Mindy Pitre

Mindy Pitre, Associate Professor of Anthropology and J. Ansil Ramsay Professor of Public Health STEM/Social Sciences

I’m Mindy Pitre. I’m an associate professor of anthropology here at St. Lawrence University (SLU). More specifically I study human remains at archaeological sites. I’ve traveled all over the world studying bone, some of my favorite places to work include Egypt and the Sudan and right here in St. Lawrence County. While I work at SLU, I’m actually Canadian and live in Ontario, and commute to work across the border every day. I live 6 hours away from my hometown of Sudbury, famous for the Big Nickel and the meteorite that formed the region almost 2 billion years ago. My parents were small business owners and my dad was a pool hustler. I started working full-time at our family-run store when I was 11, saving up money to pay for college, a first for anyone in either of my parent’s families.

My journey as a first-gener began when I applied to a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology. I know, you were expecting that my parents would have pushed me toward a more “career-targetted” major, but that’s not my story. My parents were pretty hands-off with my education, which has its advantages and disadvantages. I distinctly remember receiving my acceptance letter from Laurentian University (yes, I’m a Laurentian for life). I still have that letter. Because Laurentian was a small university, I was able to actually get to know my professors, which really helped me feel accepted; I wasn’t just a number. Near the end of my four years at Laurentian I applied for a Masters, because, what else was I going to do right? I did my Masters in Anthropology in Newfoundland, in a location that boasted the most bars per 10,000 people in population. It could have been worse. I then did my PhD in Anthropology in Edmonton, at the University of Alberta, surrounded by the Canadian Rockies and the Athabaska Glacier.

While at the time I didn’t know I was first-gen (it wasn’t a thing then) I obviously experienced it. Throughout my 13 years of university education, I always felt like I was trying to “catch up.” I grew up listening to heavy metal music and racing cars, not contemplating what was being said on NPR. I took nothing for granted and felt like I had to overachieve (and still do today) since I really had no standard to measure my accomplishments. That being said, because I had no pre-conceived ‘road map’ of what was expected in college, I ended up doing things that most undergraduates don’t do (e.g., be a teaching assistant and laboratory instructor, work forensic cases) and developing deep connections with my professors. It was from these connections that I got the support that I needed to succeed in college and go on to graduate school. And, to return the favor, as a first-gener, I’m here for you if you need me. I really enjoy getting together with other first-generation students to share experiences and talk about college and life in general.