Ivan Okello
MA International Development Studies 2019
Black Student Advisor and Diversity educator at Mount Allison University
Breaking down the barriers to access quality education is essential to build an equitable society. Ivan Okello contributes to this mission by helping students to harness their potential.
Ivan, a native of Soroti, Uganda, says finding out about pilipiliÂţ» was a “struck of luck.” When visiting Makerere University – where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science – he saw an announcement about the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship, hosted by the Department of International Development Studies at Dal. He applied, got the scholarship and came to Canada to pursue an IDS master’s degree.
Leaving his country, family and friends wasn’t easy. Ivan found it challenging to adapt to a new culture and live up to the expectations for a graduate student, but he not only exceeded those expectations, he also started a career focused on supporting students in their struggles.
He graduated from pilipiliÂţ» in the spring of 2019 and started working at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, later that year. As Black Student Advisor and Diversity educator, Ivan joins efforts with students and faculty for the implementation of anti-racist programming and supports the needs and priorities of students of African descent.
“Being an advisor allows me to see life from the students’ point of view,” says Ivan. “When you have classes to deal with, and a family pushing you and saying that 'you must succeed,’ the stakes are high, so I try to point them in a direction where they are able to find solutions,” he adds.
Besides his role at Mount Allison University, Ivan Okello also worked as the Youth Partnership Coordinator at the . In this job, he worked with youth from underserved communities and guided them to create projects with a social community impact. “What I liked about this job is that I worked with young people that have lots of energy but also need direction, and my role was in bringing direction to their ideas to make them happen”, he explained.
For Ivan, breaking the barriers for those who don’t have easy access or transition to university is fundamental to achieve quality education – the fourth . He says he discovered his path in education while studying at Dal: “Sometimes it takes people a few jobs to find out that they don't like something, but my time at Dal showed me what sort of things I did and didn’t want to do. I found out that being in an academic setting where both the students and I are learning is very rewarding.”
His work experience at Dal also helped him to navigate his blossoming career. Throughout his Master’s degree, Ivan worked as a Teaching Assistant as well as a tutor in the Writing Centre, and served as a Graduate Student Representative in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. “It was grounding for me, it gave me the understanding of how a university functions in terms of research, teaching,
and staffing (...) When I graduated, I had a degree on one hand, and I had experience working at pilipiliÂţ», which was great,” he remarks.
One of the main takeaways from the IDS program that Ivan applies to his current work is that there is not any single, correct way to understand the world. He highlights the importance of listening to personal and collective stories within specific communities, as opposed to relying solely on statistics. “I don’t work with the typical students that join university, who are white and middle class. So, knowing that there is no single interpretation of who succeeds and who doesn't, or who struggles and who doesn’t, is key and is grounded in my IDS degree,” says Ivan.
While Ivan found his way in providing support to youth in academic and community environments, he is aware of the insecurities and uncertainty that many graduate students face with regards to their professional future. In his view, “one of the privileges of doing an IDS program is that sometimes you get overwhelmed by options,” so he encourages students to explore their interests in as many ways as possible, such as doing internships in the summer, teaching online or volunteering.
Ivan emphasizes that “it is important to appreciate how the IDS degree gives you this way of interpreting the world, because your solutions to the world will come from how you interpret it.” He asserts that the way he has chosen to interpret the world and make a difference is by “hearing stories, providing validation to those stories and giving people tools to build their own solutions