Chris Yip 0:01 Welcome to Tell Me More: Coffee with Chris Yip, the official podcast of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. In our second season, I want to focus on the journey, how people got to school, what they did during their time here, and where they've ended up after graduation. You will meet students, professors and alumni, and learn what places them at the heart of designing bold solutions for a better world. My guests today are some of the people behind Blueprint, an academic enrichment program for highly motivated black secondary school students interested in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Cassandra Abraham is our engineering outreach coordinator who designed and oversaw the program so we're going to get some great insights from her onto the motivation and how it's rolling. And Ngozi Isiuwe is a second-year electrical engineering student who served as a mentor in Blueprint. She's also an executive member of our National Society of Black Engineers student chapter or NSBE. Together, they and other members of the Blueprint team have helped launch the careers of dozens of future STEM leaders, including several who are now undergraduate students here at the University of Toronto Engineering. Cassandra and Ngozi, welcome to the podcast. Cassandra Abraham 1:19 Thank you. Ngozi Isiuwe 1:20 Thanks for having us. Chris Yip 1:20 So Ngozi going to start with you. Can you tell me a little bit about how you discovered engineering was for you? Ngozi Isiuwe 1:28 So I actually chose engineering super last minute in grade 12 because throughout high school, I was just super interested in everything. And I was like, I don't know where I want to go, but I did know that I was interested in business and consulting and finance and those kinds of things but I didn't want to study business as my first degree because I wanted to do an MBA afterwards anyway. So I just kind of looked and I was like, okay, what do I like? And was like, I like math, I like physics, and had never really considered engineering because I was like, only people who like coding like it, you know. But then I looked into it and I was like, wait a minute, this is kind of interesting so I continued to look into it more and I was like, okay, okay, I think I can do this. I liked it, because it gave me the versatility that I wanted, because I can study engineering, gain the skills that I wanted to gain, and then apply that later on when I graduated and I end up in whatever consulting business, whatever field. Chris Yip 2:18 So you're really emphasizing the fact that engineering is a terrific foundational program. It really sets you up well for careers in any area. I was interested in your comment about only engineering is for coding and I realized you're in electrical engineering and there's a lot of coding that goes on in electrical (laughing). How's that going for you? Ngozi Isiuwe 2:36 Honestly, I had absolutely no reason to not like coding, like I had not really done it in the past. I was just like - oh - because in high school, - it just - all people that were super interested in computers are just completely different from me so I was like, there's just no way that I would like it. But then I love it. It's actually so much fun so I just had no reason to have a bias against it. Chris Yip 2:57 Right. And now as a second year student, you're also one of our second-first-year students to have been approached because last year was all online. So how's it been going for a second year? Ngozi Isiuwe 3:08 I love it. I was also part of frosh and I led one of the frosh groups and so in that way, I also got like a second frosh. And that was amazing, because I just got to see the engineering community and I was like, oh my gosh, everybody is still together, everybody is friends, everybody is supportive of each other. And it was also really crazy seeing people that you had worked with the past year, online, and then you're like, oh my gosh, can not be seeing you in person right now. It was also really funny. Even one of our team leads in outreach, I met him for the first time the other day, I was like, I just realized I had no idea what you look like. Really funny, really cool. Just meeting everybody, and getting to experience campus life. Chris Yip 3:47 It has been a very interesting fall term and I'm just going to give you full props for first off participating in frosh for a second time and actually being a fresh lead. I think it really was inspiring to be here on that first day of class and seeing all the purple arms wandering around in hard hats so thanks for doing that, that's great. Let me jump over to Cassandra for a second. Cassandra, tell me a little bit about your background because it's quite varied. Cassandra Abraham 4:10 Oh, yes, it is. So I'm originally from the Bahamas. Let me tell you a small little thing about me. I'm from one of the smallest keys and we call them keys. Everybody calls them islands in the Bahamas. It's only - and I'm going to use miles because that's what I'm used to. Chris Yip 4:25 You've got me to help me convert (laughing) Cassandra Abraham 4:27 I'm going to convert. It's about two and a half kilometers long and one and a half kilometers wide. So it's really small, like it's really, really small. So I'm from that key. So as you can imagine, I have a love for the ocean, a love for the environment. I did my undergraduate degree in Canada, I went back home, I did a lot of environmental outreach education work for six years, and then I decided to return to Canada. I wanted something new. I wanted to be in the city. I wanted city life. So I came back in 2019 and I started working at U of T in 2019. So, outreach work is how I advocate for my community. That's how I live. I prefer to do outreach, whether that's volunteering, or as my work. So my work at U of T engineering now includes work for my community. So black students, girls and community programs. Right now we do a program with a local food bank. When we were in person, we did programming with Toronto Community Housing. How I advocate for my community is outreach and that's a big