Summer Mentorship Program

Student. Mentor. Volunteer. Nursing's Kezia Amoako follows in her mother's footsteps

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Student. Mentor. Volunteer. Nursing's Kezia Amoako follows in her mother's footsteps

noreen.rasbach Tue, 10/29/2019 - 00:00

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"Just like I had my mom as a mentor and role model, I wanted to be that for other students,” says Kezia Amaoko of her work in U of T's Summer Mentorship Program in health sciences (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Our Community

Convocation 2019

Global

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Summer Mentorship Program

When Kezia Amoako was only a few years old, her mother would carry her to classes at the University of Toronto and practise her pediatric assignments on the delighted little girl.

“I remember that so vividly,” Amoako says of those times with her mother, who graduated in 1995 and works as a registered nurse.

“It stayed with me from a young age and, 20-plus years later, I decided to go into nursing, and she had a big part of it. It’s the whole cycle of life thing – she would take me to school at U of T, and now I’m graduating as an RN. It’s pretty cool.”

Amoako is graduating in November from U of T's Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing with a bachelor's degree in nursing after previously graduating with a bachelor's degree in criminology from Carleton University in 2014.

She originally planned on becoming a lawyer, but seven months working on health promotion with high school students in Ghana – her immigrant parents’ native country – changed her mind.

When she returned, she worked in community health with people living with HIV and those at high risk of contracting the disease. Doing that work inspired her to do more, she says, and nursing was a logical next step.

All of the nursing students in the challenging and accelerated “second entry” bachelor program have at least one university degree already. The program compresses four years of education and training into as little as 19 months.

'Driven by a sense of equity and justice': Miriam Rossi, a pediatrician and U of T professor, was an influential diversity advocate

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 04:00:00 +0000

'Driven by a sense of equity and justice': Miriam Rossi, a pediatrician and U of T professor, was an influential diversity advocate noreen.rasbach Tue, 09/25/2018 - 00:00

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“The cards were stacked against me in the States, to a certain extent, because I was Black, but they were really stacked against me because I was a woman,” Miriam Rossi told U of T Magazine in a 2001 interview (photo courtesy of Faculty of Medicine)

Richard Blackwell

Topic

City & Culture

Diversity and Inclusion

Faculty of Medicine

Summer Mentorship Program

Dr. Miriam Rossi was a key player in the drive to make the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine more diverse, while acting as a mentor, role model and adviser for hundreds of students of all backgrounds.

For three decades, Rossi was a pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children and a professor of pediatric medicine at U of T, and she served for 13 years as associate dean of student affairs and admissions in the Faculty of Medicine. She died on July 11 at the age of 81.

“She was so driven by a sense of equity and justice,” said Lisa Robinson, chief diversity officer at U of T’s Faculty of Medicine. Fortunately, because of Rossi’s position, “she actually had the power to effect change,” Robinson said.

One of her most important achievements was the founding of the summer mentorship program for high school students of Indigenous or African ancestry. Over the past 25 years, the program has brought more than 900 young people to the campus to get exposure to the study and practice of medicine, while encouraging them to join the health-care profession.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Rossi and others became acutely aware that enrolment in the Faculty of Medicine didn’t reflect the community at large. That’s when the idea was floated of a mentorship program to get more diverse high school students interested in health care as a career path by bringing them to the university and associated hospitals for a summer program where they could shadow doctors and other health-care providers.

One of the few Black medical students at the time, Dominick Shelton, was a driving force behind the program.

“I worked with Dr. Rossi about addressing the issue of the underrepresentation of Blacks in medicine at U of T,” said Shelton, now an emergency medicine physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Together they created the Association for the Advancement of Blacks in Health Sciences, and out of that grew the idea of the summer mentorship program. Rossi, because she had influence as associate dean, was able to make it happen, Shelton said. “She opened up a door which would not have been opened otherwise.”

Indeed, he said, just the fact that Rossi was in a position of authority was tremendously important. “A Black female of her era, accomplishing all that she did, was just phenomenal,” he said. “Just seeing her, while I was in medical school, was beyond what I could have expected.”

Read more about this year's summer mentorship program

Diana Alli D’souza, a former U of T administrator who worked with Rossi to set up the mentorship program, describes her colleague as “a champion of diversity and inclusion and social responsibility.” Rossi was “a very strong-willed woman,” D’souza said. “No one could say no to her, not even the dean or the president of the university.”

Dr. Nasra Warsame, now a family physician in Ajax, Ont., was one of the high school students who attended the mentorship program in the mid-1990s. She was in the program for two years – the second involved working in a U of T laboratory – then came back later as a co-ordinator for the mentorship program. Rossi effectively advised and motivated all the students who came to her for advice, Warsame said, “She wasn’t very touchy-feely. She was just a direct person. She’d say, ‘That’s not the path, Nasra.' ... She made you want to be a better person, to be the best version of yourself.”

