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Faculty of Graduate Studies looks towards the next 60 years 

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Graduate students in physics apply machine learning to predict the dark matter halos for a population of galaxies and to see the glowing cells in a mouse’s brain.

Health equity master of arts students challenge their preconceived notions of allyship as they apprentice themselves to Indigenous and racialized community organizations – harvesting sweet water (maple sap), protesting pipelines and supporting birth workers – as part of their experiential education component of graduate coursework.

Alice MacLachlan
Alice MacLachlan

A graduate student designer learns to engage with user communities as part of human-centred design, inspired in part by her family’s care for a grandparent with dementia.

Black research professors from across York University provide mentorship and training to Black graduate students, as part of the Faculty of Graduate Studies’ commitment to identifying and dismantling the barriers facing racialized and underrepresented populations in graduate research and education.

The stories in this month’s Innovatus give us a glimpse into the new faces and new pathways of graduate education at York University – exemplifying both our 60-year tradition of engaged, progressive teaching and learning, and our enthusiastic embrace of new frameworks, new methodologies and new challenges, as we look to the future. 

York’s Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) was established in September 1963 and opened its doors to York’s first graduate cohort of just 11 students one year later, in 1964. This academic year, we celebrate our 60th anniversary and, with it, a remarkable history of meaningful and challenging graduate research and pedagogy. 

York was the first university in Canada to offer a PhD in women’s studies and the first to accept doctoral dissertations written in an Indigenous language. Knowledge creation for a better world has always been at the heart of what we do. 

We continue to lead both in our commitment to engaged research and in the values at the core of York as a university: excellence, equity, access, sustainability, diversity and decolonization among them. These values guide the research that is conceived and created in collaboration between students and supervisors and – equally – the inclusive approach to graduate education and research that shapes that research, with an emphasis on engagement, collaboration, depth of thought, expanded conceptual horizons and broken boundaries. 

As we look forward to the next 60 years of graduate education at York, we face multiple challenges and possibilities, ranging from the need to decolonize how we conceive of intellectual property and authorial autonomy to the rapidly changing technological landscape of artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are adapting to these, as we rise to meet the needs of a changing graduate student population whose devotion to research and professional development is matched by other commitments – to their families, their communities and the world we share. The challenges and possibilities presented are vast and, as we face them, I am encouraged by the incredible innovations and new pedagogies already emerging in graduate studies: in the stories collected in this issue, and in other initiatives, from experiential education, like the Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom for graduate students, to professional development, such as our new Scholarly Skills brown bag workshop series, to best practices in supervisory relationships and pedagogies, as collected by the FGS Supervisory Support Hub.  

The task of FGS has always been knowledge creation as a collaborative enterprise. I invite you to read these stories and come join us to see where that enterprise takes us next. 

Sincerely, 

Alice MacLachlan
Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies 

Faculty, course directors and staff are invited to share their experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at tl.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=16573.

In this issue:

Graduate physics professor shares machine learning knowledge with academic community
Joel Zylberberg, an associate professor in the Department of Physics at York, is expanding education on machine learning to graduate students in science across the province.

Graduate students see health equity in practice
Experiential education opportunities give graduate students studying health equity an opportunity to learn directly from those experiencing inequity.

Grad course teaches inclusive, human-centred design research
Inclusive, human-centred design methods have a big impact on product design and accessiblity needs, says grad student Rupsha Mutsuddi.

Professors help racialized grad students navigate academy
Roundtable discussions held by the Faculty of Graduate Studies have led to work that reduces isolation and builds community for racialized students.

Graduate physics professor shares machine learning knowledge with academic community 

innovation research digital AI network
innovation research digital AI network

By Elaine Smith 

With the recent advances in machine learning techniques, Joel Zylberberg, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University, decided it would be useful to science students to understand these methods, so he developed a graduate course to share his knowledge. 

Joel Zylberberg, physics professor who teaches Deep Learning for Physicists
Joel Zylberberg, physics professor who teaches Deep Learning for Physicists.

His course, Deep Learning for Physicists, made its debut in 2021 and was repeated in 2022. Its positive reception encouraged Zylberberg to think more broadly, and this year he is offering the course through the Fields Institute to graduate students from the 12 Ontario universities that are members of the institute. 

“I like the idea of having more downstream impact from my teaching, working with a class of 35 rather than five,” Zylberberg said. “The applications are pretty diverse; students are working with everything from space science to quantum mechanics. I get to interact with all of this fun science through a set of methods that I know pretty well.” 

