#SenecaProud

Toni Pettit, Eunice Kays Yeboah, Ar Jay Mateo, Randy Pitawanakwat, Ritik Sharma, President David Agnew, Marianne Marando, Professor Tatiana Mighiu, Joseph Osei Bonsu, Professor Raghad Kamel, Wai Chu Cheng, Courtney Hayes, Pat Perdue

Pat Perdue  00:00

Hey, I'm Pat Perdue, and I'd like to welcome you to season four of the Seneca proud podcast. Okay, so COVID isn't quite a thing of the past, but it's going to be. And that's great news, because we've got our sights set on an amazing future. And I hope you do too. Students will be returning to classes, little by little classes will be offered in a more inclusive way, using leading edge technologies. And we're getting set for an incredibly bright, inclusive, equitable future. And the future is what Seneca proud Season Four is all about. Everything from the near term future of life at Seneca College, in a post pandemic world, it's going to be pretty great to what life after Seneca means. And hey, if you're a student, I get that life after Seneca is something that's on your mind, what are you going to do? Are you going to measure up to the competition? And what can you do today, to really set yourself up to succeed? To help with those questions. This season includes graduated Seneca students who have been out there doing their thing for at least a few years. We'll hear their ups and their downs, and what you can do to help set yourself up for success. So if you haven't already, subscribe, and download and join me as we consider the future and meet the people who are transforming dreams into reality. Because the next episode of Seneca proud starts now. Hey, welcome back to the Seneca proud Podcast. I'm Pat Perdue, and this is the final episode of season four. And what a great season this has been Thank you very much for joining me on this journey. Today, we'll be revisiting the conversations of the season. And in preparing this episode for you, I listened back to each one of the episodes like I do every season for the final episode. And there were two themes that very clearly emerged. One of the themes was, of course, the future, envisioning how we can meet the future in a mindful, equitable, diverse and sustainable way. But there was another theme that was undeniably present in every conversation. And it's something that can be defined in two very Seneca words, challenge accepted, those are two huge words that become incredibly powerful when you put them side by side. Think about it. First, a challenge and intent, a goal of some kind, but not just any goal or intent. baked into that word is the idea of struggle. A challenge is something you need to work toward, to strive for something that by its very nature is difficult, because if it was easy, it wouldn't be a challenge. So now the word accepted. This word has the connotation of having considered the options before making a decision. I accept your offer, or I accept your proposal. So in this case, there's an awareness of the difficulty and awareness of the work and preparation, and even some failure and overcoming that failure to ultimately succeed. That challenge accepted to words that when you put them next to each other, have a really powerful meaning. Accepting a challenge implies preparation, dedication, commitment, getting help and helping. If you accept the challenge, you know, you're walking into something, and it's not going to be easy. But as you rise to face the challenge, you know that something is going to be better, you will be better, the people close to you will be better, your community will be better, and the world will be better. And that's what all of the conversations this season have been about. All the dimensions that go into the phrase, challenge accepted.

The first conversations I'll be sharing are about preparation once we've accepted the challenge. That means an open heart and an open mind a willingness to ask for help, and someone there to provide that help. Here's first year student RJ also known as AJ Mateo along with his mentor Toni Pettit, RJ has accepted the challenge and Toni, through the SMILE mentorship program, is setting him up for success. And in doing so is on her own challenge accepted journey. See how this works. Okay, you'll hear Ar Jay Matteo first and then Toni Pettit.

Share with us a little bit. AJ about your experience. You're transitioning into Seneca it can be super daunting because it's a really really big place. How did it go and how's it going?

 

Ar Jay Mateo  04:37

So as of now, I would say that it is a commitment to be attending a program that is related to chemistry and pretty much this STEM program because everything is kind of a lot of knowledge base and theory. And um, I feel like with this academic journey, I'm doing everything fine because I've learned a lot from Toni, in terms of managing time and carefully managing my stress throughout the semester, and I'm learning a lot of stuff from my mentor right now. And pretty much every time that we meet, we just like, kind of vibe every time. And I just love this experience. To be honest, that's amazing.