part of who I am. Chris Yip 5:32 That's great. That's a very small key. That's very small. Your undergrad was from Saint Mary's in Halifax, right? The ocean in Halifax is different than the ocean in the Bahamas. It's a little colder, right? Cassandra Abraham 5:45 It's not the same ocean (laughing). It's different when you're looking down, and you can see the bottom and it's clear and beautiful and seeing fish in the coral reefs to a dock and not seeing anything. There's a big difference. Chris Yip 5:59 I think it's terrific that you're doing all this amazing work in the outreach space so we're really, really happy to have you be part of our outreach team. It's such an important aspect for engineering. So this vision of Blueprint, what was the inspiration? What was your thought? Cassandra Abraham 6:16 So I'll go back to the original plan for Blueprint. So we envisioned Blueprint to be on campus, we know that our black students at U of T engineering, and we talked to them, and they suffer with that sense of belonging so how do we cure that? We came up with this idea to have this Blueprint program for these students and they would come and they would be on campus fully immersed into university life. Black students building community and just being with their peers so that was our original vision for the program; five weeks on campus. And then...so Blueprint doesn't exist outside of COVID. We started the program in 2020 and it has been online since then but we've built a great community in a virtual space for these students. These students are...they're amazing students, and in 2020 I said, you know, students, they've been on virtual school, and they're going to have virtual fatigue, and they're not going to show up and this program may not be successful. I went in with not the highest hope but students showed up. Our attendance rate was amazing. The first year, it was like everyone was inside so yes, the attendance rate was amazing but even the second year, this year, when students were allowed to go out and be in the park and enjoy the weather, we had students showing up every day to programming. So that has been a big deal that these students have really, really shown that they are dedicated to this program. Chris Yip 7:43 Yeah, let me let me turn to Ngozi for a sec. So how did you hear about blueprint? And why did you want to get involved? Ngozi Isiuwe 7:49 I actually heard about it from one of my friends who was applying, she was like, oh, check these out. So I did, and I applied, and then Cassandra gave me a call to offer me the position and I had started working on some of the other outreach programs and then I started helping the mentors that were kind of planning the design course aspects of Blueprint. And so in that way, I was helping them out during the courses and then I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. This is exactly what I did in first year, you know, it's giving the actual first year experience to these high school students and I was like, if I had this back, then this would have opened my eyes so much. And so I started to appreciate Blueprint a lot more for when I was seeing exactly what they were doing and then when we got to the end, and they were presenting, I was like, this is just so great, you know, being able to be exposed to all of this before even getting to actual engineering. Chris Yip 8:40 So what main classes did the students participate in? Cassandra Abraham 8:45 The students participated in a class called mechatronics, and automation, where they got a TI robot, and they were able to build that robot. The students also participated in a class called engineering and human health, where they learned all about MATLAB, like the students literally got one on one on MATLAB, so they are able to use that for that class as well. Chris Yip 9:08 So how did you guys come up with the projects? Cassandra Abraham 9:11 Our lovely first and second-year mentors comes up with the questions. Ngozi Isiuwe 9:17 The grade nines and tens worked on...the problem statement was about this company that needed a way for employees to move the boxes from a lower level to a higher level without injuring the employees. And so the students had to break down the problem statement, understand the problem the same way we do in first-year engineering, and then generate ideas for how to solve it or how to improve upon the system that they already currently use. And then the elevens and twelves had to work on a water filtration system. So the problem statement had something to do with some body of water being polluted, I believe, because I'm not positive. I worked with the nines and tens. Cassandra Abraham 9:56 It was in a specific indigenous community and they had to Find a way to have a filter system where the water would be easy to access, it would be portable and clean. And it needed to also produce a certain amount of gallons a day. Chris Yip 10:12 This is terrific because, as you were saying, it teaches the engineering mindset to find the problem, define the constraints, find kind of the optimum path through. I think another aspect of this is it wraps in the way engineers think about problems, which is quite inclusive of all the different aspects. It's not just sort of, what am I filtering? but it's like, you know, what are the economics behind the process? What's involved here? What are the human factors that are built behind it? And these are the problems that our students will bring, or will face, I guess, when they when they actually graduate. How many students were you bringing in in the first cohort then? Cassandra Abraham 10:47 So we started out at 25, then we said, this is not enough. If we're going to run a program for 25 students, we might as well do more, let's do more. So we went up to 40 students, and then we landed at 50 students. And, as my director say, it's never enough for you, right? And I'm like nope, never enough. I want to impact as much students as possible. And if you see what the students have to do to actually get into this program, they earn their space in this program. There's an application process, they