As NC celebrates Inclusion Week from April 13-16, members of the College’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Catalyst program are being recognized for advancing initiatives that foster a more inclusive and equitable campus community.
Launched as part of the College’s EDI Blueprint, the EDI Catalyst program brings together employees from across departments to lead projects that promote equity, diversity and inclusion in meaningful and practical ways, supporting one of the four areas and actions identified in the Blueprint.
For NC Counsellor Yiching Chua, Health, Wellness & Accessibility Services (HWAS), the EDI Catalyst role complemented her existing work supporting racialized students navigating both academic and personal challenges, while also offering an opportunity to contribute to broader change.
“My role as a Counsellor felt complementary to the goals of what the EDI Catalysts were trying to work towards when teaming up with other members of the NC community,” she said. “My role as a Counsellor has been more individually focused; however, often would intersect with systemic challenges.”
She added that becoming a Catalyst helped bridge that gap between individual support and wider institutional impact.
“As a Catalyst, our roles were more intentionally systemic, macro in nature, attempting to support the goals in the various areas of focus,” she said. “I found that part of my role as a Catalyst could help support the systemic work that I encountered in my counselling office.”
Chua’s EDI Catalyst project focused on student experience, with a goal of developing and enhancing consistent structures to support students from equity-deserving communities, while also improving the accessibility and flexibility of academic programming for students with varying life circumstances.
However, she notes that the direction of her project evolved in response to the broader context on campus at the time.
“It took me some time to pinpoint a project that I wanted to focus on,” she said. “During the time where we were tasked with setting up our project was when budgetary restraints were announced at the College. I was mindful of the current climate that we were all facing.”
Through conversations and collaboration with colleagues across the College, her focus shifted toward strengthening student self-advocacy as a key component of accessibility and support.
“Empowering students to self-advocate was a key part in supporting their academic accessibility when life circumstances occurred,” she said.
Working with other members from the HWAS team, Chua helped shape a social media-based initiative designed to share information more intentionally and make supports more visible and accessible to students.
“We decided to be more intentional with our postings, helping students access information in a way to help them learn to be more willing to ask for help and to advocate for themselves,” she said.
The ongoing project continues to evolve, with Chua and her collaborators developing content aimed at increasing engagement and connection with students. Early results have shown increased traffic, follows and interactions, reflecting stronger engagement with the messaging.
She says the work reinforces the importance of consistently embedding EDI principles into everyday communications and student supports.
“EDI work is always important and needs to be continually worked on because we’re human and we have biases,” she said. “The social media project was a positive initiative as it helped our team to be more intentional in the content we were putting out to our NC community.”
At its core, Chua says the initiative is about helping students feel more confident navigating challenges and seeking support when needed.
“The focus on empowering students to advocate for themselves or ask for help when they were met with difficult life circumstances helped them learn how to navigate challenging times,” she said.
She describes the relationships built through the EDI Catalyst program as one of the most meaningful parts of her experience.
“There were so many meaningful aspects of being a Catalyst, like having a role in bringing the EDI Blueprint to life,” she said. “However, the most meaningful aspect of my experience was working with other NC team members.”
She adds that the program helped her connect with colleagues across the College and strengthened her sense of community.
“It was a great way for me to have met different people throughout the College that I wouldn’t have met in my current role,” she said. “Hearing what others were doing on their projects on a regular basis helped me feel a sense of community.”
Looking ahead, Chua and her colleagues plan to continue developing and sharing meaningful content to support both students and the broader NC community, with a focus on mental health awareness, accessibility, and culturally relevant resources.
