New One and CEL Community Fair | Highlights

On March 2, New One and CEL joined forced for the second time and organized a Winter term Community Career Fair. The event gathered a variety of representatives from non for profit and grassroots organizations focused on equity, solidarity and community engagement. This included, among others, Justice for Migrant Workers, The Ontario Health Coalition, OPIRG, ACAS (Asian Community AIDS Services), and independent community arts organizations such as AKIN Collective and MayWorks.

The goal of this initiative was to expose our first year students to the – often overlooked – important services and care that these organizations provide to individuals in our community that are vulnerable or in need of (material or legal) assistance. In addition, our aim was to show students the existence of alternative, and very rewarding professional paths. The groups we invited offered a great deal of experience, personal stories and important testimonies to our students, who felt energized, especially at a time when midterms and exams tend to absorb them completely. In turn, our guests felt validated. This is the second time we organize this event and we hope that it will be the beginning of a more stable series leading to deeper community engagement.

This event could not happen without the dedicated work of our New One instructors. In particular, I thank Chris Ramsaloop, acting chair of CEL and instructor of NEW111 Food, Ethics, and Sustainability,  and Teresa Ascensao, instructor of NEW114 Art for Social Change for contacting numerous organizations and for coordinating the event. Thanks to our Work Study student, Samadhi Alvarado for the lovely poster. 

Roberta Buiani, Acting Coordinator, New One