‘I wanted to give back to my community’: Meet two graduates who helped bring Keele campus back to life

For about 25 months, York’s Keele and Glendon campuses were largely unpopulated. Even after classes and exams returned following the initial COVID-19 wave, social distancing requirements and other public health protocols meant that students, faculty and most staff stayed home while the campus – normally teeming with humanity – waited for their return.

When the return finally came, via a partial reinstatement of in-person activities in January 2022, everyone had to do a lot of readjusting, and many questions needed answering. What were the new rules? Masks everywhere or just inside? How would the University screen for symptoms and how often? And, just as a reminder, where’s that one building located? The grey concrete one with the Starbucks? 

Among the returnees were Jessica Gamez and Constance Anson, two members of the graduating Class of 2022 who had decided they wanted to give back to York a measure of the support and mentorship that they had received when they were bright-eyed first-years.  

“I actually forgot myself, in my fifth year, where a lot of the buildings were on campus and where a lot of the services were located,” says Gamez, a Kinesiology and Health Sciences student who will receive her Bachelor of Science degree at Spring Convocation 2022. “So I had to do research myself. I could only imagine what an online-only first-year student would have been going through.”

Gamez and Anson were Care Ambassadors, the cadre of student mentors who in the early days of the return to in-person activities put themselves at the service of the York campus community as it resumed in person life.  They spent the Winter 2022 term standing out in the open air on the Keele campus, distributing masks, answering questions, providing wayfinding directions, reminding everyone to use YU Screen, and generally helping out however they could.

Both Anson and Gamez say that the overwhelming majority of their interactions with students were positive and cordial.

“Seemingly small, casual interactions with students and coworkers would turn into longer, meaningful conversations about personal academic and career goals and even how we held up mentally during lockdowns,” Gamez says. “I had hoped to extend adequate support and care, but little did they realize that they did the same for me.”

 “I was often surprised at how meaningful and almost intense my conversations would be,” Anson adds. “I watched as younger students, especially first-years, who had so many questions for us, got more confident every day.”

Conceived and operated by the Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development in the Department of Student Success, the Care Ambassadors Program ran from Jan. 10 to Feb. 18, the first six weeks of the 2022 winter term, the first with students returning to campus since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020.

York’s Care Ambassadors were recruited in late 2021, when Student Success put out a call for applicants. Some 300 students responded, and about 150 were given positions.

“We wanted to recruit a set of ambassadors that reflected our community,” says Dirk Rodricks, Director, Student Engagement, at the Department of Student Success. “So in recruiting we cast the net widely across both campuses. And, apart from being familiar with the campuses, we didn’t set any criteria other than being friendly, wanting to serve and support the community.”

Gamez says she felt compelled to serve the York community as a Care Ambassador because of the help she received from peer mentors as a younger undergraduate.

“I remember my first step on campus,” says Gamez, who grew up in Richmond Hill, Ont., and commuted from home all five of her undergraduate years. “It was in Vari Hall, where there’s that info kiosk. I had come early to get acquainted with my classes and to get a student card, and I remember having no idea where I was. So I asked a student, whose name was Hannah, and she helped me so much. She told me where to go and what I needed to do, but she also took time to chat with me for a while: ‘Oh, are you in first year? How are you doing? How are you feeling? Here are some tips and tricks.’ I never forgot how much that meant, and it was that experience that I wanted to reflect on and replicate for others when I decided to join the Care Ambassador program.

Anson, an international student originally hailing from Ghana who will graduate this month with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a certificate in Spanish, tells a similar story: “I wanted to give back to my community because when I first came to York people helped me a lot. So when I saw the posting for the Care Ambassadors, I thought this would be an opportunity to provide meaningful help to my peers.”

But Gamez and Anson admit that, because the Care Ambassadors’ mandate was to promote protocols and enforce rules such as mask-wearing and screening requirements, the job could sometimes be awkward.

“People were sometimes hesitant to complete their YU Screen before going into buildings,” Anson says. “And a few people were reluctant with masks…. but no one was ever angry or aggressive.”

Gamez and Anson both plan to enter graduate studies at York after walking the stage at Convocation. Gamez is currently studying for the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario Registered Kinesiologist Exam and has also applied to pursue a master of science in Occupational Therapy at York. Anson will begin work on a master of economics next fall.