Improving the campus experience at the University of Toronto through student-led design
By Taylor Stinson Student Co-Leader, Whole Student Development Domain
The Ambassador meetings were a time and place to meet, bridge and connect with our new coworkers, the Innovation Hub Ambassadors. Walking into the room I see a number of faces of people I met with in the previous weeks. The clear enthusiasm they bring is warm and comforting. The meeting format is similar to the Innovation Hour format.
By Alexandra Rodney, Student Innovation Leader, Operations Team
I’m Alexandra, a PhD student in Sociology here at the University of Toronto, and I am going to be contributing posts about the research side of things to the Innovation Hub blog. Whether you’re new to the Innovation Hub or have participated in some part of creating the Hub, you may be asking yourself “what is an innovation hub?” To answer this question we need to think about the concept of innovation and the postsecondary context. There are over 87,000 students at the University of Toronto who are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs. The UofT student demographic today is vastly different than a generation ago and is also different than it will be in the future. If student demographics are changing it raises the question of how student services need to change in response. This is where innovation comes in!
By Margaryta Ignatenko, Operations Team Student Innovation Leader
Imagine a University of Toronto where every student’s experience is seamless from initial contact to graduation and beyond. A place where students feel a sense of community and connectedness, experience both academic and personal success and feel well equipped for their futures.
The Innovation Hub doesn’t see this as a distant reality – we are seeking to better understand the unique needs of U of T students through the use of student-centred design thinking. We value listening and empathising with our students, we seek out their voices whenever we plan, program and make decisions. We have carefully crafted a team which will collaborate with a diverse range of U of T students, community members and staff to explore the future of student experience at the University of Toronto. The team members’ different experiences, skill sets and educational backgrounds will provide a constant, authentic and diverse presence of student voices throughout the project.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
Happy Monday! It’s the first day of classes for most students in our St. George community, so let me begin by wishing you an incredible start to the new school year. Amidst the whirlwind of activity going on around campus this week, I hope you can take a few moments to breathe that crisp fall air and appreciate the beautiful campus that surrounds you!
I’m excited to let you know that our student leadership team is now established and you’ll have a chance to meet them later this week as they introduce themselves on the blog. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I can say that we have a fantastic team of students to lead our Hub.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
We are so excited to launch the Innovation Hub blog to provide a space for dialogue about innovative mindsets and methodologies and to document the story of the Hub. Over the past two months we’ve been busy identifying our domains for innovation and preparing to build the Innovation Hub teams. I’d like to first take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the hundreds of students, staff and faculty who were part of this process. It’s been so wonderful to work collaboratively and I am so excited to continue this work with you!
Our Innovation Hours continued this week with a look at the proposed plan to build the Innovation Hub teams. This past Tuesday a group of students and staff met to discuss the draft team structure and roles and share questions and insights about how the team will come together.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
Since the launch and the Day of Learning, our five Domains for Innovation have been evolving. A team of over 30 Ambassadors continued this work which led to six versions of the domains for innovation. We are so pleased to say that thanks to all of the input and feedback from the community, we have landed on the following five domains: