Munk One

New College

When the ��Ƶ's Hannah Flores took her seat in Scotiabank Arena for the Toronto Raptors season-opener, her mind was on more than on how her favourite NBA team would fare against the Washington Wizards.

Flores, a spoken-word poet and first-year life sciences and New College student in the Faculty of Arts & Science, starred in a video made for the pre-game ceremony, welcoming fans back to the stadium for the first time in 600 days.

“Home is not just a landmark on Bay Street anymore,” Flores said in a recorded reading of her poem, We Back.

“It’s a feeling folded into our pockets to brave unchartered waters, a new season.”

Footage of Flores reading was spliced with shots of the Raptors roster and aerial footage of the arena.

“First of all, I’m a Raptors fan, so just seeing everyone in the stadium for a home game, it really touched me,” she told U of T News. “But to be part of the opener and to hear the crowd get energized and get louder as certain points of my poem really spoke to them – that filled me with joy and gratitude, knowing that my words could bring people together like that.”

My dreams came true in this stadium tonight...still coming off of cloud 9 :) Thank you everyone for your support. It means the world #TorontoRaptors #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/XJemG7E5j0
— hannahfloresthepoet (@hannahthepoet1) October 21, 2021

Flores has been writing and performing spoken-word poetry for six years. She’s been a Raptors fan even longer, describing herself as a supporter from “day one.”

Flores saw the finished video of her performance for the first time when it played on the Jumbotron on Wednesday. For her mom Joanne, sitting beside Flores in the arena, it was the first time even hearing her daughter’s poem. After the game, she re-watched the video of the reading on social media to relive the experience.

Flores said her poem was about how the Raptors have an appeal that goes beyond basketball, uniting people across the country.

“Being a Raptors fan is like being part of a family,” she said. “I really wanted everyone to be excited about having the family back under one roof.”

Professor Joseph Wong, who knows Flores from his Munk One seminar class on global innovation and shares her passion for the Raptors, was in the sold-out stadium.

Our @mymunkone @UofT's very own @hannahthepoet1 spoken word, to open the 2021 @Raptors season, about home, heart and #WeTheNorth nation. @UofTNews @global_uoft @munkschool @UofTArtSci pic.twitter.com/bxWa1Pcn1e
— Joseph Wong (@JosephWongUT) October 21, 2021

“She spoke not only to Raptors fans but to the whole nation, right?” he said. “The Raptors are, I think, an exemplary organization in that they are at the forefront of real-world issues around social justice,” Wong said, citing the franchise’s support for Black Lives Matter and gender equity.

“They’re bigger than just a basketball team and I thought that Hannah’s spoken-word art captured that. It’s about a basketball team but it’s about principles and doing what’s right.”

Although the Raptors dropped their first game 83-98, results aren’t everything for Flores.

“Obviously, we want to get another championship but I think at the same time I really just want to see them put their best foot forward and show the world what Toronto is made of and make us proud – because we already have so much pride for them.”

U of T student encourages others to get involved in politics

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 17:35:50 +0000

U of T student encourages others to get involved in politics

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 01/18/2021 - 12:35

Cutline

(photo courtesy of Renee Jagdeo)

Liliana Bechtold

Topic

Our Community

Cities

Politics

Slavic languages and literatures

Victoria College

The shift to online learning left the ��Ƶ’s Renee Jagdeo with some spare time on her hands this year – time she used to campaign for a city council seat.

She recently ran in a byelection in Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt, finishing near the middle of the slate of more than two dozen candidates. The seat was won by Nick Mantas.

“Politics operates to set priorities in our society, and I was interested in what it would look like if someone like myself was involved in that process,” says the second-year Victoria College student who is studying in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Jagdeo says that her time in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy’s Munk One program, with its focus on tackling local and global challenges hands-on, inspired her to run. In the program’s Global Problem-Solving course, Jagdeo and a team of students came up with a proposal to introduce underground “green walls” into the city’s transit system with the goal of improving air quality and making green space in the city more accessible.

