Last semester, I passed a student in an Ooks shirt and shorts and instantly pictured her as a basketball player. That image stayed with me. Months later, when new TV screens were installed in the W Building entrance, I was rushing to class and caught a glimpse of one. It showed me the same kind of Ooks spirit I had imagined — a sense of pride and identity that stuck in my mind. That is the power of branding.
“Be the hero of your own NAIT brand story.”
Gilles Prefontaine, a marketing instructor at NAIT, believes branding is more than a logo on a wall or a slogan on a poster.
“Students are coming to a school to not only get an education, but it is all about their experience over that time of getting that education,” he says. And students have certain expectations.
“When we look at different schools, they brand themselves. They put out that storytelling element of what students can expect when faced with coming to NAIT or any other kind of post-secondary institution.”
It is how we as students connect with NAIT every day. Whether it’s someone wearing Ooks gear, a highlight reel playing in the hallway, or a banner by the gym, branding can create moments that remind us we belong here.
To me, school spirit is that pride of belonging.
It’s not only about cheering in the stands but also about walking onto campus and feeling proud of the choice we made to come here.
According to Prefontaine, branding at long-standing institutions like NAIT builds up over time. For NAIT, it’s been building for over 60 years.
But branding also shows up in small ways — joining a club, supporting a team, even just wearing the school’s colours. “When I look at NAIT’s overall branding, it’s about bringing together all of these different groups,” says Prefontaine. Spirit is not forced. It builds naturally when we feel like we’re part of something bigger.
That’s where branding plays a powerful role. It shapes identity. It tells us what kind of community NAIT is. Seeing NAIT blue or the snowy white Ookpik is a symbol of connection.
“People will look and point it out,” says Prefontaine. “It brings down barriers.” It tells us we’re part of a story, and it brings out a pride that lasts beyond graduation.
“And so that is that wonderful piece of that pride in the NAIT brand, and also that element that it takes all of us. It takes industry, it takes instructors, it takes administrators, it takes students all to bring that really vibrant community together,” says Prefontaine.
When students buy in, that energy spreads. Spirit builds in conversations with classmates, at events, in athletics and in the way alumni talk about their time at NAIT years later. Branding sets the stage, but students are the ones who bring it to life.
Prefontaine brought up all the different activities centres available to NAIT students. There are student clubs, Ooks athletics, the Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre, the International and Intercultural Community Centre and countless other supports for students — all with their own unique branding. Students being part of a greater community, he explains, creates “all the little ingredients, all the foundation for them to be successful in the future.”
What stayed with me most, though, was this advice Prefontaine has for students: “Be the hero of your own NAIT brand story.”
That line captures what I have seen and felt. Because when I think back to that student in an Ooks shirt, or those new screens flashing highlights in the hallway, it’s clear that school spirit is not manufactured. It’s lived — student by student, moment by moment.
Branding gives us the symbols and the stage. Spirit is what we choose to make of it.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Nugget’s October 2025 print issue. Read it online here.
Feature image by Mathieu Durnford/The Nugget
