REFLECTION & REASON

Participating in a campus organization is a great way to enhance your post-secondary experience, to network with your peers, and to establish connections with individuals from across the country that can become lifetime relationships and professional resources. Most campuses will have a list of organizations available through the Student Council/Government, or a dedicated day/week during the school year where you can learn more about the available groups and their mandates. It's always great to build with your classmates outside of the classroom, and build upon your commonalities like hobbies, interests, programs of study, and culture. By joining culturally-specific student groups, you can also benefit from common experiences and histories that will bring you comfort and often empowerment as well when you discover you are not alone on this important academic (and social) journey. Here is a growing list of Black student organizations at Canadian colleges and universities. Connect, s...

  RECOMMENDED READINGS ABOUT THE BLACK STUDENT EXPERIENCE If you're interested in researching the history of Black student movements, from an African-American perspective, Ibram X. Kendi wrote  The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstruction of Higher Education, 1965 - 1972 . Here's the book's overview: "Between 1965 and 1972, African American students at upwards of a thousand historically Black and white American colleges and universities organized, demanded, and protested for Black Studies, progressive Black universities, new faces, new ideas--in short, a truly diverse system of higher education relevant to the Black community." It continues to outline: "Taking inspiration from the Black Power Movement, Black students drew support from many quarters--including White, Latino, Chicano, Asian American, and Native American students--and disrupted and challenged institutions in nearly every state. By the end, black students had thoroughly...