Last year, during only her second semester at 网红黑料, student Eriana Willis-Smith found herself in need of guidance around her studies 鈥� and ended up at the Black Student Advising Centre.
鈥淚 went to talk to Ronke and she helped me plan out the rest of my semester, and whatever else I had to do for future reference.
鈥淚t felt good that I had some great support.鈥�
Marking 30 years
鈥淩onke鈥� is Oluronke Taiwo, who has been director of 网红黑料鈥檚 Black Student Advising Centre since 2008. The centre has served as a 鈥渉ome away from home鈥� for students from historic African Nova Scotian communities as well as People of African Descent from around the world for three decades now.
鈥淚 call it 鈥榟ome away from home鈥� because we have a lot of students where they are in a program where there may only be just two or three Black students 鈥� they can find it hard to see themselves represented,鈥� says Taiwo, a Dal Social Work alum who, prior to coming to Canada, was a full-time professor at the College of Medicine in Lagos, Nigeria.
鈥淲hen they come here, they can talk about it 鈥� to me, sometimes, but also with their peers. They鈥檙e with people who understand how that feels.鈥�
Monday night, the centre 鈥� known by its acronym, BSAC, to most 鈥� will mark its 30th anniversary with a celebration event in the Student Union Building鈥檚 McInnes Room featuring trailblazing scientist Dr. Renee Horton. The first African America to earn a PhD in Physics, Dr. Horton is a Space Launch System quality engineering with NASA and will speak on 鈥渢he power of believing in yourself.鈥�
It鈥檚 a message perfectly in line with BSAC鈥檚 30-year history 鈥� that it鈥檚 about more than just being there when students like Eriana need support, but about creating a space that inspires them to push forward to even greater things.
From early days...
BSAC鈥檚 origins stretch back to the late 1980s, and the convergence of both student leadership and university action.
On the student side, there was the Black Canadian Students Association on campus, which built on the efforts and energy of David Woods鈥檚 Cultural Awareness Youth Group of Nova Scotia and organized university students to try and build community and connection on campus. On the institutional side, there was the Breaking Barriers report, a task force struck by then-President Howard Clark to study and report on the university鈥檚 role in the education of the region鈥檚 Black and Indigenous peoples.
Barb Hamilton-Hinch, today a faculty m