Markham resident earns RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award

Mother started newcomer association at Ryerson U

Yorkregion.com
July 13, 2018
Simone Joseph

Sara Asalya remembers how isolated she felt when she began attending Ryerson University.

Born and raised in Palestine’s Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps, she immigrated to Canada six years ago and soon began attending Ryerson.

The student was a mother and found few people to whom she could relate. While she was in her 30s, her classmates were in their late teens.

“There wasn’t support for new Canadians for their transition to higher education,” the Markham resident said. “There was no community to belong to. It was a harsh experience. I wanted to create a community (for students) to connect, belong and grow.”

So, Asalya created the Newcomer Students’ Association of Ryerson University (www.mynsar.ca). In honour of this, she has received one of the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards recognizing Canada’s best and brightest immigrants.

“Every year, I am amazed by the number of talented people nominated for this award,” said Sanjay Agnihotri, director of events and digital for Metroland Media Group and publisher of Canadian Immigrant Magazine.

Asalya was motivated to invoke change in part because of how difficult she found life as a new Canadian and university student. “It was very challenging,” she said. “You have to integrate and learn everything from scratch.”