The team has continued to pursue their project outside of the course and is hoping to bring it to life through public or private partnerships in the future.

Green and recreational space are important to Jagdeo. So is housing, improving public transit, COVID-19 response, community safety and economic development.

Running a campaign as a young person during a pandemic has definitely been a unique experience, Jagdeo says.

“I don’t think this would be considered a traditional campaign even in ‘normal times.’”

Jagdeo focused her efforts on creating a presence on social media, doing interviews with media outlets such as BlogTo and Narcity, holding Zoom town hall meetings and doing mailbox literature drops. It’s a lot to handle – but help from her fellow students, as well as her family and friends’ support, have been invaluable, she says.

Of course, mounting a campaign for public office at age 19 brings unique challenges.

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me ‘you should own a house first, or have a family, before you run for office’,” she says. “But I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to own a house, or if supporting a family is going to be feasible for me. That’s a reality for a lot of people in this city – because of their age or economic situation, or other factors – but it’s overlooked because the people who represent us don’t necessarily experience those same difficulties.”

A city council that is more diverse in terms of age, race, gender and economic status would be better able to consider the diverse social, cultural, and economic realities of Torontonians when making policy decisions, according to Jagdeo.

The idea that student communities are underutilized in politics is another major driving force of Jagdeo’s campaign. She says campaigns and politicians reaching out to involve students is key.

“My peers are some of the smartest people I have ever met,” she says. “They’re doing incredible things and it’s a shame that their ideas haven’t been implemented or given a voice yet.”

She also thinks that more young people, especially students, should run for public office, even if they aren’t studying a subject such as political science or law. “Having a background or training in a unique discipline allows you to think about and evaluate policy from new perspectives,” she says.

Jagdeo hopes her campaign will encourage other young people to get involved in politics. She was planning on holding a virtual event after the election to speak with other students and young adults about the realities and possibilities of running for office. As for advice for other young people thinking about participating in politics, she says that the most important pieces of the puzzle are integrity and passion.

“The best advice I’ve gotten so far is that you have to constantly evaluate yourself and stay honest,” she says. “If you go into politics because you’re genuinely passionate about solving something, it really shows.”

‘As though we’re all in the same room’: How two U of T professors built a better remote learning experience

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 21:36:04 +0000

‘As though we’re all in the same room’: How two U of T professors built a better remote learning experience

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/27/2020 - 17:36

Cutline

Donna Orwin, a professor of Russian literature, says the small number of students sitting in her physically distanced classroom this fall will be able to see and talk with students who participate online (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Global

Joseph Wong

When class starts at the ��Ƶ the week of Sept. 7, Joseph Wong and Donna Orwin will be ready.

The two professors have several decades of combined experience teaching at the post-secondary level, but they nevertheless spent much of the summer in full-on learning mode.

The subject: How to enhance the learning experience for their students in the fall semester – the first in the COVID-19 era. Specifically, the goal was how to create an engaging “dual delivery” format to teach students who will participate online alongside those who be sitting – physically distanced, wearing masks – in a mostly empty classroom.

“We learned a lot in the spring when we all had to use online technology and just try to get to the end of the term,” says Wong, a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

“We all tried hard and U of T was remarkable in moving 6,000 courses to remote delivery over the course of a weekend. But this fall students should be expecting a much better learning experience.”

Wong and Orwin are just two of the hundreds of U of T professors who are retooling their courses for this fall as part of U of T’s gradual and safe return to campus. More than 90 per cent of undergraduate courses give students the option of studying online and most of these courses will be offered online only.

To become more adept at leading an online seminar, Wong offered several “bonus” seminars this summer so he could practice.

“I asked the Munk School to send out a note to students saying that I would be doing a bonus seminar online on a certain day,” he says. “I gave them a pre-read on the topic and said the first nine students to sign up can be in the seminar.”

Wong says he limited the seminar’s size to nine in order to form a three-by-three grid on his computer screen. “I wanted to be able to see everyone,” he says. “From there I went to 16 for a four-by-four grid and I just practised. I wanted to learn how to use the chat function, how to maintain eye contact.

