In 2004, three friends — Cecil Houston, then dean of the UWindsor Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; John Solarski, a high school guidance counsellor; and Dave Watkins, a history teacher at Weston Collegiate in Toronto — had a conversation about Black youth getting to university.

All had seen the need to help young Black students realize that they could attend university and do well. Their goal was to inspire young people through an intense learning experience that would encourage them to proceed to higher education. And the African Diaspora Youth Conference (ADYC) was born.

That May, the University of Windsor hosted the first mini conference. Eighteen years later, the ADYC continues to grow and thrive. In a normal year, students from Toronto would arrive on campus on Thursday afternoon, stay in residence, and be joined by students from Windsor-Essex and Detroit on Friday for conference sessions on campus all day. In the evening each group of 25 students would put on a short performance. After breakfast Saturday morning, the Toronto students would board their buses and head home. In 2019, the last year the conference was held in person, over 350 students attended.

This year’s conference will be attended by more than 200 students from 18 Toronto high schools, 16 high schools representing the public and Catholic boards in Windsor and Essex County, and eight schools from Metro Detroit that are part of Oakland University’s Project Upward Bound.

“There is so much that students can take from this experience,” says ADYC co-ordinator Fardovza Kusow. “They have an opportunity to get to know students from other cities, an opportunity to engage with university students, to meet and have conversations with facilitators and guest speakers. And apply themselves in a way they haven’t had a chance to previously through our workshops.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year the event will be a one-day conference, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, May 7, on the web conferencing platform Zoom with technical facilitation by information technology staff with the Toronto District School Board.

“The Toronto board’s technical experts have been exceptional to work with,” says Yvonne Zimmerman, special events co-ordinator in the office of the dean of FAHSS. “They have the expertise to keep a large number of breakout rooms secure and move participants and facilitators around virtually.”

ADYC is organized by a small group of faculty, staff, Ignite students, and volunteers. The conference chair is Andrew Allen, associate professor, Anti-Racism Pedagogies Teaching Leadership Chair. Kusow, a fourth-year psychology major, has also been a UWindsor ambassador, present on billboards, ads, and signage around campus. And new this year, the team includes a group of students from United Way's On Track to Success program.

“This conference is almost 100 per cent student organized. There is a group of three to four students we’ve hired through Ignite who are organizing the conference,” proposing speakers and activities, explains Dr. Allen.

“This is an opportunity for these students to develop their leadership skills and for them to plan a conference. It’s worked. Over the years we’ve seen these students learn to lead.”

Although virtual, this year’s schedule has maintained its elements of greatest impact. Attendees are assigned to teams with students from other schools, introducing them to other communities. The day includes keynote addresses by Khary Mason, a former homicide detective with the Detroit Police Department, and motivational speaker Jeff A.D. Martin. Students will rotate through breakout room workshops facilitated by faculty, educators, and UWindsor alumni who attended the conference when they were high school students. The University’s recruitment staff will take students on a virtual campus tour.

The icing on the cake is a bursary in the amount of $1,000 for students who attend the African Diaspora Youth Conference for any program of study at the University of Windsor.

Watch an interview with ADYC co-ordinator Fardovza Kusow:

For more information on the conference, and to watch a short promo video created by previous co-ordinator Crystal Bryan, visit https://www.uwindsor.ca/diasporayouthconference/.

—Susan McKee

Ever wonder how the University of Windsor came to be? UWindsor Outstanding Scholars student Devon Fraser has captured the unique history with her capstone research project, Assumption College: Through the Decades.

Fraser, a history major and recent graduate, was part of the Outstanding Scholars program, which pairs high-achieving students with faculty and pays them to complete research outside class.

Fraser was paired with Leddy librarian Heidi Jacobs during her second year of undergraduate studies to assist with various historical projects including the Breaking the Colour Barrier, a project that focused on the Chatham Coloured All-Stars baseball team from the 1930s, and the Centre for Digital Scholarship’s film and web project, The North Was Our Canaan: Exploring Sandwich Town’s Underground Railroad History, a partnership with the Essex County Black Historical Research Society.

With Jacobs as her mentor, Fraser was ready to pursue her own historical research project. Inspired by her grandfather, who was employed by the architectural firm who designed the first campus library in 1958 (now the West Building of Leddy Library), she decided to dive into the history of the University.

“The history of the university fascinated me because I found many interesting stories surrounding its creation,” said Fraser. “Events like the battles between Bishop Fallon and Father Francis Forster really highlighted the human side of Assumption College, and these stories demonstrated how difficult and uncertain the creation and maintenance of Assumption College really was.”

Assumption College Through the Decades, a website featuring text and images, provides an overview of Assumption’s long and storied history from its inception in 1857 to its incorporation into the University of Windsor in 1963. Its over 100-year history as an independent institution, notwithstanding its current existence as an affiliated university, showcases stories of resilience, faith, and determination in creating a university to serve the needs of the community in Windsor.

Fraser said the project has not only been extremely beneficial to her academic journey, but has also provided career clarity.

“Working with Dr. Jacobs through Outstanding Scholars has completely altered my career path,” she said. “By working with Dr. Jacobs and seeing the amazing opportunities available in the field of library science, such as this project, I’ve been inspired and encouraged to go into this field myself and will be pursuing a Masters of Library and Information Science at Western University.”

Fraser believes this project is an example of the many possibilities available in the field of library sciences, one that merges traditional academia with modern digitization and online access.

She hopes to encourage others to see the same possibilities in the field and help to modernize library sciences.

Fraser will share her journey and findings during a virtual event on Tuesday, May 11, beginning at 7 p.m. The community is invited to join; the event is free and registration is available online.

—Marcie Demmans