Black Graduate Students Association

Excellence is Black award fund to support Black graduate students

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 16:28:31 +0000

Excellence is Black award fund to support Black graduate students

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/12/2021 - 12:28

Cutline

Excellence is Black is a student-led academic award supported by students from U of T’s Rotman School of Management, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Law.

Gayatri Kumar

Topic

Our Community

Black Graduate Students Association

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Black

Cheryl Regehr

Faculty of Law

Graduate Students

Rotman School of Management

School of Graduate Studies

A new student-led academic award is poised to provide more financial support and mentorship for Black graduate students at the University of Toronto.

Excellence is Black is a joint undertaking between students from U of T’s Rotman School of Management, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Law. In addition to inspiring and supporting future generations of Black talent at the university, the initiative aims to connect Black graduate students across campus and celebrate their achievements.

“Often, you hear two main things when you survey Black students: We don’t have access to role models, and we don’t have access to finances,” said Frank Otabor, a second-year MBA student at the Rotman School of Management and one of the initiative’s founding members.

Looking to make a difference, he reached out to the Black students’ associations in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Law and received an enthusiastic response.

Noroh Dakim, a second-year medical student and member of the organizing committee, also felt that community, in addition to financial support, was crucial for Black graduate students at U of T.

“There are very unique experiences that come with being a Black individual in academia, or indeed on any career path,” said Dakim, who is also a member of the U of T Black Medical Students’ Association. “Finding a community where you feel like your experiences are heard, validated, recognized and appreciated is so important.”

Black graduate students, faculty, alumni and community members held an inaugural award gala virtually on March 27. The celebration of Black excellence featured an array of speakers from U of T and beyond who spoke on “overcoming over-commitment burnout,” building self-confidence and more.

In her opening remarks, U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr acknowledged the importance of breaking down systemic barriers to create a more equitable and inclusive campus.

“The University of Toronto can only be great if brilliant people from every community feel like the university is a place that will welcome them,” Regehr said. “And the University of Toronto can only be great if these brilliant people have the supports to succeed once they are here.”

Regehr described some of the steps the university has taken in recent years to address the underrepresentation of marginalized communities, including the creation of 100 faculty positions for Black and Indigenous scholars. Over the past three years, the number of access and outreach programs to bring new students to the university has also increased, she said.

Regehr expressed gratitude for the efforts of graduate students who put together the Excellence is Black award.

“In addition to what this is doing for current students, you are building a foundation of inclusive excellence for the future,” she said. “Because of students like you, we are on the right path and the future looks bright.”

Colin Lynch, the founder of the Black Opportunity Fund, an endowment directed by the Black community for Black Canadians, delivered the event’s keynote speech. Attendees also heard from Dahabo Ahmed Omer, the executive director of the BlackNorth Initiative, a coalition of business leaders across Canada who are working to create better representation for Black Canadians in boardrooms across the country.

In virtual networking sessions, participants discussed the specific challenges facing Black graduate students and Black professionals entering the workforce.

Rhonda McEwen, director of U of T Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the special adviser to the vice-president and principal on anti-racism and equity, was one of the workshop facilitators. She is due to begin her term as the campus’s vice-principal, academic and dean this summer.

McEwan, who worked in digital communication media for 15 years, shared her experiences with navigating corporate life and finding confidence in her talents. “Don’t let yourself be burdened by those ideas of tokenism,” she told students in a breakout session.

Clockwise from top left: Excellence is Black organizers Frank Otabor, Noroh Dakim, Rebecca Barclay Nguinambaye and Novalee Davy.

The burden of representation was top of mind for Sandra Osazuwa, president of the Black Graduate Students Association, who led one of the workshops on being Black in academia.

“Often, as we move up the ranks, we become the only ones available,” said Osazuwa, who is pursuing a doctorate in counselling and clinical psychology at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and is the only Black student in her program. “I get asked to a lot of speaking opportunities, which puts a lot of stress on me – versus my peers – and interferes with what I should be doing as a student.”

She hopes the discussions will help administrators see the need for adequate compensation for equity, diversity and inclusion work.

While the event was focused on graduate students, seats were reserved for undergraduate and high school students considering their academic futures. “So often we see these negative images of marginalized groups that are perpetuated by the media,” said Stephane Martin Demers, a fourth-year student who is president of the Faculty of Music Anti-Racism Alliance “And so often the way Black people see themselves is dependent on how the white community sees them or how non-Black people see them. So, our vision is not filtered through our own understandings.”.

Martin Demers, who is also part of U of T Scarborough’s Modern-Day Griot Project, said events like Excellence is Black can help create a new narrative that lifts up Black communities. “What a conference like this does is show Black youth that they can do it – that there is a place for them at U of T,” he said.

Excellence is Black is currently seeking donations to meet its initial award fund goal of $100,000. Nominations for the inaugural awards are expected to open by the end of the academic year. Awards will be given to students, both domestic and international, with demonstrated financial need and a proven commitment to community leadership. U of T’s Office of the Vice-Provost, Students, Rotman School of Management, Faculty of Law and the School of Graduate Studies are among the award’s initial sponsors.

“My vision is that it becomes a recurring event, and that we create that framework to make it sustainable,” said Otabor, who will be graduating with his MBA this spring. “We want to keep chipping away at those barriers until they are no longer there.”

