A University of Toronto professor who died in June will be honoured at an anniversary gala for the access-to-education program she helped start.

In 1970, Keren Brathwaite co-founded the Transitional Year Programme (TYP) in an effort to help mature Black students get a university education. The program has since expanded to include any adult who does not have the formal qualifications for university admission.

TYP’s current director Lance McCready says he remembers Brathwaite mostly for her passion for the program.

“She just brought so much energy and insight and inspiration to the program,” he said. “She’s sorely missed.”

Brathwaite, along with others who helped shape the program, is set to be honoured at its 53rd anniversary gala. The event will celebrate 53 years of “making excellence accessible” in the Great Hall at Hart House with a performance by Jully Black.

TYP is a full-time, eight-month program. It’s grown from 25 students per year to roughly 60, and has helped upwards of 2,500 people go to university over the decades.

The program focuses its support on people who didn’t have the opportunity to finish high school or didn’t succeed in high school because of financial problems, family difficulties, or other circumstances beyond their control.

Fallon Young is now in her third year studying philosophy and bioethics at U of T after graduating from TYP — a program she says changed her life.

For Young, the program isn’t just about achieving academic success. It’s about finding a home in a place she thought she’d never have access to.

McCready says the Wednesday night gala is an opportunity to celebrate all of the good the program has done.

He says the program is “groundbreaking” for helping Black and Indigenous students access undergraduate studies at the “very competitive” university.

“She just meant a lot to a whole lot of people,” he said. “She was an inspiration to the Black community in general, specifically to the TYP community, and to the University of Toronto. Just a very important person.”