When Llana Teichroeb speaks nsyilxcn, she feels something return—something she didn’t fully realize had been missing.

A member of Westbank First Nation and Syilx from the Okanagan Nation, in 2024 Llana graduated from UBC Okanagan with a Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency, an immersive program designed to support Indigenous language recovery and revitalization. Her decision to pursue the degree was deeply personal.

“My grandma was a residential school survivor,” she explains. “She wouldn’t teach us the language.”

When Llana began the degree, she came to understand that silence as part of a much deeper loss. “I realized it wasn’t just my grandma who lost her voice—I had lost mine too,” she says. “When I started the degree, I really just wanted to reclaim her voice. That was the driving factor for me.”

The Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency builds on the Nsyilxcn Language Diploma at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and supports students to achieve advanced oral and written fluency, grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, community engagement and experiential learning. For Llana, the program offered more than academic instruction—it offered healing.

Llana’s experience was made even more meaningful by the fact she studied alongside her daughter. Balancing coursework, language learning and family life, Llana describes the experience as both challenging and deeply grounding.

“Spending time studying and doing this with my daughter was very precious to me,” Llana says. “I was reclaiming something for myself—but also for her, and for the generations that come after us.”

That journey was made possible by the donor-funded Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency Degree Undergraduate Entrance Award, which eased the financial pressure of returning to university and allowed Llana to focus fully on her studies.

“Receiving this award really lifted the financial burden,” she says. “Not having to worry as much allowed me to focus—and to do the ‘heartwork’. Claiming who I was as an Indigenous person was hugely important to me.”

During her studies, Llana applied her learning in tangible, community-facing ways. As part of a language documentation course, she participated in a cohort project that recorded nsyilxcn pronunciations for campus street signs, creating QR codes that allow students, staff and visitors to hear the language spoken aloud.

“Seeing our language on campus matters,” she says. “Our language isn’t just words—it’s connected to who we are and to our tmxʷúlaʔxʷ, our land.”

These projects reflect the heart of the program: supporting cultural continuity while shaping more inclusive spaces. By investing in Indigenous language revitalization, donors are helping strengthen identity, wellbeing and belonging—laying the foundation for healthier lives and more resilient, thriving societies.

As Llana prepared to cross the convocation stage, she was already looking ahead. She began a master’s degree in Leadership at Royal Roads University in Victoria, building on the sense of purpose and responsibility she developed through her studies at UBC Okanagan.

“It’s important that the language moves forward,” she says. “Not just for me, but for my children, my grandchildren and their children. If it’s lost in me, they lose that part of themselves too.”

She is clear about the role donor support has played in making that future possible.

“When you make a donation, you might not know what difference it will make,” Llana says. “But it makes a huge difference—to students and to families. It changed everything for us.”