Reach Alliance

The Reach Alliance, a student-driven research initiative based at the ��Ƶ’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, is expanding its network to five continents through partnerships with four more universities.

The newest members of the alliance – which recruits top students to explore how critical services and innovations are delivered to marginalized populations, and then shares its work with policymakers to achieve real-world impact – are the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Ashesi University in Ghana, the University of Melbourne in Australia and Singapore Management University.

The scale-up represents a doubling in the size of the Reach Alliance, whose current partners comprise U of T, Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, the University of Oxford and University College London.

“The work of the Reach Alliance can only be done by strengthening international partnerships to achieve global reach,” said Marin MacLeod, executive director of the Reach Alliance, in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome these leading university partners to the alliance and to learn from their unique and diverse perspectives.

“Their faculty and students will make a tremendous contribution to our global network of experts on how to reach the hardest to reach.”

By expanding to universities in Africa, Asia and Australia, the network hopes to extend the scope and depth of its research and accelerate the production of actionable insights into some of the world’s most pressing and complex development issues.

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, said the Reach Alliance is a “brilliant” initiative that aligns closely with her university’s mission “to ensure that our research meets the needs of even the most marginalized communities in Africa, that it has real impact, and that we produce the leaders of tomorrow who are committed to social justice.”

Founded in 2015 at the Munk School in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the Reach Alliance aims to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by generating knowledge and actionable insights aimed at improving the lives of people living in extreme poverty, geographically remote places and marginalized communities.

Students from all fields of study are placed in teams that work together for 12 to 18 months under the guidance of faculty mentors. Student researchers work to secure approval from research ethics boards, conduct primary research and interview local stakeholders. They then produce a case study report, which can be published in journals, shared with policymakers and presented at the annual Reach Symposium.

Teams also can take part in skill development workshops on topics such as quantitative and qualitative research; research methods; research ethics; and field interview practices. Through these opportunities, students are empowered to not only produce impactful research but grow into globally informed and highly skilled problem-solvers.

The alliance has seen over 170 undergraduate and graduate students produce 30 case studies in 20 countries to date. Their work has been published in prestigious academic journals including The Lancet, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and BMJ Global Health, among other influential scholarly journals.

U of T students have explored complex issues including polio eradication in India, vaccine delivery in Mozambique, women’s economic empowerment in Mexico, mobile money apps in Kenya and self-directed home-care service delivery in Ontario.

Interventions currently being explored include peer-led HIV interventions among youth in Zimbabwe, the manufacture of personal protective equipment by Syria’s White Helmets, and vaccine provision to remote Indigenous communities in Ontario.

In an op-ed published in Times Higher Education in April, Joseph Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international and founder of the Reach Alliance, noted that the program recruits students who are not only accomplished and bright, but dedicated to serving people in need.

“The Reach experience is not intended to be another line on their CV. These projects are truly ambitious,” Wong wrote. “Ultimately, the Reach Alliance pursues the full achievement of the SDGs [UN Sustainable Development Goals] by equipping new generations of global leaders with knowledge and skills. Those who have experienced Reach are accelerated into leadership positions catalysing change around the world.”

Reach Alliance leads “change for a sustainable and inclusive future”: Joseph Wong in Times Higher Education

mattimar — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 19:50:50 +0000

Reach Alliance leads “change for a sustainable and inclusive future”: Joseph Wong in Times Higher Education

mattimar Tue, 04/26/2022 - 15:50

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U of T Vice-President, International Joseph Wong is the founder of the Reach Alliance, a student-driven global research initiative based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Joseph Wong

The Reach Alliance – a student-driven global research initiative based at the ��Ƶ’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy – empowers students to “lead change for a sustainable and inclusive future,” writes Joseph Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international, and Reach Alliance founder, in an op-ed for Times Higher Education.

Upholding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Reach Alliance brings together students with faculty mentors to investigate how organizations are delivering services to vulnerable populations around the globe that are the hardest to reach. Their findings have been published in leading academic journals and opinion outlets such as BMJ Global Health, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, The Lancet and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, among others.

Since its launch in 2015, the program has partnered with universities around the world, including the University of Oxford and Mexico’s Tecnológico de Monterrey, and there are plans to expand to Asia, Africa and Australia, said Wong. “This scale-up will allow the global network of faculty and students involved in Reach to flourish, cultivating the next generation of principled, experienced and capable global leaders,” he writes.

