Get your ideas funded!
Agents of Change - Have Ideas for Health Initiatives? Get your Ideas Funded!
Do you want to improve health and living conditions in the community? Agents of Change offers the mentorship, connections, and funding you need to turn your ideas into reality!
The Agents of Change Program at York University aims to support innovative student-led community initiatives that uniquely address the Social Determinants of Health and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The program offers students start-up funding, one-on-one coaching, mentorship, training, and networking opportunities.
If you have any questions regarding the Agents of Change Program, please email scchelp@yorku.ca.
25+
Student Start-Ups
12+
Social Determinants of Health Addressed
7+
UN Sustainable Development Goals Supported
100+
Currently Involved Members
Agents of Change Mission Statement
“We are agents of change for health, transforming lives, communities, systems and the world.”
About us
The Agents of Change Program was established by an alumni donor in 2013, driven by the goals to promote applied learning opportunities and develop students' transferable skills. A project-based learning approach is adapted by the program to foster students’ engagement to real-world problems through their personal, community-oriented, and health-related initiatives—their very own “Agents of Change Project”. Applications to the program open in early summer of each school year, the projects run in a year-long timeline that begins in August and ends in May of every year.
10 years on, the program has achieved noteworthy outcomes and impact through 25 student-led initiatives focused on meeting the health-related needs of vulnerable or marginalized community members. Past Agents of Change initiatives have covered a broad range of categories, including supporting physical and mental health, gender inequity in health leadership, and homelessness.
The current Agents of Change projects are innovative in addressing SDH and are actively participating in achieving the UN SDG. Check out our projects and their project-specific SDH and UN SDG below!

Health & Exercise for Accessible Living

Lingua Franca

Luminate Mental Health Conference Series

Conversations on South Asian Mental Health (COSAMH)

Toronto Tooth

Undergraduate Health Research Exploration (UHRE)
Agents of Change Program Updates: November 2021
This November, the Agents of Change Program is excited to announce our Fall/Winter 2021-2022 Agents of Change Cycle. From a pool of many incredibly impressive, thoughtful, and competitive applicants, the Adjudication Committee has selected nine projects to be the recipient of the program’s funding. They are, in alphabetical order:
Black Student Mentorship Program (BSMP)
Co-led by Amanda Nkeramihigo and Edman Abukar. Aims to address and remediate the demonstrably persistent lack of Black representation in the population makeup of graduate students and professionals in health-related studies and professions.
Discover You
Led by Concetta Barranca and Esterina Stella Batti. Aims to provide graduating high school students with the opportunity to enhance their leadership, interview, and professional development skills through online interactive workshops led by undergraduate Peer Coaches.
Empowering Women In Health (EWIH)
Led by Tatiana Espinosa-Merlano. Aims to rewrite female leadership and celebrate the achievements of female leaders in the field of health and ultimately, empowering the next generation women.
Lingua Franca
Co-led by Farwa Arshad and Kaye Canoy. Aims to create a sense of belongingness and self-esteem in ESL students who experience difficulty interacting in an English-speaking environment by ensuring that ESL students feel comfortable and confident communicating in English in different workplace and academic settings.
Luminate Mental Health Conference Series
Co-led by Gwyneth Campbell and Samantha Mason. Aims to promote undergraduate student mental health by connecting York students with research related to mental health and wellness.
Period to Period Poverty
Led by Pukky Oluwapelumi Fambegbe. Aims to reduce stigmatization of menstrual cycles, campaign and advocate ending period poverty and distribute free accessible products for all menstruating individuals.
The Academic Wellness Project (TAWP)
Led by Dema Talib. Aims to improve the academic wellness of postsecondary students pursuing a degree, by hosting interactive and evidence-based workshops addressing student perceptions around academic wellness.
TorontoTooth
Led by Dayana Davoudi. Aims to provide oral hygiene products to individuals experiencing homelessness during the Fall and Winter terms of 2021-2022.
Undergraduate Health Research Exploration (UHRE)
Led by Parmin Rahimpoor-Marnani. Aims to support students in their pursuit of research opportunities by developing and offering an annual summit workshop for students to hone and develop their research skills and provide students with the opportunity to engage with their own research through an annual conference.



Y File - York University 's Journal of Record
"Looking for a mentorship program that is geared towards the Black undergraduate student experience in the Faculty of Health? The Black Students Mentorship Program (BSMP) offers Black students mentorship opportunities, resources for academic, personal and professional development..."

Excalibur
For organizations like Black Students Mentorship Program (BSMP), TorontoTooth, and Period to Period Poverty, the Agents of Change program provides the platform to “create grassroot level impact within the wider community”. 92 percent of the Agents of Change program’s current project leaders are women from diverse backgrounds and the program provides them leadership, empowerment and a community to thrive…

Y File - York University 's Journal of Record
The Empowering Women In Health (EWIH) initiative and the York International Global Peer Program is delivering an International Women’s Day Panel featuring the women leaders in the health field. “Join in to celebrate women’s leadership in health, network with our panel of distinguished leaders in the field, and learn about how to start changing the existing inequities in this gendered field”.

The Torontoist Blog
"Lentini, a York University health science student, started asking for gift cards from her friends and family, and was overwhelmed by the positive response. She then applied for, and received, seed funding from the university’s faculty of health to start a full-fledged grassroots organization.."

Metro Morning on CBC Radio
Featuring Deanna Lentini of the Regiftcard program, discussing her project and her charity FixThe6ix. To listen to Deanna's section of the broadcast please listen from 14.38 minutes to 18.03 minutes.

Toronto Metro News
“Homelessness is not a choice,” the York University health sciences student said. “It happens to someone who is at the mercy of the system, and that’s why we need to fix it.”

Toronto Star
For Arthur Mercer, 18, this program does more than just help him make friends; it gives him something to do. “It gets me out of the house,” he said. Mercer, diagnosed with ASD, considers himself high-functioning and can drive on his own...

This could be you!
Coordinator, Agents of Change