2018 Dean's Student Leadership Award for Community Building and Social Impact

Submitted by: Kelly-Ann Wright

The travel and tourism industry has the potential to lift entire communities out of poverty, however, the industry suffers from a chronic lack of distribution of the economic benefits derived from tourism. To demonstrate the industry’s potential, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) declared 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development and called on all tourism stakeholders to harness this potential to help reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

Fund Allocation

If granted this award, I will donate a quarter of the award to the Jamaica Community Experiences initiative, which was developed by the Jamaica Ministry of Tourism to fund the development of locally-owned and operated enterprises including accommodations, restaurants, and activities. My goal is to pursue a career in sustainable tourism with a focus on CBT as I hope to work with local people to develop and promote CBT initiatives and entreprises. Upon graduation from Toronto Met, I hope to pursue higher education and this award will be greatly beneficial to my goals.

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Submitted by: Hiranyam Karnik

Empower Youth Vision (EYV) is a non-profit organization that is run by the youth, for the youth. The main purpose of this organization is to create a resource for teens who have a strong passion for business but lack the connections and guidance they need. Through EYV these students can meet prominent business leaders and students currently working on achieving employment. Through this opportunity members of the youth community can create connections and obtain insight on these individuals experiences, as well as ask any questions that they may have. This is a great opportunity as these students are gaining insight on how they can be successful in the field of business. EYV has hosted 7 events over the past 4 years.

Fund Allocation 

To further expand EYV and create new methods to help students in gaining invaluable knowledge and connections.

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Submitted by: Ally Salama

Break The Silence is the largest mental health awareness campaign in Egypt, aimed to end the stigma around mental health issues. We particularly focus on issues amongst youth, through actively encouraging them to anonymously speak up about their stories.

The project was initiated after a series of personal experiences by Ally, which then opened his eyes to the huge differences between the services found in Toronto and in Cairo.

By allowing victims to courageously come forward to talk about these issues to the public, we are certain it will allow them to break out from their disease, live in peace, experience inner freedom and happiness in Egypt. We facilitate that, anonymously, to protect their privacy due to the fear of living in shame within the confines of a society that deems mental illness as a taboo. 

Fund Allocation

We plan on setting a public fundraiser to raise awareness in the capital city of Cairo during the month of July 2018. We plan to create a series of short screenplays depicting the vitality of mental health issues in the society in Egypt. They will be portraying real-life scenarios with the aim of educating people to identify and become aware of common behaviours, habits, and symptoms.

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Submitted by: Natalia Burgos

The Ryerson Women in Leadership Conference is an event that brings together Ryerson students and industry professionals for the purpose of advancing women and gender equality in the workplace while also encouraging students to become successful leaders. It is an event that inspires and motivates students of all programs to step out of their comfort zone and successfully build their future. Each year, the conference is hosted in second semester. The structure of the conference varies per year but it always features keynote speakers, workshops, networking and recruitment sessions and a leadership panel. This event is important for all future female leaders as it empowers them to confidently step into leadership roles and overcome adversity, specifically related to issues women face in the workplace.

Fund Allocation 

I'd like RWIL to host a new venture competition at our next conference to encourage entrepreneurship among women at Ryerson. Funds from the award will go directly to supporting women-led ventures at Ryerson. Participants will be expected to create a short presentation of which they will have the opportunity to present at the conference. The winner will be decided by a panel of judges.

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Submitted by: Andrew James Walls

Barrio is a social enterprise that seeks to help newcomers to Canada get acquainted with their new home through locally hosted meetups and sponsored events.

Fund Allocation

We're in the process of developing an app to facilitate newcomers connecting with hosts in their neighbourhood. The funding will aid in development costs, and in our primary research and testing with refugees and immigrants.

Submitted by: Aaron

I ran a local hockey school to fundraise for orphans in Cambodia. I reached out to local business near my home town of Teeswater Ontario to gain sponsors for the hockey school. The local business donated the ice required to run the hockey school. I reached out to the local minor hockey associations in the area and organized a plan for the week. All proceeds from the school were donated to help send Orphans in Cambodia to school for the entire year. I visited this orphanage last May on a humanitarian aid trip with fellow Toronto Met athletes. While we were there we learned about the hardships and trials that these orphans had to endure. They were incredible, joyful outgoing, and kind kids. They all had dreams and ambitions. My hope from starting this hockey school and down the road a charity is to help these kids reach there goals and dreams. On order for them to do that they need to be able to earn an education.

Fund Allocation

All proceeds from this leadership award will go to helping the orphans have a chance to go to school and also bare essentials.

