Elena Pennell is pursuing a master’s degree in anthropology, a field she enjoys because, she says, “it is very self-critical—it’s very aware of its history as a tool of colonialism, but it has certainly developed since then—it’s not just the study of ancient cultures that are static or dead. I like that you can look at modern issues.”

So Pennell is combining her passion for Mexican cultures, and her $30,000 Aboriginal graduate scholarship, to study how Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) affects family life for the thousands of Mexican temporary foreign workers who arrive in Canada each year to work on B.C.’s farms and vineyards.

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