In Kevonnie Whyte’s eight years of living in Vancouver she has become deeply committed to the city’s Black community and is making a great impact to the city overall. Those are two of the many reasons she was chosen as this year’s recipient of the Mary B. Jordan scholarship for Women in Business.
Kevonnie first moved to Canada from Jamaica. Since then she has worked on the City of Vancouver’s Racial and Ethnocultural Equity Advisory Committee, served on the Sauder Professional MBA Student Executive and hosted Equity Inclusion and Justice Conferences with Strategem.
Among her many accomplishments was serving as Director of Community Outreach for an ad hoc Black in B.C. Mutual Aid Fund. It was created in response to COVID-19. The organization distributed micro-grants to over 500 members of B.C.’s Black community. In total, the organization distributed $200,000.
She is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of British Columbia. Through her education she hopes to have a career consulting in the public sector and helping industries understand the importance of diversity and inclusion.
She has a heart and passion for helping others and she says the money from the Mary B. Jordan scholarship will help her to continue serving her community, “I’m really happy and thankful for the opportunity to further my studies and for the financial comfort of being able to focus on what’s important to me,” she said.
When she’s not busy studying, working or volunteering, Kevonnie is passionate about health and wellness. She likes to attend dance classes but admits her studies mostly keep her occupied.
The Mary B. Jordan Scholarship for Women in Business was created in 2019 to support women pursuing business studies. It was established in recognition of Mary B. Jordan, our former Chair of the Board of Directors and her many contributions to YVR.
On behalf of all of us at YVR, we’d like to congratulate Kevonnie on this outstanding achievement!