Submitted by: Jack Hopkins

Our project is a startup incubated at iBoost and the SVZ at Toronto Met. It addresses the problem that exchange students can have when integrating into places away from their home networks. The other side of that same coin is: communities can have a hard time tapping into their potential. The solution? An online platform to enhance integration between both. We won $1000 in funding from the RGIC competition in early 2018, we've added several computer coders.

Fund Allocation

We would use these funds to increase our market research budget in order to get more consumer feedback on our prototypes, as well as compensate our coders whatever we can. In addition, paying basic fees to create some of the IT infrastructure that our working MVPs will need is a priority. As well, having a budget for us to attend certain non-free networking events and seminars that seem especially valuable would be another option, if we had funds left over.

Submitted by: Tania Bawa

Pura is an all-encompassing environmental solution to contaminated water, where local potters upscale their businesses while preserving their inherent culture. Pura currently teaches rural potters to manufacture clay filters, educates rural communities on safe water practices and  financial literacy while providing access to clean drinking water through entrepreneurship. In the past year, we have provided 2 million+ litres of clean drinking water to rural families in India and Egypt.

Fund Allocation

Pura plans use this funding to expand our reach to Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario to implement our model and provide clean drinking water.

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Submitted by: Joshua Go

During the winter holiday the Human Resources Student Association hosted a toy drive from December 12 to December 23rd. All the toys went to the CTV Christmas Toy Drive. During our fundraiser we received over 40 toys from the TRSM Community.

Fund Allocation

If HRSA were to receive funds from the award the money will go towards buying raffle prizes and all proceeds from the raffle tickets will go to a charity of HRSA's choosing. In addition the funds will support our marketing campaign in paying for our promotional material to help raise awareness within TRSM and the Toronto Met Community to reach a greater engagement with the whole community.

Submitted by: Christie Robertson

The MLSE Launchpad is a recreation centre for children, ages 6-29, facing barriers. This past year I formed a partnership between Toronto Met Athletics and the Launchpad. Toronto Met Rams partake in the initiative by volunteering and signing up for an 8-12 week sport program that compliments their academic schedule. The athletes help the MLSE staff facilitate sporting programs but most importantly encourage and mentor youths in all aspects of staying active. The volunteers have been incredible at leading by example and demonstrating life skills learnt through sport.

Fund Allocation

If I were to win this award I would donate half of the money to the MLSE Launchpad to buy more sporting equipment and clothes for the children. I would put the other half towards my education. I am a student athlete so my limited time, not spent at practise or in school, I have dedicated towards community engagement. As a result, I have not been able to obtain a job to reduce some of my educational expenses.

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Submitted by: Sulaiman Wahid

AfghanChild is my personal project, through which I support clean drinking water projects in Afghanistan. In 2011, while on a trip to Afghanistan, I was absolutely distraught to see that children had to walk up to 7 km in scorching heat to fetch water for their families. I took this very personal, and started saving money to help dig wells in the villages so the poor families could have drinking water and save the children from suffering. This project is very close to my heart, and my aim is to dig as many well as I can to provide clean drinking water for the poor and war stricken families.

Fund Allocation

The funds would be used to dig wells and install water pumps over the them. With $2000 I will be able to dig 11 wells. I will make the trips with in person on my own expense to ensure the effective use of the money.

Submitted by: Zaigham Salehi

The BlockBusters Organization was conceived seven years ago during the Holy Month of Ramadhan by a group of youth with the goal of creating a platform that allowed the Muslims to continuously learn and fill the void that consisted of a lack of enthusiasm in gaining knowledge by our youth. Our vision was to embody the message from our Holy Prophet Muhammad to "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave", by creating an engaging way for the members of our communities to learn from each other. Since then, the BlockBusters Trivia Competition has become the largest of its kind in the Toronto Shi'a Community.

Fund Allocation

We intend to use the funds provided by this Leadership awards towards building a larger network and create new opportunities to use this game show platform in educational institutions, different religious centres, and public events. The money will go towards funding future development on the online platform to allow for other types of institutions to take advantage of our web-based system, including better online team integration, competition setup procedures as well as automated live game statistics and game show versatility.

Submitted by: Zachary Krywetzky

At the Toronto Metropolitan University Accounting Society (RUAS), we have worked hard this year to make a direct contribution to the Toronto Met triple bottom line approach. RUAS helps promote the Toronto Met and TRSM brand by going above the institution's financial objectives, by making a positive impact on environmental and social issues - our triple bottom line approach. To positively impact people in our community and make the planet a better place to live in, my team and I chose Ve’ahavta for our CSR initiative. Ve’ahavta is a humanitarian organization dedicated to promoting positive change in the lives of people of all faiths and backgrounds who have been marginalized by poverty and hardship. By volunteering for the Ve’ahavta organization in the Van Outreach program, every single member of RUAS developed meaningful, hands-on experiences to fulfill our collective responsibility to care for our neighbour.

