Tamar Huggins is a 2007 graduate from the three-year Advertising and Marketing Communications Management program, where she specialized in media planning. Since graduating, she has gone on to attain multiple awards for her work within the technology and education spheres and has created multiple companies such as Tech Spark and EDUlytics that are deeply rooted in social change and equity.
Since she was a teenager, Tamar knew she wanted to be in advertising, so when it came time to start applying to college, she knew the direction to go in. “I always had my top three choices in mind because back then, there weren’t many schools that were offering advertising that had a co-op program. The co-op/internship piece was really important to me because I knew with that experience, I would get a job,” she says. Another factor that appealed to Tamar was the length of the program. She shares, “I liked Centennial because they had a three-year program, whereas most schools at the time were only two years. I felt that extra year where we had to specialize in one of the three streams really allowed me to tighten up my skillset and give me the confidence that I needed to then go into the workforce and work for one of the largest agencies in Toronto, and work with award-winning campaigns and brands. It really provided me with the foundation I needed for my career.”
When reflecting back to her time in the program, Tamar indicates numerous lessons and skills she acquired that remain prevalent in her career today. For instance, within her first-year marketing course, she experienced creating a marketing campaign from start to finish, which was her first real introduction to a project of that nature. As well, Tamar notes that her instructor was very open to change when it came to what he was presenting to students. He asked the students their opinions rather than assuming what he was doing was the right thing all the time when teaching, which Tamar really valued. “That was the first time I ever felt that I could communicate with an adult about what I wanted my experience to be and have them implement that, and that has provided a foundation for how I operate in my business. I always focus on the user experience in everything I create because if we’re not creating businesses, ideas, and services that really meet the needs of our consumers, it’s all just a waste of time,” she says.
In another course, she learned presentation skills from a professor who taught the class how to never be caught off guard when presenting. Some of the tips and tricks she was taught included how to command an audience, how to speak loudly at the back, how to always be prepared by printing off your slides in case your projector doesn’t work, and so on. Tamar says, “I feel like the training she gave us allowed me to be able to present and to never be caught off guard or unsuspecting, and that really helped me a lot even just in my public speaking skills. One of the things that really sticks out the most about the brands that I create is the presentation, the branding, the look, and the feel, and all of that came from that class.”
Lastly, within her media planning class, one of the main lessons she acquired was how to get to the point. “Often times when you’re in a business or marketing program where you have to be writing plans and reports, and things of that nature, they can be like twenty to thirty pages. She taught us how to basically take a twenty-page document and be able to communicate that in 10 slides or less, which is very important. Especially as an entrepreneur now, you have to be able to communicate your ideas and really focus on making sure that your listeners are captivated, and that you’re sharing all of the right information,” Tamar explains.
Tamar is a social entrepreneur, and she describes that role as “one who sees a social need and creates a business to solve that need.” Tamar did indeed see many needs that were necessary to bring to the forefront, and she continually tries to meet those needs through her innovative companies. She shares, “On one side, there’s an industry need in technology because where we’re seeing Black people consume technology disproportionally to how much they actually create it. When we look at why that is, there are several barriers, the major one being education and having access to training in order to get them to that level where they can create it - whether that’s creating it on their own in their own business or working for major corporations and adding value there.”
The second issue surrounds the education system. “We see curriculum not reflecting Black students, Black experiences, or culture, and we see that students are more encouraged to engage in sports rather than STEM or academic courses. So, it provides this very strategic and intentional breakdown in the pipeline that can move racialized students from schooling to post-secondary, to jobs and careers in technology. The reason why we focus so much on technology is because it is one of those industries that shape the world and has a very important economic impact. In order for the Black community to really address the economic challenges that we see in our communities, we have to be in positions of economic power, be at the decision-making table, and be a part of the creation process, so that we can alleviate a lot of the issues we see around racism and policing, education, and the healthcare system. There are just a lot of different industries touched by technology, and so those are the two main areas we see problems with.”
It is because of those problems that Tamar created Tech Spark. “I created Tech Spark to solve those issues through education, by training young people and working with school boards to intentionally redesign existing courses so that they are reflective of students’ culture, are culturally relevant and responsive, and they get the students the training and the access that they would need to start making some informed decisions. When I was in high school, I knew what I wanted to do at a very young age, and I recognize that I was one of the exceptions. I feel like if students have access to a variety of things, they can better choose what works best for them. We also work with teachers to help them understand and recognize potential in students, especially Black students, who are often stereotyped, whether it’s through unconscious or direct bias. We work with them to identify those Black excellence characteristics within these students so that they can push them, as well as encourage them and let them know what they have access to, versus just providing them with a narrow viewpoint of how they are and what they can become.”
Her additional company, EDUlytics, came from the work she does with Tech Spark, as it provides students with a personalized education using data science and artificial intelligence by understanding the cultural learning preferences and style of each student. She says, “We use adaptive technology to be able to understand the learning levels, so where they’re succeeding and where they might have some challenges, and then we develop an algorithm that would then create a unique pathway in reading and math that would help the student achieve the end result, but very personalized on their specific learning style and their flow.”
Tamar has achieved many things throughout her career thus far, including numerous awards. However, she says one of the most interesting things that she has accomplished since leaving Centennial has been the journey itself and how it got her to where she is now. “I can’t just single out one area in my journey. I think it’s the fact that I moved from advertising to being an entrepreneur in tech and education because it’s not a linear path, and I think that really proves the point that entrepreneurship is not a linear path either. There are ups and downs, there are dips, you go back, you go forward - it’s a crazy looking graph.” She also shares, “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I had not gone to Centennial. That was the foundation that provided me with everything that I needed to be where I am right now, and I would never change that.”
Her advice to those who want to be an entrepreneur is to persevere. “People really need to understand that when they embark upon this journey and they meet barriers and challenges that they will inevitably reach, to just move through it because the journey is oftentimes what defines the person rather than the end result. I think sometimes we are so caught up with wanting to check things off of our list and wanting to accomplish things, that we miss the learning and the point of getting to that place.
That was actually the best advice I received because I was always the type of person who is a go-getter, very much an alpha-female, and very much goal-oriented and results-driven, just as a natural person, and I didn’t really appreciate the journey. I was always looking for the next mountain to concur and often times feeling like I hadn’t done enough because I didn’t take the time to actually reflect on what I did. What I started to do was journal my achievements throughout the year so that around this time of the year, I can reflect back and look at what I’ve done and accomplished and use that as a foundation for the planning of my personal and business growth for the next year.”
Tamar is a trailblazer in the technology and education field, and we are proud that Centennial is part of her journey. To find out more about Tamar, as well as her current business ventures, you can check out her website.
By: Alexandra Few