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The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement has nine mandates which reflect an ongoing commitment to foster authentic, reciprocal engagement between Black families, communities, and service providers. Some of the recommendations from our education partners identified the need for Black students to have access to programs through the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement and more importantly, connecting with organizations and post-secondary schools to execute this vision. Their recommendations are as follows:
Adhering to the calls for establishing a transparency mechanism, the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement will share information and research findings related to our program offering's.
In 2021, The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement conducted consultations with African, Afro-Caribbean, and Black (ACB) students, their families and community members. The consultations sought to elicit perspectives from each education partner in relation to the role of the Centre of Excellence and the TDSB as a whole.
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The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement: Black Students Adventures in Engineering program highlights the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) efforts to improve pathways to science and engineering for Black students and equity through access, while also reducing barriers to post-secondary education.
This program aimed to provide support and provide access to African, Afro-Caribbean, and Black (ACB) students to post-secondary education and to promote increased participation in science and engineering pathways. The program also sought to broaden students’ academic skills, and enhance their ability to maneuver the cultural, academic, and social environment of post-secondary education.
The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement designed and delivered its third annual five-week Black Student Summer Leadership Program (BSSLP) in July 2021. The BSSLP is a unique program that offers leadership training and paid work experiences for self-identified Black secondary school students across the TDSB.
The primary aim of the BSSLP is to support the development of Black students’ leadership skills and enhance their knowledge about various careers or industries that often see an underrepresentation of individuals from Black communities. Students can be placed in opportunities which include business, media and creative industries, technology and trades, information technology and entrepreneurship.
The BSSLP also builds students’ capacity to conduct community-based research using a youth participatory action research (YPAR) method. The objectives of that aspect of the program are to: (a) deepen students’ engagement in learning; (b) strengthen leadership and empowerment (c) increase research and communication skills; (d) improve critical awareness about social problems; and (e) expand social networks in the communities of Black students.
The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement partnered with the Black Aviation Professionals Network to develop a program for Black students at the TDSB wishing to pursue a career in the aviation field. The program is designed to support a key Centre of Excellence mandate, which is to provide support to Black students, identify barriers to their success, and access appropriate resources through scholarships, networking and mentoring.
Initiated in 2022, the focus of A Day in Aviation is to encourage Black students in Grades 10-12 to explore aviation as an academic and career pathway.
In the program, students have an opportunity to engage in discussions with Black professionals and learn about the roles and complexities of working in the industry.
One of the mandates of the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement is to develop and facilitate culturally responsive and relevant healing practices for students. To assist in fulfilling this mandate, the Black Girls’ Book Club (BGBC) was initiated in 2020 for Black girls in TDSB secondary schools.
The space provided by the BGBC is an identity-affirming space that provides opportunities to counter misrepresentations, stereotypes, and discrimination which Black girls experience in school and the wider community. The BGBC a space to inspire healthy discourse among Black girls. As a result of its success, the BGBC expanded in 2021-2022 to include Black middle schools in Grades 6-8.
The TDSB’s Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement developed a partnership with ADVANCE Canada's Black Music Business Collective. This partnership is aligned with the Centre of Excellence’s mandate to identify barriers to success, access appropriate resources (e.g., scholarships, networking, mentoring), and engage in strategic community partnerships related to education.
The core of the partnership was based on a nine-week program that aimed to increase the interest of Black students in Grades 11 and 12 to pursue a career path within the music industry. The objectives of the program are:
The Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement partnered with the Black Veterinary Association of Canada to create the Pathways to Veterinary
Medicine Program, a program for Black students in Grades 7-12 at the TDSB who aspire to pursue a career as a Veterinarian or Veterinary Medical Paraprofessional, these are fields in which Black professionals are underrepresented.
During the six-week program, students received support and guidance about the requirements to apply to veterinary colleges and veterinary technician programs and learned about education and career pathways in veterinary medicine.
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