Reach Alliance, first launched at U of T, expands to three universities outside Canada

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 16:11:59 +0000

Reach Alliance, first launched at U of T, expands to three universities outside Canada

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/30/2021 - 12:11

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The Reach Alliance's three new international partners are (from top to bottom) University College London, Tecnológico de Monterrey and University of Oxford (Peter Spiro/Getty Images, Gildardo Sánchez, Clive NIchols/Getty Images)

Munk School Staff

Topic

Joseph Wong

Sustainability

The Reach Alliance’s reach just got a little longer.

The ��Ƶ research initiative – which brings together undergraduate and graduate students with faculty mentors to investigate how organizations are delivering services to vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations around the globe – is expanding to three leading universities: University of Oxford, University College London and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Joseph Wong (Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Joseph Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international, and Reach Alliance founder, announced the three international partners Friday at the closing of the 2021 Reach Symposium, an annual gathering of leaders from the academic, private and civil society sectors to share insights on how to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

“We have much to learn from our colleagues at the University of Oxford, Tecnológico de Monterrey and University College London,” Wong said. “This appetite for collaboration will guide us as we continue to scale the Reach Alliance around the world.”

Based at the ��Ƶ’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the Reach Alliance began as the Reach Project in 2015. To date, it has produced 23 case studies in 16 countries, publishing findings in prestigious journals including The Lancet, the WHO Bulletin, and BMJ Global Health.

Reach teams work together for 12 to 18 months to conduct research, meet with stakeholders, produce case studies and share insights for policy change. Since 2015, U of T students have crossed the globe investigating successful interventions including polio eradication in India, vaccine delivery in Mozambique, women’s economic empowerment in Mexico, mobile money apps in Kenya and self-directed home-care service delivery in Ontario.

Gustavo Merino, a professor at the School of Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey, is enthusiastic about the Reach approach.

“By working on the challenge of reaching the hardest to reach, increasing awareness of this challenge and promoting collaboration on these issues with universities from several countries, this initiative can go a long way in improving developmental outcomes in many countries,” he said.

Two of the three partners have begun work on their case studies. Tecnológico de Monterrey’s first case study examines the barriers faced by migrant Indigenous people in the university’s home city of Monterrey, Mexico. In the first phase of the project, student researchers will examine why Indigenous Peoples are blocked from accessing basic services, and how this perpetuates cycles of poverty.

Gustavo Merino, a professor at the School of Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Marin MacLeod, executive director of the Reach Alliance, at last year’s Reach Symposium (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The partnership with the University of Oxford includes the university’s Saïd Business School and the Blavatnik School of Government. For its first case study, researchers are examining an intervention in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh that aims to improve women’s experiences in seeking assistance from police, with a focus on gender-based violence.

“Crossing the last mile of service delivery is a global challenge facing governments, businesses and civic organizations,” said Akshay Mangla, associate professor in international business at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. “The Reach Alliance partnership offers a valuable opportunity for academic institutions to collaborate on complex questions and produce impactful research. I hope it will lead to deeper insights on how to make frontline services work for citizens across the world.”

For Marin MacLeod, executive director of the Reach Alliance and an alumna of the program who studied biometric cash transfers to Syrian refugees in Jordan, the initiative is about sharing insights that will lead to innovation and policy change.

“As a global cross-university network of leading student researchers and faculty, the Reach Alliance shows the academy’s commitment to accelerate the impact of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”

Reach’s expansion is made possible through the support of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, its principal funder. As the program grows, U of T will serve as the global headquarters for the Reach Alliance, while continuing to run its own research programs.

The academic network is set to expand to six universities by 2022.

Study with the world: Current and former students on why they picked U of T

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 19:44:49 +0000

Study with the world: Current and former students on why they picked U of T

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 04/22/2021 - 15:44

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(Clockwise from top left): Tatiana Harvey, Kevin Turingan, Ashley Heng, Hui Wen Zheng, Jillian Sprenger and Sumana Dhanani.

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Undergraduate Students

Woodsworth College

More than 15,000 new undergraduate students enrol at the ��Ƶ every year.

Why do they choose U of T?

Not surprisingly, the reasons are as varied as the university’s student body itself.

