Mother and son graduate together from King's

Convocation is often a time when parents gather to proudly watch their children receive their hard-earned diplomas. In the case of mature students, children will watch a parent graduate, the result of a decision to go back to school.

In the case of the Canales family, both mother and son will watch the other graduate as part of the Spring Convocation Ceremony, taking place on June 12, 2025.

Ricardo Soto Canales will graduate with an Honours Specialization in Politics and International Relations (PIR) degree and as the outgoing King’s University College Students’ Council (KUCSC) President. Deborah Canales will join her son at Convocation, graduating with honours in Social Justice & Peace Studies with a major in Sociology.

Ricardo started at King’s a year earlier than Deborah, but because he remained for a fifth year, he will be graduating with his mother.

As with many students, it was the smaller class sizes and the ability to connect with his professors and other students that drew Ricardo here. “It helps you both socially, but also professionally in the future. You’re essentially building a network…and that idea was intriguing to me. I’m happy to see that idea turned into reality,” Ricardo says. “I got to know professors really quickly because you could literally get up and talk to them.”

While Ricardo spent his first two years at King’s online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he feels he made up for it starting in his third year by joining clubs and participating in experiential learning with trips to Ethiopia and the Rondine Cittadella della Pace (Rondine City of Peace). “That was amazing. That got me to know even more people from different departments.”

Ricardo says feeling comfortable around other students, faculty, and staff helped build the confidence needed for leadership and other roles in his future, which is what got him interested in KUCSC and the president’s role later on.

His mother, Deborah, meanwhile, attended law school for four years in El Salvador, but still needed to complete the articling and write the licensing examination to become a lawyer. Her husband, Ricardo’s father, completed his master’s in Biomedical Engineering at Western while she worked at the London InterCommunity Health Centre for approximately 5 years.

Deborah could see the complexities of the issues prevalent in her community, but felt her lack of understanding of those social issues was holding her back from developing the tools needed to support her community. Because of this and how close she was to completing her law degree, she always had it in the back of her mind that some day she would go back and complete her education.

That day came when her husband completed his education. But when Deborah made the decision, Ricardo never expected that her next steps would lead her to King’s.

It may have been Ricardo’s discussions of King’s that led Deborah to the campus. “I was excited to go back and see the learning environment that my son described, especially since he came here before I did and always described it as a small campus that is very community-based, so I got excited about that,” she says

“Within a month, she was enrolled, ready to go. A few professors (at King’s) helped her with the process and made it really easy for her to get here,” Ricardo remembers.

While they were attending the same school, each gave the other the space to carve out their own identity at King’s.

Ricardo remembers his mother texting him to say she’d be in the library and he would reply that he would be hanging out with his friends in the Student Life Centre. “She could have a space to be Deborah (instead of just being Ricardo’s mother) and that let her have that university experience, make those connections with people. She made the same amount of connections and networks and good memories as I did just by being here,” he says.

“I was mindful of his space. Having your mom in your learning space is not something I could picture being easy for him. But it was always nice to talk about what he was doing and about what I was doing,” Deborah says.

Ricardo became KUCSC president during a time of change at King’s, but that provided an opportunity for him. “That is something that can come with a very great educational benefit. We helped develop a new governance structure within King’s, and made sure that students were part of it,” he says. As a PIR student, he learned about the importance of relationship building, as KUCSC continued to connect with the students’ councils at Huron and Western, as well as other organizations within the city of London.

During her time at King’s, Deborah worked with several professors on research projects, participated in several international conferences, including in  Italy, Colombia, and the United States and has been invited to go to the International Peace Research Association Conference in New Zealand.

Deborah says her experience at King’s has been “fantastic. In the two programs I was involved in, I found a community of same-minded people that all want to do good in their community.”

Deborah says she is confident she has developed the skills she needs, thanks to guidance and support from her professors. At the same time, she was able to discover what it was like to be around youth and she sees a lot of potential in them.

Ricardo is proud of both his parents for the amount of work they did to overcome the hurdles in moving from El Salvador to Canada, making a comfortable life for their family and then deciding to do more.

“I feel like most people are just trying to get to a certain point and be kay to survive. I constantly see both of my parents push beyond that level of comfort, and that’s what has made me want to push so hard in everything,” says Ricardo.

Meanwhile, Deborah shows her pride in her son, both as a student and as KUCSC president. “I’ve always thought of Ricardo as a charismatic person, and I could see him as a leader in the community. Coming from a political family, I could see those skills in him.”

“I’ve always made sure, since he was little, in preschool, that he understands that, if you have those gifts, you really need to be responsible and build your skills and your understanding. I think he did an amazing job, from my perspective, but also I could see that he built a lot of skills and more confidence [as KUCSC President],” Deborah says.

While she didn’t have a lot of interaction with Ricardo as KUCSC President, she can’t deny she felt proud of what he and the rest of the Council accomplished over the last year.

Having two family members attending the same school enhanced the mother-son relationship. Having one King’s student studying PIR and another studying Social Justice & Peace Studies and Sociology made for some great conversations about social and political issues. “There’s a lot of things in common [between the courses], but at the same time, there were different perspectives,” says Deborah. She adds that, coming from a political family, there were already such conversations, but both were able to now include what they were learning at school into those conversations.

In the fall, Ricardo will be attending Carleton University’s Political Science Master of Arts program. He will be a teaching assistant (TA) and continue to do research into Equitable Development policies. He says it was the experiential trip to Ethiopia that sparked his interest. He took part in the trip first as a student and again as a TA, which gave him a chance to meet leading professionals in the field of development. After Carleton, he is looking to attend law school.

Deborah will be attending York University to do a master’s in Social Work. “King’s has helped me navigate this academic world where I haven’t been before.”

Congratulations to Deborah and Ric and best of luck in your respective futures.

Media Coverage:

CBC London Morning with Andrew Brown: Mother and son graduating university together

CBC News: London mom 'excited for the future' after graduating university alongside her son