“Now, I feel like I have quite a bit of practice under my belt.”

Wong also practised with the 25 people on his research team – all while still attending to his new role as U of T’s interim vice-president, international.

Orwin, on the other hand, had never taught online before. The professor of Russian literature and chair of the department of Slavic languages and literatures in the Faculty of Arts & Science says she emerged from her experience in the spring semester ready to prepare thoroughly for the fall term – especially given the fact many students were interested in attending her “Russia at War” first-year seminar in-person.

She will have 14 students in that seminar, eight of them in room 101 in Teefy Hall at St. Michael’s College and six participating online.

Professor Donna Orwin’s physically distanced classroom will have an external webcam and microphone. Students sitting in the physically distanced classroom will be able to see and talk with the students online via their laptops (photo by Johnny Guatto)

“I want everyone in this seminar to be able to participate fully and for it to be as if we are all sitting together,” says Orwin, a noted expert on Leo Tolstoy who is affiliated with the Munk School’s Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. “So, I’ve planned the in-person and online group experience together.”

Using their laptops, students sitting in the physically distanced classroom will be able to see and talk with the students online. Orwin will also have a webcam to capture the entire room and an external microphone will make sure voices are amplified.

“The camera will be on a tripod so I can move it around if I want to show a PowerPoint presentation,” she says. “While I’m talking, I’ll have the camera facing me and while the students are talking, the camera will be on them. In that way, our online people will be working together with the people in the room.”

Orwin’s students will have a lot to discuss – the seminar covers centuries of Russian war and how it is expressed in literature and other artistic forms.

“We’ll be talking about the different genres, watching film and reading poetry, short stories, novels, discussing war itself in Russia and beyond,” she says. “It’s an important topic – Russia is a country that loves peace, but is almost continuously at war, so we’ll explore why that is.”

She adds that it’s important to make sure students, particularly those in their first year, feel like they’re part of the broader U of T community.

“These students are coming from high school to university for the first time,” she says. “Most of their other courses will be online and I want to give them an in-class experience. I want them to get to know each other and to get to know me. These first-year seminars are an opportunity for first-year students to be part of an academic community.”

For Wong’s Munk One first year “Global Innovation” class, he will have 15 students physically distanced in a room in the Canadiana Gallery building, which normally seats 64. Another 10 students will participate remotely. Drop-down microphones will be placed throughout the room to compensate for voices muffled through masks.

Professor Joseph Wong’s Munk One class on global innovation will be held in a room equipped with drop-down microphones, which are intended to compensate for voices muffled through masks (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

“The students will be on three screens around the room,” says Wong. “The configuration will ensure that, no matter if they’re on screen or in the classroom, they will be able to see each other clearly. I want to make it as though we are all in the same room.

“The aim is to run the seminar as we have in the past. There will be a fair amount of flexibility, and we’ll be learning as we go. All the students I’ve spoken with are very excited about it. And they recognize that things might not be perfect from day one.”

Wong is also the founder of the REACH Alliance, where about 25 students travel the world annually to understand poverty and social services in underserved communities. While REACH will not be able to send students abroad this year, Wong has nevertheless found a way to inject an international flavour into the global innovation seminar.

“I’ve added a new component to this course called a global classroom module,” he says. “Our seminar will be connected with a class with Tec de Monterrey in Mexico City. We’re going to do a three-class module on COVID-19 and inequality. So, the U of T students, in the room and online, will be working with Mexican students on a variety of creative projects around the topic.”

For two hours each week, the Toronto and Mexico City classes will be connected through technology.

“That’s an exciting component where our students have an opportunity to learn by talking to the Mexican students using the remote platforms,” he says. “The pandemic has been awful but technology and a willingness to connect with each other around the world is enabling us to do things I have certainly never done before.”