For some, it comes down to the university’s distinguished position in international rankings. Others cite U of T’s top-tier researchers who are tackling some of the world’s biggest problems, or the opportunity to study in a specific program.

Still others say they are drawn to Toronto’s reputation as a diverse, welcoming city – and the opportunity to study at one of three unique campuses: St. George, U of T Mississauga and U of T Scarborough.

Many students also note that their U of T experience often extends beyond the classroom, changing them in ways they could have never imagined.

U of T News spoke to a handful of students, past and present, about why they enrolled at the university and how it helped them grow.

The world as a classroom

One of the items near the top of Jillian Sprenger’s list of goals for university was to learn more about the world and global health challenges.

She says U of T seemed like the right fit since it offered a major in global health and is home to the renowned Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Sprenger wasn’t disappointed. Every summer, she hopped on a plane – sometimes more than once – to do international fieldwork.

“I tell everybody who ever asks me about U of T that it’s the best place ever because of these kinds of opportunities that it has,” she says.

In her second year, she travelled to Myanmar to study mobile health technology and how it could be used to address health issues, particularly child malnutrition. Then she was off to Taiwan to study the country’s policies to combat antimicrobial resistance.

In third year, she travelled to Ethiopia to explore how cash transfers were used to address food insecurity as part of a case study by the Reach Project (now the Reach Alliance), a student-led and faculty-supported initiative to study social programs helping the most marginalized populations. That same summer, Sprenger also went to Sri Lanka to work with her brother on a short documentary about climate migration, interviewing farmers who were forced to take jobs in the city because of droughts.

The research projects spanned thousands of kilometres and focused on different problems, but they were all connected to changes in the environment, Sprenger says.

Currently a master’s student in biophysics at U of T, Sprenger says her graduate studies will focus on the existential threat facing the planet today: climate change. She was recently awarded a prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship to study environmental policy, with a focus on environmental law, at Cambridge University in the fall.

“We need new and creative ways of addressing this defining challenge of our time, and I think the law will be a powerful tool in this regard,” she says.

Finding community

Kevin Turingan was a student at another Canadian university for less than a week before a rare chronic illness forced him to put his studies on pause.

When he was well enough to return to school, he felt like applying to a university closer to where he lived.

“I live in Scarborough and I wanted to go to U of T Scarborough,” he says. “That was my dream.”

He enrolled in sociology, and says he felt much more at home at the campus because it provided a more intimate, family-like atmosphere. Turingan adds that he found moments of peace between classes when strolling along a 500-metre nature trail through the Highland Creek Valley.

When he needed to let off steam, he worked out or shot hoops at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

Now at the tail end of his bachelor’s degree, majoring in sociology and minoring in psychology and statistics, he says U of T Scarborough’s environment allowed him to flourish. He got involved in the Scarborough Students’ Union and more recently became co-president of the Students of Sociology, gaining valuable experience.

“Throughout my time at U of T, I’ve definitely grown as a person but also as a leader,” he says, adding that he’s now also a campus life and special events intern at U of T Scarborough.

“What I liked about UTSC was the community, but it was also a safe space where there are so many opportunities for you to grow,” Turingan says. “Everyone there – the professors, students, staff – they’re all there to help you.

“It helped me grow out of my inner bubble.”

A diverse, welcoming place

When she was in Tanzania applying to universities, it was U of T’s top position in global rankings that first caught Sumana Dhanani’s attention. Then, she visited Toronto for the first time and toured the St. George Campus, admiring the blend of old and new architecture – all of it a short walk from downtown and the iconic CN Tower.

But it was residence at Chestnut Residence where Dhanani ultimately discovered why she truly enjoyed being at U of T: Studying alongside students who, like her, came from all over the world.

“What really impressed me was the level of diversity and how many different backgrounds you come across at U of T,” says Dhanani, a Woodsworth College student who studied biochemistry and global health at U of T and is now pursuing graduate studies in public health at Purdue University.

Living with other students from Ecuador, India and Lebanon meant Dhanani was experiencing the world within her dorm. Her kitchen was stocked with a wide array of foods, her roommates phoned home in Spanish, Hindi and Arabic – and, some nights, they watched movies and TV shows from their respective countries to share with one another a glimpse of their cultures.

