平特五不中

When I look back on my time at 平特五不中, I'll see that it was the beginning of a path which became a major direction in my life. It was here that I realised my passion for people.

My name is Simi Ogunsola. I'm going into my fourth year at 平特五不中, majoring in Sociology and minoring in English Literature. I knew that I wanted to go into Sociology after taking a sociology course during a high school summer and thinking whatever this is, I want to pursue it. It was a passion for

history, and for understanding society, and for uncovering secrets of daily interactions at that point. Studying Sociology and participating in community-building events here at 平特五不中 gave my initial interest direction and focus.

In my first year, I was a part of the 平特五不中 African Student Society's gala planning committee. In my second year I was a project manager for the Black Student Network's social portfolio. In my third year, I was the Vice-President (head) of that same portfolio. Creating spaces for people to come together, to feel a part of something bigger, to make connections through which they鈥檇 do life鈥攂uilding community. That was my passion. As I was planning events outside of the classroom and studying statistical ways for their effects to be measured inside of it, I realised that this thing鈥攗nderstanding and building community鈥攚as something that excited me. (And through studying law after my undergrad degree, something I will continue to chase).

I was drawn to the internship at The Bentway because it was an organization doing exactly what I sought to learn about and do: build community. Founded in 2018, The Bentway has transformed the concrete and beams underneath The Gardiner (a major highway into downtown Toronto) into a public space. We partner with artists and showcase their art through themed seasons. We partner with community and corporate organizations, and host events and brand activations. We ourselves put on events, workshops and activities, all with the goal of building community in the area and nurturing a sense of belonging.

At the Bentway, I contributed to this goal as the Community Outreach Intern as part of the Marketing and Communications team. My days were filled with putting up posters around the neighbourhood about upcoming events, creating event-specific outreach lists and emailing organizations about what we had going on, attending events and covering them via social media before creating Instagram Reels and TikToks recaps, and creating newsletters to be sent out to our email subscribers list.

There were so many highlights at the job. I loved getting to know my co-workers, most of them artists in their own right, and being inspired by their work. I loved learning the details of what made the organization run (especially coming from an event-organizing role and being a part of multiple student club executive teams). I loved coming to meetings with my manager ready with questions about the ins and outs of marketing and learning nuggets of wisdom, like how as a marketing team, in order to sell out our events, our job is to tell a story.

One major highlight was our Yoga with Adriene event. We had 2,000 guests come to our space from all over the world (yes, the world!) to attend a yoga class from their favourite yoga influencer. I watched the tickets sell out in 12 minutes during my first week there, and then worked sending out waivers and tickets, before covering the event via Instagram Stories on the day-of. Watching our entire team push so hard for something, and then having the event go incredibly was something I'll never forget.

I want to thank all the women who are a part of the WLP group for making this oppourtunity possible for me. My time at The Bentway this summer has been so fun, but more than that, it has been so enriching. I learned something new every single day, and I am storing them up and carrying them with me on my journey of community-building.

It has been an amazing summer at The Bentway.