Celebrating Black excellence among new TMU grads

Students are marking a milestone at convocation this month. Meet two grads who have not only succeeded academically, but also demonstrated leadership and community building during their time at TMU. 

Nya Martin-Hemming and Keneisha Charles attended the Black Excellence Graduation Celebration this year to celebrate their achievements alongside fellow Black graduating students at TMU. 

Black grads, family, friends and members of the TMU community were invited to attend the 4th annual Black Excellence Graduation Celebration on June 8th at the Student Learning Centre, an auxiliary ceremony organized to revel in Black flourishing, achievement and joy. An estimated 180 graduates and 300 guests were in attendance.

Creating community

When business and law student Nya Martin-Hemming began her studies at the Ted Rogers School of Management, she saw a gap in Black student leadership within the school’s student body. 

“Representation matters. Being part of student leadership and student groups provides a lot of opportunities to develop professionally,” she says.

Martin-Hemming is the outgoing co-president of the first Black Business Students Association  (external link) (BBSA) at the Ted Rogers School of Management. “Before the BBSA was created, I didn't feel there was a space for Black students in the program and that we weren't a part of the conversation, so our needs weren’t being expressed or heard as a community.”

The Black community at TMU is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse, made up of both domestic and international students with disparate experiences and identities. By creating a student organization that focused on recognizing the intersectional experiences of Black business students, Martin-Hemming and her counterpart, BBSA co-president Mohammad Badawy, were able to provide support and resources to meet the needs of their student community. 

One example was the successful Black Women In Entrepreneurship event hosted by the BBSA. “The goal is to create a space where everyone feels seen and supported,” she says.

Martin-Hemming understands keenly the professional benefits of student involvement. The BBSA provided their membership with opportunities for professional development, networking, mentorship, resume-building and other job-focused initiatives. The highlight, a career fair, included high level corporate partnerships with the NFL, KPMG, TD, Amex, P&G, MLSE and more.

In March, the BBSA received the Associate/Subsidiary Club Award (external link)  from the Canadian Association of Business Students. The honour recognizes a subsidiary club for its meaningful contributions to the student community over the past year.

Martin-Hemming received the Viola Desmond Bursary Student Award, Women In Leadership Award, SLC Student Engagement and Leadership Award, Dr. Carole Chauncey Award and the Northside Hip Hop Archive/Fantastic Voyage Radio Show Award.

Her passion, drive, determination and spirit will continue to impact her community through the BBSA. “Everyone on the BBSA team is super excited about the possibilities of the BBSA, and what we stand for,” she says.  

Leading with grit

Keneisha Charles is a poet, organizer and TMU social work grad with a focus in Caribbean and disability studies. They were one of the faces of the recent TMU GRIT campaign, featured for their social justice advocacy and work. This included their efforts as part of the Consent Action Team in the Consent Comes First office, in gaining national recognition for the #HighSchoolToo campaign, providing support and advocacy tools to university and secondary school students to end sexual violence.

As a member of the Consent Action Team, they also stood alongside NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam and other student representatives at Queen’s Park in September to raise consent awareness and commit the government to a bill (external link)  that would recognize the third week of September as Consent Awareness Week (a time that  coincides with the increase in sexual violence that occurs on post-secondary campuses). The bill has since passed.

Charles also co-founded the Reimagining Safety Coalition (external link) , working with other students to create a safer campus without policing by advocating for community-led, abolitionist and trauma-informed approaches to safety and security at TMU. The organization is premised on a perspective that recognizes violence as deeply linked to systemic issues like poverty, misogyny, colonialism among other forms of oppression, and that true safety and security is transformative.

Family history as colonial history

For Charles, dreaming a new future into reality is what inspires and motivates them. And with an imagination as deep, rich and radical as theirs, it’s easy to believe in the revolutionary power of artistic expression.

Their poem Sugar Cane Kindred (external link) , written in their first-year at TMU and featured in White Wall Review, TMU’s Journal of Creative Writing in the department of English, explores Afro-Caribbean, diaspora identity and intergenerational trauma through the metaphor of sugar. “Sugar was the Caribbean’s main export during the transatlantic slave trade,” they remind us. 

Bringing into sharp relief the incongruity of sugar’s sweetness and the horrific history of African peoples enslavement for over 400 years, Charles draws a line mapping their family lineage across colonial history.  

Creating a life of their own

Having moved from British Columbia to attend TMU required a leap of faith on Charles’ part. With no friends or family in Toronto, they look back with pride at all they were able to overcome and achieve, and for the community they were able to create for themselves. “I definitely feel a lot more connected.”    

This translates into advice for first-year Black-identifying students; “Seek Black community and turn in. Connect with other Black students, because that's how we make it through, especially when things get tough.”

The Black Excellence Graduation Celebration is organized by the Black Excellence Committee in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion, Office of the Vice-Provost, Students: Tri-Mentoring Program and Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Talent Management Centre of Expertise.

Creating opportunities for Black students, faculty and staff to authentically build community and have spaces of belonging at our university is a top priority of the Black Excellence Committee, which works to celebrate the power, achievements and successes of the Black community.