have to write a statement of interest, they have to submit their transcript and when they're done all of that they are invited to an interview and they tell us why they want to be in this program and what is the importance of a program like Blueprint. So these students earn their space in Blueprint, the selection process is really, really hard. And this year, our average for students was like a 90 in their science grade, right? And then, like, this is not enough for me so what about the students who don't have a 90 average? I don't want to feel like we're leaving them out. So we created a separate program that's called Engage High School Saturdays. And that's where any black high school students can, can register for the program and come out on every other Saturday and get mentored and learn about STEM, learn about a topic. So it's not only about...yes, we want to we want to reach those high achieving black students, and we want them to be at U of T, I want them to be at U of T, but we also want to reach the students who just have an interest in STEM, who just need a little help to do a little better or they just have an interest in they need more information on STEM and providing mentors to talk to them about all of the options and opportunities in STEM and that's that's been a very important aspect that no student is left behind. And I'll tell you about some of our students. Our students are amazing. Not to brag, but these students - we have one student, he tutors at a community center - at a black community center - in the Durham region. We have one student who reached out to us last week because she wanted to be the face, she wanted to promote Blueprint to all of her classmates and we're trying to do a video with her because she wants to help these students. They went through the program and now they want to spread the word, they're showing up. So I'll give you some other aspects of the program so other than the four weeks that we do online right now, we also have a portion of the program that we call year-long engagement. And a part of that is what we call MAPS, my academic planning session. And those sessions are specifically for the grade twelves. And those grade 12 students, we literally help them navigate their way to university. Having sessions with them to understand OUAC, having sessions with them about navigating financial aid, helping them to understand the different core engineering and what do you want to do in engineering, having someone sit with them and really go over each program in engineering and what they might be interested in. Last night, we had a session about how to do a statement of interest on a resume. These students are just amazing, right? And they show up not only during the summer, but still even during classes, they have classes happening right now, And they are still showing up to our Blueprint sessions, which is amazing and that speaks to the dedication of these students. Chris Yip 14:20 Yeah, and that's terrific engagement, right? The ability to kind of keep them looped into the program, and especially when you can bring them back as graduates in a sense to help promote the opportunity. Ngozi, can you maybe give me a sense from your engagement as a mentor and participant, sort of what were some of the most memorable parts of Blueprint for you? Ngozi Isiuwe 14:40 I think the most memorable part of Blueprint was at the end when all the students were presenting the work that they did, and it reminded me a lot of my EPS111, EPS112 courses when we had to present our design to the clients or to our TAs and all of them and I was just like, wow, oh my gosh, like you guys have great minds, like, the things that they were able to come up with just astounded me. I appreciate creativity a lot and it looked like they put a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, and you can see all the posts with the last minute grinds that they were doing and I was like, oh my gosh, this is exactly how it is when you come to school, you know, all the deliverables that you have, and then everybody's on it, waking up, staying up until 2am texting each other, asking questions, all of those things. So it was really fun seeing that, especially since they, you know, it's just the precursor to what it is that they're actually going to be doing. And so I really enjoy just watching them go through the program, and just remembering how it was for me, and be able to relate with them in that way. Cassandra Abraham 15:52 I would say that's my most - that's my favorite part of the program too and Dean Chris, I would put our students up against your first-year students. Chris Yip 16:01 A key question - a key outcome from this, beyond amazingly successful graduates, you are doing nine and ten and just all the way through high school - is where do the students go? Cassandra Abraham 16:11 So my personal goal for the students, and I say all the time that I want to see black students in STEM and black students at universities, and I want them to come to U of T like that, that's one of my goals as well. But my first goal is that these black students go to university and they are in a STEM program. So right now we do have some of our Blueprint graduates at U of T I'm so excited. And I feel just based on our session last night, I feel like there's going to be so much more this year. But these students are interested in going everywhere, even internationally. I did a recommendation letter for a student who applied to Harvard, they're going everywhere. So my goal is to track all of our students to see what they're doing and how they're doing. And I'm dedicated and committed to doing that as well. Chris Yip 17:01 Ngozi, once the students...let's look at the cohort, maybe that that's come through Blueprint, what's the community like here for those students coming in? I know you're very heavily involved in NSBE. Ngozi Isiuwe 17:12 Like I said earlier, when I was talking about frosh, I think the community is super welcoming, super accepting and when I was online first year, I kind of felt alone and I think that was the case for a lot of us, because we