Joseph Wong says students in his global innovation seminar will be connected with a class at Tec de Monterrey in Mexico City as part of a three-class module on COVID-19 and inequality (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Preparing for the “synchronous” method of teaching – in-person and online together – has taken time and financial support, Wong says. He points out that from the moment students shifted to learning remotely in March, faculty and staff across the university were analyzing what worked and planning for fall.

“It’s not just about turning on Zoom; we did that in the spring. The experience students will have in the fall will be much different,” Wong says. “The infrastructure and reconfigurations are quite extensive. People are working very hard.

“We’ve put a huge amount of work into this and I think the students will find it very exciting.”

For Orwin, redesigning the way she delivers the class was critical to ensure “as much as possible, they can all take part in the discussion, those in the physical room and those online, as one group.”

In a normal year, she says, a first-year seminar can be an important part of “learning how to be independent thinkers and learning how to discuss their ideas with one another.” In a pandemic year, it’s all the more important.

“That’s what university is about.”

‘A pedagogy of kindness’: U of T faculty find creative ways to support students, learning during COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 14 May 2020 12:53:12 +0000

‘A pedagogy of kindness’: U of T faculty find creative ways to support students, learning during COVID-19

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 05/14/2020 - 08:53

Cutline

U of T Assistant Professor Fabian Parsch, who sings in a barbershop quartet, re-created the warmth of his classroom environment by saying goodbye to students to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in a video performance (image via YouTube)

Topic

English

Faculty & Staff

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

Global

Graduate Students

St. Michael's College

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

His students could no longer attend classes in person because of COVID-19, but as the academic year drew to a close Fabian Parsch was determined to give them a heartfelt send-off from afar.

The assistant professor, teaching stream, in the department of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – whose hobbies include singing in a barbershop quartet – put his a cappella skills to work in a video in which he says goodbye to his students and thanks his teaching assistants, all to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

He adapted the lyrics for the occasion. “In the summer, the quiet summer, the teacher takes a break,” sings Parsch, who was part of a U of T campus ensemble as a graduate student. The video was screened on Zoom in the last lecture of MAT187, a calculus course for engineering students, then reposted to social media where it reached a broader audience. “This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” one viewer said on Reddit.

For Parsch, the video was a way of re-connecting with students and re-creating the warmth and friendliness typical of his classroom environment – after weeks of social distancing.

“The classroom is the nucleus of the experience you have in university,” he says. “You find your friends in the classroom, you talk about your classes and so on. I felt I had to give them a nice social experience.”

While not all U of T professors are as musically inclined, many have demonstrated a similar flair for improvisation under challenging circumstances, seeking to deliver a U of T education from a distance while doing what they can to lift students’ spirits.

Many have used online forums or email to check in on their students. “Above all: my priority in this enterprise is YOU, your health and well-being,” Alexandra Bolintineanu, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in medieval digital studies, told her students after U of T suspended in-person classes. “Let me know how to support you. I will do my human best,” she wrote. The course, Getting Medieval: Place and Spaces, covers the plague – a topic she told students she wished they didn’t have to understand “quite so experientially.”

Bolintineanu had been looking forward to bringing homemade “medieval gingerbread” to the last class. But this year all she could do was share the manuscript and recipe online.

“A student took up the challenge and shared pictures of the prettiest medieval gingerbread they had concocted at home,” Bolintineanu told U of T News. “My heart grew three sizes at least.”

As for Parsch, he has held drop-in hours over Zoom, where his conversations with students have often veered far beyond calculus.

“It’s crazy sometimes the situations that they’re in, with travel troubles or family issues brought on by the pandemic,” Parsch says, noting students who weren’t able to complete their work on time because of COVID-19-related disruptions were granted extensions.

The move to online classes hasn’t been without obstacles for instructors, Parsh adds, since many professors had to learn on the fly how to adjust homework and teach classes without the usual visual cues that signal when students have lost focus.

U of T Assistant Professor Fabian Parsch says his Zoom conversations with students have extended beyond coursework (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

“If there was ever a time for a pedagogy of kindness it would be now,” says Fiona Rawle, who has been helping her fellow faculty members navigate the challenges associated with teaching remotely.

