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Saroya Tinker
191 Plays2 years ago
Saroya Tinker is currently a professional women's ice hockey player for the PHF's Toronto Six. She previously graduated from Yale University with her Bachelors of Arts in The History of Science, Medicine and Public Health. In addition to her studies she played on the Yale Varsity Women's Ice Hockey team. Since graduating, Saroya has found a passion for educating others and using her social media platforms to encourage and provide resources for others. By doing so, Saroya has decided to provide a mentorship program for young women of color.
She feels confident in her abilities to educate and provide a positive role model-like figure for our worlds up and coming BIPOC women.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/saroya-tinker-black-girl-hockey-club-nwhl
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Delante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And I'm really excited to introduce Soroya Tinker, who is, well, there's a lot to you, Soroya. I'll just launch into it.
Soroya Tinker's Roles and Mentorship
00:00:32
Speaker
But she's a hockey player for the Toronto Six. She runs a program called Soroya Strong, which is a mentoring program for BIPOC youth in hockey.
00:00:47
Speaker
help navigate life in hockey. She's done a podcast about protest and African-American pioneers in the sense of resistance as political figures going back in history. And goodness gracious, Soroya, you're also a painter and an artist. So you fit well, and I'm very excited to talk to you. Soroya, welcome to the program.
00:01:17
Speaker
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
00:01:20
Speaker
Yeah, and like I mentioned, there's a few things I have an interest in and there's a lot of important work that you do. So I wanted to get right into that. And so I'm a hockey fan and my son is a hockey fan as well. And what's interesting is I'm a Boston and Winnipeg fan. I picked up Winnipeg because I wanted another team.
00:01:48
Speaker
and he he's developed away from like cultural influence of where he lives as far as hockey and he's a um calgary flames fan uh so i i know that has meaning and has impact but um so um we're really into hockey we watch a bunch of hockey now um
00:02:09
Speaker
getting into You as a black woman a play in hockey and in being a young athlete in reaching out and creating sorority strong as far as a mentoring program to To get through to understand and to help mentor young athletes. Can can you tell us?
00:02:34
Speaker
how you created that and what you're trying to do. I mean, I feel I know what you're trying to do, but what do you fill in there for those athletes?
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, growing up playing hockey, I never really had another black female role model to look up to. And I think growing up, I think if I had a piece of representation, my career, my love for the game, and my involvement in this sport and love for it would have been a lot different. So in that sense, as I've moved forward in my career and had bad instances, good instances, I really
Soroya Strong Mentorship Program
00:03:11
Speaker
wanted to
00:03:11
Speaker
make it my purpose to play for the little girls behind me now that I'm at the pro level so now that I'm at the pro level I get to I get to be on TV I get to have them in the stands at my games and I have a platform.
00:03:27
Speaker
So with that I decided to use that to provide mentorship to girls all across North America from ages eight to 21. And with the mentorship I really just wanted to give them a community and a space for them to get to know other black women who love the game of hockey just as much as they do.
00:03:47
Speaker
In regards to my mentorship program, we have Zoom workouts. I send them monthly newsletters and they really just get to have a community, help life advice, recruitment advice, whatever it may be. And I mean, I think for them, it's something that I never had. So I see the impact it has on them now that they do have a role model like myself to fall under and follow their steps in.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's, and I can feel the importance of having that, and it's just in the community that you help create by doing that.
00:04:29
Speaker
And I just saw the curiosity when you launched that idea was like, were there other folks doing that? Or was it just kind of like informal networking or how did it work prior to kind of you stepping in and what you've been doing?
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the black women that currently play professionally, there's only a few of us. So I think there's three or four of us currently playing pro and formerly Blake Bolden had her mentorship program and I realized that these girls really like to have workouts with her and do that mentorship stuff with her as well.
00:05:10
Speaker
So with that I decided that within Canada we needed that as well. We needed that representation so I initially started just taking in the Black Girl Hockey Club scholarship applicants and awardees and they got funneled into my mentorship program and now we have 75 girls all across North America within the program.
00:05:31
Speaker
Wow, 75, that's incredible. I've gotten more and learned more hockey as I've gotten older. I've been mostly a baseball guy, but so I pick up history as I go along. And one of the deeper stories and fascinating stories I encounter is around indigenous hockey.
Diversity and Representation in Hockey
00:05:54
Speaker
and just the kind of the cultures that are around hockey that I think are missed. I've also noticed what I see or what I feel is a bit more greater representation, I would say, as women voices within hockey, whether it's the broadcast and just filling roles that
00:06:21
Speaker
need to be filled by women. Have you noticed a change in hockey over the last couple years towards, for me, appreciating hockey fans of all sorts because it's a world sport. Is it real what's going on? Do you feel there is change going on?