“I learned so much just talking to people from different perspectives, different walks of life,” Dhanani says. “It really broadened me in ways that went beyond just the academic.”

A bonus: She now has friends around the globe she can visit on holiday.

The perfect program

In some ways, Singapore-based student Ashley Heng was following in her parents’ footsteps when she chose to study in Canada: Her mom studied economics and industrial relations at U of T and her father studied math at the University of Alberta.

But Heng opted for a different path, applying to arts management at U of T Scarborough.

“At the end of the day it was my decision,” she says.

Like other students, she took U of T’s top international rankings into consideration when choosing a school, but says the main draw was the unique U of T Scarborough program that mixed arts and business courses. Established in 1984, it’s the longest-running program of its kind at the undergraduate level in Canada and offers courses taught by arts managers, researchers and award-winning artists.

“For me looking at arts management was like a way of studying arts but also getting the chance to have a bit more stability with it, in my opinion, and also really like the organizing side a lot,” Heng says.

“I love music, and I love theatre, but I love working with it behind the scenes, organizing and administration.”

In high school, Heng helped put on rock and acoustic nights, musical theatre and cabaret. At U of T, she learned more about administrative and marketing work in arts while continuing to study violin, piano and voice.

Having just wrapped up her second year, Heng has served as executive team secretary of ARTSIDEOUT, U of T Scarborough’s largest one-day multi-disciplinary arts festival, and as secretary of the UTSC Drama Society.

Heng says that, although her field may sound niche to some, the reality is that arts management has many applications.

“One thing the program has taught me is that everybody has their own relationship with the arts,” she says.

“I believe that’s really important because it brings another dimension to our lives.”

A cosmopolitan city

Hui Wen Zheng had several items on her checklist when applying to university.

A first-generation immigrant to Canada, she was attuned to the importance of building international connections in an increasingly globalized world. At the same time, she wanted to experience life in one of the largest and most diverse cities in North America.

“Coming from Calgary, I wanted to go somewhere much bigger and more cosmopolitan, and I would say Toronto definitely offers that,” she says.

Just a short walk south of the St. George campus, for example, Zheng says she routinely enjoyed everything from take-out Vietnamese to sit-down Italian meals and – of course – the city’s take on one of Canada’s better-known dishes: poutine.

A double-major in peace, conflict and justice, and contemporary Asian studies, Zheng says she also got a taste of the global education she was seeking from the Munk One program.

“I definitely have to shout out my Munk One [Associate] Professor Teresa Kramarz,” she says, referring to the program’s director. “She is really committed to improving the undergrad experience, getting hands-on opportunities that are very applied instead of just theoretical. “Having that right in first year was super amazing because it informed how I saw everything else that I learned.”

Zheng later applied her studies through a research project in Shenzhen and Hong Kong that focused on the mental health of rural-urban migrants in China.

She says the experience of interviewing researchers, migrants and service providers gave her a deeper understanding of the issues than reading a textbook ever could.

“You learn how to situate yourself in a different environment,” she says. “I had to re-examine my privilege within this situation because how other people see me is going to affect how they give responses.

“Those are the sort of nitty-gritty, human-to-human relations and logistics that we don’t think about when you’re just reading a research paper.”

‘More than a [student] number’

Tatiana Harvey recalls being impressed with U of T Mississauga’s sleek modern architecture when she first set foot on campus during a tour when she was fresh out of high school – and pleasantly surprised when her guide told her that deer roamed the nearby woods.

Now a fourth-year undergraduate studying comparative physiology, Harvey has an even bigger appreciation for the picturesque and intimate campus, which she says has made it easy to make friends and get to know faculty and staff.

In first year, for example, Harvey says she connected with Fiona Rawle, an associate professor, teaching stream, during her “walking office hours” (Rawle invites students to join her on a walk outside so they’re less nervous about asking questions.)

Harvey says she sees familiar faces everywhere she goes on campus, meaning that she often recognizes students in her courses on the first day of class.

“We’re all going through the same thing in terms of the difficulty of courses, so it allows you to network and develop close bonds.”

Harvey also speaks highly of the university’s wellness programs that help students’ cope with the pressure of exams, projects and term papers. As a wellness ambassador, Harvey helped other students get to know the services and resources that exist to support them.

“Especially now that we’re in a pandemic, it’s very important to students to feel that we’re more than a [student] number, and that the university definitely cares about your physical mental and emotional health,” she says.

