NCAC Gala 2026: Meet the Charles Osuji Foundation Rise Together Grant Recipients
In 2011, Charles Osuji arrived in Calgary from Nigeria. He had already been called to the Bar back home, but in Canada he had no network and no one to vouch for him. He sent more than 300 applications for articling positions before anyone said yes.
That yes came from lawyer Jim Smith. Within three years, Charles was a partner. He later bought the practice, and today Osuji & Smith Lawyers has grown from six people to more than 45, with offices in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Dubai. It is one of the largest Black-owned law firms in Canada.
He has never forgotten what that one yes meant. “I want to be judged by the number of people who got ahead because of me,” he told RBC. That idea sits at the heart of the Charles Osuji Foundation and its Rise Together Grant: when someone opens a door for you, you hold it open for the next person.
On October 3, 2026 the Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary (NCAC) brought the community together for its 2026 Nigerian National Day Gala Night at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex on Tsuut’ina Nation. It was a night of dinner, music, dancing and catching up with familiar faces. It was also the night six members of Calgary’s Nigerian community received the Rise Together Grant.
Four of the recipients are entrepreneurs in their first two years of business. Two are law students at the University of Calgary. All six are already lifting people up, and they plan to keep doing it. Here’s who they are and why their work matters.
Honouring the 2025 Rise Together Recipients
Before we introduce this year’s class, we want to celebrate the five recipients who came before them. The 2025 Rise Together Grant went to:
- Tasa Ojeogwu, founder and chef of Tasa’s Tasty Kitchen, whose Puff Puff Mix is now sold in more than ten stores across Calgary and Airdrie.
- Damipe “Peace” Aladesemipe, a University of Calgary law student working toward a community legal clinic for immigrants and low-income families.
- Victor Ezesinachi Okoli, LLM scholar and founder of the MOGA Initiative, which has donated over 2,000 books and hosted career summits for more than 5,000 students.
- Aremu Oluwafunmilayo, founder of Ayaba Beauty Place, who has shared more than 50 free beauty tutorials and volunteers with ActionDignity.
- Chidera Uzoka, the artist behind Dera Art Studio, whose debut solo exhibition, Echoes, drew more than 150 people.
What is the Rise Together Grant?
The Rise Together Grant is presented by the Charles Osuji Foundation as part of the NCAC 2026 Awards. It has two categories:
- Category D1, Law Student Scholarship: for full-time pre-law or law students in Canada who maintain at least a B average.
- Category D2, Entrepreneurship Grant: for Calgary-based, legally registered businesses in their first two years of operation.
Applicants must be of Nigerian origin, either born in Nigeria or with at least one Nigerian parent. A joint Foundation and NCAC Selection Committee reviews every application based on four things: excellence, leadership and service, community impact, and character.
What makes this grant different is the giving-back piece. Every recipient commits to 10 hours of volunteer service with NCAC each year, takes part in at least one NCAC event (a mentorship session, panel or workshop), and submits a short annual impact report. It’s Charles’s own story turned into a rule: the community invests in you, and you reinvest in the community.
Entrepreneurship Grant Recipients
Evezi Esiehor, MindTrail Systems Inc.
Evezi is a third-year Computer Science student at the University of Calgary, and she’s been building MindTrail since she was 17. MindTrail is a privacy-first wellness platform that matches how people are feeling to real activities and communities. It also gives universities and employers a clear way to see whether the wellness programs they pay for are actually working.
She and her co-founder ran more than 300 customer discovery interviews before landing on that direction. When an early pilot was cancelled over data privacy concerns, they rebuilt the platform around Canadian data residency, and that setback became their biggest advantage. This fall, MindTrail launches a six-week pilot with five student clubs at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University, reaching about 150 students.
Her track record so far:
- Finalist at the Collision Conference pitch competition and recipient of a Black Opportunity Fund grant
- Named one of the top 32 student entrepreneurs in Canada at the Arena Pitch Competition
- Launchpad Female Founders Award at UCalgary
- 3rd place at the TiE Vancouver Pitch Competition
- Exhibitor at Web Summit Vancouver 2026
Evezi also founded Sanaa Collective, a creative agency giving African and Black designers in Calgary a place to be seen. Her goal is to bring MindTrail to Nigerian and African student groups so mental wellness becomes something the community talks about openly, and to mentor young founders so they don’t have to figure it all out alone.
Olabisi Marcel-Falase, Reimajinevolution Group Inc.
If you’ve been to a Nigerian or African cultural event in Calgary this year, there’s a good chance Olabisi had a hand in it. She founded Reimajinevolution Group Inc. in 2024, and it has grown into a full-service event company covering planning, coordination, setup and teardown, rentals, event branding, custom printing and hybrid-event support.
His 2026 Calgary portfolio includes Igbo Day and its community town hall (in collaboration with PhinChic Decor), the Laff Mattaz comedy show, EventPro Connect 2.0, and Nativ Pott’s food activation at Beerfest. She’s also volunteered at the Ethnik Festival Grand Ball and is planning an end-of-year fundraiser to help Burnout Global YYC open its own studio.
Before Calgary, Olabisi coordinated conferences, seminars and stakeholder programs for a professional network of around 12,000 members in Nigeria. She brings that same organization to every room she sets up, and she uses events to connect newcomers, artists, vendors and community groups who might not otherwise meet.
Queeneth Nnorom, ELORAA Fashion Designing
Queeneth has more than nine years of experience in fashion design across couture, ready-to-wear and children’s clothing. She launched ELORAA Fashion Designing in Calgary in 2025, focused on custom children’s outfits for birthdays, cultural celebrations, special events and photoshoots, plus alterations.
