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Student athlete Kyle Stewart enjoys giving back to the community.

Creating connections

Kyle Stewart, Commerce ’16, knows all about balance – after all, he’s working on his master of science in management degree at Ryerson while he’s a star soccer player with the Ryerson Rams (last year he won the D.H. Craighead award, given to a male athlete at Ryerson for outstanding contribution to interuniversity sport and to campus and community life). But for Stewart, who moved to Toronto with his family from Kingston, Jamaica when he was 18, a key part of that balance is giving back to the community – especially children.

“I like to be busy, and I want to do something useful with my time,” he says. Last year Stewart put in more than 100 hours of community service.

Rising Rams is one of the Ryerson community programs he’s deeply involved in, a program that brings Ryerson athletes into downtown schools to lead workshops with students from Grades 4 to 10. “We do basketball and soccer workouts, we do other sports with them – but we also talk to the kids about time management, leadership, community service, conflict resolution,” says Stewart. “We try to give them life skills.”

Ultimately, he says, it’s about creating connections. For example, the Rams in Training program brings some of those students to campus to see the university’s athletes in action, and to meet with the players. “It’s great to go to the schools – but it’s nice to bring them here so they can see the facilities that we use,” says Stewart. “It can be inspiring for them.”

WINTER 2017 • Ryerson University Magazine 19