He noted that the core machine learning ideas date back to the 1980s and 1990s, “but more sophisticated hardware now allows us to make models on a different scale.” 

“Machine learning methods have come to dominate a lot of quantitative work and I wanted to give graduate students a strong foundation,” he continued. “Computer science students may have done a course or two in machine learning, but there’s no undergraduate course available for natural science students. Most of the students who enrol in the course have a pretty sophisticated mathematics background with solid undergraduate training in calculus. About half of them now have some prior machine learning experience and come to the course to learn to think about this topic in a more systematic way.” 

The first half of the course is devoted to understanding the theory of why systems are built in a particular way and how they work; the second half of the course focuses on applying the theory. The assignments require students to make various machine learning applications and their final project asks them to solve a scientific problem using the course methods.

Jordan Krywonos, York PhD student in cosmology and teaching assistant for the course. PHOTO CREDIT: Gabriela Secara, Perimeter Institute
Jordan Krywonos, York PhD student in cosmology and teaching assistant for the course. Photo: Gabriela Secara, Perimeter Institute.

Jordan Krywonos, a York PhD student in cosmology, took the course last year and now serves as a teaching assistant for the course.  

“My supervisor had an idea for a project that involved machine learning, but neither of us had experience with these methods,” said Krywonos, who is based at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ont. “It was a good opportunity to have expert guidance in how to solve any machine learning problems we encountered.” 

She applied machine learning to her work in predicting the dark matter halos for a population of galaxies, a project Krywonos scaled up afterward. 

“I continue to use the course techniques for this ongoing project,” she said. “I’m trying various machine learning algorithms to see which one has the best performance.” 

In another example, one of the graduate students in Zylberberg’s lab found a way to use machine learning to see glowing cells in a mouse’s brain more clearly by using a model that removed much of the data noise from the measuring device, improving the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 20. 

During the course, Zylberberg has the class review research papers together so they can analyze the machine learning applications employed in each study. For Krywonos, it has been helpful, since machine learning is being used more frequently in cosmology today. 

“When I read through a research paper now, I can understand and analyze it better,” she said. 

This year’s class is being taught in hyflex fashion: all of the students, whether at York or at other universities, have the option of coming to class in-person or joining via Zoom. The online option allows students across Ontario to enrol in a valuable course to which they wouldn’t have access otherwise, while the in-person option provides students with the opportunity to enjoy a traditional classroom setting. No matter which option they choose, Zylberberg aims to provide them with an equitable experience.  

“We’ve gotten a lot of practice using hybrid formats over the last few years, given the pandemic,” Zylberberg said. 

The final few sessions of the class are devoted to a mini-conference where the students present their projects, honing skills that will be useful in the workplace. 

“Scientists need to be able to communicate what they are doing and why,” Zylberberg said. “It’s a broadly useful skill in academic research, as well as in industry where one might be selling a product or pitching a new venture to investors.”  

Cheryl van Daalen Smith, FGS associate dean, academic said, “With its relevant subject matter, its accessible delivery mode and its broad reach, Deep Learning for Physicists is an example of the innovative graduate courses that the Faculty of Graduate Studies is proud to offer.”  

Grad course teaches inclusive, human-centred design research 

partnership collaboration agreement business

By Elaine Smith 

After completing an advanced diploma in design, designer Rupsha Mutsuddi took her education a step further by pursuing a master’s degree in design at York University. The graduate course that influenced her most has been GS/DESN5104 M – User-centred Design Research Methods and its exploration of inclusive, human-centred design, taught by Shital Desai, an assistant professor and York Research Chair in Accessible Interaction Design. 

“It has had a big impact on me, and I am planning to continue on to pursue a PhD that focuses on this approach,” said Mutsuddi, who will graduate in the spring and focuses on doing research and design using a health-care lens. “It’s unlike anything I’d come across before in my design education.”

Shital Desai
Shital Desai

Desai taught the research methods course in 2023 and uses inclusive, human-centred design methods in her own accessibility research. Inclusive design places users and their context at the centre of the development process so the designer can create products that are responsive to their needs. It requires the researcher to engage with the user community to determine what their needs are before proceeding with a design, and Desai believes this approach is something all design students should understand before joining the workforce. 

“My objective is to introduce students to various user-centred design methods,” said Desai. “It means creating an empathetic connection with people. It’s more than just doing a survey and an interview. You need to listen to people’s stories and have the desire to develop a connection. You need to understand your population. It takes time and effort.” 

Mutsuddi can attest to the patience required. She is interested in design for people with dementia, an interest that sprang from watching her own family care for her grandfather, who suffered from dementia before passing away more than a decade ago.  