As she sees it, these are the outfits that mark big moments in a family’s life, and she wants every child to look special and feel comfortable in them. She handles the whole process herself, from consultation and measurements to fabric sourcing, pattern work, sewing and final fitting.
Before moving to Calgary, Queeneth was Lead Fashion Designer at Cute Stitches, Craft & Couture in Nigeria, where she led a team of seven, launched three seasonal collections and ran fashion exhibitions for audiences of 500+. Her background in accounting and an MSc in Business Administration shows in how she runs her business. In the community, she volunteers with Action Dignity and mentors young designers and women who want to start creative businesses.
Folasade Akinbamowo, Social Buzz Creator
Folasade runs Social Buzz Creator, a Calgary-based PR and media company that helps businesses, entrepreneurs and events get the attention they deserve. Along the way she noticed something: people in her community were doing remarkable things, but their stories weren’t reaching wider audiences.
So she built YYC Social Prefect, a platform dedicated to spotlighting Calgary’s Nigerian community, and later launched Social Buzz Magazine to document and celebrate local people, brands and achievements.
“People cannot support, celebrate, or connect with what they do not see,” she says. That belief drives her work with NCAC too, where she contributes her media and PR skills to help the community tell its own stories. Folasade also mentors young people interested in media, encouraging them to see it as a real career path and a way to shape how their community is represented.
Law Student Scholarship Recipients
Stanley Chidoziem Umezuruike, University of Calgary
Stanley is a Master of Laws student at the University of Calgary, researching arbitration in the energy sector, specifically how courts intervene in arbitration within Canada’s oil and gas industry. He’s the first lawyer in his family, and he credits his father, a man known for always helping others move forward, with shaping how he thinks about success.
That mindset shows up everywhere in his story. As an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, he championed the school’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Society and helped pioneer a national network linking student ADR societies. As Chief Operating Officer of Making Orumba Great Again (MOGA), an education nonprofit, he has helped run mentorship and career programs for more than 5,000 young people, donate over 2,000 books, and reach over 10,000 youth across 31 communities. Its annual Readers’ Challenge has engaged nearly 800 participants.
At Stren & Blan Partners, he was named Employee of the Year in his first year and Most Supportive Associate in 2025. In 2026, he judged the National Maritime Arbitration Moot Competition for students from 15 Nigerian universities.
In Calgary, he plans to mentor Nigerian students and internationally trained professionals. “When a community invests in you,” he says, “you should find a way to reinvest in that community.”
Ndubuisi Chiagozie Uchegbu, University of Calgary
Ndubuisi is a second-year thesis LLM student at the University of Calgary. He already holds an LLM with Distinction from Abia State University, where he graduated in the top 5% of a class of 280, and he’s completing his National Committee on Accreditation exams this year.
Access to justice runs through his whole career. As a law student at the University of Nigeria, he co-founded the Advocates Movement, which gave free legal help to people held in prison while awaiting trial, working with volunteer lawyers to file bail applications and push stalled cases forward. Later, as State Counsel with the Abia State Ministry of Justice, he advised families through the Ministry’s Human Rights Department and led the state observer team at the 2020 Judicial Panel of Inquiry into police misconduct, representing affected families pro bono.
He hasn’t slowed down in Calgary. Ndubuisi volunteers with Pro Bono Students Canada’s King’s Bench Amicus Program, helping self-represented litigants prepare for court, and supports legal aid clients at Prestige Law Office YYC. He also works as a legal assistant at the Cumming School of Medicine, drafting and negotiating clinical research agreements.
Why This Matters for Calgary
Charles Osuji needed one person to say yes. These six recipients are building things that will be that yes for others: a wellness tool for students, events that bring the community together, clothing for a family’s biggest days, a platform for untold stories, and legal skills put to work for people who can’t afford a lawyer.
The Rise Together Grant backs them early, at the stage where support makes the biggest difference. And because each recipient commits to giving back through NCAC, the impact keeps going long after the gala ends.
Congratulations to Evezi, Olabisi, Queeneth, Folasade, Stanley and Ndubuisi. We can’t wait to see what you build next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Charles Osuji?
Charles Osuji is the Managing Partner of Osuji & Smith Lawyers, one of the largest Black-owned law firms in Canada. He moved to Calgary from Nigeria in 2011 and also founded the Foot in the Door Initiative, which helps internationally trained lawyers gain Canadian experience.
What is the NCAC Gala?
The NCAC Gala is the annual Nigerian National Day Gala Night hosted by the Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary. The 2026 gala took place at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex on Tsuut’ina Nation, with a cocktail hour, formal dinner, live entertainment and the NCAC 2026 Awards. Proceeds support NCAC’s work in the community.
What is the Charles Osuji Foundation Rise Together Grant?
It’s a grant presented through the NCAC Awards with two categories: a Law Student Scholarship (D1) for pre-law and law students in Canada, and an Entrepreneurship Grant (D2) for Calgary-based businesses in their first two years.
Who can apply for the Rise Together Grant?
Applicants must be of Nigerian origin (born in Nigeria or with at least one Nigerian parent). Students must be enrolled full-time in pre-law or law school in Canada with at least a B average. Entrepreneurs must run a legally registered Calgary business that’s within its first two years.
What do recipients commit to?
Each recipient volunteers 10 hours a year with NCAC, takes part in at least one NCAC event per year, and submits a one-page annual impact report.
How can I find out about next year’s awards?
Follow the Nigerian Canadian Association of Calgary and the Charles Osuji Foundation for announcements about the NCAC 2027 Awards. Questions about the awards can be sent to [email protected].