‘From my heart’
Meet Chantae Robinson, medical student and champion of Black-owned businesses in the North
Chantae Robinson has one word for you: “love.”
“Everything that I do is an expression of love for others,” says Chantae, before heading back into the operating room.
The third-year NOSM University medical student—born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica—moved to Sudbury at the age of 16. She is the current president of the Afro-Heritage Association of Sudbury (AHA). Among many other things, AHA manages a program funded by FedNor called the Northern Ontario Black Economic Empowerment Program (NOBEEP), which serves to encourage and support Black entrepreneurs and Black-owned businesses in the North.
“One of the things I’ve noticed coming from Jamaica is that a good lifestyle was much more challenging to achieve in Jamaica,” says Chantae. “There is a lot of poverty there. When I came to Sudbury and I saw the abundance of resources in Canada, I immediately started to appreciate the opportunities, but also to see the contrast.”
“Poverty leads to poor health,” says the doctor-in-training. “What we aim to do with NOBEEP is empower people to get themselves into a position where they can sustain their lives. When a person is optimizing their gifts and time, their overall wellbeing is improved.”
This holistic approach to health care parallels Chantae’s personal philosophy on life.
“For me, the work I do is from my heart,” she says. “How I view humanity and our duties to each other is that we’re here in this world as a community, all of us. The more that we can help each other, the more we uplift each other, the more we work according to love, the better everyone will be.”
As for her future career path, Chantae aspires to be a general surgeon working in a Northern community, where, she says, “I can engage not only in health care, but also in other areas of community development that I am passionate about. Northern Ontario is the ideal environment to fulfill these purposes.”
NOSM University learners and alumni are internationally recognised for their outstanding commitment to advocacy, health equity, and social accountability. The work of these exceptional leaders—like Chantae—is rooted in, and co-created with, community.