weren't really talking to people. And so coming onto campus, and seeing how everybody is just very helpful for each other, sorry, to each other. Everybody's just always down to help support everybody. I think that is a great community for all of them to hop into. And then like you said, I'm also part of NSBE and NSBE's goal is to basically help black people in the industry or black students succeed and so we plan things that help with your academic. Today we're having an exam jam for the first years with one or two of the first-year profs, and then I'm hoping to have a gala during - or for Black History Month but it'd be later in the year because of COVID. And then that one is just for all of us, you know, to celebrate our blackness and just to see that, yes, we do exist, we are here even though you might not see each other from the day to day. And I heard from past students as well that it's gotten a lot better in terms of, I guess, representation and I think it's because of all these programs like that Cassandra's running. I'm not going to say I didn't see any...I didn't appreciate it fully until I got to campus and I looked around on my first day of class. And I was like, wait a minute, that made me realize that wow, like we do. We do need these programs, because I don't think black people aren't in STEM because they don't want to be in STEM. I think there's just a barrier that we're breaking down with programs like Blueprint. Chris Yip 18:51 It's great. And I know that...I'll give you full props for NSBE's efforts around NSBE Hacks as well. Last year, I think you were running it on Gathertown, I think, that NSBE Hacks and it was terrific to actually wander through the session that you ran, and to just find the teams that were there and the fact that it was such an amazing opportunity, just drawing from so many different places. So let me ask both of you. I mean, you talked a little bit about the scale. What do you see as the future? I mean, do you see this going...I mean, Blueprint is...call it housed at U of T Engineering right now. Do you see satellite chapters being created at other institutions? Cassandra Abraham 19:30 Yeah, I think for me, I want this program to be known nationally as the program at U of T Engineering. Like, I'm okay with this being only U of T engineering because I feel like we can scale it to that level where we are accepting more students. And my goal for this program is that we - I don't know if this is a big goal, but I hope that it is a realistic goal - that there's a scholarship component attached to this program where we have two or three of our students every year receiving full ride to U of T. Engineering. And that is my goal. And I think my work would, it would definitely not be complete until that happens that my students are not only come into the program, but there's an opportunity for them to have that financial support as well, because it's one thing to say, U of T is a space for you and we want you to be here. But it's a whole different story when you're saying, and this is what we have for you. This is how we are supporting you. Chris Yip 20:35 Providing resources to increase black student representation inside engineering, providing fellowships. We are working broadly to bring in - to increase fellowships for entrance fellowships, and we're looking at this as well at the graduate level as well. And we are part of - we were one of the first six institutions part of what's known as IBET, which is the indigenous and black momentum fellowships, which is helping to recruit and provide fellowships for graduate students, but you still need to feed the pipeline of getting students into the programs and interested in pursuing so I think this is...Blueprint is a great...just a great name, because it sets it all up. Feeding from the high school level, grade nine, grade ten, eleven, twelve, and then feeding into the undergrad program and from the undergrad programs feeding into the graduate programs. Feeding directly straight up into our faculty. It's been great, it is great to see this initiative underway and really, really enthusiastic about supporting this initiative and doing what we can to help meet your goal of providing those fellowships and support for the students. You give us a couple of good anecdotes about students, any other fun anecdotes of things that have happened, good or bad, during Blueprint? Cassandra Abraham 21:39 And I just want to say that we have truly built a community, like a community of students, and I even see these students sometimes as my godchildren. So I got an email after our session last night from one of the students who just emailed to say that he really appreciate me, he calls me his counselor. So I really appreciate you for everything you do, and as my counselor, and that makes, it just makes it all worth it for me and I will continue to fight my students so I just wanted to say that I got a good email last night and it made me feel so good because these students mean everything to me. Ngozi Isiuwe 22:17 That's one of my favorite parts about being part of Blueprint. Cassandra is just so devoted and like, I don't know, you can just tell how much she loves the program, how much she loves the students, when she's talking about it, when she's speaking to them, you know, she truly cares and it makes you want to care more and want to do more for the students and for the program and so it's just very inspiring. Love you, Cassandra. Cassandra Abraham 22:41 Thank you (laughing), thank you. Chris Yip 22:45 So with that, I'd like to thank Ngozi and Cassandra. Thank you so much, first off for being part of the podcast today, but also for so much effort in the vision for behind Blueprint, for launching it, for just the amazing success that it has become, and I'm really looking forward to how it will grow in scale and opportunity and just in impact so thank you so much. Cassandra Abraham 23:09 All right, thank you too. This was a fun time. Ngozi Isiuwe 23:09 Yeah, thank you. Chris Yip 23:17 Thanks again for listening to Coffee with Chris Yip. 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