By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo contributed Yanique Brandford, a fourth-year medical physics student at Ryerson University, is the recipient of the Viola Desmond student bursary |
Yanique Brandford aspires to become a medical physicist to
join efforts to treat, prevent or cure cancer through clinical research.
This isn’t her only goal. As a fourth-year medical physics
student at Ryerson University in Toronto, the 22-year-old artist, entrepreneur
and humanitarian also wants to help girls in her homeland.
Based on her personal experiences growing up in Jamaica, and
as a response to the realization of how widespread period poverty and period shame
was, Brandford founded the not-for-profit organization, Help A Girl Out
(helpagirlout.org).
This is something she started in high school but at the time
didn’t really think much about what she was doing. She became the go-to person
for her friends at school.
“I didn’t know that that it was the foundation. It was kind
of like foreshadowing in a way,” says Brandford, noting that when she
registered Help A Girl Out in 2018 her friends told her that she had been doing
it for a very long time.
For over a year she has been trying to organize a project in
Jamaica, and in May she will head there with products she fundraised and gifts
from Procter and Gamble to take to girls there.
However, there is a slight challenge, says Brandford as
Jamaica has shut down the importation of liquids without a permit and she would
need a registered Jamaican charity to grant tax exemption at customs.
This therefore means that she will not be able to send the
liquids, only the menstrual pads.
On March 2, Brandford received the Viola Desmond student
bursary from the university for her financial need, good academic standing, and
demonstrated involvement in the community through extracurricular activities
and/or community service on or off campus.
The annual Viola Desmond Awards event recognizes the
contributions of outstanding Black Canadian women to the Ryerson campus and in
the greater Toronto community. It is named after Desmond, an African-Nova
Scitian entrepreneur, whose story involved one of the most publicized incidents
of racial discrimination in Nova Scotian and Canadian history.
Originally from Rose Town, Kingston and Portmore, St.
Catherine, Brandford immigrated to Canada with her mother and her sister in
September 2011.
After attending St. Augustine and Notre Dame Catholic
secondary schools in Brampton, Ontario she enrolled at the university.
For a long time, Brandford did acrylic painting and then
used oils to design board games and oil paintings, which she sold as a means to
put herself through school.
She also did fuse glass jewelry in a kiln she operated by
renting space in her sister’s garage. Brandford said she started her first
business at 16 when she received a government summer company grant and did so
successfully. She did a few other things
under her business license which has since expired.
The student had a workshop where she would cut the glass and
all the neighbours came over to see her work, eventually becoming her
customers. Recently, she sold fifty pieces at her church.
“It was the skills that I learned during that time that I
take and I applied to Help A Girl Out because it taught me how to network. I
was a part of the Brampton Entrepreneur Centre, the Small Business Centre, so I
had a lot of influential people around me.”
Brandford is currently working on her research thesis and
has applied to Ryerson’s biomedical physics master’s program.
Speaking at the 12th annual Viola Desmond Awards
ceremony, she said in her second year at the university in one of her
classes she sought clarification from a professor about a complicated calculus
problem.
“She looked at me and she’s like, ‘To be honest, if you
don’t understand this simple step you shouldn’t be here. People like you don’t
normally go on to pass this level of math and there’s no shame in that, but
probably if you can’t understand this then probably the other classes that
you’ll have next year in your third year you probably won’t be able to get
through them.’”
She was flummoxed about what the professor meant by “people
like you” – did she mean “girls like me,” “students like me” – she wasn’t
thinking that this was about her colour as her professor was Asian.
Despite this experience, many of her teachers have been
supportive of her academic pursuits and she ignores those who are discriminatory
in their actions toward her.
Brandford proved that professor wrong by getting a ‘B’ in
her class and got ‘As’ in other classes she described as harder.
She is also a volunteer in the radiation clinic at
Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto, where she assists doctors, nurses
and radiation therapists with patient service.
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| Photo credit: Clifton Li, Ryerson University Senator Rosemary Moodie, faculty award honouree, left, presents the Senator Rosemary Moodie Award to faculty recipient, Dr. Beverly-Jean Daniel at the 12th annual Viola Desmond Awards Ceremony at Ryerson University on March 2, 2020. |
The other 2020 award recipients were: Dr. Beverly-Jean
Daniel, faculty recipient of the Senator Rosemary Moodie Award; Olanike (Nikki)
Waheed, staff recipient of the Trey Anthony Award; Latoya Powell, student
recipient of the Joan Jones Award; Namugenyi Kiwanuka, alumni recipient of the
Angela James Alumni Award; and Huda Nur, high school student recipient of the
Viola Desmond Award.
Also honoured at the awards ceremony was Senator Rosemary
Moodie, who described Desmond as a Canadian icon.
“Many of the actions that I have taken in the past before my
call to the Red Chamber have been inspired by the work of Viola Desmond, a
woman whose belief in herself and whose actions changed Canada, changed
institutions for the good of all individuals but especially for the most
vulnerable amongst us,” said the senator before presenting the faculty award to
Dr. Beverly-Jean Daniel who holds a Ph.D. in sociology and equity studies in
education.
“Since my appointment to the Senate, I’ve continued work on
social justice and equity issues especially related to the rights of children,
to their wellbeing and to their representation,” said the pediatrician and
neonatologist who was appointed to the Senate of Canada in December 2018 as an
independent senator representing Ontario.
The other 2020 award honourees were: Trey Anthony, the first
African-Canadian woman to write and produce a television show on a major prime
time television network; Angela James, a former member of the Canadian Women’s
Hockey team for ten years and was recently inducted in the International Ice
Hockey Hall of Fame; and Joan Jones, posthumously. Jones was a champion of the
equity and social justice cause by being a deputy of the movement in Halifax,
Nova Scotia.
She and her husband, Rocky Jones, provided a space in their
home where ideas were born and implemented. Joan Jones passed away on April 1,
2019 at the age of 79.
Dr. Denise O’Neil Green, vice-president, equity and
community inclusion, Ryerson University said celebrations like this is an act
of resistance “to empower us to bring forth our stories not only to the Ryerson
community but to Canada and beyond. “
She noted that the legacy of Desmond is being kept alive and
that “her spirit is guiding this fight, pushing us to continue for future
generations of Black Canadians.”
Dr. Mohamed Lachemi, president and vice-chancellor of the
university, said Desmond’s willingness to stand against injustice gave others
the courage to do the same and take up the fight for Black equality in Canada.
“This is why we have named these awards in her honour. Each
of this year’s award recipients is building on Viola Desmond’s legacy, paving a
new, better way forward and living the values Ryerson champions each day:
equity, diversity and inclusion.”
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| Yanique Brandford, recipient of the Viola Desmond student bursary, and Latoya Powell, student recipient of the Joan Jones Award |
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| Left to right: Dr. Beverly-Jean Daniel, Olanike (Nikki) Waheed, staff recipient of the Trey Anthony Award; Yanique Brandford, Latoya Powell, and Namugenyi Kiwanuka, alumni recipient of the Angela James Award. Missing from the photo is Huda Nur, high school student recipient of the Viola Desmond Award |
The patron of the Viola Desmond Awards is Dr. Pamela Appelt.
Among the entertainers for the evening were Quincy Bullen,
Quisha Wint, Dionne R. Grant, Christina Smith and Austin Jennifer Harvey with
the emcee being Natasha Ramsahai, a meteorologist for 680 All News Radio, Citynews and Breakfast Television.
[An edited version of this story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, March 12-18, 2020.]
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