A lot can hinge on how one defines a problem. Guillermo Acosta, new to his role at The Business School involving the Business Management diploma program, heard reports that Joel Powell was a difficult student, a “rebel.”
The problem, from the teacher's standpoint, was Powell's inability to see the relevance of their instruction. They considered Powell an at-risk student, a poor performer partly because of difficulty interacting with faculty. Powell, of course, saw things differently. He had set his sights on attending Humber when he was in high school. He had been putting a plan in place to start his own business and heard that Humber was a good college for learning the fundamentals of management. His network of Humber graduates had recommended the school highly.
The first one in his family to attend college, Powell was in sight of a Business Management diploma. There was just one problem: He was doing poorly in one course and failure there would delay his graduation, and business plans. Acosta went to bat for Powell to help him resolve his academic issue.
Their first contact occurred when Powell went to Acosta’s office to complain. Thereafter he became a regular guest in the co-ordinator's office. Acosta could see that he had the desire to succeed, so he felt happy and honoured to assist. “It was an amazing experience to see the transformation in the student,” he says. Powell describes Acosta as “persistent” in the way he helped him address his issue. The resolution wasn’t easy, though. Powell was given “one chance”—which entailed writing three tests, three weeks in a row. (He passed all three.)
Looking back, Powell (pictured right) sees Acosta (pictured left) as a mentor who was especially respectful towards his goals. Acosta provided a lot of advice, for instance: alerting Powell to different sources of funding. “In college, Guillermo was the first person who took an interest in me,” Powell says. “I consider him more of a friend. He was good at bridging school administration and professional matters. He always made time for me.” Because of this exceptional and close mentoring experience he shared with Acosta, Powell has recommended Humber to others. From Acosta’s standpoint, successful mentoring in this case involved attitude adjustments.
Now that Powell has started his own DJ business, Acosta can see that the venture reflects part of their conversations when Powell studied at Humber. Back then Acosta saw his role as getting Powell to see the future application of the education he was currently receiving, of seeing it as the sub-text to the dreams he was planning to achieve. This is part of Acosta’s larger job of making sure students get through. “For Humber, retention and graduation rates are extremely important, ”Acosta says.
“We try to meet with students who are on probation. Interventions are case-specific and proactive. For example, we conduct surveys. We make students aware of resources, workshops, and seminars that can help them. We establish contact between each student and a faculty member in the students’ first semester so that they know we’re always there for them.” Acosta believes that this kind of intervention, which tends to be stronger in college settings, makes a real difference for students.
Interacting with someone like Acosta is “a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence” according to Powell. “In my environment, I don’t get to meet someone like Guillermo. Where I come from it’s mostly criminals as role models.” Yet, despite, the dearth of available models, Powell did draw on his father’s lifelong involvement in music for inspiration in hisown business. “I had a passion from childhood to do my own thing, something related to music. It's what I'm to do. You can't escape the inevitable.”
For Powell, graduating from Humber and starting up his own business has also meant trying to resolve certain conflicts, especially since his music career appropriates aspects of his father’s role. His family members were proud of his success, but also, he thinks, a bit fearful of losing his contributions to their single-mother household.
Powell is trying to sort through the issues by using his background for motivation, primarily to break what he sees as a “cycle of neglect,” not just to help himself but to help others. Powell had to fend for himself since age 16 and knows how it feels to watch and wonder as others pass you by. He wants to help those undergoing the same things he did.
Powell now wants to mentor others through his own business. He wants to be a positive example and give back to the community that helped him. There’s one piece of wisdom he'd like to share with students: “Always go to school with an agenda.” Powell keeps in touch with Acosta and Humber alumni via email and campus visits, and Acosta is proud of the strides Powell has made, happy to see that he’s kept his drive and willingness to challenge his educators.
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