Brilliancy and Resiliency
Next week, UTS is honoured to host an important event for the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS) – Brilliancy and Resiliency 2025, the third annual CIS Ontario-supported Black Student Conference.
The conference epitomizes all of the pillars in the UTS Strategic Plan, brought to life: leading in learning, inclusion by design, belonging and wellness, impact with integrity and better together. It’s one of many benefits our school community enjoys from being part of organizations such as CIS and Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), where we are able to forge strong connections and learn from other students and educators.
This event is the annual conference of the Black Student Affinity Network, an initiative created by Black students at independent schools. Often, Black students find themselves in a small minority of the overall student body at independent schools, called upon to take on leadership roles in equity and inclusion. Students came together to establish the Affinity Network to give them a space where they can connect, build community and share their experiences.
Approximately 120 Black-identifying students, staff and families from CIS member schools across Ontario will gather together at our school for an empowering day of hands-on activities with the theme Celebrating the Arts, Centering Wellness on Tuesday, April 8 (a UTS professional activity day with no classes). There will be dancing and drumming, collage-making and spoken word workshops, led by leaders in the Black community who are all role models of Black excellence in their own right, as well as a discussion on mental health and wellbeing led by a social worker and entrepreneur. UTS parent and award-winning filmmaker Sudz Sutherland P ’21, ’25 will lead a workshop about directing and producing.
Heads of school from CIS schools, who have been invited to take part in the conference, as well as staff from CIS schools, will attend a panel moderated by Dr. Carl James, Professor and the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora at York University that will help centre the experience of Black students and parents at schools.
The keynote speaker is Dwayne Morgan OOnt, known as “The Godfather” of Canadian Spoken Word poetry. A Canadian multi-award winning spoken word artist, poet, and motivational speaker, Dwayne is a two-time Canadian National Poetry Slam Champion and an appointee to the Order of Ontario. He has published 14 books and nine albums, and performed for and shared the stage with figures like Barack Obama, Alicia Keys and Drake.
This incredible roster of activities and speakers for our guests is all the result of amazing leadership from our student and staff members of the UTS Black Equity Committee, who have been diligently planning the conference behind the scenes since September 2024.
This embodies the leadership we nurture at our school, offering students potentially transformative experiences that expand their horizons, fuel their ambitions and help them chart new possibilities for their future.
