Mentorship program connects Black youth with role models at U of A

Associate nursing professor Bukola Salami created a Black mentorship program in September 2020. (Courtesy: Bukola Salami)

EDMONTON — A local mentorship program is giving Black youth a chance to connect with role models that look like them.

Bukola Salami is an associate nursing professor at the University of Alberta, and she credits a lot of where she is today to a mentorship program she took part in years ago at the University of Toronto.

"That paved the way for my success," Salami told CTV News Edmonton.

"I shadowed the nurses at Regent Park – which is a high risk neighborhood in Toronto – and that paved the way for me to see, 'Oh you know I could also come into nursing and achieve higher ground in the healthcare industry.'"

Salami is now giving back.

In September, she created a similar program that has already connected more than 30 Black youth with Black faculty members at the U of A.

"That experience inspired me," she said. "So it's basically passing on the baton now in terms of I’ve been mentored, and now I can mentor others too."

Nonso Morah applied for the program after learning about it from some teachers.

She ended up working as a research assistant in the political science department under Dr. Jared Wesley.

“I've met a lot of interesting and amazing people who've really guided me and mentored me," she said. "And in different career paths that I never really cared to think of. I didn't think I'd be a research assistant but here I am and I'm having a great time."

Originally intended to be an in-person mentorship, the program moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic allowing students in rural areas to participate.