Celebrating Black History Month at Algonquin College

Posted on Friday, February 19th, 2021

In recognition of Black History month, Algonquin College highlighted Black aumni who are helping make a difference in the community. Learn more about them here:

Keshana KingKeshana King

Keshana King remembers being in Grade 6 and waiting for two Canadian Olympic athletes – one of them Black bobsledder Shelley-Ann Brown, a 2010 silver medallist – to arrive at her Ottawa school.

“I was one of two Black girls in my class at my time. I remember seeing Shelley-Ann Brown in front of me with her Olympic medal and I was thinking, ‘I am seeing an example of excellence up close.’ It was somebody who looked like me and who I could connect with. It was just so emotional.”

For King, the energy generated by that experience is what February’s Black History Month is all about. The Algonquin College alumna (Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Class of 2019) looks on the event as a time to connect more deeply with her culture and explore the contributions Black people have made to the world.

“It’s a time to reflect and celebrate and to push forward into the future we want to create,” she says.

In her final year, King was involved with the Mindtrust Leadership Development Program and earned The Great Promise Award at the AC Innovation Summit hosted by the British Council in Canada, the United Nations Association in Canada and the British High Commission.

The award is given to a social innovator who shows great promise and leadership potential. King won for her Actionpreneur Project, which was designed to create and facilitate entrepreneurship and innovation camps for Black youth in Ottawa.

Today she is working toward her Bachelor of Commerce and International Management at the University of Ottawa. She has also connected with the Entrepreneurship Hub at the school and is pursuing an Entrepreneurial Mindset certificate. Ask King to imagine her future and she says in five years she hopes to be working for a global corporation or non-profit overseas. She continues to volunteer with the UN Association in the Generation SDG program as a mentor and she’s keen to continue her community work, which has been put on pause by the pandemic.

During Black History Month, King encourages members of all groups to consider the time as one for celebration and reflection. She calls it an opportunity to connect with one another, debunk biases and reinforce positive thinking. “It’s time to acknowledge these contributions,” she says, “and reflect on how important they have been to everyone.”

The enterprise and imagination of Black leaders is more important today than ever – in medicine, science, business, politics, poetry and many more areas, including sports and popular music, where Black creators have been a dominant force. It’s a confluence of talent and endless possibility that brings joy to King’s voice.

“I’m smiling so much right now because the atmosphere is changing inside and outside the Black community,” she says. “If you talk to Black people, we’re not surprised. We always knew we were capable, even if we weren’t seeing that reflected in the world. It’s fantastic to have that recognition in other communities today. And if I can say so, it’s about time.”

Carl ClergéCarl Clergé

During last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement protesting racial injustice and police brutality against Black people, Carl Clergé, a 25-year-old risk analyst at Export Development Canada and an Algonquin College graduate, wanted to do his part to help. Clergé decided to reach out to Algonquin and donate funds to a bursary for Black students. Turns out, no such thing existed.

Clergé was not deterred.

“I reached out to Advancement over the summer to donate to a bursary for Black students,” said Clergé. “There wasn’t one, so I asked how I could go about creating one. For me it was remarkable how fast everything went – from my first email to when the bursary was created—it was about a month.”

Clergé pushed forward with an ambitious objective that he quickly reached. “I had a goal of fifteen thousand for the bursary and it took a month and a half to get over that amount,” he said proudly. He was happy with the wide-ranging support. “My employer was on board, one of my former profs made a donation; everyone’s support was appreciated,” he said. “For me personally, and for Black students, I was very appreciative of that of how everything transpired.”

When asked why Black History Month is important, Clergé is quick with his response. “For me, it means celebrating everyone in the past to benefit people in the future. People my age 50 or 60 years ago wouldn’t have had the opportunity to create this bursary,” he said. “We are celebrating people paving the way with [these] actions. I think it’s important and it means a lot to me.”

Clergé studied Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at Algonquin from 2013-2016. He had a positive experience as a student. “I loved my time there,” he said. “It prepared me more for real life than university. I still have connections with certain profs.”

He appreciated the willingness and openness of the College to create a grant for Black students. “The College did a great job of understanding and asking questions,” he said. “When I reached out to the Advancement team and was told there wasn’t a bursary, they called, asked questions and listened.” He said they were open to the idea from the beginning.

His advice from the experience is “never think that anything is not possible. If you have an idea or a vision, try everything you can to make sure it happens. You never know how far you can go.”

To make a donation to the Empowering Black Students Bursary, visit this link.

Resa Solomon-St. Lewis Resa Solomon-St. Lewis

Award-winning chef and entrepreneur Resa Solomon-St. Lewis notes that from the time she was a young girl in school to her days in college and university, Black history was never part of the curriculum.

“There was nothing about contributions of people of African descent,” she says. “We just barely glossed over slavery and colonialism … always from the prospect of conquerors and not from the perspective of how people’s lives and entire civilizations were broken and traumatized.”

Solomon-St. Lewis is the chef-owner of Ottawa’s Baccanalle, renowned for its contemporary and traditional Caribbean and soul food, and the Capital Fare Café. She received her chef’s training (graduating with honours) at Algonquin College and earned a degree in engineering from the University of Ottawa.

As Canada celebrates the 25th anniversary of Black History Month, Solomon-St. Lewis believes it is important to apply its lessons to how we live, work and play every day.

“We don’t want Black History Month to be treated like a flavour of the month, but it is also at the same time a great opportunity to have the focus on the contribution and achievement and issues around Blacks in Canada,” she says.

“It is great to see the month is something that has grown and developed each year. It is a time that I channel in on my heritage on a personal and professional level. I take more time to spend with my ethnic community and to reflect and share things that I am inspired by and be more inspired to do better.”

Not only is Black History Month a time to highlight Black accomplishments and achievements that have long been ignored. It is also an opportunity to focus on the daily anti-Black racism that exists everywhere in society, says Solomon-St. Lewis, who was born in Winnipeg.

“I have kids and I am distressed to see that they still experience racism in school. It is not uncommon,” she says, adding she senses there is an appetite for change. She says it’s time broader society opens up to inclusive networks – and not just surround itself with the same familiar voices.

She includes the culinary world and how chefs are educated today. A firm believer in the motto, ‘See It, Be It,’ she says more diverse faculty and ethnic cooking classes could help attract and retain young students from minority backgrounds.

She has high praise for Algonquin, and how it continues to support her career.

“Algonquin has reached out to me a number of times to highlight me as one of their graduates, and it is not necessarily about me. By putting me out there as one of their graduates, it does serve to inspire others,” she says. “People in the community, my kids’ friends, they see that.People need to see mentors who are relatable.”

A significant factor in the success of the award-winning chef, including the prestigious Embassy Chef Challenge , is her boundless drive. Solomon-St. Lewis continues to press forward in the face of the many challenges posed to her industry by the pandemic.

“At the time when the pandemic was declared we had no indication that there would be any support for restaurants,” she says. “We felt it was either stay in the game in some way or tank the business. I wasn’t ready to tank the business after all the effort that I had put into it, and the money.”

So, she changed her business model completely, making her “outside brand” for catering and festivals her primary brand. She also returned to farmer’s markets when they reopened and created a ByWard Market pop-up store and online shopping venue for artisans.

“We thought about what people would need,” she says. “They would need comfort food, family style meals. We did a whole different menu. It is quite successful.”


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