 

Pat Perdue  05:21

And something you mentioned. And I noticed that Toni was nodding in understanding when you mentioned managing your stress and starting out at Seneca or any post secondary institution can be can be overwhelming. So Toni, can you share with us a little bit about maybe your experience? What brought you into smile? And your experience as a mentor?

 

Toni Pettit  05:43

Yeah, definitely. So ages and ages and ages ago, I, I went to university, and I went straight out of high school. And I had no idea what I was doing at all. And I distinctly remember getting sort of a message from my friend saying, so what's your schedule, like? I'm like, schedule, what schedule and then flying to the local library to get into the computer to figure out how to get courses. And, and that whole year was very lonely. I think, for me, I didn't know how to connect, I didn't know how to make friends. I didn't know where to, you know, meet people. And as my personality is like, it's not one to just go up to a group of people be like, Hey, my name is Toni. So when I became a part of Seneca, one of the first things, I think this must have been, like, within the first month for sure, I saw these sort of advertisements for spa mentors, and I was like, wow, I want to be that person, kind of thing. So I made it an effort in my first term, to volunteer everywhere. Like wherever there was, someone won't I volunteered, I got to know people. Because I wanted to, I wanted I knew for me coming into Seneca was a much easier process cuz I sort of had an idea of what to do. But I thought of my feelings going into university that first year and that that last feeling and that that made me want to do this. It made me want to sort of go okay, let's help someone else not go through that. That feeling of isolation, that confusion that? What do I do now? Or what is this date? What are they talking about? type of piece. So that's, that's kind of was part of why I chose to do that.

 

Pat Perdue  07:43

That was Toni Pettit, accepting her challenge and helping Ar Jay Mateo do the same. As you heard, Ar Jay and Toni are both pretty amazing people. To hear more, check out episode three of this season. Another pretty amazing person is Seneca Student Federation President Ritik Sharma, who recognizes that in order for students to succeed at their full potential they need every break they can get. Here he is talking about his own challenge accepted journey, and the Seneca College Food Bank that helps students get by when their funds run out. Because no one should have to accept the challenge on an empty stomach. Here's Ritik Sharma.

 

Ritik Sharma  08:22

It started with being a volunteer, like our when I was in orientation, I just saw vision like what it can be, you know, to be a leader out to the student council. So I started doing it as a as a volunteer. I volunteered for food bank, because I know like students, they literally struggle like some of the students, they literally struggle for the food and groceries. So I started volunteering for the food bank, then eventually I stepped up as event staff, where I get to learn what events when we can plan for our students and how things work. And afterwards, I wanted to climb a ladder and want to be a voice of our students and want to work more upon the economic policies and the procedures for Seneca as students. So that's why I stood up for elections co-ordinator. So after that, eventually, being a co-ordinator for a year getting to know other things such as our plagiarism ideas, and way more other things that can help students and academics. And also in addition, I got in about what other programs that we can provide to our students related to food bank, or volunteer opportunities, and other opportunities such as Tax Clinic and all this stuff. So learning through that journey. I got to know like, there is a bigger version, and I need more power to implement all the ideas that I have. So that helped me out with the support of students to sort of for president, luckily, and by God's grace, I would say and the blessings of students and each and every family member, I got this opportunity to serve our Seneca students.

 

Pat Perdue  09:53

I was just listening to that overview. It sounds like you have a really broad perspective of what it means To be a student at Seneca College and one thing that you touched on that I'd love to talk a little bit about is food anxiety, you know, like people having enough to eat share with us a little bit of how prevalent that is in the student population at Seneca College, because it's something that we don't hear about very much.

 

Ritik Sharma  10:19

Honestly, I will say this pandemic has, let us learn that what we should be grateful for for each and every step what we have, you know, this pandemic has let us know you know, that what are the things that we have of each and everything that still like staying healthy, having our meals properly, like all these stuff has, let us know. So that has also helped also helped me to, you know, realize like some of the students they literally struggle for their food and food and stuff. So by going into food bank staff and by going volunteering, and then eventually taking the initiative as a council member for the food bank, I get to know like students they are literally struggling and I feel like none of us should sleep empty stomach asleep, empty stomach, right. So that has literally motivated me to start from the virtual food bank gift cards and eventually then going for our food bank hampers that we have been serving as our Seneca students as of now. They have an in-store pickup like our we have our campus in which they can do a curbside pickup for our food and groceries. So that has literally helped out a lot of students. And I hope like we keep on helping more and more students day by day.