“It’s so easy to focus on the pressures that are right in front of you and easy to forget about the pressures and stresses in front of other people.”

An associate dean of undergraduate studies at U of T Mississauga and an associate professor, teaching stream, in biology, Rawle partnered with staff at the campus’s academic skills centre and library to host lunchtime teaching and learning exchanges, where faculty can swap notes on course design and teaching in an online environment.

In effort to bridge the professor-student divide created by social distancing, Rawle took to social media to ask students what they want their professors to know, and vice versa.

“You realize your worries overlap and we have a lot in common,” Rawle says of the many professors and students who responded by expressing sympathy and support for each other. One user, whose Twitter handle identified her as a U of T student in molecular biology, replied: “I want my professors to know that while students are struggling, most of us understand that profs are struggling too.”

Associate Professor Fiona Rawle took to social media to ask students what they want their professors to know, and vice versa, prompting responses from many students and professors (photo by Lucas Rawle)

Some professors have gone to extraordinary lengths to give students a quality experience in their course – even if it can no longer be taught in exactly the same way.

Randy Boyagoda, a professor of English in the Faculty of Arts & Science, teaches a St. Michael’s College seminar on faith and ideas that takes about 30 first-year students to Rome for a first-hand look at how the Catholic Church and the Vatican have shaped public life.

With a two-week trip to Italy out of the question during the pandemic, Boyagoda says he and university staff worked with site partners in Rome to postpone the trip until next spring, when the students in this year’s seminar will presumably be able to travel with next year’s class.

In the meantime, he has invited students to take virtual tours of the museums they would have visited and has put his class in touch with former students who had gone to Rome, to give them an idea of what this year’s class is waiting for.

Boyagoda, who is also principal and vice-president of the University of St. Michael’s College, has invited students to take virtual tours of the museums they would have visited and has put his class in touch with former students who have travelled to Rome for the course, to give them a better idea of what awaits them next year.

Randy Boyagoda, principal and vice-president of the University of St. Michael’s College, has invited students to take virtual tours of the museums they would have visited during an annual class trip to Rome that was postponed this year because of COVID-19 (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Maintaining personal connections with students has also been central to Joe Wong’s approach. The Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and political science professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science has kept up with students in the Munk One program through new bi-weekly seminars held over Zoom he started since COVID-19 forced students off campus.

He has also addressed students’ concerns in one-on-one conversations over email.

When Katie Kwang, a psychology and economics student from Singapore and Lester B. Pearson Scholar, worried about the consequences of the pandemic - not just for her own future, but for people around the world already in dire straits - she emailed Wong, who provided reassurance and guidance.

“I’m amazed by the resilience she showed just getting home,” says Wong, who is U of T’s vice-provost and associate vice-president, international student experience.

Although professors can no longer meet with them in person, students should know that they remain part of the U of T community and can get help from their professors, peers and university staff, Wong says.

“It’s important for students to feel like they’re continually engaging the university and that they have that sense of community.”

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

Cutline

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

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 ��Ƶ 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.

U of T grads conduct women-focused, on-the-ground research in world’s largest refugee settlement

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:43:49 +0000

U of T grads conduct women-focused, on-the-ground research in world’s largest refugee settlement

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 06/04/2019 - 14:43

Cutline

The market in the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on March 7, 2019 (photo by Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jovana Jankovic

Topic

Global Lens

Convocation 2019

Human Biology

University College

On the southeast tip of Bangladesh, around a fishing port called Cox's Bazar, 1.2 million Rohingya people live in a set of interconnected camps that make up the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Having fled neighbouring Myanmar after decades of violent oppression, the stateless Rohingya people are now described by the United Nations as “the most persecuted minority in the world.” In 2018, Canada recognized the crimes committed against the Rohingya as genocide, and a recent UN fact-finding mission determined that Myanmar is guilty of “a planned attack to cleanse the state of this population.”

