James Helps Launch Mentorship Programme
Members of the ‘Black Students in Design’ [BSD] at University of Toronto — which was founded by Bermudian Clara James — launched a “new initiative to support young Black students interested in the architecture and design fields.”
The University of Toronto website said, “On January 22, members of the Daniels group Black Students in Design [BSD] launched a new initiative to support young Black students interested in the architecture and design fields. The mentorship program, called Building Black Success through Design [BBSD], is the first of its kind at the Daniels Faculty.
Three BSD members — [from left] Renée Powell-Hines, Vienna Holdip [on the phone] and Clara James — meet at the Daniels Faculty, image via the University website
“We are incredibly excited to kick off Building Black Success through Design,” says Clara James, founder and president of BSD. “Through a lot of work and collaboration between BSD members and the Daniels Outreach Office, we were able to develop a mentorship program dedicated to building interpersonal relationships between Black university and high school students.”
“The program’s inaugural cohort includes six high school students from across the Greater Toronto Area and one from Calgary. Centred around a design competition, the program guides mentees through each step of the design process as they work toward creating individual submission packages. They will be mentored over the next two months by six BSD members, including James,” the website noted.
“Among the exercises that the high schoolers will take part in are design and technical workshops with other student groups [such as Applied Architecture & Landscape Design], lectures by Daniels faculty members, and sessions with Black design professionals. Participants will present their final projects at a showcase with prizes the week following March Break.”
You can read the full story here.
