Hart House Farm

Meet five innovative U of T professors who are rethinking their classrooms

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 18:08:47 +0000

Meet five innovative U of T professors who are rethinking their classrooms

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/18/2022 - 14:08

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From left to right: Funké Aladejebi, Sherry Fukuzawa, Obidimma Ezezika, Angela Mashford-Pringle and Keith Adamson are recipients of the ��߲ݴ�ý Early Career Teaching Award.

Tina Adamopoulos

Topic

Our Community

Early Career Teaching Award

Hart House Farm

Black

Cheryl Regehr

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

From drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing to making space for diverse voices and perspectives, five ��߲ݴ�ý professors are being recognized for their efforts to inspire students and make learning more engaging and inclusive.

The recipients of this year’s ��߲ݴ�ý Early Career Teaching Award – Funké Aladejebi, Keith Adamson, Angela Mashford-Pringle, Obidimma Ezezika and Sherry Fukuzawa – have worked to enhance the student experience through community-engaged, land-based and experiential learning opportunities.

The award is given to faculty in the early stages of their careers who exemplify teaching innovation, pedagogical engagement and an exceptional commitment to student learning.

“Embracing a diversity of perspectives and the innovations that flow from them is key to realizing U of T’s goal of achieving inclusive excellence – and that often begins in the classroom,” says Cheryl Regehr, U of T’s vice-president and provost.

“By demonstrating their unwavering commitment to enriching students’ academic experiences, each of this year’s Early Career Teaching Award winners is helping to ensure U of T is not only delivering an unmatched educational experience but is ultimately preparing graduates to make the sort of changes our world so desperately needs.”

Here’s how this year’s winners are innovating in the classroom and beyond:

Funké Aladejebi

Funké Aladejebi (photo by Cameron Fitch)

For Aladejebi, history is not just about the past – it’s about building a better future, too.

The assistant professor in the department of history in the Faculty of Arts & Science supported efforts to create a new certificate in Black Canadian Studies in the Canadian Studies program at University College shortly after she joined the university.

The first-of-its-kind certificate at U of T was launched last fall and fosters an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Black life in Canada. It focuses on systemic barriers through the lens of politics, judicial systems and the arts, as well as the historical and contemporary implications of anti-Black racism in Canada.

“The goal has been, and continues to be, to make interventions in the ways that we talk about Blackness in Canada and ask critical questions about how we represent the Black Canadian experience,” says Aladejebi, a historian of the 20^th century whose research focuses on oral histories, Canada’s education system and Black Canadian history.

“There is an incredible diversity and plethora of research, scholarship and expertise of people who are doing this work in Canada. I hope this leaves students motivated to pursue it.

In an effort to promote interdisciplinary research, students must also take courses in women and gender studies, the department of English, and Caribbean studies, to name a few.

Foundational to the program is “Black Canadian History,” a second-year course that Aladejebi created and teaches. It encapsulates 300 years of Black life, including early settlement, Black liberation, immigration and racism in Canada.

Aladejebi hopes both the certificate and course encourages representation in higher education as well as interdisciplinary collaborations – values that form the core of her teaching philosophy.

“At times, within the academy, we represent Black Canadian history as optional, but the program legitimizes how we can do this as a primary focus of research and that it’s worthy of critical scholarship and analysis,” Aladejebi says. “This is one kind of intervention where students, researchers and scholars are creating spaces where racialized students can see themselves as part of U of T.”

Keith Adamson

Keith Adamson (photo courtesy of

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work)

Adamson was asked in 2018 to create a course that emphasized how social workers can better support people with disabilities.

So, the assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, turned to his clients at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, where he was senior director of collaborative practice.

“I wanted to create a course that honoured the voices of clients and families within the system and prepare future social workers to be sensitive to client and family needs and disability issues, and advocate for clients,” he explains.

The course, “Social Work and Disability Practice: A Client and Family Centered Approach” was co-created alongside community partners, PhD students, clients and their families to ensure that their lived experiences are reflected in the course content.

Recognized as the first of its kind in Canada by the Ontario Hospital Association, the course brings in six clients or families to actively participate in the teaching process for the entire semester. Adamson says that moving away from traditional lectures highlights the contradiction or relevance of theories when applied in real life and creates an avenue for students and client and family co-teachers to co-create new knowledge and questions about care.

