A record number of awards, bursaries and scholarships were handed out Sunday night as the John C. Holland Awards marked its 30th anniversary.

The awards, intended to celebrate excellence in Hamilton’s Black community and those who support that community as well, were presented during a ceremony held at the grand central ballroom of Liuna Station. Altogether there were:

• 133 awards.
• 33 bursaries.
• Five scholarships.
• Three elementary awards.
• Six adult awards.

CBC Hamilton spoke with two young award and scholarship winners, as well as one adult award winner. Here are their stories:

Aya Adam 

Aya Adam, a Grade 12 student at Westdale Secondary School, was awarded a Sankofa Pearl bursary as well as a Sankofa Pearl scholarship.

Adam, 17, moved to Canada from Sudan with her family in 2017. 

She is “passionate about giving back to the community, helping others,” and enjoys playing basketball. She also serves as president of the Muslim Students Association at her school. 

Aya is also an executive for her school’s Relay for Life Club, which raises funds for the Canadian Cancer Society.

“My role is ceremonies [so] I plan events for Relay, I decorate the events and I reach out to cancer survivors to come and give a talk and tell us [about their] journey at the end of the year,” Aya told CBC News on Monday.

“Our big event is happening in May, so … I’m contacting survivors, doctors, oncologists, cancer survivors, cancer patients to come and give talks at our school during the event.” 

‘I wasn’t expecting it’

Aya was still beaming after winning her two awards Sunday night.

“It was crazy, I wasn’t expecting it, I was honestly just happy to be there,” she said. 

“I was happy for everyone who won, I saw some familiar faces there, a lot of people from my school, a lot of friends from outside … and it was just very surreal.

“I was grateful for all the support, for my family being there, for everyone there, and it was just a great evening overall,” added Aya.

She encourages other young people to “do what you can to give back to the community, any volunteer work, anything. Don’t hold back.”

“You can do anything you set your mind to. You try your best and you never know what the future holds for you,” she said.

Aya says she intends to go to university next year, “hopefully McMaster,” and she hopes to become a perfusionist, a medical specialist who runs the cardiopulmonary bypass, or heart-lung machine, which does the work of the heart and lungs during long procedures.

Daunte Hillen 

Daunte Hillen — a Grade 12 student at Sherwood Secondary School — also won two awards: a Sankofa Pearl bursary, and a Sankofa Pearl scholarship.

Hillen, 17, says he’s been a firm believer of grassroots movements from as early as Grade 6. 

He currently serves as the Indigenous student trustee, known as Shakowennakará:tatsi, on the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, and chair of the Indigenous Student Trustees Council at the Ontario Student Trustees Association.  

In his role as Indigenous student trustee, Daunte ensures the perspectives of Indigenous students are included in board decisions.

Along with two other student trustees, Hillen works to “represent the voices of 55,000 plus students in the public education system,” he told CBC Hamilton on Monday.

Daunte is also a member of the Ontario chapter of ThriveSMH (School Mental Health).

“We don’t have to look far in our province to recognize that there are young Indigenous leaders everywhere in our communities that are doing the work and that our work should be taken seriously and should be considered,” he said.

‘Deeply humbled’

Daunte said the awards he won represent “an achievement” that fills him with pride.

“I’m so deeply humbled to receive some monetary [assistance], but also recognition for the work that I’ve done and I think it’s going to empower me and give me access to post secondary education, something that I didn’t think I was always going to have access to,” Daunte said.

“This also recognizes my growth, not only in academics and success, but also my story as an Afro-Indigenous person,” he said, adding that “this recognition really does hold deep meaning for me because I carry the strength of my ancestors, which is resilience, brilliance and community in everything that I do.”

Students Emnet Goitom of McMaster University, Barakat Adedeji of Cathedral High School, and Israela Ngatched Ngania of Ancaster High School also won both a bursary and a scholarship.

Vincent Kuber

Vincent Kuber won the Community Service Award.

After moving to Canada from Fiji in 1987, Kuber said he wanted to give racialized youth “support systems” and “opportunities” that he didn’t have.

“I had to fight for every single thing that I had and it was a battle,” Kuber told CBC News.

Kuber operates Steel Town Athletic Club (STAC), which he said provides “low cost to no cost sports opportunities” for racialized youth through inclusive play, training, development and mentorship.

“What I’ve created is something that I wish I had when I was a kid. And that’s a common phrase that’s being used all the time when I have conversations like this with folks,” he said.

Kuber said STAC works to support young people with competitive opportunities to participate in various sports like basketball, track and field, soccer and other sports.

STAC’s umbrella program — Mentorship Through Play — provides mentorship and helps “youth that lack confidence, leadership skills, communication skills and other attributes,” Kuber said. 

“We help provide that through young adults such as McMaster and Mohawk College student athletes as well as coaches to provide mentorship,” he said. 

“Because they are better at connecting age-group wise … it helps our youth see who they can be in the future,” Kuber added.

STAC has about 550 young people in its ecosystem, Kuber said, adding that since the start of Mentorship Through Play three years ago, the organization has provided more than 50 youth with post-secondary opportunities.

Kuber said getting the award was “a pretty cool experience.”

“I was able to connect with a lot of these youths, a lot of these organizations … becoming close community friends and friends that you hang out with as well and connect, because when you’re from a small island in the Pacific you feel by yourself all the time,” Kuber said. “So, I’m lucky to have Caribbean and African friends that help build the community that I don’t have.”

‘Bright’ and ‘strong’ future 

Chair of John C. Holland Awards, Terri Bedminster, sees a “bright” and “strong” future for Black youth in Hamilton, as well as the awards. 

“Our role is to ensure that the community buy-in remains, that we’re centring the youth,” Bedminster said.  

“When we have investment in youth, especially around their health and wellness [and] now into their education, of course, the future must be bright,” Bedminster added.

Bedminster thanked the event sponsors as well as the award funders, who she described as “regular folks in the community.”

“I really want to thank them, but it’s also important for me to thank everyone else who has contributed in some way to the awards that has allowed it to be at this stage where we can look at changing things or moving in a different direction,” she said. “It’s because the foundation was laid.” 

Secondary school winners of Sankofa Pearl bursaries 

• Grace Mumo Mwalyo.
• Lennex Maley.
• Oluwalani Adedeji.
• Naiyah Reece.
• Omonigho Okpere.
• Ibiye Naomi Davids.
• Chizaram Emekalam.
• Georgia Walker.
• Ife Alake.
• Najma Hassan.
• Elijah Sterling King.
• Zachariah Adjodia Persaud.
• Tinuade Omoregie.
• Ella Poku.
• D’Avonté Ralph.
• Sydney Oyewumi.
• Daunte James Hillen.
• Barakat Adedeji.
• Israela Ngatched Ngania.
• Aya Adam.
• Nasra Bain.
• Jayden Millar Edwards.
• Nina Borcea-Richardson.
• Alyvea Riley.

Secondary school winners of Sankofa Pearl scholarships

• Daunte James Hillen.
• Barakat Adedeji.
• Israela Ngatched Ngania.
• Aya Adam.

Post-secondary winners of Sankofa Pearl bursaries 

• Oluwanifemi Ogundare.
• Jonathan Roswell.
• David Feboke.
• Kaylinda Mupesse.
• Isis Seaton.
• KJ Gilling.
• Monae McKenzie.
• Emnet Goitom.

Sankofa Pearl mature student bursary

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For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.