More teachers of First Nations ancestry will soon fill B.C. classrooms, thanks to a new program that launched on the mid-Island on Monday.

To reduce barriers, the new community-based teacher-education program will teach future educators where they live, and experts say growing the number of Indigenous teachers will also grow high school graduation rates.

Mom of three, Jeanette Seymour has long dreamed of becoming a teacher in her Stz’uminus community, just outside Ladysmith.

Now, the 34-year-old is taking her first classes towards her Bachelor of Education in Hul’q’umi’num. One of 23 students enrolled in the new and unique in-community teacher education program on Stz’uminus, that is allowing her to study on her reserve, where she also wants to stay to teach.

“Its our Stz’uminus kids,

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