In the course’s final class, students present a topic in disability studies that they are passionate about in a creative medium – such as poetry, music or comics. The project allows them to demonstrate their disability advocacy, which is a course objective.

“We established a community on the very first day,” Adamson says.

“The classroom has really become an arena for disability advocacy for the clients and families who come in to teach future social workers who will help people like them in the future.

“We didn’t wait until students reached the clinical realm to have these conversations with clients.”

Such conversations underscore Adamson's overarching philosophy: deconstruct hierarchies within health care and academic institutions through collaborations that value social justice, equality and empowerment.

“Relationships are essential to my teaching philosophy,” he says. “For me, the educational alliance is caring about your students and helping them be the best clinician possible.”

Angela Mashford-Pringle

Angela Mashford-Pringle (photo by Victoria

Pringle and styling by Frankie Pringle)

As the first Indigenous health lead at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Mashford-Pringle wasted no time making changes.

Her largest project has been at the Hart House Farm in Caledon, Ont., where a facelift of the Ignatieff House included an accessibility ramp and door, a main floor wheelchair-accessible bathroom, kitchen renovation and new floors. This year, new student cabins and outdoor furniture are being added.

The farm is the site for “Indigenous Health,” U of T’s first land-based learning course, a requirement for the masters in public health - Indigenous health (MPH-IH) program and the collaborative specialization in Indigenous health (CSIH) program.

The week-long intensive course is one of the first in Canada to focus on health and the land.

“I hope Indigenous and non-Indigenous faculty and students will want to visit to learn from the land – about Indigenous issues and health – by seeing what the territories were used for traditionally,” says Mashford-Pringle, the course’s instructor.

In addition to lectures, students spend time with Elders and knowledge keepers on nature walks and participate in fire ceremonies. They also learn about the role of the land in Indigenous culture and well-being, and how displacement affects the health of Indigenous communities.

“The Indigenous definition of health is that you have balance in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual self in your family, community and nation,” says Mashford-Pringle, adding that the course’s powerful sense of community was preserved when it moved online two years ago due to the pandemic.

“Land-based learning is about getting out of the capitalism, consumerism and individualism that we’re used to. It’s the idea of reconnecting to the environment that we live in.”

In May, the MPH-IH program will return to the farm for two courses – “Indigenous Health” and “Indigenous Food Systems Environment and Health” – for two weeks. A new course developed by Mashford-Pringle called “Indigenous Social Determinants of Health” will also launch at U of T Mississauga, where she plans to host land-based courses.

Reflecting on the award, Mashford-Pringle says she hopes others will feel encouraged to introduce different ways of knowing and teaching at U of T.

“It’s important to teach from our heart, which is how I’ve been taught by my elders,” Mashford-Pringle says. “I hope people who have ideas outside of the colonial teaching and learning process will think about trying their possibilities.”

Obidimma Ezezika

Obidimma Ezezika (photo courtesy of U of T
Scarborough)

An expert on implementation science and global health, Ezezika strives to ensure that the knowledge created in his classroom can be applied to the real world in a meaningful way.

Using his work as a previous Grand Challenges Fellow and working experience in several African countries, Ezezika developed “Innovations for Global Health” in 2018. The experiential learning course focuses on developing technological and social innovations in low and middle-income countries. Notably, it links students to Toronto-based global health organizations, including Grand Challenges Canada.

“The goal of the course is to bring students into that kind of global health practice,” says Ezezika, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of health and society at U of T Scarborough.

“I asked, ‘How can I simulate my experiences? How can I leverage some of my stakeholders over the last 10 years and bring them to the classroom?’”’

Throughout the course, guest speakers talk about business models, stakeholder engagement and ethics, and offer advice on how to tap into a target audience to frame a global health problem – ranging from maternal health to sanitation and hygiene.

Key to the course is a Dragons’ Den-style assignment that has students work in groups to develop and pitch a global health innovation to a panel of experts.

“Students engaged with course content with such passion in just the first few weeks,” Ezezika says. “It was very fulfilling for me.”

