The biggest community hub in Dorset Park, Winston Churchill Collegiate, is working to bring students and staff together in an inclusive way.
One of those is the Black Brilliance Conference set to be held on April 25 at the school. Students across the city are coming for student-led workshops where the focus is afro-futurism.
It’s also an opportunity to “have fun, have music, and just honestly get to embrace each other because there are not many times that us as schools get to come together as Black students,” said Maiya Flowers, a Grade 9 student.
Flowers and Kayla Lawrence, a Grade 11 student, are part of the school’s Black Students Association.
“It’s been great to connect with people who look like me, who feel the same as me, who feel like sometimes that were not represented enough,” said Lawrence.
In fact, the first Africentric secondary program in Canada is at Winston Churchill Collegiate.
Princess Edogiawerie, the assistant curriculum leader of the Leonard Braithwaite Africentric Program. She said students are “learning the provincial curriculum through diverse perspectives of the African diaspora. So it’s connecting students with their culture, and centering them in their learning.”
“I never had a black teacher growing up. So that’s one of the reasons why I went into teaching because I recognize the lack thereof in the school system,” added Edogiaweire.
She and other teachers are on a mission to help children further embrace and celebrate Black culture. But in the halls of Winston Churchill, students of all backgrounds and abilities are cherished.
Evans Hyppolite has autism and is part of the school’s Autism Spectrum Disorder program. It’s set up to support students in many aspects.
“Growing up with autism doesn’t really have much effect on me. It makes me go stronger. It’s like a superpower,” said Hyppolite.
Sirya Sarath and Anahid Ashraf, also members of the program, told CityNews how happy they to be there.
“It’s the best program in the whole entire world … I want to become more sociable into that. And I love making new friends,” said Sarath.
“I have met a lot of people … teachers give me a lot of support. And I don’t like being in a big mainstream classroom with less teachers and more students,” added Ashraf.