Ever since Sara Voyageur was a little girl, she knew she wanted to get into the healthcare field. “I never knew if I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse” she recounts. She started out loving the sciences – biology, chemistry – but what really made up her mind to choose the path of nursing was interacting with a registered nurse in Fort Chipewyan. The way this person cared for Sara’s well-being inspired her to follow down the same road.

That road led her to the hard work of preparing for a nursing career with a university degree – specifically a Bachelor of Science through the University of Alberta and Keyano College. Studying nursing is very demanding and Sara had to put in a lot of effort to make it happen, foregoing extracurricular activities because of all the tests, nursing papers, final exams and hard work it took. She never lost sight of her goal and her hard work did pay off in the end.

That’s not to say that she didn’t learn or experience anything outside of schoolwork. Sara remembers how she felt herself developing independence, exploring different things, meeting all kinds of people and bonding with them. She still missed home – and her mom’s cooking – but experiencing independence was important for her.

Now Sara’s goals are a little nearer. She wants to use all that hard work and give back to the community as a public health nurse in Fort McMurray. She feels the community deserves a great nurse and educator and she wants to support it. Sara also wants to go further and become a nurse practitioner who can diagnose, order medication, and treat some health problems. She believes there’s a need for many more nurse practitioners who are Indigenous.

Sara had a goal of becoming a nurse and went after it. Her road was tough and had its share of setbacks and failures, but she believes people need to know how to overcome failures, learn from them, and not give up. Not giving up has let Sara become an important part of the health of our community and she hopes she can pass this life lesson of resilience on to help those who follow her.