"When I was 13 years old my best friend was diagnosed with a rare type of connective tissue cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. We had spent nearly every day together since kindergarten and the news was shocking and hard to process. I learned at an early age how to change bandages, clean PICC lines, and what […]
"I was born and raised in Delhi, India and immigrated to Canada 14 years ago. I recently completed my undergrad degree in Environmental Studies: Politics, Justice and the Arts with a certificate in Sustainable Energy. What attracted me to the program was my passion for biodiversity and the opportunity to do Experiential Education in the […]
"I finally understood the role I wanted to play in the complex puzzle of conservation and environmental management. I wanted to become a champion in designing and implementing solutions for environmental problems. In order to achieve real change, I realized we must build new models that make others obsolete. My problem was that the ideal […]
"My family and I were refugees from Iran and I grew up in a single-mother household. We moved to Canada to pursue the education my mother never could and have the freedom she had never tasted. When I was a teenager, my mom was injured at work and became disabled. I had to watch her […]
“Animal minds research fits into the department of philosophy because in philosophy we're interested in the nature of mind and what is the mind. So, how do I know you have a mind? How do I know anyone has a mind? I know I have a mind, I experience it, but I have to kind […]
“You do the research then you find out it’s not actually as simple as you thought and I think that that’s the greatest thing about research. All of us think a certain way and are we too proud to see that maybe the truth isn’t what we think? When you look at the roads less […]
“I was born in India and grew up in Italy. I speak, English, Italian, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Spanish (basics). I moved to Italy at the age of 7 and I lived there for 10 years. I came to Canada in 2015 to pursue my university degree. Since I was a tech enthusiast since childhood, […]
“Looking at my life, I never thought I would be a refugee. In the early ‘90s there was a war in Bosnia. In 1992, I was thirteen and we had to leave the country overnight. The situation was getting really bad and I left with my sister and my niece who was eight months old […]
"My family and I lived in a motel when I was 13 years old. I have lived experience with hidden homelessness. I understand poverty. I understand the ways in which poor people are stigmatized, marginalized, and how they are systemically oppressed in ways that financially privileged people aren’t. My thesis is critiquing the way that […]
“I’m Anishinaabe and back then it wasn't within the institutions and academies and school boards that I was getting my education. It was actually directly from the community, from the elders, from the spiritual leaders, from the activists that's where I was getting my knowledge from. I never went to high school. I was mostly […]