 

Pat Perdue  11:33

The idea of Seneca students going hungry is something that's never talked about, but it's definitely a thing. Ritik has clearly accepted the challenge. And to hear more of our conversation, check out episode five of this season. And for students listening, you can pick up a free student breakfast weekday mornings at the Newnham campus, all you need to do is show up, show your student ID and grab your breakfast. And of course when it comes to students accepting the challenge, a lot of that is what happens in the classroom. Here's Seneca College President David Agnew on the classroom innovations that are making it easier for more people to accept the challenge and attend class, even if they can't physically be present. Here's President Agnew.

You know, in the before time, and I guess we'll just call it the before time, you always had to go to your class at a certain time sit in the chair and the professor would be at the front of the class doing their thing for a couple of hours. And then everybody would leave? How is it different?

 

President David Agnew  12:34

Yeah, so it's gonna be different. And this is very, very program slash course dependent, of course, right? If you were a nurse, and he needed to practice IVs insertion, then you're going to come back, you're going to need to come into a practice lab with your colleagues and work on the on the mannequins. But so we've got four delivery modes. Now. And we're actually we've got it right now. But but we'll be rolling out even more in January in May. And May, we're really hoping Pat is kind of the the new post pandemic Seneca academic delivery model. And look, things change, but but that's what we're aiming for. So the four are, of course, good old fashioned in person, we all know what that means. And then good old fashioned because online wasn't invented, by the pandemic, we have lots of online before, but things will remain online. And again, that can be a whole program, or it can be a course. And as you know, to get into the, into the into the weeds a little bit that can be synchronous, or asynchronous. In other words, it can be something that you need to do at nine o'clock on a Monday morning, or it's something that you can access any time. And that's the asynchronous as opposed to synchronous. So we've got in person online, we've got hybrid, and that's really a mix of those first two, some online, some in person. And again, some of that might be asynchronous, I'm going to be singers. And then the kind of the new one for us is what we're calling flexible delivery. And that's taking advantage of technology in a different way than then, you know, just having the faculty the professor's face on the Zoom screen. So now the now the faculty members back in the lab or the classroom, and we've equipped that lab or classroom with two cameras, one focused on the faculty and one focused on the students in the lab or the classroom. And then we've got a sound system so we can pick up ambient noise in the classroom like questions or like discussion. But the cameras are what they call “Follow Me” cameras. So if you're and I know you know, you're a teacher, so I'm sure you don't stand rigidly still at the front of the class. You you move around. You might use the whiteboard, you might go to your laptop to put something up on display. This camera follows you. It's very cool. I've used it and and so it actually for the faculty member, particularly those who have been getting a little itchy doing it from their dining room table. You can get up and you can move around. And because there are students in the class you're interacting with, with, with people face to face again. But here's where the flexible part comes in the cameras and the mics allow a student to be at home, or somewhere else maybe at work, depending on the program in the course, and engaging in the class fully, because they're on screen for the professor on their on their laptop, they’re hearing, they can engage, it's real time, because one of the things that we've really learned out of this is there's a big premium on convenience for students.  And my phrase is, “We need to meet students where they are rather than keep insisting they come to where we are.”  And I mean that both in a physical sense in terms of place, but also time, we have to figure out how to make it easier for students to learn on their time as opposed to insisting they have to fit into our little schedule and box

 

Pat Perdue  15:53

That was President David Agnew.  We’ll be circling back to that conversation again, when we talk about sustainability at Seneca College. But for the complete conversation, check out episode one of this season. Meantime, technology in the classroom requires the faculty to innovate as well, to accept the challenge of change. Here are professors Tatiana Mighiu and Professor Raghad Kamel on what the classroom changes look like from a faculty perspective. You'll hear Professor Mighiu first. And then Professor Kamel.

