Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program Reunion & Yearbook

Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program Reunion

An alumni reunion was held for graduates of the Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program and the Pre-University Program in the Hart House Great Hall on September 27, 2024.  Check out the article below to learn more about the event. Photos from the event can be found here. We were thrilled to see so many of our Academic Bridging and Pre-University alumni!

An Academic Bridging Reunion Yearbook was put together and presented at the event. Click here to view the yearbook. 

If you were unable to attend but would like to hear about our future events, or would like to join our alumni network, please email our office at academic.bridging@utoronto.ca. We look forward to connecting with you!

Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program reunion brings together alumni to celebrate program’s history

By Coby Zucker 

Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program alumni gathered recently in Hart House to recollect, reconnect and celebrate the program uniting them all.

“We love the Academic Bridging Program, and we really love opportunities to celebrate it,” says Carol Chin, principal of Woodsworth College and an associate professor in the Department of History in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “We’ve always believed ‘nontraditional’ students belong at U of T and, in fact, make U of T a better place.”

The event was the first large-scale reunion for the Academic Bridging Program. Current staff and faculty met and mingled with former students and staff, trading stories about the program and the careers students had both before and after graduating.

“The reason we have this event is because we think it’s important to amplify your stories,” says Natasha Jesenak, director of access programs at Woodsworth College. “We think it's really important all members of the university community understand the impact programs like this have on people's lives and on the university as a whole.”

Housed at Woodsworth College, the program is praised for tackling barriers to post-secondary education.

“The heart of the Academic Bridging Program remains access and inclusion,” says Antoinette Handley, acting dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Woodsworth’s longstanding commitment to equity and inclusion was visionary, and in many ways, anticipated the wider university's institutional focus on inclusive excellence.”

“This program, being the first of its kind in North America to expand access to university through nontraditional pathways, has been instrumental in paving the way for the proliferation of other access programs,” says Helen Tewolde, director of U of T’s Access Strategy & Partnerships Office.

Tewolde also spoke of the personal and systemic barriers mature learners with aspirations of pursuing higher education face — including lack of academic support, competing priorities, financial constraints and more.

“The Access, Strategy & Partnerships Office is proud of our partners in this program, which embodies the values that inform the work we do in advancing access priorities across the tri-campus,” Tewolde says. “You have our unwavering support as we continue to nurture and transform the educational space into one welcoming to students from all walks of life.”

Though the reunion was part of Woodsworth’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the program actually predates the college. Beginning as the Pre-University Program for mature students in 1967, the program was renamed in memory of Millie Rotman Shime in 1986 with the generous support of the Rotman family. It was relaunched as the Millie Rotman Shime Academic Bridging Program in 2000 as a for-credit program.

David Nimmo, inaugural director of the program and a long-time faculty and staff member at the college, reflected on the many alumni of the program whose lives touched his own.

“Thank you graduates and teachers for playing such a large and interesting part of my life,” he says. “I wish you every continued success in your career and your lives.”

Even among the alumni who spoke at the reunion, the careers and life paths that led to the Academic Bridging Program were varied, ranging from U.S. Army medic to esthetician to ironworker.

“You've heard it a thousand times now, but it is the case that this program changes lives,” says Zak Jones, a program alum and current PhD candidate in the Department of English.

“I can always, always spot a Bridging student. These students have an amazing way of keeping classrooms on track,” Jones says of leading classes as a teaching assistant.

The final two alumni speakers attested to the transformative power of the program, a theme threaded throughout the night. Kavery Bedar and Beau Hayward earned their honours bachelors of arts in 2024. Bedar is now in law school while Hayward is pursuing a master’s degree.

“The small class sizes made it accessible for me to ask for help and to build a relationship with my peers and professors,” says Bedar. “Some of my dearest friends today are the folks I met in this program.”

“Woodsworth accepted me, supported me and gave me opportunities to be successful,” says Hayward. “The Academic Bridging Program has completely changed the direction of my life. I don’t know how I otherwise would’ve been able to achieve what I’ve achieved today.”