The Innovation Hub is Hiring!

Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Leader

As we look forward to the new school year, the Innovation Hub is excited to assemble a team for our upcoming and continuing projects. We want to offer our potential team members the opportunity to both contribute to the university and learn new skills: we’re looking for dedicated students who are interested in improving campus life by focusing on student needs, and we’re also offering those students training and hands-on practice in human-centred design. We hope to put together a diverse team that enjoys the challenges of our work!

Read below for job descriptions, and go to the Career & Co-Curricular Learning Network work study job board to learn more and apply.

Hearing the Voices of Student Parents and Creating a Family-Friendly U of T

“What simple things could U of T do to be more family-friendly?” We asked this question at our participatory action event last month, in which we sought the voices of student parents and their solutions to the challenges they face at U of T.

Project Primer: Transforming the Instructional Landscape

In the Transforming the Instructional Landscape (TIL) project, we try to understand what makes a classroom work as a productive learning environment. As this work has progressed, it has expanded to include many perspectives: we started by focusing on the student experience, but came to realize that student experiences are entangled with the experiences of other people who spend time in and around classrooms, and with the spaces and things that promote learning.

Project Primer: Family Care

Shirin Gerami, Design Research Team Lead

Student parents are a growing group of students at the University of Toronto, and they face unique challenges that are invisible to those who do not share their experiences. These challenges create emotional and mental pressures which are exasperated by the limited support available for their practical needs.

To capture these challenges and the overall experiences of student parents at the university, the Innovation Hub partnered with the Family Care Office last year. Through that partnership, we showed that student parents are often unable to find a sense of belonging during their time at U of T. A sense of belonging is important for forming meaningful interpersonal connections, better coping with school and life challenges, and deriving comfort from the knowledge that one is not alone.

The Power of Student Stories Through Data: Wellness and Academia at U of T

As a graduate student at U of T with a focus in community development, I look a lot at community-based models and theories for change. I firmly believe that by connecting with one another in authentic and needs-based practices, we can find a sense of community for belonging and support. However, this belief often competes with my role in an academic field fuelled by excellence. This is a reality that I am simultaneously proud of and struggling with, as I try to prioritize my studies alongside work, my artistic practice, mental health, and well … the list goes on!

‘Mental health in academia is too often a forgotten footnote. That needs to change.’ —Arnav Chhabra

In light of recent dialogues and initiatives on campus regarding mental health and wellness, the Innovation Hub has been looking at this reality. Over the past three months, our team reexamined the data from our three years of empathy-based inquiries, which include over 400 student voices, to articulate some core themes and insights into how an academic environment can impact one’s mental health and wellness. We also wanted to use these insights to propose possibilities for change, and we were honoured to share our work on these topics with a range of audiences.

Project Primer: Accessibility at Convocation

In the Project Primer series, we’ll be introducing the design projects our team members are tackling this summer. Stay turned to learn about our work in five different areas! First up: Accessibility at Convocation…

Written by Alex, Rhea Makund, Natasha Cuneo, and Kate Welsh

Did you attend your convocation? For increasing numbers of University of Toronto graduates, the answer is yes. In the past five years, the number of graduates participating in their convocation ceremony has risen by 20 %.

Thus, creating an inclusive community for graduating students is becoming increasingly important.

#DisplayYourPride: Celebrating Individuality, Creating Connectedness

At the Innovation Hub, we were excited to participate in #DisplayYourPride at the University of Toronto, so we could show our support for the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month at U of T, with its vision of making every student at this university feel safe, accepted, and heard, aligns with our own goal at the Innovation Hub of improving student experiences through empathy-based research that inspires social justice and social change. Thus, #DisplayYourPride was the perfect opportunity to create an installation that celebrates individuality and connectedness, and that rededicates us to our own efforts to create an environment that includes all students.

We centred our installation around the question, “What does Pride mean to you?”

Meet the Team—Summer 2019

How can we make Convocation more accessible? What makes a classroom great? What support do student parents need? How can staff and students work together to create effective programs?

These are some of the questions driving this summer’s Innovation Hub team. We’ll answer them by listening to the stories of students and staff, shining a searchlight on how they interact with the university—in lecture, at Convocation, at work—and how the university can reach out in response.

Spotlight: What Do We Mean When We Talk About Community?

Social and Cultural Community at First Nations House

Written by Charis Lam – Design Research Events Lead

In search of factors driving student engagement, First Nations House partnered with the Innovation Hub in summer 2018 to ask: what causes students and staff to engage and connect with First Nations House? Among the factors identified—including assistance with scholarships and housing, personal relationships to staff members. and access to the resource centre—cultural and social programming emerged as a need strongly felt by students. Thus, First Nations House and the Innovation Hub renewed their partnership to investigate what sorts of social and cultural programming students want.

The Innovation Hub is Hiring for Summer Work-Study Positions!

By Kaitlyn Corlett, Project Assistant and Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Projects Officer

Now that the winter term is coming to a close, it’s time to consider some exciting opportunities at the Innovation Hub for the summer 2019 term. The Innovation Hub offering a wide range of work-study positions open to all students who meet the eligibility requirements. These positions offer opportunities to work with various areas at the University of Toronto in team-oriented environments that are supported by innovative, design-thinking practices.

Blog (page 28)

Social and Cultural Community at First Nations House