'I saw there was a need': U of T grad Entisar Yusuf founded Black Graduate Students Association

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 15:26:39 +0000

'I saw there was a need': U of T grad Entisar Yusuf founded Black Graduate Students Association

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/13/2020 - 10:26

Cutline

Entisar Yusuf, who graduates this fall with a a master’s degree in education, formed U of T's Black Graduate Students Association during her first year of graduate studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (photo by Marianne Lau)

Perry King

Topic

Our Community

Black Graduate Students Association

Convocation 2020

Graduate Stories

Black

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

The fall of 2018 was a period of awakening for Entisar Yusuf. That was when she first arrived at the University of Toronto, looking to interact and engage with other Black students.

Yusuf, who graduates next week with a master’s degree in education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), initially set out to find colleagues that looked like her, starting with the U of T Black Students Association (BSA).

But she says there was something missing for graduate students who might be a little older.

“I felt a little disconnected, a little isolated,” she says. “And even though I saw Black people on campus, there was no communication or connectivity – even simple smiles. I didn't know what was happening.”

Yusuf’s solution? Drawing on her own experiences and her academic work in educational leadership and policy, she founded the Black Graduate Students Association (BGSA) during her first year of graduate studies. The student group provides space and support to graduate students and engages with issues and experiences facing the Black community at the university.

Yusuf says she initially floated the idea of forming a graduate branch within the BSA, but utlimately decided to build her own graduate student-focused group from the ground up.

“I decided to take it upon myself to just put up posters around campus,” she says. “And so, I looked up all the graduate programs on campus and I found out there are 19 graduate and professional schools at U of T. I did my best to put up flyers in all the buildings in the downtown area.”

She received 12 emails on the first day. “That pushed me,” she says. “I saw there was a need, even if it was just 12 people.”

She kept going, putting up more posters and reaching out to graduate student groups. There was plenty of interest. Many of the students she encountered were the only Black students in their programs, cohorts or classes and were feeling isolated – both socially and intellectually.

“The isolation may feel heightened as an international student because you most likely have no one in Toronto – no friends or family outside of campus,” says Yusuf. “I was very happy to fill the void.”

After seeking group recognition from Student Life, Yusuf called for an inaugural meeting to call for executive committee elections. It was a big moment. About 80 students attended – all passionate about coming together. Yusuf was elected the group’s first president.

Fast-forward to today and the BGSA now boasts seven executives and 192 members across the three U of T campuses. It organizes programming for students on and off campus, including panels discussing issues such as representation in politics and STEM. The group has worked with the Toronto Black Film Festival and Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

Yusuf and BGSA’s efforts to create a new community on campus hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“She takes initiative and tirelessly works to create positive change in her communities,” says fellow master’s student Iman Togone, who met Yusuf as equity committee chair for the OISE Graduate Student Association.

“The leadership Entisar shows is not small. Through her work she has created an executive team that have provided panels on important topics such as Black mental health as well as workshops hosted by Black professors for students to connect with.”

Prior to the BGSA, Yusuf says she never thought of herself as a leader and wasn’t active on campus in the same way during her undergraduate studies at Western University.

“It taught me I could be a leader in what I think is a small way,” she says. “I am making a difference – as long as it's benefiting others and that following is there.”

The experience also enhanced her academic work.

“Leadership was a large component of what I was learning about and it was fascinating,” she says. “It was fascinating to read about different ways of leadership and the BGSA gave me some sort of context as to what to apply my learning to. My academic and social stances were kind of intermingled, if that makes any sense.”

Yusuf poured herself into everything she did at OISE. In addition to working with the OISE Graduate Students’ Association, she served on the Master of Teaching Racial Inclusion Committee (MTRIC) – which works to create a more racially inclusive experience for Master of Teaching students – increasing the proportion of students in the program from historically under-represented communities with a focus on Black and Indigenous students.

MTRIC faculty lead Arlo Kempf, assistant professor in the department of curriculum, teaching and learning, praises Yusuf’s work on the committee. “She was a really important part of the MTRIC committee who worked as both an individual and as a student leader and representative to contribute to the development of the report, the activities of the committee and the overall process of understanding and advocacy around racial inclusion in the Master of Teaching program,” he says.

“She is amazing.”

Togone, a master’s student in OISE’s department of leadership, higher and adult education, saw Yusuf become a leader and connector for others.

“I have been very impressed by Entisar’s continued commitment to providing leadership in equity, diversity, and inclusion,” Togone says.

Ann Lopez, an associate professor, teaching stream, at OISE and Yusuf’s graduate supervisor, says Yusuf’s commitment to learning, equity, social justice and challenging anti-Black racism in education made her stand out as a student.

“I wish Entisar well in whatever path she chooses for the future,” Lopez says. “I encourage her to keep on with her advocacy and activism in the fight for justice.”

That is the plan. While Yusuf does not know where she will end up post-convocation, she says she has a calling.

“I believe my purpose is to support students to achieve the best possible education,” she says. “My purpose is to remove barriers for students, specifically Black students, so they can achieve their education and life goals.

“This will allow students to follow their chosen career path and build safer communities.”