The little school that could

By Suelan Toye

An avid sailor, Professor Jean Golden has been sailing in the northern Bahamas since the 1980s during her summer vacations.

It was sometime in the late 90s when she noticed a friend of hers would often drive off to an unknown location most mornings.

Out of curiosity, Professor Golden asked her friend one day where she went, so the friend took her Every Child Counts (external link) (ECC), a school located in Marsh Harbor on Abaco Island, a picturesque archipelago among a chain of islands scattered in the northern Bahamas.

That journey changed the course of Professor Golden’s academic life.

“Even though I’ve been here all this time, I didn’t know about this place,” recalled the professor. “When I walked in, I thought to myself that Ryerson can help. It’s a way for me and my students to give back.”

The modest-looking school is a lifeline for Bahamian children and youth with learning, developmental, emotional and some physical disabilities. With the exception of a few schools for those who are blind or deaf, the Bahamas’ public education system does not have strong support systems for children with different learning and physical abilities.

Lyn Major, a local resident, started the ECC School in 1998 in a trailer, after failing to find a suitable education environment for her adopted three-year-old twin boys with autism. The community school, supported entirely by private donations, has now expanded to encompass four buildings and provides education and occupational training for nearly 100 children, youth and young adults who are stigmatized, and at times, bullied, neglected and abused.

When Professor Golden met Ms. Major, she found the school principal to be one of the most generous, caring women she had ever met. “Lyn believes very strongly that every human being has a right to develop to their full potential. Children with disabilities have much to teach others about caring and loving and justice in the world.”

Professor Golden was committed to help the principal. And so in 2011, the Bahamas Project was born.

For the past eight years, Professor Golden and Principal Major have built a strong, collaborative partnership and friendship, thanks to the generous support from the Faculty of Arts and other units at Ryerson University.

To date, 130 Ryerson students have spent time at the school, first on academic placements or as volunteers, then in the last year, as part of an experiential learning sociology course, International Community Engagement (SOC803).

This May, 15 students from programs including philosophy, English, arts and contemporary studies, criminology, sociology, and  early childhood studies will spend a month at the school working a variety of projects that were either started by last year’s group of students or are new this year.

These projects include running education workshops for teachers and students in the public schools to break down attitudinal barriers around disabilities, providing classroom support for the teachers and working with individual students, developing solar energy resource materials with the ECC Eco Club, and producing a marketing video for the vocational workshop.

Ryerson students will also write student bios for fundraising, scholarships and the school’s annual yearbook, assist with educational testing and graduation planning, and provide input in revising the school’s policies.

Throughout the course, the students meet weekly with community leaders to learn about the island’s history, culture, religion and critical social issues to gain a broad understanding of the socio-economic disparities that Bahamians face, such as lack of women’s reproductive and equity rights, growing poverty, and ethnic conflict. The students also meet with Professor Golden to discuss what they are experiencing first-hand and write reflective journals throughout the course.

For Megan Mellor, a fourth-year sociology student who was also part of last year’s group, the experience not only helped hone her skills in grant writing, but also reminded her of the joy working with children brings her. She and another student worked with a local NGO, Friends of the Environment, to secure a $50,000 grant to build two solar panels that, when completed, will power air conditioning to cool the new assisted living centre and the vocational training centre, giving students respite from the blistering summer temperatures.

Kaela Menezes, a fellow fourth-year sociology student who was among the 15 students who spent a month at ECC last May, found the experience transformative. The student had worked on several initiatives including creating presentation boards to help raise funds for a new vocational training centre for senior students.

“When I talk about the school I still get emotional,” said Menezes who is graduating in June. “Many of the students would tell me that they love it there because the teachers listen to them and treat them as human beings. Hearing those words really touched my heart.”

Her experience also has made her re-think her career options. She had her heart set on a career in the public sector but instead, she is keen to work with children in a non-profit setting. “[This experience] has opened so many paths that I didn’t consider before.”

 The course had such a profound impact on Amanda Connell, a fourth-year sociology student, that she’s planning another trip back to the school. “The experience is truly like living sociology because we saw the effects and acts of racism, sexism and ableism in the daily lives of people around us. It makes us want to understand how and why it’s happening.”

“The presence of the Ryerson students has had a huge impact on ECC,” said Principal Major. “Our staff has the opportunity to learn new strategies and receive assistance in providing one-on-one care that all of our students need. It is a wonderful exchange and a great deal of help for us to have the Ryerson students with us each year.”