My Life as a Student at the University of Toronto

I entered the University of Toronto as a student, mother, and grandmother. And then through the institution’s failures I learned student advocacy.
I entered university to be educated, but I was repeatedly pushed into educating, organizing and holding the institution accountable.  But there is a particular kind of transformation that happens when students encounter injustice and discover that the people with the greatest institutional knowledge, professional protection and access to power are unwilling to act. The student begins by asking questions. Then she starts noticing patterns. Eventually, she realizes that if she does not speak, document, organize or protest, very little may happen at all.  This is how students become advocates—not always by choice, and not because advocacy was the original ambition, but because silence has consequences.