Jade Adams

“The world is open to exploring different fields.”

How Concordia’s creative writing program helped Jade Adams find her own path

Jade Adams, BA 14, knows about the power of education. With two bachelor’s degrees — including one in creative writing from Concordia’s Department of English — and a second master’s currently under way, Adams is working to help the next generation of students succeed.

After teaching at the high school level with the Cree School Board (CSB), she is now moving into a new role as academic counsellor.

Adams recently spoke with us about her academic experience and what it was like to study in Concordia’s creative writing program.

Why did you pursue creative writing at Concordia?

My academic beginnings actually started earlier than at Concordia. I pursued an undergraduate degree at McGill University in English literature and psychology. Once finished, I had regretted not studying creative writing.

I have loved writing since I was very young, so I wanted to see what the creative writing program was all about. I had also known some people who had taken it and really enjoyed it.

What was the best part of studying in the program?

Because it is a smaller program, you form a little community with your peers. The program definitely helped with self-reflection. Being able to sit in a room while 20 other people critique your extremely personal work is a learned skill. It really helps you grow as a person.

The workshop settings and the pressure of having a deadline made it so that I was obliged to sit down and go through different processes with my writing. I would have never gone through that journey if I were doing it by myself.

How did you end up in your current position at the CSB?

I am not Cree, but I have both Indigenous and European heritage. While in school, I partnered with Youth Fusion, which was collaborating with the CSB, where they hired university students and graduates with an interest in the arts to mentor students. I was the program coordinator for cinema, so I made short films with students and ran art projects for them.

From that experience, I was then offered a teaching position up north in Waswanipi, Quebec. I did a year of teaching at the high school level and will soon be starting as an academic counsellor there.

What advice would you give to current and future students?

One of the lessons I learned — especially because I did two undergraduate degrees — is that it’s easy to be hard on yourself in school and feel like you need to find the perfect program right away. The world is open to exploring different fields. If you try something and you don’t like it, it just means you don’t have to go down that path again. You can find a new one.