From portable solar generators to race cars: U of T student makes the world his classroom

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 20:44:20 +0000

From portable solar generators to race cars: U of T student makes the world his classroom

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/06/2021 - 16:44

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Left to right: Rushay Naik, Ben Sprenger, Tanvi Shetty, Hannah Rundle; Ahmed Mahmoud and Namjil Enebish in Mongolia in the summer of 2019 (photo by Rushay Naik)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Undergraduate Students

Engineering can take you places. Just ask fourth-year ��Ƶ student Ben Sprenger, who spent two weeks in the summer of 2019 talking to Mongolian nomads about portable solar generators.

“I wanted to apply the skills that I had learned through classes and extracurriculars to solving important global problems,” says Sprenger, who studies mechanical engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I was also really interested in the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary team with people in other fields, such as [Faculty of] Arts & Science students.”

The Mongolian project was co-ordinated by the Reach Alliance from U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Working in a team that included fellow U of T students Hannah Rundle, Tanvi Shetty and Rushay Naik, Sprenger conducted interviews to better understand the impact of the Mongolian government’s 100,000 Solar Ger (Yurt) Electrification Program.

Launched in 2000, the program provided electricity to nomadic families in the form of portable solar home systems. After a decade of operation, it had surpassed its target, reaching more than 70 per cent of nomadic herders across the country.

The U of T team wanted to better understand the key innovations that led to the program’s success.

“I will never forget driving through the steppe – not a road to be seen for what felt like a million miles, an endless expanse in front of us completely unmarked by human activity,” says Sprenger. “I loved meeting the local herders, and they welcomed us into their gers. I hope that the information we gathered will be useful for future projects, both in Mongolia and elsewhere.”

The trip wasn’t Sprenger’s only journey abroad during his degree program. As the team lead for the ��Ƶ Formula Racing Team, he oversaw all aspects of the team’s entry in two international competitions: one in Brooklyn, Mich. and the other in Most, Czech Republic.

“I am an obsessive motorsports fan,” says Sprenger. “The sheer ingenuity and innovation that comes out of the sport is staggering, and its inventions have changed the world more than you could imagine.”

The obsession is more than a hobby. In August 2019 Sprenger moved to Oxfordshire, U.K. to take up a 12-month work placement with Williams Advanced Engineering, one of the world’s 10 Formula One teams. The job was facilitated through U of T Engineering’s Professional Experience Year Co-op Program.

“I wanted to push myself in a very competitive and fast-paced workplace and learn about the inner workings of what makes a winner,” he says.

Founded by Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams Advanced Engineering was contracted by Panasonic Jaguar Racing to design and build its vehicles for the Formula E championship, the world’s only all-electric racing series.

Sprenger contributed to both the 2020 and 2021 vehicles and says one of his proudest moments was when the team placed first at the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, held in Mexico City in February 2020. Later, the team would also win the 2021 Diriyah E-Prix, taking the lead in the constructor’s championship.

“Seeing all the hard work that everyone on the team did pay off in a race win was inspirational,” says Sprenger. “It was such a thrill seeing the car cross the line on TV, knowing that there were parts that I designed on there.”

Apart from the work itself, Sprenger says that moving to a new continent for a work term was one of the highlights of his degree.

“I was able to travel all around the U.K. and Ireland on weekend trips, and have made great friends with people from across Europe,” he says. “Being away from Canada for a full year has allowed me to grow so much as a person and helped me do things that I never thought I would be able to do.”

Sprenger will be graduating in June and he’ll soon be jetting off again after securing an internship in California with Tesla, where he will work on battery development.

“Engineering is truly a global discipline,” says Sprenger. “It has become increasingly clear to me that developing an understanding of the unique cultures of the world has become an essential part of the engineering ethos. I’m thankful that U of T has given me the opportunity to explore this at such an early stage in my career.”

Joseph Wong appointed U of T’s vice-president, international

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 20:30:05 +0000

Joseph Wong appointed U of T’s vice-president, international

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 04/06/2021 - 16:30

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(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Our Community

Joseph Wong, a leading political scientist and scholar of global affairs who has played a key role in advancing the ��Ƶ’s internationalization strategy, has been appointed vice-president, international for a five-year term.

