I first started at BGC as a member at their Sister MacNamara location when I was in Grade 5. To put into perspective how long ago that was, I have just started my second year of university, so it has been quite a while. Since my first day as a member to now, BGC has continued to impact my life in more ways than one. They helped me gain my first volunteer experience with Rotary, land my first job at CSI and Old Navy, and helped me with most of my university finances. 

Before i go into more detail about how BGC has impacted my life, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am originally from Nigeria, I first moved to Canada in May of 2014 and shortly after, I started school at Sister MacNamara. Being somewhere completely new was very scary to me, especially because I knew absolutely no one. On my first day of school however, I made a friend, and she was the one who told me about the BGC Club. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to start right away as there was just about a month left in the program, but throughout the summer, it was all I could think about. 

When I officially became a member at BGC in September, I made lots and lots of friends, not just with the students my age, but with the staff as well. Though it was my first year at BGC, I was welcomed with open arms and was treated like I had been there for years. Being the only girl in my family with 3 brothers tended to be a bit lonely at times, so BGC had become like my second family; they were a safe place that I could go after school and just be a kid. 

In the summer of 2015, I was given the opportunity to participate in a volunteer program called Rotary and that was the first time I had volunteered. It was also when I realized that I love to volunteer and give back to my community. Through Rotary, if you volunteered a certain amount of hours, we were provided something called a stipend which is similar to an allowance and we could spend it on whatever we wanted. I used it to purchase my very first guitar, which I still have today.  

One of my main goals for as long as I can remember has been to help people and to work in the healthcare field, to me, is one of the most unique and memorable ways to do just that. 

When I reached Grade 9, I became a teen mentor with BGC’s Power Up program which not only taught me what it meant to be a leader, but also gave me the opportunity to jumpstart my education with a $1000 bursary for every year I volunteered as a mentor. I am now on my way to becoming a nurse and fulfilling that goal thanks to the bursary provided to me.

In 2020, I was given the opportunity to work as a High School Assistant with their summer program CSI when I turned 16. That was my first ever summer job, before I went through “This Way Ahead”, a program that gave me the opportunity to work at Old Navy, my first year round job. Through This Way Ahead, I had the opportunity to meet the amazing Jocelyn who taught me everything I needed to know in order to be successful in my first ever interview. 

A few more programs that I was given the chance to be a part of are Girls Night Out, YAA Camp, Art Club, Running and Reading (both as a member and a volunteer), Soccer, Flag Football, Rugby, Arts and Activism, Youth Cabinet, and Youth Council.