 

Professor Tatiana Mighiu  16:26

We have so many options now. And the only thing we have all their grades, we just have to capture the proper delivery mode with with your specificity of your course. Correct.

 

Pat Perdue  16:39

Right. And maybe the student as well.

 

Professor Tatiana Mighiu  16:41

Yes. And the students! Yeah. Well, that's hard to tell because you you might have a mix, like our in our program, I will say we have that 30 30 30 rules. So we have about 30% of the students coming from high school 30% Of the students returning young students returning from university career changes, and then you have adult learners. So and I’ve seen that with HyFlex. Now, the older generation prefers to take the exams and papers steal the younger ones, some of them they are more comfortable with, with writing online. Now, again, that's that's very hard. We are not homogeneous when it comes to, to this still study student body we have in our classes correct. So what we know content, that's something we we know. But students have changed from generation to generation, year to year, you just have to adapt,

 

Pat Perdue  17:37

And Raghad, what are your thoughts of that as you think of in person compared to online only. And now, the hybrid approach? How do all those three compare?

 

Professor Raghad Kamel  17:48

I think every style or board has its own advantages and disadvantages. Like for example in person, they have more chances to have more activities in campus like gym, job fair, or interact with people, our communication skills with others, I see it's very important to be in person, person to person. And this will help them in the future when they work in different companies and teamwork. And for online or high online. They say lectures are recorded. So anyone can back to the lecture any time in person we didn't or we do we don't record them. And the engagement of students online is not like in person, when I know that it's a way for online zoom or any other platform, we can split them into groups. And we did many times. But when I visited the room and other rooms we simulated I see some students they keep quiet they don't participate, but if they are in the class in person, and they work in a group for like a question or like activity, for example, as we did before, they are more engaged in these such or such activities. So I think HyperFlex gives the options to the student to be in person or online. Some of them we know they work. So they have more flexible time commuting time. When in winter, for example, have a snowstorm or something. So there is no like something to prevent us to attend the class for the online. So I think every style of teaching has its own advantages and disadvantages of the end. It depends on the course itself.

 

Pat Perdue  19:40

What struck me about that conversation with professors Mighiu and Kamal is how seriously they take their roles as educators. They recognize their students have accepted a challenge, and they're committed to rising to their own challenge of doing the best they possibly can to help their students succeed. For the complete conversation, check out episode eight. And they're not alone in that challenge, as we talked about Challenge Accepted means the willingness to accept help and to be helped. Which brings us to our conversation with Marianne Marando, Seneca College Academic Vice President, whose entire role at Seneca is to help students succeed at their challenge by ensuring that they're getting the best education possible. Here's Marianne Marando.

 

Marianne Marando  20:27

I see myself as the chief academic officer sometimes called myself the Chief Quality Officer. And really, I'm responsible for making sure that every student from every credential whether it's four year degree, or you know, a six hour micro credential and everything in between I'm my job is to make sure they're getting the highest quality education that they can, and that we always stay on top of that trend to keep providing high quality education. So it's a really exciting job. It's been my dream job. My heart's been at Seneca had a great experience at Durham and George Brown, the other colleges, amazing institutions. But my heart has always been with Seneca. So I'm so happy to be back in this role.

 

Pat Perdue  21:06

What a great story. And as I, as we cast our mind back to that person, 20 years ago, when you thought, I really want that job. Now that you have it, it's like my dad would have said, it's like the dog that chases the car and catches it. You know what I mean? So now, what do you do? How has the experience of having the job compared to what you had envisioned?

 

Marianne Marando  21:26

You know, it's it... That's an interesting question, because it's harder than I thought it would be. Because there's so many moving parts. And I'm very impatient. And I want all the parts to be moving in the same direction and the direction that I think they need to go to right away. But with so many complicated parts, you need to really engage and get input and, and move in a very intentional way. So it's a little bit harder than I thought, I can't just say let it be. And it is. So, so that's, you know, my impatience such as gets the better of me, but I'm really happy I'm here. But all of the 20 years experience that got me here is making this job a lot easier than it would have been, had I not been down that path. So all the mistakes I've made all the lessons I've learned. It's a busy job. But it's an amazing job and amazing opportunity.

