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The University of Toronto’s is celebrating 53 years of the access-to-education program with a gala in the Great Hall at Hart House on Oct. 4.

The event will feature speeches from ��������οleaders, TYP alumni, a jingle dance by an alumna of the program, a performance by Canadian artist Jully Black and more.

A portion of the gala will pay tribute to the late Keren Brathwaite, an alumna of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) who co-founded TYP in 1970 to help mature Black students get a university education, reports . She was the associate director of TYP . 

Former TYP faculty Horace Henriques, Safia Gahayr and Roslyn Thomas-Long will also be honoured at the event.

Over the years, the program has evolved to help adult students who have not completed high school enter university and offers support to ensure students succeed in transitioning to undergraduate studies. Every spring, to celebrate the students who completed the eight-month program. They include Floria Kangootui, who graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree from U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science. 

Fallon Young, now in her third year of studies at U of T, told CBC News the program changed her life.

“It means everything,” she said. “The disparities that I faced going through the public school system in high school, it left me in a position where I would have never been able to obtain this opportunity otherwise.”

Lance McCready, TYP’s director and associate professor in the department of leadership, higher and adult education at OISE, told CBC News the gala is an opportunity to celebrate all the good the program has done.