Page 29 - Edify-Nov-Dec-2023

(2017)
MORÉNIKÉ ENIOLÁ OLÁÒSEBÌKAN
»
The original event was held in response to a now-revoked Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada rule that international students like Oláòsebìkan couldn’t work
on campus — so she held an on-campus party instead,
one that raised over $2,000 for HIV treatment in African countries.
“I didn’t know that what
I was building at the time
is something called a social enterprise. But it ended up being this really rich learning
the people over 60 can have trouble swallowing, but most of their medication is tablets and capsules — why do we do that to them? I think if you have artistic tendencies, you feel the struggle that they or someone else may have.”
–Cory Schachtel
(2018)
JASON LEE NORMAN
»In the same year that Jason Lee Norman was named a Top 40 Under 40, he and Jeremy Bibaud hatched a plan for a new literary review.
Norman was selected as a Top 40 for his work as a writ- er and as someone who put
Moréniké Oláòsebìkan sees the creation of the Ribbon Rouge Foundation as a pivotal moment in her life.
No sibling rivalry here: In 2018, the brother-sister duo of Jacquelyn and Hunter Cardinal made the cut.
Two members of our Top 40 were elected to city council after they were in our classes. Michael Walters was a Top 40 way back in 2009, Michael Janz was in the class of 2012 and Keren Tang made the cut in 2017.
experience about this other way to do business, to generate revenue for good. And what I’ve built now is a social enterprise.”
Oláòsebìkan also tackles drug shortages in Canada with her new company, Kemet Group Inc. And what
Oláòsebìkan has built now
is a small footprint facility with digital infrastructure to allow communities to make their own drugs closer to home. “We contributed to resolving some of the Tylenol shortage for children — I estimate we made 4,200 bottles of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, dimenhydrinate and amoxicillin to children in Alberta so far, from my lab and on my software.”
That got the attention
from prestigious technology accelerator Y Combinator, and increased financing from the Social Enterprise Fund. The goal now is to scale Kemet and go back to African countries to build facilities there as well.
“In drug design, we need
to actually empathize with people who are taking medica- tions to understand what they specifically need for their own unique bodies. Up to half
together projects to help other local authors and poets get noticed, so the fact that he was one of the drivers behind Funicular, which launched in 2019, shouldn’t be all that surprising.
The review just put out its 12th issue.
“It’s about forgiving your- self, to allow yourself to be part of a labour of love that’s not going to make you any money,” Norman says. To him, it’s about being able to put that effort into something that’s simply worth the effort. And every issue creates a new “little family” of writers whose works are collected within.
Norman also coordinates events for the Writers’
Guild of Alberta and spear- headed a plan with Blindman Brewing to have writers and
poets’ work appear on beer cans. Finding art in unex- pected places is something we can all cherish — and he said the Lacombe-based brewers are still 100 per cent behind the plan.
“It’s support on top of
support.”
–Steven Sandor
The number of times 2009 alumnus Trevor Anderson’s films have screened at the famous Sundance Film Festival.
29