As a mentor in the Enriched Support Program (ESP) at Carleton, Taylor Reid is giving back to a program which she credits helping her to be accepted at Carleton and to flourish in her BA degree. As a second year combined Anthropology and History student with a minor in Archaeology, Taylor is excelling in her courses. “I love learning,” she admits with a smile. Yet, getting to this point was a challenge and ESP provided the pathway.
Ten years out of high school she applied to the BA at Carleton University, but she initially was not accepted. Taylor said she had low high school grades and, furthermore, she was in the applied, not the academic, track, which also hurt her application. Shortly after she learned that her application was rejected, she received a letter in the mail from a program about which she had never heard. The ESP offered her a bridge to Carleton and Taylor gladly took it.
The ESP offers a transition program to students who normally would have difficulty being accepted into university, like Taylor. They provide a full-time program for a year to allow students to qualify for admission to Carleton while also earning university credits. Through ESP, their students take first year courses while also attending weekly workshops that provide tips, knowledge, and practices to allow them to succeed in their studies.
Taylor recalled that when she began the ESP last year, “I didn’t have a lot of faith in myself. I was nervous about university classes. I didn’t know how to do an essay with proper citation, carry out research, etc.” The ESP workshops and support helped her to “see that I am university material by just showing me the math equation that is university: keeping an agenda, having checklists, having relationships with a tutor or a coach, asking questions, signing up for extra lessons that can help me. All these small things help enormously.” The program gave her confidence and the skills to navigate university, do well in her courses, and recognize that she can make university work for her.
She was honoured when she was asked if she wanted to be a mentor this year. As a mentor, Taylor offers support to the ESP students as they learn to navigate the university themselves. She advises ten mentees and she meets with them one-on-one and assists them when they have questions and need help. Her aim is to help them utilize the array of ESP supports so each of them can individually profit from their Carleton experience as she has.
Taylor’s accomplishments have been recognized by others. She is the inaugural winner of the Chicken and Boots bursary, a financial award given to assist those who have experienced homelessness or are homeless in pursuing university education. She also won the Jean and Richard Van Loon Spirit Award for the work she has done in the ESP program.
Taylor is thoroughly enjoying her academic programs. She always was fascinated by History, the program she had applied for at the beginning, while Anthropology was entirely new to her. “I had no idea what Anthropology was,” she admitted. Her introductory anthropology course showed her that the discipline offers students approaches that one can also find in Sociology, Psychology, History, while also providing insights into cultural dynamics and everyday life for differently situated people. “I am very street-wise and the ethnographies I read speak to me,” Taylor reflects, as they provide insights into the challenges, struggles and successes of those in a range of circumstances. Right now, she is motivated to do a MA in Anthropology.
Taylor has had her fair share of challenges, but thanks to the ESP she is thriving at Carleton and proud to be giving back to it as a mentor. She is constantly learning at Carleton and she is pleased to assist those who aim to transition to university and also thrive in its academic programs.