Ezezika’s teaching philosophy boils down to creating experiential learning opportunities that allow his students to thrive. That includes creating work-integrated learning courses where students have gone on to receive prizes, prestigious conference presentation invitations and awards. For example, Selina Quibrantar, through her work in two of these courses, received Ontario and Canada-wide awards in work-integrated and experiential learning.

He has also created an award-winning board game that helps students digest health determinant concepts, and launched the Global Health and Innovation Lab, which has trained dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and led to multiple co-authored journal articles by students.

“Teaching is not just about the techniques and expertise you bring to the classroom,” Ezezika says. “It’s about the compassion and value you have for students. You can’t have an impact unless you truly care about your students' goals.”

Sherry Fukuzawa

Sherry Fukuzawa (photo by Alison Dias)

Fukuzawa believes in a holistic approach to education.

“To me, that means that there is an inclusive pedagogy, where there is an acceptance of different knowledge systems within the university,” says Fukuzawa, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of anthropology at U of T Mississauga.

Fukuzawa is a founding member of the Indigenous Action Group (IAG), an alliance of faculty and staff from U of T Mississauga and Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers and elders from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. The IAG’s mission is to honour the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation’s educational goals of truth through public knowledge, recognition of their history and reconciliation by adapting Indigenous knowledge systems to the university space.

“We want to fulfill the goals of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and change the post-secondary curriculum to include a respectful and equal acknowledgment of different knowledge systems and pluralistic ontologies,” Fukuzawa says.

IAG has co-created a community-engaged learning course “The Anthropology and Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island,” (ANT241H) a second-year, land-based experiential learning opportunity that invites Anishinaabe scholars and Elders to teach students about the history of the land through a series of workshops and field trips.

Throughout the term, students learn about cosmology and epistemology, medicine and local plants along the Credit River and participate in an art-installation initiative called The Moccasin Identifier project. Led by Elder Carolyn King, the project acknowledges the historic sites, ancestral presence and language of First Nations, Metis and other Indigenous communities by placing stenciled moccasins on significant cultural heritage sites across the country.

Following Indigenous pedagogy, the IAG-created course is based on a critical reflexive methodology. Fukuzawa says this leaves room for students to determine their learning journey.

“It’s important to remember that Western educational systems are colonial institutions based on a hierarchy,” Fukuzawa says. “We want to introduce different knowledge systems and legitimize Indigenous knowledge systems and epistemologies.”

Funded by a Connaught Community Partnerships Grant, established to create collaborative early-stage research partnerships between U of T and community partners, the last iteration of the course is set to run in September unless they can find additional funding to sustain it.

Staying true to her teaching philosophy, Fukuzawa says such courses are the beginning of a larger – and necessary – shift in education.

“Students can have greater power to determine how they want to learn and where their learning journey is important in their own life experience, not just in academic learning, but in personal growth and social activism,” she says.

In photos: As U of T navigates a safe return to campus, here are a few (of the many) places we've missed

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 13:49:28 +0000

In photos: As U of T navigates a safe return to campus, here are a few (of the many) places we've missed

geoff.vendeville Fri, 09/03/2021 - 09:49

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Clockwise from top left: U of T Mississauga’s stone bridge, U of T Scarborough’s Valley Land Trail, Gerstein Heritage Reading Room and the Trinity College quad (photos by Randy Landicho, Nick Iwanyshyn, Diamond Schmidt Architects, Diana Tyszko)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Our Community

Gerstein Science Information Centre

��߲ݴ�ý

Hart House Farm

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

The ��߲ݴ�ý’s labs, libraries and classrooms are stirring back to life, preparing to safely welcome students, faculty, staff and librarians back to campus this fall.

More than 15,000 students are entering the first year of their programs across the three campuses. In addition, many second-year students, who spent much of last year studying virtually due to public-health restrictions, will be looking forward to setting foot on campus for the first time.

Others, including upper-year students, are no doubt looking forward to revisiting their old haunts once it is safe to do so – from Diabolo’s café beside University College’s Junior Common Room to the 500-metre nature trail in U of T Scarborough’s backyard.

Here are just a few of the places we've missed over the past 19 months.