The appointment, which takes effect April 7, 2021 through June 30, 2026, was approved by the university’s Governing Council Tuesday and follows a comprehensive international search.

A professor of political science and the Roz and Ralph Halbert Professor of Innovation at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Wong was appointed U of T’s interim vice-president, international during the pandemic’s first wave last summer.

“Professor Wong took on the role in an interim capacity at an extremely challenging time for international students, researchers and partnerships,” said U of T President Meric Gertler, who chaired the search committee. “Over the past nine months, he has done a phenomenal job of supporting international students here and around the world, fostering a global outlook in the U of T community and enhancing the university’s reputation both at home and abroad.

“I am delighted Professor Wong will continue to lead this vital portfolio.”

During his first few months as interim vice-president, international, Wong worked closely with U of T’s vice-provost, students, to rethink supports for international students who weren’t able to travel to Toronto because of COVID-related restrictions, or who needed help navigating public-health guidelines upon arrival in Canada.

That includes helping arriving international students quarantine at local hotels, where they receive staff support to self-isolate for two weeks, including meals delivered to their door.

“It required a lot of collaboration between our offices,” Wong said. “More than 2,700 students have gone through U of T’s quarantine program and there hasn’t been a single case of reported transmission. It truly is seen as the gold standard.

“We’re dedicated to supporting our international students, irrespective of whether they are coming here to Toronto or if they need support on the other side of the world.”

Before arriving in U of T’s international office, Wong held a series of key senior academic leadership positions. He was director of U of T’s Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy for almost a decade and the university’s first-ever associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience – a role in which he helped boost international learning opportunities for U of T students.

In fact, the number of undergraduate students who travelled abroad for their studies or research was on track to hit 26 per cent before COVID-19 struck last year. That’s up 14 per cent from 2016.

When it comes to bolstering future international opportunities, Wong says he intends to “hit the ground running” once the pandemic is finally brought under control and restrictions on travel are lifted.

As a political scientist, Wong has advised governments in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe on public policy issues, and is the author of dozens of articles in leading journals and several books, with two forthcoming from Princeton University Press and Cambridge University Press. He holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill University and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

His current research focuses on poverty and innovation in the Global South.

In 2015, Wong launched the Reach Project, now known as the Reach Alliance, a student-led interdisciplinary collaboration with faculty across U of T to study and develop innovative development programs for the world’s most marginalized populations.

Reach students have conducted in-depth and on-the-ground research on topics ranging from a poverty-reduction program in Palestine to cash transfers to address food insecurity in Ethiopia. The 2021 Reach Symposium includes speakers from the Brookings Institution, Deloitte and the World Health Organization. In the spring of last year, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth pledged US$2 million for Reach, with U of T adding US$500,000 in funding.

Wong was also instrumental in the success of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars program, which brought more than 60 talented students from sub-Saharan Africa to U of T on full scholarships.

In his own seminars at the Munk School, Wong has piloted a “global classroom” approach by inviting U of T students to work with their peers at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Tecnológico de Monterrey). The lessons with Tec de Monterrey focused on COVID-19 and inequality, with student projects on comparative government responses and the issue of trust in Canadian and Mexican society.

“I think our students at U of T got a deep appreciation for the level of inequality in Mexico and the lived reality of many in Mexico who are really impoverished and living in circumstances that are quite different from anything we would see here in Canada, and what challenges this presents amidst a pandemic,” Wong said. “It was really eye-opening, I think.”

He said the university plans to support the expansion of the “global classroom” concept to other courses with a new funding stream, and that more than 50 proposals have already been submitted from across the three campuses in a variety of disciplines, from the humanities to math. Proposed institutional partners are based on “every continent but Antarctica,” Wong said.

He added that, despite the strain that COVID has put on international travel, partnerships with other institutions around the world actually increased in the last year.

Wong said one of his key priorities as vice-president, international will be to develop partnership networks in the Global South, including Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, with the help and input of faculty who work in these regions.

He also plans to support students, faculty and staff working toward the vision of a brighter future set out in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

“Students are our future global leaders,” Wong said. “We have an opportunity to be cultivating global leadership talent that is invested and committed to a better world.”

