Alumni Spotlight: Giancarlo Sessa (BBA ’19)

Giancarlo Sessa (BBA '19) has started a total of four companies since 2013. At just 21 years old, Giancarlo co-founded Blade Filters, a company that revolutionized the carbon filtration industry by creating the world’s first zero-waste carbon air filter.

In response to COVID-19, they developed a HEPA-Carbon Air Filter, which is now being used in thousands of classrooms and businesses across Ontario with the goal of helping front-line workers and essential employees feel safer by breathing easier.

Find out how York fueled Giancarlo's entrepreneurial spirit and led to the founding of his company Blade Filters.

Alumni Spotlight: Isabella Akaliza (BA '20)

Isabella Akaliza’s (BA ’20) four years at York inspired and shaped her into the activist she is today. Her first mission is to eliminate period poverty in her home country of Rwanda – and at the rate she’s going, she’ll do just that.

Isabella is the founder of FreeThePeriod in Rwanda, an initiative that campaigns for increased accessibility to period products and the end of period poverty, a movement to provide both safe and hygienic sanitary products globally to women and girls that don’t have proper access to them.

Find out how Isabella is advocating to reduce period poverty in Rwanda as well as in neighbouring countries.

Featured Events

Sat 17

York Circle @ Home | The impact of the pandemic on the environment

April 17 @ 10:00 am - 11:30 am

Wed 21

Scholars' Hub @ Home | How ecological footprint accounting can inform pathways to a carbon-neutral economy

April 21 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Tue 27

GRADitude | Virtual interviewing best practices: Setting yourself up for success

April 27 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Wed 28

ASCEND: Building strong and resilient health systems in Ghana

April 28 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Alumni Spotlight: Farzia Khan (BA '17)

Farzia Khan (BA ’17) is an award-winning community builder, technologist, and entrepreneur. She is also the first woman in her family to graduate with a STEM degree which has inspired her to help create more opportunities in STEM fields for girls, young women and underrepresented groups.

She has founded two hackathons including Ellehacks, the first all-women hackathon in Canada and created a scholarship awarded students who demonstrate leadership and promote an equitable, diverse and inclusive culture at Lassonde

Learn more about how Farzia is giving back in her field and mentoring Lassonde alumni and students.

Alumni Spotlight: Christine Edith Dikongué (BA ’14)

Christine Edith Dikongué (BA ’14) is a start-up founder, innovation consultant, technocrat, global speaker and board member whose work has created 40 new start-ups in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya.

As the co-founder of AfricaHacks, Africa's largest tech competition, she aims to enable connectivity, upskilling, startup creation, and ideation. The competition supports millennial entrepreneurs across the continent and helps accelerate technological innovation throughout Africa.

Learn more about how Christine is driving innovation and leveraging technology for community building.

Ways to Give

From funding desperately needed scholarships and research to creating world-class facilities and groundbreaking teaching methods, donations to York University help make it one of Canada’s leading universities. Your generosity is helping create a new generation of Canadian leaders who will not only go on to change their community, but continue the tradition of supporting York University and its students in the future.