What do Donald Dippo and Ryan Reynolds have in common?
Besides both being residents of B.C., the two men were also both appointed to the Order of Canada in mid-December.
While Dippo's palmares don't include being a superhero, the people he's helped over the years might disagree with that. The Governor General's office wrote that Dippo's passionate approach to education equity earned him the appointment, saying that "for decades, this educator and advocate has increased educational access for children and teachers at home and abroad, from Toronto and eastern Africa, to South and Central America."
Dippo, a retired professor from York University, said that he was part of a project called Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) that worked to give refugees the chance to further their education and therefore make more of a difference in their own communities. The project was a collaboration between a few Canadian Universities — UBC and York University — and Kenyatta University and Moi University in Kenya. They worked with educators living in the Dadaab refugee camps to further their education.
"To people who have lived there, many of them for their entire lives, they didn't have any opportunities to access post-secondary education," Dippo said. "The project was offering post-secondary opportunities like degrees and certificates."
The project started with giving educators a certificate, which they'd receive after one year. Some wanted to continue their education and gradually the program was expanded to the point of offering masters' degrees from Canadian universities to students in the refugee camps.
However, when it came time for his own commendation, Dippo said he was caught completely unawares.
"The call came out of the blue. You know you get a call from the governor General's office and somebody says 'hi, we're calling from the Governor General's office,' you kind of wonder whether they are trying to get my password and stuff," he said. "But then they said I was nominated for the Order of Canada and asked if I would accept the award."
"I said, yeah! Sure!" he said, laughing.
Dippo has had a few friends ask him if he'll get to meet fellow appointee Reynolds. That chance will likely come later in 2025 with the investiture ceremony. For now, he's happy to be honoured, and proud to represent the Comox Valley at that high level.
"It's quite an honour and I'll be happy to see it in the local paper," he said.