Philosopher’s Walk

(Photo by David Lee)

The elegant Bennett Gates on Hoskin Avenue mark the southern entrance of Philosopher’s Walk, a footpath that runs north-south along the ravine of subterranean Taddle Creek behind the Royal Ontario Museum and Royal Conservatory of Music.

The walk, one of many green oases on campus, provides students with respite from the hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto, whether they're taking a shortcut to their next class or pondering the meaning of life.

U of T Mississauga’s stone bridge

(Photo by Randy Landicho)

Overlooking an ornamental pond, U of T Mississauga’s picturesque stone bridge looks like a scene from an Impressionist painting.

It’s believed that Reginald Watkins, a wealthy businessman and bachelor from Hamilton, Ont. who once owned much of the property now belonging to U of T Mississauga, built the bridge and artificial pond in the early 20th century. The concrete-bottomed pond has been the home of many aquatic species, including, for a time, a pair of snapping turtles.

Gerstein Heritage Reading Room

(Photo by Diamond Schmitt Architects)

A 2008 renovation to the heritage wing of the Gerstein Science Information Centre that aimed to restore the reading room to its state in 1892 revealed neo-gothic, hand-carved wooden trusses and a skylight that had been hidden for nearly a century.

Students looking for a quiet place to hit the books can find comfy leather chairs and ample desk space in the reading room, which is encircled by black-and-white photographs of famous alumni.

The Valley Land Trail

(Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The 500-metre trail linking U of T Scarborough to the Highland Creek Ravine has become a premier destination on campus since it opened two years ago.

In an interview with CTV News, Wisdom Tettey, vice-president and principal of U of T Scarborough, said the path, which is accessible year-round and equipped with wheelchair charging stations, reflects the university’s commitment to inclusivity.

At the same time, Tettey said, it is meant to encourage students to take in the beauty of the campus’s surroundings and foster an appreciation for nature.

University College

(Photo by Diana Tyszko)

One of the most Instagram-worthy backdrops on the St. George campus is University College, U of T’s founding college.

The Romanesque Revival-style building took inspiration from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, with construction beginning in 1856 and wrapping up three years later – a time when Toronto was a town of just 30,000 people.

Improvements to UC continue to this day, with the college having recently undergone a major restoration project that involved returning the college’s library to its original location. Beyond the front doors, meanwhile, U of T is in the midst of work on the Landmark project, which aims to make the historic core of St. George campus greener, more accessible and more pedestrian friendly.

Bamboo Garden

(Photo by ��߲ݴ�ý)

The bamboo garden at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research on College Street is often included in lists of U of T’s hidden gems. The indoor garden is an ideal spot to relax and unwind before class at the heart of the downtown campus – particularly during the cold winter months when greenery can be hard to come by.

Trinity College quad

(Photo by Diana Tyszko)

The Trinity College quadrangle has a medieval knot pattern that sets it apart from the university’s other enclosed courtyards.

A path through the handsome Henderson Tower leads to Philosopher’s Walk. At the beginning of the fall semester the quad is usually abuzz with activity, from orientation events to students carrying mini-fridges into residence.

Those who look carefully overhead might catch a glimpse of bees circling the hives tended by the U of T Beekeeping Education Enthusiast Society (U of T B.E.E.S.).

Hart House Farm

(Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Many students are familiar with Hart House, the student centre that opened in 1919 and is home to a gym, track, six-lane pool, archery range and UC Follies, the student theatre troupe that once included Saturday Night Live producer and ��߲ݴ�ý graduate Lorne Michaels.

But there’s more to Hart House than the building on the St. George campus. Hart House has owned a 150-acre farm on the Niagara Escarpment in the Caledon Hills that has been a country getaway for students since the mid-20th century. The farm produces maple syrup that people can buy at Hart House’s front desk, or taste in the Gallery Grill’s famous crème brûlée.

It has also served as the site of one of Canada’s first land-based learning courses, where students learned about Indigenous health.

'Land-based' learning online? How one U of T professor reimagined a ground-breaking course amid COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 17:24:06 +0000

'Land-based' learning online? How one U of T professor reimagined a ground-breaking course amid COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/09/2020 - 13:24

Cutline

U of T's Angela Mashford-Pringle spent weeks developing a remote version of a course that underscores the importance of the land to Indigenous Peoples – usually via a week-long stay at Hart House Farm north of Toronto (photo courtesy of Dalla Lana)

Topic

Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Indigenous

When Angela Mashford-Pringle first learned she might have to put her “land-based” learning course online because of COVID-19, her heart sank. How could a ground-breaking course built around an Indigenous connection with the land be taught remotely?