In the midst of this crisis, two undergraduate students at the ��Ƶ conducted unprecedented, on-the-ground research into how international aid efforts in the refugee settlement could be improved.

Sakshi Shetty and Kassandra Neranjan – who are both graduating this year – focused on what they call the “dehumanization, statelessness and gender-based security” of Rohingya women and girls, who are among the most vulnerable in Cox’s Bazar.

“We conducted primary research in person so we could witness the crisis response first-hand,” says Shetty, a University College student majoring in health and disease within the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Human Biology Program, as well as immunology.

“We not only got crucial insights on logistical, strategic, field-level issues and NGO collaboration efforts, but we also had the opportunity to network and make contacts for potential interviews. Being in Bangladesh gave us a holistic perspective of the issue — from the field level to the policy level.”

Neranjan, a Trinity College student double majoring in peace, conflict and justice studies and international relations with a minor in French literature, adds that the pair “found there to be a huge gap between program design and program implementation, especially in its gendered considerations.”

From left to right: Kassandra Neranjan, Sakshi Shetty and post-doctoral fellow and student supervisor Emily Hertzman (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Shetty and Neranjan met as first-year students while volunteering in U of T UNICEF’s Youth Engagement Program. After discovering their mutual interests in gender justice, they embarked on research under the mentorship of Emily Hertzman — a post-doctoral fellow in the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy — with the support of the Richard Charles Lee Insights Through Asia Challenge (ITAC), an interdisciplinary experiential learning program at the Asian Institute open to students from all disciplines across all three U of T campuses.

In Cox’s Bazar, Shetty and Neranjan worked with 11 aid organizations and conducted 18 interviews during a three-week period while also attending working group meetings with aid officials in the refugee camp.

Their resulting report offers evidence-based practical policy recommendations to aid workers and organizations supporting Rohingya refugees.

In the report, Shetty and Neranjan describe the challenges faced by Rohingya women and girls at the intersection of their ethnicity, religion, gender, statelessness and politics. They are denied access to education and work outside their homes while being disproportionately targeted with sexual, gender-based and domestic violence. Their insecurity is heightened by precarious conditions in the refugee camp. For example, climate threats in the region such as monsoons, mudslides, torrential rain and cyclones endanger women and girls if they are isolated without shelter during a weather event. Some girls are abducted, assaulted or trafficked when they simply leave their homes to collect firewood or water.

“It’s critical that more is done to ensure the world is not only aware of and understands this crisis, but actively supports this disenfranchised community,” says Shetty, pointing to the lack of extensive international media coverage of the crisis.

“Women have been extensively marginalized within these camps while also surviving severe trauma and violence in Myanmar,” adds Neranjan. “They comprise a majority of the population in the refugee camp. So there’s a real need to address ‘gender mainstreaming’”— the idea that gender should be factored into all programming and policy decisions in all areas and levels of an aid effort.

Hertzman says Neranjan and Shetty’s work not only makes a key contribution to their field of study, but has also given them valuable experience in law, health care, international development, health equity research and public health.

“They have been honing their observation skills, asking questions, listening, recording, probing and integrating into different social worlds,” says Hertzman, highlighting the advantages of experiential learning.

An expert in international migration in Asia, Hertzman is passionate about fostering research opportunities for undergraduate students. As part of ITAC’s commitment to supporting students through the complete trajectory of their research, Hertzman conducts workshops for undergrads on everything from project planning, proposal-writing, research ethics and fieldwork techniques to participant observations, field note-taking and experimental methods.

“Ours are some of the best undergraduate students, coming from all over the world,” says Hertzman.

“They bring varied life experiences that they can draw on in their research, and they’re energetic, motivated and brave. They ask interesting questions and are looking to make an impact in the world.”

Neranjan, for her part, developed an even greater passion for gender justice activism during her first year as a Munk One student and has spoken about feminist policy-making at the Toronto Women's March and the UN. Shetty, meanwhile, has worked with U of T’s International Health Program to address health and safety issues in Toronto’s marginalized and vulnerable populations.

