Convocation Profile: Jonathan Blaize

Upon arriving at University College (UC) as a first-year student, never did Jonathan Blaize expect that his life and career would become so intertwined with the College and the University of Toronto (U of T). But, as he embarks on his first professional job as a recruitment officer at U of T, Blaize, a 2022 Honours BA graduate in Spanish who hails from Trinidad, is excited and eager to see where life will take him. 

“I went down the UC pipeline,” says Blaize. “One opportunity opens doors to another.” 

It has been a “terrific experience” for Blaize, who wasn’t originally planning to apply to the University of Toronto; fate, in the form of a friend, took a hand. Blaize intended to study actuarial science and applied to one university in Canada and one in Trinidad. His friend urged him to add at least one more school to the list if he really wanted to go abroad, so Blaize chose U of T. He was quickly accepted and later learned that the other application hadn’t come through. So, he packed his bags, headed toward Toronto and hasn’t looked back. 

Blaize spent the first year on campus in residence where he was chosen house leader. 

“During high school, I was a member of the dragon boat club and, eventually, they needed a new captain. People urged me to take the position, saying I had natural leadership ability, even though I never thought of myself as a leader before. As a result, I was comfortable trying the position of house leader.” 

Blaize and some friends were planning to move off campus the following year, but the residence life co-ordinator contacted him to tell him that the residence council was looking for a social director and urged him to run for the position. Blaize considered the possibility, stayed on campus and enjoyed his new role. 

“You are in a leadership position and can organize events that matter to you,” Blaize says of his role as social director. He felt the need for more LGBTQ+ events at UC and organized both a peer-led discussion program and a drag show. 

“The drag show was a huge collaborative event,” Blaize says. “We held it in 2020, a week before the COVID shutdown and 100 people showed up. It was so good to have the event; it gave people a safe space to try drag, something they might not have had otherwise.” 

The event took place online in 2021, but it returned live in 2022 and Blaize hopes it will be a regular part of the College’s social calendar. 

The enjoyment he found in being part of the residence leadership team led Blaize to apply for a position as a residence don in his third year and as a head don in his fourth.   

“I became a don during the COVID year and I learned a lot,” Blaize says. “I matured so much. I knew that I was going to broaden my horizons at university, but as a don, you have to speak to people openly about mental health issues, sexual and gender issues and equity, diversity and inclusion; it intensifies your growth and I’m very grateful.” 

His work as a don has also led to friendships with other dons. During the pandemic, everyone in residence got to know each other well, because they were living in a bubble together. 

“We spent so much time together indoors. In an environment like that, you get to know people really well.” 

As a don, Blaize tried to make the students in his charge as comfortable as possible, thinking of the dons he had as a first- and second-year student. 

“The biggest misconception I had coming to university was that everyone else would know each other and it would be difficult, as an outsider, to find friends,” he says. “That’s not the case. In first year, everyone wants to make friends, and there’s a huge international student population. I made a bunch of friends the first day and I made friends in my academic program and at everything in which I was involved. You can find friends all over.” 

Doors continued to open for Blaize and he had the courage to walk through them. He began working as a residence tour guide, which led to a position as a campus tour guide, a work-study post and, now, to his first step into the professional world. 

Meanwhile, Blaize realized the he didn’t want to follow his initial plan of pursuing actuarial science as a career and made a switch to studying Spanish. 

“I always liked Spanish but never saw myself doing it long term,” he says. “However, I needed to find something I liked doing to pursue.” 

He anticipates using his Spanish as he embarks on his career as a recruitment counsellor, but it won’t be his focus. 

“I figured that whatever I studied would be my career, but I never realized that there was a whole world outside university academic careers,” Blaize says. “Working in residence life showed me that I knew how to organize events and that I was an empathetic listener and they were skills I could use in a career. What you study is important, but it isn’t everything. You might find something you never knew existed.” 

As he begins his new position, Blaize will be moving off campus for the first time since arriving in Toronto, but he is undaunted. 

“Toronto represents the land of opportunity to me,” he says. “I’ve experienced things I’ve dreamed of my whole life: a new environment where I could learn and find out who I am. It’s a place where I can be my authentic self.” 

And, when he goes to the “office,” he’ll still be only steps away from UC, his second home.