Fund Allocation

We will use the funds from this award to further invest in clothing, hygiene supplies, and most importantly food, to distribute during the many Van Outreach shifts we intend on working. We are also planning to use the funds to fuel new RUAS CSR initiatives.

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Submitted by: Aisha Chaudhry

Restore is a student-led social enterprise which upcycles used shipping containers into eco-friendly homes for those in need. Using a unique business model, we provide communities with unfinished homes which are completed by local construction students who will teach homeowners transferable skills, while gaining professional experience. This allows the homes to be constructed for only $60,000 in 3-5 months. The process is also environmentally sustainable since it repurposes 7,000 kg of steel to create custom homes while reducing the energy needed in traditional housing construction. Our pilot project is focused on aboriginal reserves, as 50% of aboriginals live in inadequate housing causing serious health problems. We are partnered with Giant Containers, HSBC and George Brown College trade students to build the first home. Restore is also a competitor in the 2018 McCain Social Enterprise Accelerator, to gain a partnership with McCain Foods to help launch the project.

Fund Allocation

All funds will help Restore complete our first home, empower individuals, and help bring our affordable housing solution to individuals in need across Canada.

Submitted by: Cheikh Soubky Sylla

The purpose of this project is to reduce the barriers and stigma associated with residents of Toronto Community Housing Corporation by taking students on facilitated discussions with teenage residents of Toronto Housing Corporation, especially those of African-Canadian descent. By removing the barriers and fear that exist between "mainstream" Canada and the "hoods" of Toronto, we can get one step closer to removing the social factors that keep residents of certain communities from being able to access higher education and positions in Corporate Canada.

Fund Allocation

The funds will be utilized to rent spaces and purchase refreshments for the facilitated meetings. We are hoping to get a geographic distribution of the housing projects in the 6 broad divisions of the city. In addition, the funds will be used to hire a student researcher to assist our efforts to create a small study based around the project.

Submitted by: Marco Briganti

Travel With Purpose (TWP) is a platform for community members to read about personal experiences of travelling volunteers. Stories on the Instagram page are mainly focused around community restoration projects in developing countries. Throughout my own Toronto Metropolitan University experience, an enormous amount of time has been devoted to volunteering abroad. As of August 2018, I will have taken part in a total of four trips to developing communities located in South Africa, Mozambique, Cambodia, and Nicaragua. Along with having my original intent of making an impact, these experiences have allowed me to grow as a person and gave me the opportunity to learn about the world outside the borders of a developed nation.

Fund Allocation

Still in its early stages, TWP has so many more exciting facets coming into play! A small portion of the scholarship will be going towards the marketing and promotion. This would include opportunities that will allow the project to gain a larger following and reach i.e. the development of an official website as well as attracting more community “idols” and key influencers that would provide more pull toward potential audiences. The bulk of the funding will go back into the community with the creation of a TWP scholarship.

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Submitted by: Japneet Gudh

MiBuddy is an online platform that matches new immigrants with local volunteers, in order to help with social and psychological integration. There are many resources available for newcomers in terms of finding housing or jobs, but there are also small struggles that go unnoticed. There are little things like using public transit or even ordering coffee at Tim Hortons that we take for granted but are things that prevent new immigrants from truly feeling at home. These struggles are amplified especially if they don’t speak fluent English or don’t have the confidence to ask a stranger. Therefore, MiBuddy matches newcomers with a buddy that they can go to if they have any questions or are just lonely and need a friend to talk to. It is a platform that helps build confidence and friendships for the citizens of tomorrow!

Fund Allocation 

We have participated in the Toronto Met Global Innovation Challenge and as a part of the challenge, were given the opportunity to work with potential customers both in Canada and Uruguay. Therefore we now have a solid prototype of the app, so we would use the funding to get the app coded and fully developed.

Submitted by: Meg Ranking

In Canada, the mental illness with the highest mortality rate is not depression, or anxiety but eating disorders. Despite supportive family and friends, those who suffer continue to feel isolated, guilty, and alone. Rcommunity is here to change that. We’ve been working hard over the past year to create an web/app platform that connects those with eating disorders to others with shared experiences. Similar to the functionality of Twitter, users can reach out whenever and wherever they need and receive support instantly by a community that really gets it. Rcommunity is a safe and secure platform that allows users to build relationships and share experiences to help them through their most difficult days. With Rcommunity, you have a support network in your back pocket. 