Rossi was also an inspiration, a role model and a mentor to many students outside the medical field, said Dr. Anna Jarvis, a professor emerita in U of T’s department of pediatrics and a long-time colleague and friend of Rossi’s. “It is amazing how many people across ages, backgrounds and faculty she mentored,” Jarvis said. “People came to her who were in the non-academic staff, admin people, and people who were in arts or in other professions. She was there for everyone.”

Rossi was also a wonderful doctor, Jarvis said, and did important work in adolescent medicine at SickKids hospital, where she showed a “generosity of spirit” and openness to even the most troubled teenagers, and was an authority on eating disorders and gender issues. She was also open to alternative medicine, and supported the inclusion of traditional First Nations healing in the U of T medical school curriculum.

(photo courtesy of Faculty of Medicine)

Miriam Frances Senhouse was born in Boston, Mass. on Jan. 31, 1937. Her mother was from Barbados, while her father was the American-born son of immigrants from Barbados and Canada. Her paternal grandmother had Indigenous roots in New Brunswick.

Rossi, called Mimi by her family and friends, was mentoring and teaching from an early age, according to her sister Muriel. “Mimi taught me to read when I was turning four years old, and throughout her school years she tutored her peers,” Muriel said. “Mimi’s models were our parents and our neighbours, who supported each other, gave back to the community, led Girl Scouts, taught ballet, tap dancing and coached sports groups.”

As a teenager, Rossi began to dream of becoming a doctor, around the time that she was working as a nurse’s aide while attending college in Boston. She got an undergraduate degree in dietetics, then a master’s in biological sciences and nutrition at Iowa State University.

In her late 20s, Rossi moved to New York City where she worked as a nutritionist in the city’s public health department in Harlem. She then went to Howard Medical School in Washington and the medical school at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.

But there were many challenges for the ambitious young woman. “The cards were stacked against me in the States, to a certain extent, because I was Black, but they were really stacked against me because I was a woman,” Rossi told U of T Magazine in a 2001 interview. “What it did is make me understand I had to work harder – and smarter – to get certain things.”

After graduation from medical school she married Renato Rossi, an engineering executive. The couple moved to Montreal while Rossi did her medical residency at McGill University, then they spent several years in Italy for her husband’s work. Rossi qualified to practise medicine in Italy, in addition to her licences in the U.S. and Canada.

“The world of medicine was her life,” said her sister Muriel.

The couple moved to Toronto in the early 1980s, and Rossi took a position in pediatrics at SickKids hospital while teaching at U of T. In 1988 she became associate dean of student affairs.

Rossi was actively involved in the community outside of the university, serving a wide range of organizations ranging from the Black Business and Professional Association (where she and her husband funded student scholarships) to the Trillium Gift of Life Network.

She spent eight years on the board of Trillium, which handles organ and tissue donations in Ontario. Trillium president Ronnie Gavsie said Rossi was intense and serious, but also showed a warmth and softness that was almost motherly. Rossi was particularly interested in getting Trillium’s message to communities that were often left out of the loop and had low rates of donations.

“Her raison d’être was to make sure that we got to populations that might not hear from us, but that needed to hear from us,” Gavsie said.

Miriam Rossi leaves her sister Muriel Smalheiser, husband Renato Rossi, son Arthur Rossi, and four grandchildren.

U of T summer mentorship program creates connections for Black and Indigenous youth

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:19:43 +0000

U of T summer mentorship program creates connections for Black and Indigenous youth

noreen.rasbach Fri, 08/17/2018 - 13:19

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The summer mentorship program provides more than 70 high school students who are Black, Indigenous or from other under-represented backgrounds with mentorship opportunities and hands-on experience in health sciences

Topic

Diversity Mentorship Program

Faculty of Medicine

Graduate Students

Mentorship

Summer Mentorship Program

Undergraduate Students

Weaving needles into silicon skin pads isn’t what you’d expect many high school students to do on their summer break.

But this workshop in suturing – which creates strong, supportive connections to seal a wound – is just one example of the experiences offered by the University of Toronto's summer mentorship program (SMP). It’s also a metaphor for the program’s goals.

Support and connection are key themes throughout the month-long program, which provides more than 70 high school students who are Black, Indigenous or from other under-represented backgrounds with mentorship opportunities and hands-on experience in health sciences.

Idil Abdi, who will start Grade 12 in Thornhill this fall, was among the group of aspiring health-care professionals to take part in SMP this year. The group explored health-related professions – including medicine, nursing, public health and social work – through lab work, lectures and practical experience.

“I was eager to join SMP for a taste of university life,” says Abdi. “It surprised me to see all the academic options available in health sciences and I learned that with hard work and dedication, the possibilities are endless.”

Among the medical professionals the students met were pediatricians, radiation technologists and family doctors.

