“Water safety was always an important part of my life. I worked as a lifeguard in high school and during my undergrad degree at Western University. Shortly after that I started working for the Lifesaving Society in Ontario – which is where I first got into the field of drowning research. While working at the […]
“I’m a community engaged trans and queer scholar, with an emphasis on community engagement and knowledge mobilization, which to me, is making sure that as I’m building new knowledge, it’s being communicated, discussed and debated amongst my communities. Being at York has provided me with an amazing opportunity and community, to discuss some of the […]
“Growing up my parents spoke Ojibwe to each other every day, I’d hear it sitting at the dinner table, but when they turned to speak to me or my siblings, they spoke in English. One day when I was 11 or 12 my dad started speaking to me in Ojibwe. I just looked at him […]
Back in the 1990s I thought about a career in academia which at the time was the conventional thinking: you complete your PhD and apply for academic jobs with the goal to become a professor. But by my fifth year in the program I had stalled. I couldn't find a dissertation topic that stuck and […]
"I started It's Souper because I felt there was a void for ready to eat packaged foods from my country (Nigeria) and Africa in general. African foods in mainstream grocery stores were pretty much nonexistent, this continent has so many diverse cultures and foods from those cultures. I wanted to make an impact on the […]
“After my undergrad I worked as a community organizer where I ran a network of collective gardens in Montreal in partnership with local food banks and other community resources. Part of that work was about building community and ensuring people had enough fresh, high quality, and culturally appropriate foods to eat. A lot of that […]
“My friends played a big role in me becoming so passionate about mathematics. When I was in middle school we had a math assignment every day, I would take it back home and figure it out then rush to my friends’ houses to work together as a team. Each time I would explain the concepts […]
“I've always been into content creation and social media, it’s something I got into as a kid because, like most people my age at the time, I wanted to be a YouTuber. That didn't really work out, but recently, when COVID came around, I was left with a lot of free time and this desire […]
"When I moved to Canada at a young age, there was a whole new world of possibilities. I felt free to choose my destiny and path in life. I came from a place where social injustice, environmental disregard and inequalities defined society. Today, as an Environmental Studies major, I am using my knowledge and experience […]
"When I first came to University, the community I had around me was something I had never experienced before, and I became myself." - Lauren Driedger Residence Don, Pond Residence4th Year - Mathematics for EducationFaculty of Science