The assistant professor at the ��߲ݴ�ý’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health didn’t think it could be done – the course typically involves a week-long stay at Hart House Farm north of Toronto – and, at first, she was adamant that it shouldn’t be.

But her students convinced her to give it a try.

“They asked: What about immune-compromised people or students with kids? I thought about the people who would have to go through COVID-19 to get to me, and why was I doing this to them,” says Mashford-Pringle, who is also associate director of the school’s Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health.

“I dreamed how to do it, like having a vision. I realized even though they couldn’t go through a medicine walk or start a fire with elders, they could still interact with the land.”

When it was first launched a year ago, the course became U of T’s first exclusively land-based learning opportunity and one of the first in Canada’s to focus on health and the land. Students lived, learned and cooked together at the university’s rural retreat in the Caledon Hills. They participated in nature walks, fire ceremonies and a sweat lodge. The group learned about the importance of the land to Indigenous culture and well-being – and how the removal of that connection through displacements such as residential schooling has profoundly impacted Indigenous people’s health.

But it took just two-and-a-half weeks for Mashford-Pringle to work out a new, online format for the course. What emerged included plenty of holistic, community-building discussion and an increased emphasis on each student’s personal relationship with the land they live on

“I know it was hitting notes with people,” Mashford-Pringle says. “They were asking questions, engaging with things on their own. Here’s something I worked very hard to put on the land and then I had to make it virtual, but it worked.

“I was shocked – in a good way.”

The course was offered in mid-August to ground students in Indigenous thought before they learn Western methodology. The early learning was also an opportunity for Robyn Lee, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Dalla Lana, to pick up ideas to inform her own teaching in the future.

“I really liked the combination of asynchronous and synchronous lectures, so it wasn’t a full day of non-stop didactic teaching,” says Lee. “Dr. Mashford-Pringle also included sessions led by Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, which gave students the opportunity to really learn and ask questions. She also took the time for detailed introductions, with everyone explaining why they were in the course and what they hoped to gain from it.

“I think that’s something we might miss online, building those connections. She did it incredibly well and it’s something I’d really like to carry over into my courses.”

Lee, who has worked in public health with Inuit communities in the Arctic, saw the course as an opportunity to help make up for the lack of teaching on Indigenous Health in her own formal education – most of her knowledge was learned on the job. The course helped her to better understand why traditional Western approaches to disease reduction might not always work in Indigenous health contexts.

“We often use deficit-based statistics in epidemiology,” which focus on risk or problems, she says. “But this can take away from the positive work communities are doing in reducing the burden of disease, infectious or otherwise. It is important to really emphasize and learn from these strengths when working in public health.”

The lesson was not lost on student Emma Rice, who recently moved to downtown Toronto to start her master of public health degree at the school.

“Land-based learning really is focused on resilience and strength as opposed to just the deficits and the statistics,” says Rice, who hopes to work in Indigenous health policy.

The online course included revamped land-based activities, such as a 30-minute nature walk and the close observation of a tree. The activities helped to situate Rice in her new community.

“It promoted connection to the land we’re on currently,” she says. “There’s an eagle that likes to visit a field near the tree I chose. I found a lot of cicada shells and didn’t realize they shed their shells on trees. It was interesting to see that symbiosis. It’s tied to that idea of ‘all my relations in creation’ – that we all exist together in that space.

“It helped me understand our responsibility to not impose too much on that space.”

Encouraged by the positive feedback, Mashford-Pringle has been discussing the possibility of expanding online teaching in Indigenous health so that Indigenous people from the North and other remote areas can learn without leaving the lands where they live and work.

Building community – an integral part of Indigenous teaching and learning – is easier in person, Mashford-Pringle acknowledges. But keeping the course fewer than 30 students and including casual social opportunities such as group lunches helped the students get to know one another. And the online environment, she discovered, cultivates a very purposeful interaction that can be meaningful.