 

Pat Perdue  22:20

Marianne spoke of the amazing opportunity feels like the amazing thing is that she wakes up every day, and faces the challenge. How can I make the learning experience better for everyone at Seneca? And answering that question is how she spends her days. That to me is an amazing challenge to have accepted. check out episode six to hear more. Part of making the learning experience better for everyone is making the learning experience inclusive for everyone. This means being inclusive of perspectives, which let's be real, have typically been marginalized at best or completely dismissed in post secondary education in Canada. Obviously, there's a ton of work that needs to be done in this area. The next conversation I want to share with you is with someone who is helping facilitate that work by bringing indigenous perspectives into the classroom through a 12 week program called SKODEN. This is a paradigm shifting program where faculty are challenged with the history of Canada's relationship with indigenous cultures, as seen from indigenous perspectives. And it's a story of the teaching faculty at Odetta indigenous Center at Seneca, who have accepted the challenge to lead and facilitate that change. Here's Randy Petawanakwat, one of the faculty who teaches this golden program on what SKODEN is, if you can give us a peek inside what happens during that 12 weeks?

 

Randy Pitawanakwat  23:49

Yeah, absolutely.  So we've really taken Skoda into whole new levels. We're actually just at the final stages as well as putting out a neat campus Ontario Press book that basically is your, your guide to everything scouted. And it was developed with Seneca staff and faculty and in myself, and so we walk you through together, they're both 12 weeks if we're for connecting in person. And we talk about everything from truth and reconciliation, centering yourself on the land, colonial history, pre contact history, the importance of treaty making residential school history, calls to action, the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIAI people the calls for justice and cultural safety in our classrooms, which is an important part in ally-ship in decolonization and moving forward in a good way and basically, how do you define that right? We we had some discussion around even that, what does it mean to move forward in a good way? So we we help to unpack a lot of that content with the participants in SKODEN

 

Pat Perdue  25:05

That question, what does it mean to move forward? And a good way? Is that something that you could speak to now it sounds like a more of a complicated question than it might appear on the surface.

 

Randy Pitawanakwat  25:16

Yeah. And what that means really, is that we're doing things we're moving about on the land, the best way that we know how, and not really, that doing something in a good way really has its own personal meaning to each individual purse. But what it could mean really, as a whole, is that we're acknowledging, you know, the land that we're on. And we're looking at what's important to us, which is usually the land if we're looking at it that way. But also, we're looking at it from a perspective of what's important for us that we leave behind for our next generation. And so I was looking forward, but also looking back. So having that perspective around doing things in a good way, so that we know that we're trying to secure that same comfort that we have for our next generation. So it's always about thinking about somebody else,

 

Pat Perdue  26:09

To move forward in a good way. That is such an elegant way to say so much. And yeah, as I mentioned, Snowden is definitely paradigm shifting. For more on SKODEN, I invite you to listen to the full conversation in Episode Seven. And I'm super grateful to Randy for joining the pod and sharing.

Okay, so when students graduate from Seneca that's kind of when the reality of the challenge levels up a little, and it can be difficult and also pretty amazing. The next two conversations are with graduates of Seneca College who are out there accepting their challenges. This next conversation I'd like to share is with Seneca College Graduate and Professional freelance illustrator Joseph Osei Bonsu the challenge he's accepted is to live a creative life. And he defines himself as an entrepreneur, talking about his journey to illustrating children's picture book raised with me, published by Scholastic and written by Canadian Olympic champion, Andre De Grasse and writer Robert, also known as “Lucky,” Budd. Here's Joseph Osei Bonsu on how that came about. What's the big project that's, that's driving you today?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  27:18

Oh, the big project. So obviously, um, yeah, Heroes of the World. Trying to, you know, keep the social media relevant, you know, trying to like pitch the brand as an animated series. I think that's like one of our biggest goals, a lot of the freelance work I've been doing. Recently, it's been the children's book Race with Me, which I've done for Scholastic. It's about the Olympic sprinter Andre De Grasse, authored by Andre De Grasse and Lucky Budd. So that has been an amazing experience.

 

Pat Perdue  27:46

And I'm really glad you brought that up, because I did want to talk to you about that. How did that come about? How did you make that happen?

