By Elaine Smith special contributing writer
When the Governor-General’s staff phoned Don Dippo to inform him that he’d been named to the Order of Canada, the retired University Professor of Education at York University thought someone was pulling his leg.
“When the caller said he was from the Governor-General’s office, I thought it would be a scam,” Dippo says. “I was waiting for her to ask me for passwords or credit card information.”
Unsurprising to anyone who knows Dippo, the invitation was real and celebrates his life’s work as a champion for access to education.
“Donald Dippo is passionate about education equity,” the official citation reads. “For decades, this educator and advocate has increased educational access for children and teachers at home and abroad, from Toronto and eastern Africa, to South and Central America. He is also the co-founder of the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees program, based in the Dadaab Refugee Camps.”
As Dippo, himself, says, “My career explored ways to make higher education more accessible to communities who don’t typically find their way in.”
During his 35 years as a professor and administrator at York University, this former elementary school teacher made it his mission to remove barriers to higher education and make it accessible. He was a co-founding director of Success Beyond Limits (SBL), a thriving program in the York University area that brings struggling eighth graders to campus in the summer for remedial education and an understanding of the opportunities that university offers. Dippo brought higher education into the community itself through an outreach master’s of education degree program held in local public schools before moving to the Yorkgate Mall. He is also the co-founder –along with Professor Wenona Giles -- of York University’s Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program, a collaboration with other universities and the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. This program has given teachers there the pathway to a formal teaching degree and opportunities for broadening their own lives and those of their students.
“If you look hard enough, there are always people willing to find ways to make good things happen, people who aren’t interested in putting barriers in the way,” Dippo says.
Heather Lotherington, retired associate dean of research for the Faculty of Education, spearheaded the nomination as part of her commitment to supporting and publicizing faculty members’ research and development.
“Don’s work was constant, determined and remarkably heartfelt, and I thought that his considerable achievements had fallen below the radar,” Lotherington says. “He was always exceptional, unswervingly reaching out to migrant populations of high need. He created programs and taught under-served local populations as well as those in dangerous refugee settings, often in partnership with students and other faculty members of York University. He was in Central America during the years of death squads and then in East Africa working in camps requiring armed guards. He did a lot of dangerous, unglamorous work, and he never stopped helping migrant and refugee students and teachers, many of whom today hold York University degrees as a direct consequence of his outreach. His dedication was remarkable. When this nomination came through, it absolutely made my day.”
Former refugee Ahmed Abdi graduated from the Dadaab Refugee Camp’s first cohort of York master’s degree students after first earning his teaching certificate and his bachelor’s degree through the BHER program. He has since returned home to Somalia where he works with UNICEF managing child protection programs in his native country.
“Without Don and the BHER program, I would have stayed in that refugee camp, desperate,” says Abdi. “The opportunities I have now to work and support my siblings with access to education would have been out of reach. Don brought us a vision of empowerment that was transformative. He opened the door to higher education and a broader perspective on life in a way that was not only intellectual, but deeply human.
“He increased access to education at a time when opportunities were non-existent and opened the doors for many refugees who have since left the camp and gone out into the world with the skills they need to get jobs and give back to the community.”
Closer to home, Don’s impact continues to be felt through the Success Beyond Limits program that draws focuses on students from two middle schools in Toronto’s Jane-Finch neighbourhood. The program has a 94 per cent graduation rate among the eighth graders who participate in its summer courses.
“Don was one of the founders and original board members,” says Tesfai Mengesha, a graduate of York’s Faculty of Education who first worked as an SBL instructor and is now its co-executive director. “He has always been really excited about our work and understood the value of local expertise in understanding the workings of a community.
“His award is very well deserved. His experience and contributions to Canada are unique. He used theory and brought it into practice.”
Leolyn Hendricks, a retired principal of Seneca College’s Yorkgate campus, is an ongoing member of the SBL board of directors, but her connection with Dippo runs deeper still. Hendricks is a graduate of the first cohort of master’s degree students from the Faculty of Education’s community graduate degree program that he and colleagues organized.
“This ‘Masters in the Mall’ program looked at ways people could leverage their experience in an academic setting,” Hendricks says. “It was mind-blowing; it flew in the face of the assumptions about the credentials that were required for higher education. It was all outside-of-the-box thinking.
“Don was a conduit who looked for ways to bring the community’s voice into educational spheres, and this honour reflects on his commitment to community development done in his very soft, understated way.”
Although Dippo has retired from the University, his impact continues to be felt.
To "develop innovative curriculum and programming” is one of the guiding principles of the Faculty of Education's Strategic Plan 2023-2027," says Robert Savage, Dean of the Faculty of Education. "During his 35-year career at York University, University Professor Donald Dippo embodied that principle, establishing education programs for under-served youth in the York community and abroad.
"The ripple effect of his work in creating programs such as Success Beyond Limits here at York and internationally, through Borderless Higher Education for Refugees, will fan out for generations, giving youth both locally and in the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Africa opportunities they might never have considered. He is richly deserving of induction into the Order of Canada."
Dippo, enjoying retirement in Comox, B.C., says, “Today, I feel proud of all these programs. They are very impactful and very satisfying. York enabled me to do all kinds of things that I might have found it difficult to do elsewhere. Staff found innovative, creative ways to help me put theory into practise.
“As for the Order of Canada, I am enjoying the experience. It is so unexpected. You don’t go into teaching because you expect to be rewarded; you go because you hope to enjoy student success vicariously.”