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think that now, given the day and age that we're in, things are coming to light more. So I think that these stories of exclusion and the lack of diversity in the sport is coming to the forefront. And with that, I mean, we see the acknowledgment from other teams. We see Pride Night. We see Black History Month being celebrated. We see Indigenous people being celebrated. So I do think that there's change happening.
00:07:17
Speaker
I do think that a lot of it is front facing, but I know that there's change going on behind closed doors as well. So I do see change happening just because these conversations are being had and people are actually getting uncomfortable to have these conversations and implement new programming within their communities and within their social spheres.
00:07:38
Speaker
yeah yeah and i i've one of the one of the exciting things i i once had uh rachel balkavic who was a hitting instructor in the national new york yankees system and she became the first you know minor league manager um within baseball um just just recently so it's been it's been it's been exciting to
00:08:03
Speaker
encounter these changes and I think it's not just the sport or those who are making those happen. I think it's for fans in the culture to appreciate the great aspects of diversity within the sport. Like I said, the hockey worldwide sport with very different pockets everywhere but
00:08:25
Speaker
It feels good. And I just want to let you know, I just deeply appreciate the work that you're doing. I think it's so important. I think no matter what somebody's experience is, being able to connect with the community and to realize that there's ways to navigate
00:08:42
Speaker
those difficult situations is just really vital. I encountered some work you've done as a podcast host and it had a great focus on protest within sports. And I know you ended up focusing on
Activism in Sports and Soroya's Podcast
00:09:10
Speaker
a bigger name too, Colin Kaepernick, which for me is just an active injustice going on for maybe forever, I don't know. But what was it like for you to go back and see the history of black athletes and the position that they were in and stand up
00:09:39
Speaker
and politically say that there's something fundamentally wrong about the country I'm representing or about the sport as it is. What was that experience for you doing that and creating that program?
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think that I was definitely aware of some of the history and I will say that I did learn a lot. And I mean, with that, I mean, I realized that there have been platforms in the past that athletes have been able to stand on and use, but they've been discriminated against because of it.
00:10:13
Speaker
Hence Colin Kaepernick and him not playing in the NFL anymore. So in that situation, I think that there has been historically a huge platform that athletes are given when you reach that professional level. And I think my podcast really aimed to show
00:10:29
Speaker
that athletes can use their platforms for good and for activism and to raise awareness for whatever they may choose to raise awareness for. So the histories and the conversations I had were amazing and I was definitely very grateful to have those conversations and I learned a lot as myself as an athlete, activist in my own sport. So it was a great experience and I really loved getting to talk to those individuals and be a host of my own podcast.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great, it's just a great listen and very creative. I've always been connected to Colin Kaepernick's story of knowing where he comes from in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and having lived there for a bit and knowing kind of the
00:11:22
Speaker
the unique aspects of, at least in the United States, the most segregated city in the United States and some of the historical rooted problems. So when Colin was speaking up, like I've just felt I knew where he's coming from in that environment and he did it so well and so very well that, you know,
00:11:46
Speaker
the the some of it was missed but thank you for for putting together um and the name of the podcast i i'm sorry i forget to write it down on the name of the podcast again that you did
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's Shut Up and Play podcast. Shut Up and Play. It has such a great name. And now I see it right here on my sheet. Shut Up and Play. So Saruya wanted to chat with you about something else that you do in painting. I've heard some of your comments about painting. And it seems to be really important to you. I paint. It's really important to me.
00:12:27
Speaker
Can you tell us about these other things that you do in hockey? I mean, people say hockey. They don't expect you to pick up the paintbrush right after the game. But tell us about your contact with illustrating and painting and what that means for you.
Art and Body Positivity
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, growing up I was always really into artwork. I really loved going to painting classes or these art classes my mom used to take me to, and was really interested in it, especially within my schoolwork. So moving forward I always really focused more on sports so I didn't really have a lot of time for art.
00:13:08
Speaker
So I really hadn't painted all through college. I picked up the paintbrush again when COVID started really, and I was stuck at home finishing up school. But my love for painting nude body figures and things along those lines just comes from the negative body images that I have placed upon myself and the ones that we learn in social media and within society today.
