CPS educator strives to be a ‘change maker’ in adopted hometown

By Jay Turner

The Canton Citizen is pleased to partner with the Canton Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee to present “Community in Unity,” a new regular series spotlighting Canton residents of diverse backgrounds. The series will run weekly throughout Black History Month and continue monthly for the remainder of 2021.

As someone who was born in Nigeria, raised and educated in Canada, and recently became naturalized as a U.S. citizen, Naomi Akan not only understands and appreciates, but in many ways embodies, the multicultural ideal.

Naomi Akan beams with pride on the day she receives her citizenship.

Indeed, each stop on her personal journey has afforded new insights, new experiences, and new friendships, all of which have served to enrich her life while reaffirming her belief in the value of embracing diversity.

“I always say that I’m a global citizen,” noted Akan in a recent Zoom interview.

Having since put down roots in Canton, Massachusetts, where she lives, works and has chosen to raise her daughter, Akan has also heeded the call to ‘act locally,’ not only through service to Canton’s schoolchildren but through her work with groups such as Canton Families Embracing Diversity (CFED) and the newly formed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (CDEI).

Akan said it was in the fall of 2016, shortly after she was hired as an applied behavior analysis (ABA) tutor at the Hansen Elementary School, that she decided to become more actively involved. On the night of her first open house event as a staff member, she recalled being surrounded by parents and family members of color who were both excited and surprised that she worked at the school.

“At that moment I thought, okay, wow, this is really serious. This is something that’s important,” she said. “This is bigger than me obviously, and it took me back to what I thought was just normal actually wasn’t. And so at that point I decided that I would be a change maker.”

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To fully understand Akan’s transformation into a public servant and agent of change, one has to start in Ontario, her home since early childhood. Relocating from Nigeria with her family, Akan settled in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, a diverse city with a sizable immigrant population. She went on to earn a BA with honors in psychology, sociology/anthropology from Carleton University and then later moved to Toronto, where she earned a graduate degree in early childhood education from George Brown College.

Between her formative years in Ottawa and her early adulthood in Toronto — which was named by the BBC as the most diverse city in the world — Akan found inspiration in teachers and other professionals from varied backgrounds, including, importantly, those who looked like her.

“It almost made me think that everywhere was like that,” she said. “Of course, imagine my culture shock when I move to a place like Canton and I’m like, ‘Okay, I kind of stand out.’ It was a different experience.”

She was also initially surprised to learn about the need for groups such as CFED, which was in its infancy at the time. However, she agreed to join at the suggestion of Cynthia Holcombe and quickly saw the need firsthand.

Akan said she still vividly can recall an early encounter at the Hansen Fall Festival, where she received pushback from another parent for passing out flags on behalf of CFED for families to color.

“I was taken aback by her hostility … and that experience always stuck with me,” she said. “And I realized that there was obviously a need just even for people’s perspectives to change and to see things differently and allow others to have a voice in how they feel.”

While experiences such as these certainly left their mark, Akan for the most part felt welcomed in Canton and she quickly grew to love the community and found her home at the Hansen School as an ABA tutor working mostly with students on the autism spectrum. She also became active in recruitment efforts through CFED and was thrilled to find a willing partner in the Canton school administration, which has actively worked to increase diversity in their hiring practices.

If a prospective employee expressed any apprehension about coming to work in Canton, Akan said she would point to her own experiences in the school system and in the broader community. “I’d point out that I live there and I’ve lived there for four or five years and I have a child in the school system,” she said. “And when I tell you I’m here with CFED representing this organization that I think will be the change for towns like this that actually do want the change, I think you should just give it a shot … That’s the platform and the narrative that I stood on and still do.”

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In the five years that she has worked for the Canton Public Schools, Akan has seen real progress with regard to diversity and she continues to be encouraged by the commitment of the CPS leadership.

“It certainly has [improved],” she said. “It could be better, but [Superintendent] Dr. Fischer-Mueller has obviously run with this initiative and is doing her best to get more diverse hires in our district for sure. I would absolutely say 100 percent that they’re trying to make it better.”

Akan, meanwhile, has continued to walk the walk, becoming involved in union matters at the local, regional and state levels and lending her voice to the Mass. Teachers Association’s Ethnic Affairs and Minority Committee and as a board member for District 37E representing educators for Equity, Solidarity, Diversity and Representation.

In Canton, Akan serves as a union building rep for the Hansen School and as a member of the bargaining committee. In addition to her work with the union, she also serves as an Afro Dance and Zumba instructor for Canton’s summer enrichment program, Canton Academy, and she is hoping to coordinate a performance at the upcoming Black History Month virtual celebration planned for February 23.

Besides getting to know a new home community in the United States, Akan has also had the opportunity to reconnect with her native homeland through her participation as an instructor at a summer reading camp run by her sister in Nigeria. Akan traveled to Nigeria for two consecutive summers — her first time back since she was a young child.

“I ate everything, I smelled everything, I just took in everything,” she said, “and I was glad my daughter was able to go with me because we had that great experience together.”

While proud of her heritage and equally proud of her upbringing in Ontario, Akan believes she will be here in Canton for the long haul and is especially proud of earning her U.S. citizenship and for receiving a perfect score on her naturalization exam.

She likened the experience to being an adopted child who knows she is adopted but is fortunate to be in a loving home. “I think that’s how I feel a lot of times,” she said. “This country adopted me and I’ll give it my best because I know that it loves me and I’ll love it back no matter what.”

As for her hopes and dreams for the Canton community specifically, Akan said she shares the same mission of the CDEI, which is to celebrate and promote diversity, equity and inclusion across the town and to achieve lasting, positive change.

Akan said she was also deeply moved by the response this summer to the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and several other Black Americans and she intends to be at the front of the line in fighting for an end to injustice and racial violence.

“We know that there was a need for people to begin to have these conversations that were being whispered around and just being the ones who would say, ‘Enough, let’s put an end to that,’” she said. “And so when I was invited for the initial [CDEI] meeting I didn’t think twice. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to be there. I’m going to stand in solidarity at Town Hall and definitely be there to represent people who look like me.”

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