Fund Allocation 

Rcommunity would use the funds to begin the development of a fully functional app. After testing the functionality of the app wireframe with potential users we have iterated and incorporated their valued feedback. We are now ready to create a functional app, get it in the hands of users, and start making a difference for those suffering with eating disorders.

Submitted by: Shawn Gaviola

In-depth research revealed to us that newcomers have two primary needs: (1) to have living formalities complete and covered, such as housing, healthcare, and employment, and (2) to feel welcomed, involved, and rooted within their new communities. Rootful Connections is an app-based platform that will work to fulfill both of those needs for newcomers in Toronto - and eventually, throughout Canada and across the globe. The app will connect users with existing service organizations who guide newcomers with immigration formalities, and with fellow immigrants who want to share experiences with each other. Rootful is designed to not only fulfill newcomers' individual needs, but also to introduce them to a welcoming community right at their fingertips!

Fund Allocation 

The funds will go a long way in covering our team's expenses behind more in-depth research, user-testing, and app-development to ensure that the app is tailored to newcomers' needs as much as possible. Your support will help us jump-start the process of making Rootful Connections freely available and ready to welcome incoming newcomers.

Submitted by: Ana Paula Dantas Lima

We are a non-profit organization and our objective is to bring more girls and women into STEM related career. We are developing a series of 8 workshops for high school girls that will increase their knowledge, confidence and interest into STEM.

We are starting these workshop at Toronto Met and a high school in Markham. The high school workshops are intended to attend 100 girls per year, per high school. We are also planning career workshops to help women that are changing career path, to consider a career in STEM. The career workshops are also intended to teach women that are already in the workforce, to learn new tools to improve their careers. 

Fund Allocation 

We intend to use the funds to purchase materials and supply for the workshops, to print flyers and brochures to advertise our workshops and to bring in awareness, participants, professionals and sponsors. In the workshop we provide light refreshments to the volunteers and the participants, we also intend to use part of the funds to provide the light refreshments.

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Submitted by: Gabrielle Desjardins

The Raising Roofs Gala is an annual fundraising event that was started by Ryerson Students Offering Support (RSOS) in 2017. All proceeds from the gala support RSOS’s educational infrastructure projects in Latin America. RSOS is an organization that believes that every child deserves the right to a quality education that empowers them to succeed in their local and global community. In November of 2017, RSOS held their first annual Raising Roofs Gala which hosted 85 community members, and raised $2000 in support of their August 2018 project in Pueblo Viejo, Nicaragua. Attendees were inspired by talks from industry professionals with a thematic focus on social entrepreneurship. 

Fund Allocation 

25% of the scholarship funding will be put towards marketing efforts to encourage greater participation in the event next year. Another 25% will be used to create an outreach trip participation scholarship to make the annual trip more financially accessible for a Ryerson student. Finally, 50% will contribute directly to the August 2018 trip to Nicaragua by purchasing construction supplies for two school houses.

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Submitted by: William Chinnery

After becoming aware that a disproportionate number of students with learning disabilities were performing poorly on tests, I created an electronic sign up procedure for students at my high school. One of the key barriers for these students was that they needed to remember to use a physical sign-up sheet in order to access the accommodations they needed, but often forgot to do this during school hours. Now, students have the flexibility to enroll for this extra support 24/7 with their phones or computers rather than being confined to sign up at a certain room within certain hours. This user friendly, equitable technical solution has made a difference by allowing more people access to the supports they really need. I continue to manage the service today and will continue in the future.

Fund Allocation 

I will use 100 percent of the scholarship to help my younger sister develop her new charity. This scholarship will be used as seed money to get her charity off the ground. The charity will raise funds for a particular girls school in South Asia to help students experience greater academic and social/emotional success.

Submitted by: Abdullah Kaji

ICOYG is a non-profit youth organization dedicated to helping the Canadian Muslim youth build their own identity. Our mission is to foster a safe learning environment, where its okay to ask question. We provide youth with counselling services, educational seminars, recreational activities, and mentorship programs. Our methodology is to hold recreational activities away from any specific environment. This allows the youth to be themselves, have fun and build a sense of unity and belonging. These activities include a massive youth camping trip, sports event and scholastic competitions. We also hold community outreach programmes working with other local and international organizations (such as Islamic Relief and Lakeridge Health) where youth can serve their communities, gain volunteer or professional experience. 

Fund Allocation 

The most appropriate use of funds would be towards our bursary program. Many of the youth who involved with ICOYG, come from many different backgrounds and household income levels. Money shouldn’t be a reason to limit one from reaching their full potential.

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