00:13:34
Speaker
I think I want to stress that all bodies are beautiful and that's why I paint the way I do. But yeah, it's really just something that was my outlet and people started to want to buy them. So I started to sell them, but really it was just my outlet. I really never wanted to make any money off of it or anything like that. It was just something that I like to do. But yeah, painting is very important to me and it's definitely my outlet.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. I love painting myself. So I wanted to ask you this, and it generally stated, and it's one of the bigger questions. And whether it is a perfectly placed one-timer in the corner of the net, or whether it's that
00:14:24
Speaker
that that that that painting that you lose yourself into and disappear and it means everything to the question is Soroya what is art tell it tell us what what is art jeez uh that's a big question i mean art to me is my muse um i think i think um
00:14:47
Speaker
Art is anything that makes you feel creative. I think that music falls along those lines as well. Oftentimes when I'm painting, I have my music blasting in the background. So in that sense, I think art is something that you can make your own. It's what you make of it.
00:15:08
Speaker
Not everybody enjoys art or thinks they're good at it, but I think that everybody's good at art and everybody can be creative in some sense. And it's about what makes you want to be that creative is the art.
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. I wanted to ask a different question and just again, with respect to all the different things you do and in your life experiences and your studies, public health at Yale and just kind of all the different things you do. Can you let us know for you who or what made you
Influence of Family
00:15:49
Speaker
into who you are? Yeah, I think my parents are a big piece of that. I realize now as a 24-year-old, I'm still very young, but I realized how fortunate I was to have two parents that loved each other a lot. My dad's black, my mom's white, and I always saw them getting along. I don't think I've ever really seen my parents fight. I've never seen my dad yell at my mom.
00:16:16
Speaker
And I think that's really what made me who I am. My parents are very calm individuals, but I know that they do expect a lot out of me. But at the same time, I think that if they hadn't expected those things out of me or hadn't pushed me to be focused or hadn't gotten a TV, I didn't have TV all through high school.
00:16:37
Speaker
In that sense, if I had had a TV, maybe I would have been distracted. I wouldn't have been outside in the gym or whatever it may be. So I think my parents are really who made me who I am to this day. I have three brothers and they definitely have helped me along those lines as well. But I think just having two loving, caring parents that love each other and can implement that within their parenting and
00:17:02
Speaker
throughout their children is something that I quite often forget about, but I realize that I'm incredibly blessed to have two parents that are together and in that sense, yeah.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah, well that expression of love and acceptance and confidence and it seems your actions is to put that forth into the world and that's just a beautiful thing. So that's a great energy and dynamic and I imagine it isn't always easy but that's a good place to emanate from.
00:17:39
Speaker
Okay, I got the tricky titular question of the podcast.
Philosophical Musings
00:17:46
Speaker
You can respond to it in a snarky way or a profound way or what way you feel like, but why is there something rather than nothing, Soroya? Because if there was nothing, there wouldn't be something. All right, you flipped in on me, right? You nullified the question effectively.
00:18:09
Speaker
You know, if I had the question effectively, I was going to say, you know, back in the day with, with, with hockey, when there was a lot less goals, you know, I've, I've talked about baseball, you know, sometimes is it a game of nothing? Like nothing is occurring, like little things are occurring, but there's nothing really occurring. And if the goaltenders are both on, there's a lot of things occurring, but nothing on the score sheet. Right.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. So tell us in closing here, Saruya, how do folks contact you if they're in the position as far as mentoring or they love your painting or they love the Toronto Six or anything, like how do folks get in contact with you and find your stuff?
Closing and Contact Information
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, so on social media, so Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, everything, I am SoroyaTinker71. And on there is my link tree, probably with my email link. You can visit www.SoroyaStrong.com to view my mentorship program and what I'm doing in the community. But yeah, SoroyaTinker71 on all social.
00:19:27
Speaker
Yeah, and Soroya too, I wanted to say in appreciation about you talking about body image and kind of like, you know, working through that. I mean, you mentioned art, but I think it's really important. And I just wanted to just state that I really appreciate your comments there. Cause I've known a lot of folks of different genders who have struggled with that. And I think it's important to,
00:19:56
Speaker
to put out there and to say it. So I just want to let you know I really appreciate you and what you do in the world. You're a kick-ass hockey player, you paint, and I'd imagine if I had an intricate question about public health, I'd probably contact you about that as well. But thanks for coming on the podcast and sharing what you do. I really appreciate you and
00:20:23
Speaker
Look forward to seeing more of what you do and seeing you on the ice over the next few months. For sure. Thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Have a great day, Soroya. You too. Bye now. This is something rather than nothing.