If you had access to all of the University of Toronto’s resources would you take It?

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

I have always praised LinkedIn as being a wonderful, and powerful connection tool. If you utilize this well, you can move quickly from one point in your career to the other. Why am I telling you this? It is the genesis point of this report, and it is where I happened to meet L.A. Wade, a Registrar at the University of Toronto. We quickly grew an online connection, and it all came together when L.A. invited me to the University of Toronto, to not only report but to be a part of a series of workshops called World Café Conversations. When she invited me, I was instantly intrigued, but there was no indicator that the experience would be what it was. Before we go into the details of this experience, let us learn a little bit about who is involved in coordinating this event, and what this means to you.

World Café Career Conversations is an event coordinated by the Transitional Year Program, a program that has had its roots in the black community of Toronto as far back as 1969. The initial goal of the program was to prepare a small number of students for entry to York University, and now it has evolved into a full-time, eight-month access to University program. Many of the students who attend this program have grown up in communities where there is limited access to higher education. The program opens its doors to not only younger students but also adults who do not have the formal qualifications for university admission. The Transitional Year Programme is unique because they saw that there was a need; the members of this program understand that not everyone has an opportunity to finish high school because of: financial problems, family difficulties, or other circumstances beyond their control. This is why they actively encourage applications from the: African-Canadian, Native Canadian and LGBTQ communities. Sole-support parents, persons with disabilities, and individuals from working class-backgrounds also have a chance to change their life circumstances and are invited to become part of the Transitional Year Programme.

World Café Career Conversations
We arrived at the Hart House at 9:30 am, where we were greeted with a marvellous continental breakfast. I took a quick scan of the room and saw a room of professionals that represented the underrepresented: Indigenous, African/ Black/ Caribbean, Asian, LGBTTI2SQQ+ and First Generation were all in attendance. We had a small meeting with the organizers of the event L.A.Wade, and Professor Lance McCready; they explained that the goal of the event was for the students to meet professional role models who reflected their shared identity and lived experiences. The event was to provide structured conversations between the students, and the mentors, offering them a safe space to ask questions that will allow them to gain valuable insight about careers they are interested in.

We as the mentors were to: share our pathway to our career; share our educational pathway; talk about barriers we had to overcome along the way, and provide some time at the end for any questions the students had. Once we were prepped, the café conversations began. Each group of students sat at each table (round-robin style) for 10-15 minutes. Having some of these conversations, took me back to times in my life, and it was amazing that even though some of the students were significantly younger than me, many of them could relate to things that had happened to me in my past. I could feel the students after a few minutes open up, and during the hour and a half café, I noticed many private student, mentor conversations happening.

The Transitional Year Programme is quite unique; outside workshops like World Café Conversations, they provide students with counselling and funding options, a space to work, and an opportunity to socialize with other students in the program. The program admits approximately 60 students, and has a faculty of ten, a registrar, an administrator, and a program assistant, all who are involved in: helping students upgrade their skills, providing intensive supporting counselling, and increasing the confidence of students who before this program, did not think they had a chance.