Introducing Mohawk's NEW 'We love our Students!' logo

We Heart Our Students logo with a heart feature

By Jenna LeBlanc | 3rd year Journalism student

Mohawk College is committed to being a welcoming, respectful and safe space for all students. That’s why our new "We love our Students" heart features a Pride flag - to symbolize Mohawk’s commitment to inclusivity.

The Pride flag has come a long way to represent everyone in the LGBTQ+ community, no matter how you identify. The original rainbow pride flag was popularized in 1978 in San Francisco by artist Gilbert Baker, and since then, has seen many enhancements and updates.

There have been flags created over the years to represent different identities in the LGBTQ+ community, including the bisexual, asexual, pansexual and polyamory flags, and many more.

rainbow pride flags

The transgender flag was designed in 1999 by transwoman, Monica Helms. It debuted at a Phoenix Pride Parade a year later. Helms said that the flag is designed so that no matter which way it is flown, it will always be the "correct way". This represents transgender people trying to find "correctness" within their lives.

Mohawk’s heart is based off the Progress Pride Flag, created in 2018 by a queer, non-binary and demi-sexual designer named Daniel Quasar. It is meant to represent the various identities that make up the LGBTQ+ community, with all the colours of the rainbow stripes, as well as the pastel-coloured stripes for the transgender flag, and black and brown stripes to represent Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) of the queer community.

Mohawk College believes in and values inclusion for all our students. Hate has no place here. After all, students are at the heart of all we do. Equity, inclusion and diversity are three of our core goals.

Mohawk is committed to building an inclusive, welcoming and supportive environment for everyone. In 2016, we launched an initiative to make Mohawk and our community even more welcoming for everyone including international students and newcomers. We’ve adopted five equity, diversity and inclusion commitments to become a leader across Ontario colleges in equity and inclusion.

Mohawk’s commitments are:

  • To attract and retain talent reflective of community
  • To create an inclusive workplace
  • To strengthen inclusive competencies
  • To develop and implement an equity and inclusion framework & lens
  • To expand use of design for learning and accessible tools

For more information on Mohawk’s commitment to inclusivity, please visit our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion webpage.

Looking for a safe space to hang out, gain knowledge about equity and social justice, volunteer or have a placement opportunity? Check out Social Inc.! While we continue to learn virtually, students can still join in on the fun online! Visit Social Inc. for more details on scheduled activities and resources that are available to you.