“It was incredible to see how they all support patients and have a positive impact on their lives,” says Jacob Fraser, a participant in the mentorship program who hopes to become a family doctor.

The program also provides students with career services like resumé and networking workshops. “Learning how to write a cover letter, present yourself and network was one of the highlights for me. These skills will help me navigate my way through the workforce today and later on in my profession,” says Tyler Cobbinah.

Since the program launched in 1994, more than 900 students have participated and 85 per cent of surveyed graduates have since begun working toward or completed a university degree.

SMP alumna Tonya-Leah Watts is starting her last year of undergraduate studies in biomedical sciences. Inspired by her time in the program, Watts is also preparing to write the Medical College Admissions Test.

“Where I grew up, I didn’t see people like me pursuing medicine. In SMP, I made connections with other people of colour who supported me outside of the program and helped me apply to university,” she says.

As it approaches its 25^th year, SMP continues to be a catalyst for building strong connections between adolescents and health sciences and increasing the representation of Black and Indigenous people in medicine by investing in their success.

Husam Abdel-Qadir graduated from SMP in 1998 after immigrating from the Middle East. Today, he is a cardiologist and clinician-scientist who volunteers with U of T’s diversity mentorship program and is the director of continuing professional development for the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario.

“The SMP broke down barriers for me – I was exposed to Black leaders in health care who proved someone like me can be successful in medicine,” Abdel-Qadir says. “I want to keep the momentum going and continue to create a strong and supportive community for Black and Indigenous youth, showing them they too can be a face in medicine.”

#UofTBackToSchool: First-year student says a U of T mentorship program helped her find her niche

hjames — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 04:00:00 +0000

#UofTBackToSchool: First-year student says a U of T mentorship program helped her find her niche

hjames Wed, 09/13/2017 - 00:00

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Janielle Palmer is all smiles on her first day of class at U of T (photo by Hannah James)

Hannah James

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Medicine

Summer Mentorship Program

Rotman Commerce

Subheadline

"It was pretty cool. They showed us a lot of jobs you don't hear about in medicine"

Janielle Palmer says when it comes to getting top marks at school, she’s always been a bit of a natural.

But she was stumped when it came to applying to university and having to decide what to study.

“I was having a trouble deciding between medicine and business,” says Palmer.

Her guidance counsellor recommended U of T’s summer mentorship program in the Faculty of Medicine, offered to high school students of Indigenous and African ancestry. Palmer credits the program with helping her chart the course from high school to where she is now – living at U of T as a first-year student at Rotman Commerce.

Palmer made the trip every day from Ajax, Ont. to attend the summer mentorship program on the downtown Toronto campus in July 2016. Sixty students received hands-on experience in emergency medicine and laboratories, as well as the opportunity to meet some of Canada's top physicians.

“Up to that point I didn’t really have any science background or any way to get experience in that field,” says Palmer.

La Toya Dennie, the program's outreach co-ordinator, says that mentees get a high school credit for completing the summer mentorship program, but most teens who take the course say they are motivated by the chance to meet health care professionals and try out life on campus.

"If it wasn't for this opportunity, they wouldn't be able to engage with some of the professionals they've met," says Dennie, who has been with the program since 2012.

Palmer says the mentors exposed her to programs and health careers she didn't even know existed. Students spent time with top physicians such as Dr. Anna Jarvis, a retired staff physician in the division of paediatric emergency medicine at SickKids and professor emerita at U of T's Faculty of Medicine; Dr. Herbert Ho Ping Kong, a senior consulting physician at the University Health Network and professor of medicine at U of T; and Dr. Onye Nnorom, a lecturer at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the department of family and community medicine.

They also met former participants of the summer mentorship program, including chiropractor Joel Kerr and Marilyn Kusi-Achampong, who has a master's degree in public health from U of T.

In the end, Palmer chose to study business, but says she sees herself working in the health field in some capacity, possibly in health policy work or as an international human rights lawyer helping people access medicine. She's already thinking about how to gain more international experience and wants to test out clubs like U of T's United Nations Society.

“As for the whole university experience, it seemed like it was more attainable and wasn’t something so outlandishly difficult,” says Palmer, reflecting on how the summer mentorship program helped her to feel more comfortable in a university setting.

“It seemed like something I could achieve and do well in.”

Applications for the 2018 summer mentorship program will be accepted this fall.

Summer Mentorship Program

Student. Mentor. Volunteer. Nursing's Kezia Amoako follows in her mother's footsteps

Read more about Convocation 2019

'Driven by a sense of equity and justice': Miriam Rossi, a pediatrician and U of T professor, was an influential diversity advocate

Read more about this year's summer mentorship program

U of T summer mentorship program creates connections for Black and Indigenous youth

#UofTBackToSchool: First-year student says a U of T mentorship program helped her find her niche