“On the land, you’re kind of ‘on’ all the time,” she says. “Online, you can choose how you want to engage, and who you’re going to engage with.”

From foreign development to climate activism: Meet U of T’s 2019 Loran Scholars

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 04:00:00 +0000

From foreign development to climate activism: Meet U of T’s 2019 Loran Scholars

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 10/25/2019 - 00:00

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From left to right: Chan-min Roh, Abnash Bassi and Shiqi Xu (all photos by Johnny Guatto)

Tom Yun

Topic

Our Community

Hart House Farm

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk One

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Undergraduate Students

Victoria College

Chan-min Roh, Shiqi Xu and Abnash Bassi are three students who have shown leadership in high school and made a difference in their communities.

Now, the ��߲ݴ�ý has welcomed them as Loran Scholars.

The three students were among just 35 students selected by the Loran Scholars Foundation from over 5,000 applicants for the prestigious scholarship program in 2019.

Offered to high school students in their graduating year with a minimum cumulative average of 85 per cent who demonstrate “character, service and the promise of leadership,” the Loran Scholarship is valued at $100,000 and includes matching tuition waivers, an annual stipend of $10,000 and funding for summer internships.

Now, almost two months into their first year at U of T, here’s a look at the journeys taken by Roh, Xu and Bassi to become student leaders:

Chan-min Roh, Regina

Roh, a Victoria College student, has a keen interest in politics and diplomacy. He was on the leadership team of the Saskatchewan Youth Parliament. As captain of his debate team, he participated in debate conferences as far away as Finland and China and says debate and public speaking “has been a big part of my life.”

He also travelled to Tijuana, Mexico with his church to build houses for local families and was the captain of his soccer team.

Roh, who is currently in the Munk One program, says the small class options for first-years drew him to U of T.

“The Munk One allowed me to experience not only the big school environment of U of T, but also the small classroom setting,” he said.

Roh is considering majoring in political science or contemporary Asian studies and hopes to one day work in the field of public policy or diplomacy.

Continuing his passion for debating, Roh has joined Hart House Debating Club. He is also involved with U of T’s chapter of the HanVoice Support Association, an advocacy group for North Korean human rights, and a taekwondo club.

Shiqi Xu, North Vancouver, B.C.

Xu was student council president in high school and played piano for her school choir. Her passions also lie in animal rights and environmental issues.

She started a club that worked with the food service provider in her school’s cafeteria to develop and promote “Meatless Monday” specials and increase the number of plant-based food options.

“Eventually, that spread to a school district-wide level as well,” said Xu. “We connected with kids at other schools, where the same food service provider – Amaga Food – was incredibly supportive of the initiative and began serving specials at all the schools.

“We saw the sales increase as kids began to make more conscious food choices, whether it was for health, environmental, ethical or personal reasons.”

Xu’s activism was also trained on animal dissections. After she found out some students had a difficult time opting out of the animal dissection assignment in biology classes, Xu got over 250 of her peers to sign a petition calling for an opt-out policy on dissections and brought the demand forward to her school board, which resulted in her school district implementing a student-choice policy.

At U of T, Xu is in the engineering science program and has already gotten involved in the U of T Aerospace Team and the Chestnut Residence Council social commission.

Abnash Bassi, Delta, B.C.

Passionate about renewable energy and environmental issues, Bassi was drawn to U of T by the sense of community and the multidisciplinary nature of the engineering science program.

“I found it particularly interesting that, even in such a large community where there’s three different campuses and each campus is pretty large, there’s an ability to foster a sense of community across so many students,” Bassi said.

As a high school student, Bassi was a climate action fellow with Be the Change Earth Alliance, a Vancouver-based charitable organization, and was co-president of her high school’s sustainability club.

She led environmental workshops for neighbouring elementary schools and helped spearhead sustainability campaigns with other high schools.

“For me, growing up, my family always placed an emphasis on the interactions that I have with my surrounding environment,” she said.

Bassi was also a member of Delta, B.C. Member of Parliament Carla Qualtrough’s constituency youth council, participated in robotics competitions and coached basketball for elementary school students.

In her first year at U of T, Bassi has gotten involved with Engineers Without Borders, the U of T Aerospace Team and marched with fellow U of T students during the climate strike in September.