 

Joseph Osei Bonsu  27:53

Oh, man.  Race With Me, that was that was a by chance. So it was one of those, it was one of those things where I, you know, I got the job during the height of the pandemic and my part time job, I had to take a hiatus from my part time job because they laid off people temporarily. And I was just worried about where the money is coming and how things are gonna come about. But luckily, I kept myself creative. And, and luckily, a lot of freelance work was coming in a lot of our commissions, as well as a posting for heroes of the world that got us an article in the Toronto Star. But at the same time, somebody from Scholastic met emails me Yvonne Lamb, who was my art director for the book, and she was like, “Hey, I stumbled upon your Instagram and your website, and I want to pitch your artwork to the Scholastic for a children's book geared towards an athlete, a Canadian athlete.” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, okay, wicked.” So I ended up gathering a bunch of pieces that I had from like, my own stuff and from Heroes of the World and I sent it to Yvonne, and then they she ended up pitching it to the team of this athlete. So in my mind, I was like, “Okay, who can this be? Is this a Raptor? I didn't know like, no idea who this was like, Is this a Toronto Maple Leaf isn't one of the Leafs?  Is it one of the Raptors. Is it some Canadian personality or athlete? And then I think three weeks afterwards, she mentioned that I got the gig. And she's like, “Okay, yeah, you got the gig. They were very pleased with your artwork. And the athlete that you're working with is going to be Andre De Grasse.” And I'm like, “Oh my gosh, wow. Okay, amazing.” This dude's a big deal. So I got to bring my A game. So I yeah, I spent my Yvonne and myself spent, I believe six months, you know, the whole the whole thing was smooth. The whole thing was really smooth.

 

Pat Perdue  29:38

And I've seen it it's beautifully illustrated like it is you spectacular. You did such such a great job. Thank you. Joseph’s path as a creative professional requires courage, dedication and commitment. And if you haven't checked out Race with Me, definitely do so. It's amazing and touching. And as a picture book, Joseph illustrations are a big component. dove it. Joseph is also co-founder of Heroes of the World, which is a comic series and so much more than that. For more of Joseph and what it means to accept the challenge of living your dream. I invite you to listen to episode two from this season.

And someone else who has 100% accepted the challenge is Eunice Kays Yeboah, graduate of Seneca College, co founder and executive director of the Canadian Black Policy Network, co founder of the Toronto Black Policy Conference, and Policy Consultant, anti racism for the Toronto Transit Commission. Here's Eunice talking about the genesis of the Toronto black Policy Conference, the role of the Canadian black policy network and her role at the TTC. Here's Eunice Kays Yeboah.

 

Eunice Kays Yeboah  30:45

And so in 2018, one of my colleagues by the name of Anna-Kay Russell, so shout out to Anna-Kay, she started a collaboration with another student by the name of Terhas, who discovered a Black policy conference at Harvard. And they started a collaboration and then the next year there was an international panel. And so when we went to Harvard in 2018, myself, Anna-Kay, and Sharnelle, who are also co founders of both organizations thought to ourselves, why don't we have these conversations, a space a network, in Canada, in Toronto. And so we started planning in 2018, we brought the idea to the city of Toronto, they loved it, we put on our first conference in 2019, we had an extremely good turnout with over 300 people joining virtually and in person. And what we really try to achieve with the Toronto black policy conference is really to create a space where policy discussions that are affecting or policy issues rather, that are affecting black communities in Toronto can not only be discussed, but we can actually get to tangible, sustainable solutions to resolve these issues. And so we have these conversations with policy professionals, people who are in different spaces like economics, mental health, health, etc, politics. And so we actually just had our conference last Saturday. So our second conference, which was completely virtual, as well. And a lot of the conversations that we have speak to what are the tangible things that we can do to improve the situation of black community members and ensure that they're also able to contribute to society and also their well being like speaking about their well being and ensuring that we're meeting those the needs of black communities, and then the network out of the 2019 Black Policy Conference, we created the Canadian Black Policy Network to actually have these conversations across the country, and to actually create a network of Black policy professionals and allies and supporters who don't identify as Black who can engage in these conversations and in these resolutions, and there was a group out in Atlantic Canada that had their conference in October, actually called the Atlantic Canada Black Policy Conference. So we're definitely seeing change happening slow, but sure. But that's essentially the work that we're doing.

