Past Meets Present Returns to Gee-Gees Black History Month
Members of the Gee-Gees Black Student Athlete Advocacy Council (BSAAC) will be connecting with uOttawa alumni this February in the return of Past Meets Present, a feature which produced thought-provoking connections in 2020.
Each week, current student-athletes will go live on Instagram for a conversation with an alumnus who inspires them, in and out of sport.
On Friday, February 11, Ketsia Kamba and Blessing Okundaye of the Gee-Gees women's rugby team will connect with Esinam Agbeyaka.
Agbeyaka played for the Gee-Gees from 2007-2011, earning All-Canadian honours for her play at prop in 2011, and is now a Research and Evaluation Officer at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. Her career path since graduation is a point of interest for Kamba and Okundaye, who are studying Communication and Sociology, and Public Administration and Political Science, respectively.
The two current Gee-Gees already have a connection with Agbeyaka, as she was a Leadership Development coach with the team this season, remaining an important role model within sport as well as in public service.
The following week men's hockey team captain Yvan Mongo and men's rugby all-star Simba Gumbo will go live in conversation with Akeem Gardner at 6 p.m., Thursday February 17.
Gardner is a men's basketball team alumnus who has recently been recognized for his work as an entrepreneur. Selected as one of Brampton, Ontario's Top 40 Under 40 in 2019, and an MNP Future Leader in 2020, Gardner has founded two companies since 2017 and is currently CEO at Canurta, a biotechnology firm focussed on hemp-derived products. Gardner's companies have a key focus on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, and he is giving back to his local community as a board member with Return The Love Community Support.
Mongo, a Finance student, and Gumbo, a Marketing student, will connect with Gardner on his business experience as well as his time as a student-athlete, which spanned from 2009-13.
To close out the month, men's rugby team member Elias Hancock and Trinity Lusan from the women's volleyball team will meet up with Adrian Huynh. Huynh is an athletic therapist who has worked with the Gee-Gees since 2020 as well as with the Ottawa BlackJacks and Athlético clubs, among his many experiences. The conversation will focus on Huynh's journey to athletic therapy and his experience working with the Gee-Gees throughout the pandemic. That conversation will take place Thursday, February 24 at 7 p.m.
Hancock won the RSEQ Leadership and Community Engagement award for 2021 and is an RSEQ Academic Merit Award recipient, studying Health Sciences. Lusan is a Human Kinetics student in her third season with the Gee-Gees volleyball team and earned Academic All-Canadian honours in 2020-21.
The 2020 Past Meets Present Conversations were:
Hannah Sunley-Paisley in conversation with Kevin Civil and Josh Inkumsah
Rashid Timbilla in conversation with Ketsia Kamba and Kennedy Banton-Lindsay