Portfolio status
This document is the complete, static version of the APPLHSCI 9099 learning portfolio. It integrates the capstone narrative, learning plan, activity summary, competency evidence, critical reflection, project products, and reference record in one submission-ready resource.
This capstone is an applied evidence synthesis and implementation-design project. It is not a formal evaluation of TVDSB, does not present local administrative outcomes, and does not claim that the framework or proposed tools have been approved, piloted, or validated.
Section 01 · Portfolio introduction
Prepared for Black Students
Schools shape more than learning. They shape health, identity, safety, belonging, opportunity, and future possibility. This capstone examines the Black Graduation Coach role through that wider health-equity and systems lens — asking how trusted relational practice can support Black students while also helping the institution identify and transform the conditions that constrain their pathways.
My starting point is unapologetically anti-deficit. Black students are not problems to be repaired, managed, or made more resilient for inequitable environments. The institutional question is whether schools are prepared to recognize their brilliance, affirm their identities, protect their pathways, and act when recurring barriers are made visible.
Black students should not have to prove that they belong. The institution must become worthy of their presence, their brilliance, and their futures. Portfolio position
About the learner
Bringing lived and professional knowledge together
I bring to this project experience in community development, health equity, anti-racism policy, education, international development, and systems change. I have worked across public, academic, non-profit, and community settings, including work in Canada and internationally. That background shaped my ability to move between scholarship, institutional policy, community knowledge, implementation design, and practical leadership.
It also required reflexivity. As a Black man, immigrant, educator, consultant, parent, and community member, I did not enter this inquiry as a distant observer. My proximity sharpened the questions and strengthened my commitment, but it also required me to state the evidence level precisely, resist overclaiming, and distinguish lived and professional knowledge from local empirical findings.
Institutional context
Where this work is situated
The capstone is situated within the Thames Valley District School Board and its Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy. The specific focus is the Graduation Coach for Black Students role. The project considers how that role can remain deeply relational while also being connected to guidance, Student Success, school improvement, leadership, data, community voice, and accountability.
Academic Lead — Dr. Marcy Saxe-Braithwaite
Current Field Mentor — Colette Greaves, Thames Valley District School Board
Original Field Mentor — Rheba Moore-Nash, System Principal, Thames Valley District School Board
Where to go next
Navigating the portfolio
The twelve sections of this site follow the arc of the capstone itself — from the project's purpose and evidence base, through the framework it produced, to the reflection and competency record required for academic assessment.
Start with the argument
The Project → Evidence & Approach → Findings → Framework → Recommendations.
Start with the learner
The Journey → Learning Plan → Competencies → Final Reflection → Artifacts.