Mohawk’s proud story of a trailblazer
(This is a condensed version of the convocation address given by Mohawk College president Ron McKerlie to graduates last Thursday.)
This is an important day on two fronts. It’s your Convocation ceremony. And it’s also International Women’s Day.
So I’d like to tell you a story about Roberta Tremain … a remarkable Mohawk graduate and trailblazer.
Back in 1958, Roberta was a freshman at the Hamilton Institute of Technology. The institute would become Mohawk College nine years later in 1967.
Now Roberta was not just any student. Roberta was the very first woman to attend and then graduate from the Hamilton Institute of Technology.
The only other woman on campus was the secretary. Every lunch hour, they’d get together on the second floor of the institute for soup and sandwiches. Roberta made history because of a typo.
Roberta was the middle of five daughters. Her family grew up on a farm along the Speed River just outside Cambridge. Her father had finished with school at Grade 8. Her mother left after Grade 9. Roberta would be the first in her family to pursue a post-secondary education. She had a passion for science and technology.
Roberta had first applied to the Ryerson Institute of Technology in Toronto. Because she lived outside Ryerson’s catchment area, Roberta’s application was sent to Hamilton.
That’s when something got lost in translation. On the paperwork, Roberta became Robert.
Two weeks before school started, Roberta got a phone call. The institute was rescinding its offer of admission. They discovered that Robert was actually Roberta.
So Roberta could no longer attend because she was a woman.
But Roberta refused to back down. At 17 years old, she persisted. She didn’t see what being a woman had to do with anything. And besides, she’d already rented a room near the school on Wilson Street.
The principal of the institute relented and history was made. Roberta was admitted that September as the school’s first-ever female student.
But unlike her male counterparts, Roberta was put on academic probation until Christmas.
Roberta graduated three years later in 1961.
She then attended university in North Carolina to earn a bachelor of science and a master’s degree.
Roberta continued to run into roadblocks because of her gender. She had six job offers when she graduated. Yet she was also rejected by employers who said that despite her strong grades, they wouldn’t hire her because she was a woman.
Roberta was also passed over for jobs and promotions because overnight business travel wasn’t allowed for women.
Again, Roberta persisted. She would go on to have a rewarding career in technology with smart employers that valued her skills, experience and leadership abilities. Roberta retired in 1999.
Eight years ago, Roberta returned to Mohawk. She met with our former vice-president academic who had made history herself as our college’s first-ever female dean of technology.
When Roberta was a student at the Hamilton Institute of Technology, a company had paid her tuition.
That assistance helped Roberta and her parents make ends meet. And she was able to continue her education at university.
So Roberta wanted to return the favour. She had originally planned to leave money in her will. But then she thought, why wait?
Roberta donated $50,000 and established a scholarship fund. The scholarships are for women in technology programs at Mohawk. To date, Roberta has helped seven women who are following in her footsteps.
Three of those women met with Roberta last month during another return visit to Mohawk.
Fortunately, we’ve come a long way over the past 60 years. Whether you are a Roberta or a Robert, there is a place for you at Mohawk. Today, we have an equal number of women and men studying at our college. More than 60 per cent of our full-time staff are women.
Women and men are equally represented on our senior leadership team. Seven women serving on our college board of governors, including our vice-chair.
Studies have shown that organizations with more women in senior leadership roles perform better by nearly every measure and metric. This has definitely been our experience at Mohawk.
So, to all the women in the audience who are about to launch your careers, please remember Roberta’s resilience and determination. Should you run up against roadblocks, be like Roberta and persist. Stand your ground. Do not surrender your ambitions or diminish your dreams.
And to the husbands, boyfriends, brothers, fathers and sons here today ... while the women in our lives persist, we must ASSIST.
We cannot stay silent on the sidelines.
We must speak up and stand with all the remarkable women we will work with, and be inspired by, throughout our lives.
Just like the principal at the Hamilton Institute of Technology in 1958, we must find the courage to do the right thing when it comes to gender equality.
Gender equality is not a women’s issue. It is a fundamental human right. And it’s absolutely the right thing to do. Please champion and defend that right throughout your careers.
By virtue of graduating from Mohawk, all of you will find yourselves in positions of power, authority and influence.
Please do your part to put the Robertas and Roberts of this world on equal footing.
Congratulations again and Godspeed.