’s strategic alliance of 16 companies specializing in grain handling. She introduced this consortium to markets in China, the Middle East, Russia and Kazakhstan. Then, in 1991, Jaye was hired by Western Economic Diversification in the federal government where she eventually became the Director General of Strategic Initiatives and Planning.
Although she enjoyed her job, Jaye wanted to spend more time at home with her son, Lachlan, so she decided to step back and do some volunteering at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers (EMCN). Having travelled extensively and having lived in a second language environment herself (she had worked in Germany when she was younger), she knew what it was to be an outsider. She loved working with students, and eventually, because she never does anything half-heartedly, Jaye went back to university. At first she was just going to take Linguistics 101, and then just a few more courses, but she ended up getting her third Master’s, this time in TESL at the University of Alberta.
Jaye then returned to the EMCN as the Director of Language Services. Under her leadership, the EMCN introduced community-based ESL programs to several new communities in Edmonton, developed and delivered English in the workplace programming for private sector employers, and developed and operated integrated programs combining language and career training for several occupations, including the engineering technologist program which has been so successful. Jaye also introduced a new ESL curriculum based on the Canadian Language Benchmarks.
In 2003, Jaye became the Dean of Language Training and Adult Literacy at NorQuest. Little did she know when she was hired that the administration had their eye on her for the Vice President Academic role, Within six months, Jaye moved into that position, where she then stayed until October, 2010. In the short period of time that she was the Dean of Language training, she launched a new ESL program that would allow the college to offer content-specific ESL for different career streams, and she also initiated a strategy to enhance the college’s ability to meet the needs of immigrant students in all programs, not just ESL. After those short six months, Jaye became VP Academic, and Anna DeLuca came in as NorQuest’s Dean of Language Training and Adult Literacy. These two became the dynamic duo, changing the status quo, not only in the language programs, but throughout the whole college. Concurrent with her new position was Jaye’s term as President of ATESL in the year of the organization’s 25th anniversary. Jaye made it her mission to celebrate all of the accomplishments of ATESL and the people who made it happen. She also encouraged ongoing collaboration across sectors. This was a period of sea change, when the government began to realize that more immigrants were needed in Alberta. Both the federal and the provincial governments sought advice from ESL providers and others and the resulting relationships among policy makers, providers, and ATESL itself became even more important.
This was a time where the stars were really aligned. Jaye felt as though all of her academic and work experience came together at this point. Her background in history, and particularly intercultural relations, and her background in business and public policy all served her well; of course, her TESL background was crucial too. Everything that she had done so far gave her the skills to ensure that NorQuest would grow exponentially during this period. Hers was an onerous role as the academic leader of the college, responsible for all programming and all services to students. Jaye instigated many innovative initiatives during this period and she encouraged everyone around her to do the same. She introduced centres for excellence in five strategic priority areas: intercultural education, which many of us are familiar with, learner supports, aboriginal learning, print media technology, and continuing care education. She also expanded diploma and certificate offerings. I could give you a very long list of her accomplishments but suffice it to say, she changed the ethos at NorQuest. The College had always seen itself as primarily an upgrading college, and ESL as just a small branch of that. Jaye, with the help of people in ESL, helped the College to realize that the immigrants in the ESL programs were the college’s treasure and that they had to be nurtured in all programs, and that programs had to be respectful of immigrants’ lives; thus occupational content and language had to be offered in unison to save years of study.
While Jaye was creating a new philosophy and way of working at NorQuest, (to say nothing of having to do incredibly complicated work with budgets and HR) she still had time for other service commitments, such as serving on the Board of Directors of the EMCN, and the Research Grant Adjudication Committee of the Prairie Metropolis Centre. Jaye has made incalculable contributions to the lives of newcomers, and to the people who work with them.
Jaye is still working for change, but now her goal is to support research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her hero is Stephen Hawking, who has shown that not only can one live with this disease, but one can continue to make significant contributions to one’s community.
On November 5, 2010, Audrey Olson presented Jaye with the ATESL Lifetime Membership Award in recognition of all her accomplishments and her outstanding contributions to our field. Jaye has touched the lives of many; certainly everyone who has worked with her, but also, all the newcomers who have benefited because of her implementation of innovative programming. She is still working for change. If you would like to be a part of Jaye’s team, please visit her website http://www.als.ca/events/mysite.aspx?fid=4655 or Google ‘Jaye Fredrickson’s Website’.
Submitted by Tracey Derwing, University of Alberta