"I know that anything is possible and sometimes it takes just that little bit of encouragement or mentorship for someone to realize this."

Jennifer Annais Pighin

Born and raised in Prince George, Jennifer Annais Pighin is a Lheidli T'enneh First Nations artist and teacher. Jennifer is the mother of twin three-year old boys, Aidan and Kael, and is engaged to marry John Gillis. She spends her time with youth, leading positive activities designed to promote pride in being First Nations as well as increasing confidence by developing each youth’s personal attributes. She believes strongly that all children have talents and she greatly enjoys guiding them in discovering their strengths and overcoming insecurities.

Jennifer works in the Lheidli T'enneh First Nations community, encouraging and inspiring First Nations youth to pursue meaningful careers and to improve their quality of life. She sees potential in everyone and believes that anything is possible. She also aims to be a positive role model who can show the youth within and beyond her community that there are many ways to overcome barriers to achieve goals.

She strives to connect youth with available resources and motivate students to try their best at all times. She recognizes that everyone has struggles, but that we are all essentially strong beings inside that often just need someone to believe in us and who we can confide in for support. She mentors, teaches, supports, volunteers and tries to empower youth through visual images, one on one interaction, poetry, teaching, directing and connecting youth with valuable resources.

Jennifer recently created a logo for the First Nations Careers Council and is currently trying to connect with and create a working group of Lheidli T'enneh artists and band members through the Aboriginal Student Services Centre at the College of New Caledonia (CNC). The plan is to create a permanent structure which will formally recognize and honour the traditional Lheidli T'enneh territory which is home to the CNC campus.

For any interested Lheidli T'enneh band members or artists who want to participate in creating a proposal or coming up with ideas for this project, they can contact Jennifer at jpighin@sd57.bc.ca Jennifer is also interested in creating a First Nations Artist Collective within Prince George to inspire and connect local First Nations Artists. She has a website, http://www.jenniferannaispighin.com , in the design phase that will hopefully soon be up and running.

For More Information Please Visit
www.shirleybondmla.bc.ca