 

Pat Perdue  33:05

And also just a little observation, you're like, you know, I didn't really intend to go into policy, I'm gonna go into policy, and then this is what you do. When you go you go into policy.

 

Eunice Kays Yeboah  33:18

All the way in, I know.

 

Pat Perdue  33:18

That's awesome. That's awesome. So let's talk about your day job. You know, the, the anti racism policy consultant. It sounds a huge at the TTC, can you walk me through a day in the life of, of what that role entails?

 

Eunice Kays Yeboah  33:40

Yeah, I think that role is a very interesting role. And your question is even more interesting, because I think that walking, you know, through a day in the life of Eunice as an anti anti racism policy consultant is a little bit difficult, because everyday looks different. But I would say overall, given the fact that this is a newly created position, in a newly created office, the racial equity office in a newly created department, the Diversity Department, there's a lot of moving pieces, but what my work really focuses on is, you know, drafting leading the, and working together with a team actually to lead the TTC, five year anti racism strategy, a lot of my portfolio is actually focusing on things that I didn't really expect to do. So for example, procurement, I think, has definitely been an interesting learning experience that I'm enjoying. But I think it's really important because as an organization, we are, I would say, a key focus of the city's demographic and just the culture of Toronto. A lot of people depend on the TTC in and outside of the city. And so, just being able to ensure that we're providing opportunities for various organizations and groups to be able to work on projects with the TTC, I think is fundamental. And so everyday looks different. But every day is interesting. Every day is different every day is new, but it's enjoyable as well.

 

Pat Perdue  35:12

That was Eunice Kays Yeboah, showing up and accepting the challenge with the full force of her intent. In our complete conversation, we talked about her why her outlook on life, including how her support system, and her relationship with God helped keep her focused on her life's purpose and how she confronted challenges along her journey. You can find that in Episode Four from this season.

So there's a lot going on. Seneca College has accepted its own challenge called au large, which has informed some of the changes we've talked about today. The three pillars of that challenge are a more equitable Seneca, a more virtual Seneca and a more sustainable Seneca. Here again, is President David Agnew, speaking more about the equitable and sustainable pillars, and how Seneca College has accepted its own challenge. Here's President David Agnew,

 

President David Agnew  36:03

I guess the biggest kind of signature accomplishment out of the equitable pillar, and this is very exciting. We, through the board, the board agreed we dedicated $12 million to the Jane Fund, which is a permanently endowed fund to support EDI focused initiatives for students, financial aid, but also other other things, supports for those students research, community outreach, you know, all sorts of things. And I mean, I can't prove this, but I will bet you that's the largest EDI focused fund there is in postsecondary across the country. And it's permanent. And so it will produce income from that $12 million every year that it can then be put to support our students, and support our equity seeking students and our students who come from communities that are marginalized. And that's very, very exciting. We're just actually in the process of launching a student census, we've done an employee census to, for the first time to really understand not just anecdotally, but through their own answers, who studies here and who works here. Sustainability, we we've adopted our first ever institution wide sustainability plan, Pat, we've had lots of great stuff going on, we really have, but it's never been pulled together. And it's never really been kind of okay, but let's now you got to be accountable for this stuff. Not good enough just to do this great project over here and way over here doing something else, let's bring everything under. And let's make sure that we focus as much on our operations and our services as we do on our academics. Because of course, when you talk about reducing your greenhouse gas, it's really not what's happening in the classroom. It's really, you know, what kind of plant do we have? Or what kind of heating and cooling do we do, what kind of offsets do we have, and so on and so forth. We've also created an office for sustainability and just hired its first director. And so we're very excited about that.

 

Pat Perdue  38:05

And that was Seneca College President David Agnew on some of the more recent developments, as Seneca continues to rise to the challenge of the Au Large Project. And this last conversation I want to share is with the department co-ordinators from the new Office of Sustainability that President Agnew mentioned, Courtney Hayes, and Wai Chu Cheng.  Here's Courtney, talking about the mandate of the Office, and then we'll hear about their respective roles. Alright, here's Courtney and Wai Chu.