Through Reach Alliance, U of T students explore struggle for women’s economic equality in Mexico

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 15:44:44 +0000

Through Reach Alliance, U of T students explore struggle for women’s economic equality in Mexico

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 03/10/2021 - 10:44

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Women operate a stall at an outdoor market in Jalisco, Mexico (photo by Skyhobo via iStockPhoto)

Topic

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Mexico

Undergraduate Students

Women

Student researchers from the ��Ƶ’s Reach Alliance have released an in-depth study of Mexico’s Co-Meta Initiative, which aims to support the economic empowerment of women. It’s work the students hope will inform the design of other programs globally that seek to break down barriers to women’s economic participation.

Under the mentorship of Erica Di Ruggiero, an associate professor of global health and director of the Centre for Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Reach Alliance researchers dug deep into the Co-Meta Initiative’s approach to collaboration with a network of economic and social actors.

They interviewed past and present partner organizations, as well as the instructors and mentors responsible for directly serving program participants.

“What interested me most about the research process was hearing from a wide array of stakeholders – from government and UN representatives, to small business owners and nonprofit organizers,” says undergraduate student Nora Moidu.

“Not only did we learn about the collective impact approach, but also about gender inequities, the realities of COVID-19 in Mexico and success stories of program participants.”

Based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the Reach Alliance is a student-led, faculty-driven, multi-disciplinary research initiative dedicated to investigating pathways to success for innovative development programs that reach the world’s most marginalized populations.

In Mexico, as in many low- and middle-income countries, women are considerably underrepresented in the labour force, with only 42 per cent of Mexican women formally employed. That’s compared to 75 per cent of men. The pandemic has only worsened the economic inequality affecting women across Latin America, experts say.

In response, the Co-Meta Initiative mobilizes a network of local economic and social actors who support women’s economic empowerment. Based in the city of Guadalajara, capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, the initiative offers marketable trades like concrete design, floral arrangement, and food preparation, combined with technical training and other skills development.

Of the women who participated in the Co-Meta Initiative, 65 per cent reported an improvement in their economic situations as a result of the program.

Now the partners behind Co-Meta are expanding the program to reach 1,500 women across Jalisco.

Like a lot of development programs, Co-Meta is the product of collaboration between a diverse array of partners. It was founded by the Guadalajara-based sustainable development agency ProSociedad and is implemented by partners from the government, business and NGO sectors in Jalisco. It recently received a significant injection of funding from the UN Women Second Chance Education and Vocational Training (SCE) Programme, which is allowing it to scale up.

From the outset, ProSociedad designed Co-Meta according to the principles of collective impact, an approach in which different actors join together to pursue a common goal via structured collaboration instead of through top-down management. Until now, there had been no external evaluation of Co-Meta to look at how it was implementing the collective impact framework.

That’s where the Reach Alliance team came in.

“Our participatory approach to evaluating the initiative was critical to the research process through ongoing engagement of ProSociedad and ITESO,” says Di Ruggiero. “Our team identified key strategies, including the important role of ProSociedad as a backbone organization that facilitates collaboration and linkages among a network of actors.”

The conclusions the researchers delivered to Co-Meta are detailed in the recently released case study, and they can be instructive for similar kinds of broad partnerships that seek to achieve bold social objectives using the collective impact framework.

The Reach Alliance study hones in on ways that Co-Meta can improve the communication between participants in the partnership to make sure that everyone understands how they fit into the broader program framework.

It also advises streamlined baseline training to ensure the implementing partners can all work effectively with the program participants. To glean insights for program development, the study recommends an offboarding survey for former partners, and a centralized monitoring and evaluation system based on shared metrics.

“These insights will be of interest to other organizations implementing similar community-based initiatives to improve economic opportunities for women and help reduce gender inequities,” Di Ruggiero says.

It’s this innovative approach to multidisciplinary research – broadly-applicable, solutions-focused – that the Reach Alliance is scaling to six more top universities by 2022.

'Be the change you want to see': U of T grad Anowa Quarcoo is using tech to improve people's lives

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 16:58:37 +0000

'Be the change you want to see': U of T grad Anowa Quarcoo is using tech to improve people's lives

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/26/2020 - 11:58

Cutline

Anowa Quarcoo, who recently graduated with a combined master's degree in global affairs and business administration, has worked with groups in Toronto and Africa that use technology to achieve social development goals (photo by Matthew Volpe)

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