{"id":42753,"date":"2022-09-08T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T13:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=42753"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:16","slug":"confidently-dream-big","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/confidently-dream-big\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidently Dream Big"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Confidently Dream Big\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Reflections on an educational journey that has come full circle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Samphe Brul\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton alum Danardo Jones tours his three children around the fifteenth floor of Dunton Tower, where the Enriched Support Program<\/a> offices and student lounge are situated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the elevators and the front desk hangs a framed newspaper clipping of Jones from 2009, the year he graduated from Carleton University. Jones poses by the photo of his younger self while his children snap a few photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor, and a practicing criminal lawyer. But decades ago, when Jones moved to Ottawa from Toronto, his path was rocky. After completing his high school equivalency diploma, Jones searched for a university that would accept him into a degree program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intent on pursuing post-secondary studies, Jones discovered his path to university through the Enriched Support Program. The guidance offered through ESP\u2014from academic coaching to peer mentorship\u2014helped Jones flourish in his degree program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy ESP year, I was able to step into my degree program with confidence,\u201d says Jones. \u201cThere were peer mentors, coaches, facilitators, and support at every juncture who had the experience, patience, and compassion to work with students who might be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Danardo
Danardo Jones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After his ESP year, Jones went on to complete a BA in Law at Carleton, then proceeded to law school and an internship on Bay St. in Toronto. But that was not the type of Law that appealed to Jones, who turned to criminal law, and has since devoted much of his time to Legal Aid work. His interest in addressing inequality is rooted in his own experiences growing up, and he seeks solutions to anti-Black racism not only through legal avenues, but through access to post-secondary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Toronto, where Jones grew up, and elsewhere in Canada, access to post-secondary education for Black youth is not a given. As Jones points out, many Black students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) leave high school with unacknowledged potential. Ontario high schools notoriously \u201cstream\u201d classes, determining which students are placed in applied or academic courses, oftentimes neglecting Black and racialized pupils (and thus pre-determining their futures). Damaging stereotypes and assumptions about Black students from both teachers and peers create a powerful blow to academic confidence. Suspensions and streaming impede Black students\u2019 potential to succeed or even to reach university-level studies.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI didn\u2019t finish high school, and I\u2019m not unique in that situation. There are many young, racialized\u2014particularly Black\u2014teens in the GTA that do not finish high school. Young, Black men I grew up with are full of potential never to be realized because nobody would take a chance on them.\u201d<\/p>Danardo Jones<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As a Carleton student, Jones gave back to the Enriched Support Program by mentoring and coaching other ESP students. Now he wants to spread information about the ESP as widely as possible, particularly in communities where students are disproportionately streamed, guided, and discouraged away from post-secondary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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