Both students plan to continue their research and fieldwork following graduation.

“I just started working with BlueDot Global, a company that uses human and artificial intelligence to track, contextualize and anticipate infectious disease outbreaks,” says Shetty, who eventually plans to pursue a master’s degree in health policy or global health, in keeping with her passion for the social determinants of health in marginalized populations.

Neranjan will be pursuing a law degree in the fall – “to further my dream of addressing international human rights abuses through field research,” she says.

Inset photo by Kassandra Neranjan

#UofTGrad17: Munk One celebrates its first cohort of U of T graduates

Romi Levine — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 15:35:31 +0000

#UofTGrad17: Munk One celebrates its first cohort of U of T graduates

Romi Levine Thu, 06/22/2017 - 11:35

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Munk One grad Nicoli Dos Santos

Adrienne Harry

Author legacy

Adrienne Harry

Topic

Global

International

Since it launched in 2013, the Munk One foundation program for students in their first year has attracted and taught some of the ��Ƶ’s most audacious students.

After their time in Munk One, students have gone on to create an app that reduces food waste on university campuses, launch an initiative to prevent heat-related deaths on construction sites in Qatar, and conduct field research on poverty in Brazil.

Now, the program is celebrating its first cohort of students to graduate from U of T.

“The first cohort was the one that set the bar for me,” says Teresa Kramarz, director of the Munk One program. “They made me realize what untapped potential the ��Ƶ had in its first-year students. I came to fully understand the hunger that these students brought to U of T.”

Offered by the Munk School of Global Affairs, Munk One teaches first-year undergraduate students how to take their hunger and curiosity and apply it to some of the world’s most complex challenges. The small classroom environment allows students to network closely with their peers and professors, and the seminars and labs help to prepare students for the rest of their U of T experience, and beyond.

“Munk One was a good experience. First year can be a very isolating time and Munk One was a good way to get to know people and build a social group,” says Nicholas Sopuch (pictured above). The peace, conflict and justice major graduated on June 21.

Set to begin his master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the fall, Sopuch credits Munk One with shaping the rest of his academic experience. “The workload and the readings helped me become comfortable in a seminar setting. It was good to work with these really bright students in such a collaborative environment.

“Munk One was an intensive warm-up for the rest of my undergrad.”

Nicoli Dos Santos, another of the program’s very first students, agrees.

“Munk One gave me my first real taste of what research looks like in academia. Not just theory, but also field research,” says Dos Santos, who, through her Munk One professors, had the opportunity to spend six weeks in Northern Ireland advising on an app that diagnoses post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The program helped me to see problems differently and examine my approach. I gained the confidence to seek out more research opportunities.”

Dos Santos, along with other Munk One alumni, went on to study Brazil’s Bolsa Familia social welfare program with the Reach Project, an initiative led by Professor Joseph Wong, who teaches a seminar course in the Munk One program. This trip helped Dos Santos, an aspiring doctor, to think about health and medicine from a more social perspective. She writes her MCAT in August and begins a master of social work at U of T in the fall.

“In Munk One, I realized how crucial it is to think about the socio-political context in which diseases emerge, spread and are treated. I’m interested in family medicine and I want the skills to be able to address the social issues that may contribute to physical and mental health.”

Sopuch recommends Munk One to anyone hoping to make valuable connections with their peers and professors. “A lot of my friends today are people I met in Munk One. It was useful to have that initial connection,” says Sopuch. “And in terms of academic preparation, Munk One is great. The connections you build really do last throughout your undergrad.”

Kramarz is excited to see Munk One students now becoming U of T alumni, and sees them making a profound impact as they move on to other pursuits.

“Over the last four years, I have watched these students grow as scholars and as people. I have this sense of wonder as I look at their trajectory. I’m proud of our students and happy that Munk One has helped prepare them to be engaged global citizens.”

