Indigenous Student Services
Toronto Met Aboriginal Student Services (RASS) strives to be a home away from home for Indigenous students. It provides a culturally supportive environment to promote academic excellence and serves as a place to balance academic learning with traditional teachings and culture.
This section describes some of the services you will find at RASS.
Services and Programs
The Cultural and Traditional Teachings Program gives Indigenous students the opportunity to spend time with Elders and receive traditional counselling and support. As well, Traditional Teachers from the Indigenous community are invited to share Indigenous knowledge and traditions, and to teach Indigenous history, culture and protocols.
You can also attend events hosted by RASS, such as potlucks, feasts, student appreciation dinners and more.
Through Toronto Met’s Career Boost program, RASS is able to hire student Peer Support Workers who do outreach and provide peer support to Indigenous students on campus. You can drop by the Aboriginal Student Lounge and speak to one of the on-call Peer Support Workers for information about student resources and getting involved in our educational, social and cultural events.
We encourage Indigenous students who need assistance with balancing their academic responsibilities with their personal lives to contact staff at Aboriginal Student Services for a referral to one of many Toronto Aboriginal community agencies.
RASS can also help you with financial planning and bursary and scholarship applications. The Aboriginal Academic Support Advisor or the Aboriginal Learning Support Facilitator will help you to identify and understand the financial resources available to you, as well as apply for internal and external bursaries and scholarships.
Read more about Aboriginal Student Services.
Indigenous Student Orientation
Aboriginal Services, partnering with its Aboriginal Peer Supporters, plans an orientation gathering for Indigenous students. The gathering is your chance to meet fellow Indigenous students and find out how the resources available through Aboriginal Services will help you to attain your personal and academic goals.
Indigenous students who need assistance with course selection, wish to discuss their course load or would like to talk about their academic goals are encouraged to make an appointment with the Aboriginal Academic Support Advisor. If you are struggling with your academic courses, you are also encouraged to make an appointment with the Aboriginal Academic Support Advisor. RASS will provide the resources for tutor assistance.
The Aboriginal Community Outreach and Recruitment Program engages with the Indigenous community (in Toronto and across Ontario) to identify how the University can collaborate more effectively with the community to support career, employment, training and education initiatives and programs.
