Volunteer as a team member for From Stories to Change, a fall-winter initiative focused on learning more about students in the university’s bicentennial year.
About the From Stories to Change Project
When the Innovation Hub launched in 2016, two important questions guided our work: who are our students? How is the world changing for them? We co-created the five domains of innovation to answer these fundamental questions. Nearly a decade later, the world has changed. Students have changed. That’s why we’re asking these questions again.
The project brings together staff, faculty, and students from across campus to listen deeply to student experiences. Through interviews, observations and feedback sessions we’ll collect rich qualitative data that reveals the why behind the university’s quantitative data. We’ll look at the stories, barriers and needs behind the numbers. We’re partnering with our colleagues who are looking at quantitative data to bring together different types of data and insights. We want to create a fuller picture of student experiences at U of T.
In the spring of 2027, during the university’s bicentennial year, we’ll invite colleagues from across the university come together for a professional development day to share what we’ve learned and engage with the data. We hope that it will be a day that inspires our community to move from stories to change: informing strategic planning, program design, and real decisions about how we support students.
Why Get Involved?
We know that being part of a team of students, staff, and alumni working together in a design thinking model is a unique and special experience. Volunteering as a team member is a great opportunity to:
- Learn design thinking and applied qualitative research by doing
- Build human-centred skills (that can’t be replaced by AI)
- Expand your network in an interdisciplinary team
- Be part of a project that gives back
- Contribute to a Student Experience Data Day set to take place in spring 2027 (the university’s bicentennial year!)
At the end of the project, all team members will receive a Design Thinking Experience Program Certificate for work on the From Stories to Change project. For students, this experience counts towards their Co-Curricular Record (CCR).
What You’ll Learn
Team members will be guided through the project via weekly workshops. Each phase of the project will be taught and then immediately applied in the work. The phases of the project and their workshops include:
- Storytelling & Equity
- Empathy Interviewing
- Conducting Feedback Sessions
- Creating Immersive Experiences
- Empathy Mapping
- Affinity Mapping & Insights
- Personas
- Journey Maps
- Integrative Thinking & Tensions in the Data
- Impactful Presentations
You’ll also receive hands-on training and support during co-working sessions throughout the project.
What to Expect
Joining the team is a big commitment, but it’s a worthwhile one. Specific details and timelines are listed below.
- Fall-winter commitment: The project will run from October 2026 – March 2027. Team members are invited to return to present their work during a professional development event in spring, 2027 (April-May timeframe)
- Weekly workshops and meetings: Workshops take place on Thursdays from 11-1. A small group co-working session will be needed most weeks, at times convenient to team members
- In-person Work at the Innovation Hub: All sessions and co-works will take place at the Innovation Hub, located in room 300 of the Student Commons at 230 College St., St. George Campus
- Supervisor approval: Staff participants will be asked to provide written approval from their immediate supervisor to participate as a team member
Timeline
In Fall 2026, team members will learn the basics of design thinking and the empathy-based data collection approaches, conduct feedback sessions, interviews, and immersive experiences with staff and students across the university. Then, in Winter 2027, we’ll move into data analysis. This means analysing data with, empathy maps, affinity mapping, and generating insights. Lastly, in Spring 2027, we’ll co-create a final report and present it to university at large through a Student Experience Data Day.
How to Get Involved
Applications will be open from Monday August 17th until Friday September 11th.
Should you have any questions, contact Julia Allworth, Manager, Innovation Projects at julia.allworth@utoronto.ca. You can also visit our website at uoft.me/innovationhub.
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