 

Courtney Hayes  38:33

We have the new Office of Sustainability, which is building off of the sustainability plan. And the way that our office is set up is it is structured, kind of like our sustainability plan. So we have the four areas of action in sustainability, which is leadership, academics, community and operations. And the way that our opposite setup is that we have Don Forster who's our director, who is, you know, the captain leading this ship, who's really taking ownership of the leadership aspect of that. And then we have Paula, who is not a new face, she's a known faces around Seneca campus and she's working in the community area of things. And then we have myself and Wai Chu, who are doing myself as operations and Wai Chu’s doing the Academics portion of it. And our role really is to one, you know, implement these projects that we had laid out in our sustainability plan each of those areas, so really taking on those projects, but also working in a consultation and support role to formalize sustainability into all of our decision making across all the different departments.

 

Pat Perdue  39:46

Wai Chu your role is a sustainability specialist for academic programs. What does that mean?

 

Wai Chu Cheng  39:54

Yes, so I will be working with academic departments, faculty to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum, and I will also be advising on creating immersive experience for students. And a bit of my work involves developing a sustainability curriculum, micro teaching tools, and other classroom teaching and learning materials. And I will also be doing some kind of delivering faculty workshops, incorporating sustainability in the new or existing concept. And I will also be developing and coordinating communities practices, and potentially I'll be guest speaking in classes. Yeah, so a bit of different things, then, of course, developing research, applied research process projects for students. I'm excited about all these kind of responsibilities.

 

Pat Perdue  40:49

I gotta say, it kind of sounds like a lot.

 

Wai Chu Cheng  40:54

I am very interested in all these kinds of things, all these works.

 

Pat Perdue  40:57

And, Courtney, you mentioned that your role and the roles, the titles are similar, except the end part is a little bit different. You're the Sustainability Specialist for Operations at Seneca. Can you describe what that is?

 

Courtney Hayes  41:11

Yes. So my role is to make sure that we do integrate sustainability into all the operations on campus, which is, you know, like you mentioned, a pretty large scope. So I'm not going to go into, you know, each function of that. But, you know, it's really the backbone that enables us to have better environmental performance and sustainable actions, you know, from building standards and building retrofits, campus gardens, improving the waste program, making sure what we purchase aligns with sustainability. So sustainability really informs all aspects of Seneca operations. So I will be collaborating and making relationships with students and employees as well as our community members, industry reps, and also like our service providers, so our waste haulers or food service workers, and you know, will support best practices and encourage innovation with, you know, everyone that we work with. So what my role really is, is helping formalize decision making to have sustainability be part of that. So whether it be you know, working on the projects that I have outlined in the plan, things like the energy and emissions management plan, the waste minimization reduction plan, sustainable transit and things like that, but also working on scope of works and RFPs, and different purchasing policies and agreements, and really working with food services to have more locally and sustainably sourced food. So really everything to do with operations and trying to embed sustainability into like the formalized processes and policies and procedures so that even if I didn't exist, they would be able to have sustainability in their decision making. Even without me,

 

Pat Perdue  42:53

Along with their colleagues at the Office of Sustainability, it's clear that Courtney Hayes, and Wai Chu Cheng, are accepting their challenges of helping to create a greener planet. And that means helping Seneca do the same. It's inspiring. And I'm really looking forward to hearing more about the accomplishments of the Office of Sustainability over the coming years.

And that brings us to the end of season four of the SenecaProud podcast. And I have to say choosing what segments of the episodes to share with you was a really, really difficult task. Every one of our guests is pointing toward an amazing future, and living the mantra of Challenge accepted. And perhaps as you consider what challenge you're being called to, these stories can provide some inspiration. I'd like to extend a very special thank you to Tiffany Hsieh for your invaluable help in putting this season together as you do in every season. And I'd also like to thank Anibal Martins, for your incredible positivity and for your ongoing support in social media. Until next season, I'm Pat Perdue. Stay proud Seneca