TMU student Kelvin Doe wins $50,000 fellowship to bring STEAM education to Regent Park
Kelvin Doe has always been a builder. As a kid in Sierra Leone, he made a functional radio station out of scrap parts to give his neighbourhood a voice.
That same drive to create and help others followed him to TMU.
Now, in his fourth year of TMU’s New Media program, Doe is the first TMU student to receive the Pathy Foundation Fellowship (external link) . The fellowship gives young changemakers across Canada a $50,000 stipend to spend a year working on a cause they care about.
Doe plans to use this to enhance STEAM education – science, technology, engineering, arts and math – in Regent Park, where he lives.
Why STEAM matters to Doe
“Significant barriers prevent many students from accessing quality STEAM learning,” says Doe. “While this cannot be quickly solved globally, it can be addressed at least in Regent Park through interactive programming that connects learners with mentors who help build a strong STEAM identity.”
Last year, Doe organized Regent Park’s first Maker Festival, giving residents a space to build, explore and expand access to quality learning.
His fellowship project takes that idea further.
What the initiative will do
Doe is building a community-guided maker education program for middle and high school students. It will focus on:
- Electronics
- Physical computing
- Digital fabrication
The goal is to help students see themselves as capable STEAM practitioners – not just learn the material, but feel like they belong in those fields.
Kelvin Doe with students at Nelson Mandela Park Public School. The Kelvin Doe Foundation creates collaborative learning spaces for people to explore, create, learn and share as a community.
"I look forward to helping learners develop a strong identity connection to STEAM fields by connecting them with mentors and role models," he says.
From Sierra Leone to MIT to Canada
Growing up in Sierra Leone, Doe credits his mother for encouraging him to pursue his early interests including his love for music and technology.
In school he was actively involved in extracurriculars, he started the robotics club and worked as a DJ.
“My interest in media and maker education stems from being curious to learn about different things, and I think very early on I really understood the power of media,” says Doe. “Growing up in a developing country like Sierra Leone, media is such a powerful medium to stay informed with policy changes or issues.”
His homemade radio station eventually caught the attention of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“Presenting my innovations at the MIT Media Lab to researchers like Nicholas Negroponte showed me what is possible when young people from underserved communities have access to maker tools and skilling platforms,” says Doe.
Finding a launchpad at TMU
Doe says TMU’s new media program gave him room to experiment.
“Courses like Zone Learning, Intro to Tangible Media and Hacking, DIY and Open SourceStudio gave me the creative freedom to find my voice in coding, electronics and community engagement,” says Doe.
“University gave me the tools, networks and confidence to act on what I have always believed since tinkering with electronics as a child in Sierra Leone: that creativity is universal and can be found in places where one does not expect to find it.”