This fearless graduand’s community engagement leaves lasting impact at SFU and beyond

By Alyssa Quan

Although Ayaan Ismail is graduating this fall, her efforts to uplift and support her peers in international studies will have lasting impact on the SFU community.

Ayaan came from Kenya to study at SFU in 2016 as part of the World University Services of Canada (WUSC) Student Refugee Program. This scholarship program is highly competitive and supports refugee students pursuing post-secondary education.

She admits her main focus upon arrival was simply adjusting to life in Vancouver and to the new learning environment at a Canadian university. She tried courses in international studies due to her interest in international relations.

She was particularly interested in classes focusing on Africa and its politics, and praises instructor Geetanjali Gill, “an engaged professor who went out of her way to support students as they needed.”

She adds, “When studying forced migration, Geetanjali was one of the first professors I had who really centred voices of folks with refugee experience in the course materials.”

Ayaan’s connection to issues surrounding forced migration is personal, stemming from her own experiences. She proudly describes herself as a young Black African refugee woman with a background deeply rooted in community-centred practices and radical community care. Her perspective is inspired and informed by radical Black African feminism, which uses decolonial, anti-racist and intersectional frameworks.

While still studying at SFU, she began giving back to WUSC, joining the organization’s local SFU committee, which is student-run with support from SFU International Student Services. All SFU student fees include a small levy that helps fund refugee students to attend the university. The levy not only contributes to the students’ tuition but helps them to access resettlement services.

“I really wish this was a program more SFU students knew about,” she says. “It changes a lot of people’s lives.”

Ayaan was part of a campaign this past spring to increase the student levy from $2.50 to $5per semester. To gain support for the increase she gave classroom presentations, visited lectures to promote the positive impact of the Student Refugee Program and urged students to vote yes in the election referendum. The proposed increase passed with widespread support.

She also worked with the African Students Association to not only include, but centre the experiences and expertise of Black students across campus.

“I really value community involvement and wanted to create a sense of community for refugee students,” she says. To that end, she volunteered with local resettlement organizations, such as ISSofBC and MOSAIC, which help newcomers to Vancouver with the many challenges of resettlement.

In addition to these accomplishments, Ayaan led the planning for the first academic Afrocentrism Conference in British Columbia in collaboration with students from SFU and UBC. The conference, which took two years to develop, was born out of frustration, as she and a group of her peers sought more meaningful Black representation in the academic sphere. The conference featured predominantly Black African speakers and celebrated African culture and Black scholarship.

“It was incredibly tough,” she says. “We were a group of Black undergraduate students. Many people didn’t take us seriously, nobody thought we could actually do it… until we did.”

She will continue her work centering and uplifting Black African voices this fall as she begins graduate studies in the Migration and Diaspora Studies program at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Given that volunteering and community involvement played such a key role in her own university experience, Ayaan advises undergraduate students to seek out opportunities and connect with others.

“University is not just about academics,” she says. “It’s a time to not only discover your passions but also get involved and put them into action.”