Munk One competition offers mentorship to new U of T students

ullahnor — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 16:11:34 +0000

Munk One competition offers mentorship to new U of T students

ullahnor Mon, 11/28/2016 - 11:11

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Students brainstorm during the Munk One case competition (photo by Kevin Rowley)

Adrienne Harry

Author legacy

Adrienne Harry

Topic

Global Lens

Dragon's Den. Faculty of Arts & Science

One Programs

Innovation

Entrepreneurship

If you were given just 24 hours to come up with a proposed solution to sex trafficking in Toronto, would you be up to the task?

Students in the Munk One program at U of T's Munk School of Global Affairs were challenged to do just that at the program’s annual case competition earlier this month.

“At first it was extremely daunting,” said Jonah Toth, a Munk One student and contest participant. “We came in not knowing what the topic was and not knowing anything about sex trafficking. It was an intensive process.”

Munk One is one of several first-year foundation programs at U of T that are designed for small groups – no more than 25 students – mixing lectures with seminars, labs and group exercises. The Munk One case competition is a precursor to Munk One Dragon’s Den competition in the spring.

In the mentorship phase of this year’s case competition, groups received insight from experts such as CTV crime reporter Tamara Cherry and Lisa DiFederico, a human trafficking advocate at Covenant House Toronto. The purpose of the mentorship phase is for students to learn how to research and refine their big ideas before tackling possible solutions.

After the full day of mentorship from experts and former Munk One students, competitors split into groups. They had 24 hours to brainstorm potential solutions to real problems in Toronto.

“At first, it seemed like an insurmountable task, but we had some really good help from our student mentor,” said Uma Kalkar, a first-year life sciences student. “She helped us break down the issue and figure out what population to target. We were able to look at sex trafficking from different viewpoints and figure out which approach to take with our resources and expertise.”

Kalkar’s group also received mentorship from Cherry, whose reported on domestic sex trafficking. She told students to be as realistic as possible with their ideas.

“She encouraged us to actually reach out to groups, send e-mails, create a budget and think about ways to make our project feasible,” said Kalkar.

On competition day, student groups gathered to brainstorm, fine-tune and present their ideas. This year, a group of grade 12 students from Michael Power-St. Joseph High School joined the Munk One teams.

“The case competition is a rare opportunity to bring three sets of students together: seniors in high school, as well as first and second year undergraduates in university,” said Teresa Kramarz, director of the Munk One program and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science. “High school students work alongside our first year students in research groups, and our second year students do all the research required to prepare a case guide. We put in practice the medical teaching tradition where students are asked to ‘see one, do one, teach one.’”

At the end of the competition, students presented their ideas to a panel of judges which included Toronto Police Detective Constable Jason Davis, assigned to the human trafficking enforcement team, Michele Anderson, who works at Covenant House Toronto with young survivors of human trafficking, Rosemary Gartner, a professor of criminology at U of T, and Antonela Arhin, a sessional lecturer at U of T who teaches courses on human trafficking and is the executive officer of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. The presentations were an opportunity for students to receive further advice and feedback from experts in the field.

“There is only so much you can read about an issue. At some point when exploring academic literature, you hit a wall and it helps having a professional share their personal experience,” said Toth. “It’s an excellent opportunity to practice for what’s going to come up later in the course.”

The smallest of U of T’s first year foundation programs, Munk One teaches students to tackle global challenges and provides tools to help them put big ideas into practice. Many Munk One students go on to implement their ideas, like Munk One alumni Adam Sheikh, now a 19-year-old peace, conflict and justice student at the Munk School of Global Affairs who launched a work safety intervention in the Gulf region and Munk One alumni Quinn Underwood, who helped develop a mobile app that addresses food insecurity on university campuses.

Beating the heat: U of T student’s cool idea to help workers in Qatar

lavende4 — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:23:19 +0000

Beating the heat: U of T student’s cool idea to help workers in Qatar

lavende4 Fri, 11/04/2016 - 11:23

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On location in Qatar: Adam Sheikh (left) and construction workers wearing their cooling vests (Photo courtesy of Aegis)

Adrienne Harry

Author legacy

Adrienne Harry

Topic

Global Lens