Congratulations to our 2024 Gold Medal Winner: Meredith Graham

Meredith Graham was born into an environment of childhood abuse. Shuffled around in government care, group homes and even on the streets at times. Facing poverty without, and mental struggles within. Any one of her many marginalizing experiences could have easily extinguished her flame.

But this fall, her walk across TMU’s convocation platform marked a major milestone in her success story. The intrepid child and youth care graduate not only earned her master’s degree, but also a prestigious TMU Gold Medal. And she’s still not finished her academic path. She’ll soon apply for programs to pursue a PhD, all the while running her business, Symphony of Resiliency (external link) , for keynote presenting, workshop facilitating, and consulting.

Graham’s thesis, Spoken Word Poetry with Indigenous Queer Youth to (Re)Claim Identity, explored the use of art in the youth care context, eventually earning her the Dean’s Graduate Essay Writing Award. Now, she’s working to create an arts therapy studio — one where art is a tool for therapy and advocacy. Ultimately drawing from both her lived experiences and degree education, she’s inspired to continue creating change so that people who come up after are better cared for and served.

What does receiving the Gold Medal mean to you?

I am deeply honoured and humbled that the faculty even chose to nominate me for this award — and equally so with being chosen as the recipient. I hope that every person who has ever poured into my life feels encouraged by this award. To them, I want to say: “Your instrument in my symphony of resiliency resounds loudly in this moment.” 

This award holds a powerful responsibility and opportunity to continue the work and to dream further beyond what I think is possible. It’s less for me, and more for every person who exists in similar life intersections as me journeying through government care and multiple adversities with mental illness. We can, and do, accomplish incredible things!

It’s confirmation, too, that art can be woven inside academia making higher education more accessible for folks from actively marginalized and oppressed places. 

What challenges did you overcome during grad school?

Living through a collection of marginalizing experiences, I have been acutely aware of how these traumas negatively impact folks’ development and their ability to pursue their dreams. For folks who come from shared intersections, the statistics for completing any level of institutionalized education — let alone a master’s degree — are incredibly low. These deserve, and ought, to be higher. We are not the trauma story. There is darkness — and there is light. There is also beauty and resilience.

As a graduate student from out of province in a commuter university, I did struggle with sometimes feeling alone. I also journey with mental illnesses — the most prominent is bipolar disorder. From childhood, I grew up always feeling unwanted — like a burden, an imposition, a problem to be solved or discarded in frustration. These feelings permeated my existence and, to this day, I struggle with feelings of not belonging, of being too much, of worthiness. So, being able to manage my mental health while pursuing full-time studies and working with practicum was an interesting adventure. Moving through those challenges was made possible by the various supports offered through TMU, the friends I made inside the program, the faculty who scaffolded both my scholastic endeavours and my wellness, and my community back home in British Columbia.

How did TMU support your success?

I have been blessed to be enveloped by TMU in many capacities. As a person with lived government-care experience, I was able to access the tuition waiver program which helped substantially in making this academic pursuit possible. Inside the FCS faculty, I have also been provided many opportunities to strengthen my learning, contribute my skills, and cultivate deep relationships. I have been supported and transformed by folks inside Child and Youth Care, particularly. I am changed because of their belief and investment in me. 

What are your best memories and takeaways from TMU?

My best memories are woven and stitched inside the people I had the privilege of learning alongside. I found some of my people in this place — colleagues and professors who encourage, question, challenge, and support one another.

Those people are working to change the world through pedagogy and practice — and that is inspiring and motivating to be steeped in and to witness. I am deeply grateful for my scholarly crew and my professors who invited me to participate in their projects, their research initiatives, and their lives. The memories and learnings from those people are sewn inside my spirit, and I carry that influence with me.

What advice would you give to students considering grad school?

You are worth the investment in yourself and your future! I invite you to honour the maybe small voice inside you that wonders if this is something meant for you. If it can be for me, then it can be for you, too. Higher education can feel like a gatekept experience, but/and don’t let that stop you; it is something for you, too. 

Cultivate a deep sense of curiosity, learn both how to ask the questions and how to listen for the answers. And, bring your full self! As an artist, I worried that I would have to sacrifice pieces of me to be “an academic”, but/and the beauty is that you can blend those pieces of you together in a master’s program — and beyond.