BridgeTO Youth Superstars: Jayla
“Aim higher.”
For Jayla Theodore, things didn’t come easy while growing up in the Finch and Weston area of North York.
“I don’t want to say it's a bad community, because I don’t think any community is bad,” she starts. “But we miss out on a lot of opportunities here. I can say that for sure. I remember looking for things to do online, and they’d always be held somewhere far out.”
Even as she commuted daily to Rexdale to attend the enriched Math and Sciences program at West Humber Collegiate, Jayla was always struck by the lack of resources available in her neighbourhood.
“People need to invest in this community more,” she says passionately. “We have a community centre here, but there’s nothing that happens in that community centre. For us, if you’re not at the park, then you’re at home. If you’re not at home, then God knows where you are.”
Despite the barriers, Jayla made it a point to keep herself busy. At West Humber, she played multiple sports and participated in the Black History Council, Student Leader Council and General Council. In the summer before Grade 12, her principal referred her to the BridgeTO program.
“BridgeTO was honestly so amazing,” says Jayla. “I don’t want to say I was closed minded before the program, but now I really look to see the opportunity in every situation, and that is because of BridgeTO.”
Jayla specifically recalls benefitting from BridgeTO’s tutoring sessions.
“I thought I was going to fail Chemistry,” she admits. “But every single day, my BridgeTO tutors would help me out. I used to be scared to ask for help when it came to school, but BridgeTO made me feel so comfortable and I was able to get the help that I needed with certain subjects.”
Beyond just academics, Jayla credits the BridgeTO program for always inspiring her and encouraging her to aim higher.
“BridgeTO introduced me to the idea of being a doctor, and that is something I never would’ve thought for myself. When I heard the word doctor, I just thought of the years of post-secondary that I didn’t want to go through. The people at BridgeTO showed me that I could put in the time, stay motivated and work to accomplish amazing things.”
This attitude is already paying dividends for this recent BridgeTO graduate. Despite the challenge of online school during the pandemic, Jayla was able to maintain her grades and graduate high school on the Honour Roll. To date, she’s been awarded a $5000 scholarship from BridgeTO and MAX, as well as an entrance scholarship of $6000 from Brock University, where she will begin to study Kinesiology in September.
In the future, Jayla hopes to attend med school and specialize in Sports Medicine, with the goal of becoming a doctor in the sports industry. She’s also determined to give back to her community in any way she can, maybe even by volunteering with BridgeTO.
Of course, there’s one problem that Jayla is doubly determined to solve.
“As soon as I’m able to, I’m going to start something of my own in that community centre near my house,” she promises. “I don’t want any kids to feel like they can’t do something because they don’t have the resources, or that they can’t be who they want to be because they don’t have the help.”
“There’s always a way. It may be harder because we don’t have the resources near us, but we can go find them, and we can make it happen.”
Jayla has never been someone to let barriers stand in her way. From commuting daily to attend an enriched high school program to securing over $10,000 in scholarships to start her post-secondary career, she’s become somewhat of a specialist in creating opportunities where they don’t exist.
The future is bright for this BridgeTO Superstar, and we look forward to seeing the amazing things that she will accomplish.