Centennial College scholarship honours the late Eric Wickham

By Lincoln DePradine

An academic scholarship has been established in the name of an African-Canadian, who spent much of his adult life as an educator and in promoting African history and achievements.

Eric R. Wickham

Professional accountant Eric Rudolph Wickham, who died last November, was a Centennial College business instructor, who also developed a groundbreaking general education college course titled, “Ancient Africa: Glorious Legacies’’.

“During his career at Centennial College, dad was able to fulfill his passion for teaching about financial management and also African history,’’ said daughter Aisha Wickham. “It is our family’s great honour to continue to keep dad’s name and legacy alive.’’

The newly launched “Eric R. Wickham Memorial Scholarship’’ is tenable at Centennial College, with the first to be awarded in a couple months.

“There will be a student award ceremony in late March. The specific date is still to be determined,’’ Wickham told The Caribbean Camera.

“But it will be during the last week of March which, ironically, is my dad’s birthday week. His birthday is March 26. So, the ceremony could very well be on his birthday, which would be quite fitting.’’

Eric Wickham arrived in Canada in 1966 from Barbados, where he was a primary school teacher.

He taught at Centennial College’s business school from 1979 to 2004, and also built the curriculum for the “Ancient Africa: Glorious Legacies’’ course, which provided anin-depth self-study of African kingdoms and Egyptian antiquity

Wickham’s deep community involvement, such as participation in the Saturday-run educational and cultural program of the African Canadian Heritage Association (ACHA), earned him the affectionate title of “Elder’’.

He died November 10 at Scarborough Centenary Hospital. He was 83.

Among Wickham’s surviving relatives are his wife Emily; daughter Aisha; son Olembe; four grandchildren; a brother Robert in Canada; and a sister Margaret in Barbados.

The Wickham family participated in drafting the scholarship criteria that include the element of “reciprocity’’, explained Aisha Wickham, adding that her father would have been “humbled’’ at the setting up of the academic award.

“He would have been proud to know that the Wickham name was attached to such an honour at an institution that he was proud to be associated with,’’ she said. “I think he would say it represents reciprocity, which was a theme that was so important to him, where everybody needs to find a way to contribute and also receive back. So, you put out positivity and positivity comes back.’’

The Eric R. Wickham Memorial Scholarship is valued at $2,500, and the winning candidate would be selected by Centennial College.

The college, on its website https://www.centennialcollege.ca/financial-aid/scholarships/application-scholarships-and-awards/the-business-school-application-scholarships?, said the annual scholarship will be presented to a “Black student enrolled fulltime in a program within the business school. The student must demonstrate financial need and must be in good academic standing’’.

The requirements of scholarship applicants also include answering questions relating to their community involvement.

“Connection to the Black community is a core tenet of the scholarship. It is important to us that the recipient of the Eric R. Wickham Memorial Scholarship be someone who contributes to the upliftment of the Black community,’’ said Wickham.

In one question, applicants are asked to provide “at least one concrete example describing how you participated in supporting the Black community and how your involvement has made a difference to the community,’’ she said.

The applicant may choose to answer that first question “and/or tell us how, through your career choice, you plan to contribute to, and positively impact, the Back community’’, Wickham added.

The scholarship, she said, is a “fitting way for us to keep dad’s name alive, while simultaneously giving back to a Black student that’s pursuing a career along a similar line to what he dedicated his career to, business and financial management. He was very proud to work at Centennial College and to pour into thousands of students over his 25-plus-year career at the school’’.

Her father’s “passion was for uplifting the Black community in so many things that he did. So, being able to invest in a Black student pursuing a business career aligns really well with things that were important to him’’, Wickham said.