Canadian Health\u00a0Behaviour\u00a0in School-aged Children study<\/a>, Lobo helped ensure young people were directly involved in adolescent health research.<\/p>\nHer qualitative research explored how youth perceived\u00a0participating\u00a0in\u00a0risk-taking,\u00a0challenging\u00a0common\u00a0negative\u00a0assumptions about adolescent\u00a0risk\u00a0behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth are actually very resilient,\u201d she said. \u201cDepending on their experiences and contexts, many\u00a0engaged in\u00a0prosocial\u00a0risks, leaning towards\u00a0viewing\u00a0risk as a positive thing \u2014 being able to grow,\u00a0develop\u00a0and push themselves out of their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
A first-generation post-secondary student, she arrived at Brock after completing a master\u2019s degree at Ontario Tech University, where\u00a0her\u00a0supervisor encouraged her to explore doctoral studies and seek out a mentor whose research aligned with hers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour graduate supervisor can absolutely make or break your program and whether you actually enjoy graduate studies,\u201d said Lobo, who was supervised by Professor of Health Sciences\u00a0William Pickett.<\/p>\n
According to Lobo, Brock\u2019s close-knit community allowed her to build meaningful relationships with faculty and peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrock\u2019s medium-sized campus lends itself perfectly to facilitating hands-on experience and forming connections,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Like Lobo,\u00a0Omoregie\u00a0said\u00a0community\u00a0shaped her\u00a0experience\u00a0at\u00a0Brock, though she struggled to find it at first.<\/p>\n
The Nursing graduate came to Brock looking for a university where she wouldn\u2019t feel \u201clike one in a million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking to connect with other Black students on campus, she decided to find and build the community she wanted.<\/p>\n
Omoregie became involved with the Black Students\u2019 Association (BLSA) and later worked as a peer assistant with the Black Student Success Centre after it opened during her second year.<\/p>\n
The experience pushed her to take on leadership roles and advocate for other students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s OK to step into the light,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Inspired by her mentor Jason\u00a0Ineh,\u00a0BLSA\u2019s co-founder, Omoregie\u00a0said she learned to embrace uncomfortable situations and encouraged others to do the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis laid the foundation of where I am today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Wanting to create\u00a0additional\u00a0support for Nursing\u00a0students,\u00a0Omoregie\u00a0founded\u00a0the Black Nursing\u00a0Students\u2019\u00a0Association, which offers mentorship, resources and a safe space for students navigating academics and clinical placements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels kind of like being a big sister,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Through clinical placements across Niagara Health and Hamilton Health Sciences, Omoregie discovered a passion for labour and delivery nursing and now works full time as a labour and delivery nurse.<\/p>\n
She aims to combine leadership and mentorship with patient care throughout her\u00a0career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t speak up, how is anyone supposed to know that you\u2019re going through something?\u201d\u00a0she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Both Omoregie and Lobo encourage students to connect with their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet involved because you never know until you actually try it,\u201d Lobo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Larissa Lobo (PhD \u201926) and Ivie Omoregie (BSc \u201926), growing as leaders has meant stepping outside their comfort zones and finding ways to support others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":110145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,9794,7484,3319,1],"tags":[156,1696,488,7488,224,3325,1759],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110141"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110284,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110141\/revisions\/110284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}