“You get the best results [from people with dementia] when you are discussing an issue as part of a conversation around the context of people’s everyday lives,” Mutsuddi said. “It’s a method called contextual inquiry. If you’re interested in designing more accessible technology, you ask people to describe the technology they use in their daily lives, whether it’s a coffee maker or a transit app on their phones. Then, you can see the features they like. 

“Human-centred design involves the community and users from the beginning of the process to the end, compared to usability testing, which asks people to test a product once it’s developed. You want to understand their needs from the very beginning.” 

Desai has found that post-COVID, students aren’t comfortable talking to people, but human-centred design requires engagement. She has them do relevant exercises in class, such as interviewing each other as a way to develop empathy for classmates. She also teaches them about other ways to get people to open up, such as playing games together to get insight into their choices and start them talking. One of her students, she noted, collected relevant images and news stories to show the interviewees as a way of getting them to discuss their own experiences.  

In doing human-centred design research, understanding the power balance is very important, as is taking cultural considerations into account, said Desai. 

“Often, people are not open to talking about their vulnerabilities, so you need to develop empathy first, otherwise there’s a power imbalance. You have to understand ways or methods to distribute power or you won’t get information that is reliable and relevant to your design. And [consumer] behaviours may be different depending on cultures, such as with the cars we buy and drive.” 

One thing seems clear: understanding inclusive, human-centred design can only benefit Desai’s students as they look toward the job market. LinkedIn, the social media site used for networking and job hunting, calls it “an emerging field,” and the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. notes, “Over the last decade, there have been increasing examples of the use of [human-centred] design thinking for global health.” 

“I see it in a lot of job postings and my colleagues tell me that it’s important for them, too, because industry sees value in it,” said Mutsuddi. “It’s bigger in Europe and Australia, but it’s just emerging in Canada and we need to catch up. I believe it will become more of a focus not just in the design industry but in other industries.” 

Luckily, all of Desai’s students will be well prepared. 

Professors help racialized grad students navigate academy 

Two Black women sitting on a couch in conversation

By Elaine Smith 

In a desire to commit, in material ways, to York University’s Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEDI) Strategy, the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) held several roundtable discussions at its Faculty Council. From these discussions, a motion to infuse a commitment to DEDI into the standing committees of FGS council was passed. 

The roundtables revealed lived experience of Black graduate student isolation and a pressing need for mentorship and community building. FGS hosted several conversations with Black graduate faculty, folding in Black graduate students to co-create a plan to address isolation and lack of community. It culminated in a Fall 2023 community gathering. 

The Faculty’s work to reduce isolation and build community reflects an earlier FGS commitment to “partner with various programs at York and in the broader community to identify and dismantle the barriers that arise serially and increase over time to disadvantage and dissuade Black students from pursuing graduate studies, especially doctoral studies, in every discipline.”

Professor Mohamed Sesay,co-ordinator of the African Studies Program, presenting Zakirah Allain with the Esiri Dafiewhare award in African Studies in 2023.
Professor Mohamed Sesay presenting Zakirah Allain with the Esiri Dafiewhare award in African Studies in 2023.
Jude Kong
Professor Jude Kong engages in his passion for mathematics.

Mentorship is a valuable way of assisting Black and racialized students in overcoming barriers to pursuing and thriving in graduate scholarship, offering students personal insights and support. Mohamed Sesay and Jude Kong, two Black professors who teach courses and supervise graduate students, shared their thoughts with Innovatus on their own approaches to mentoring racialized students. 

Sesay, an assistant professor of African studies and a native of Sierra Leone, views the barriers as an institutional challenge arising from their history. He realizes that universities were designed for immigrants who arrived here from 18th- or 19th-century Europe, making it clear to him that those from other cultures may find additional challenges in adjusting. He makes a conscious effort to serve as a mentor for graduate students from racialized backgrounds; eight of his 10 current graduate students are racialized. 

“Institutions of higher education in western countries weren’t created for people like me,” said Sesay. “As a result, the structures, the rules and expectations, the standards and requirements were not put in place to accommodate graduate students like me or to help us thrive in the same way as non-racialized students. 

“In order to do well, there are other issues for us that arise from the structures in place that someone who isn’t racialized may not be able to identify. People may not realize that many racialized students have grown up somewhere else, so they aren’t exposed to the same experiences as those who grew up in Canada. They come with a history that is different and it requires an effort to feel as if they belong to this space.” 

Sesay said programs are opening space and incorporating decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion, but “there is still a long way to go. If there were no issues with equality, we wouldn’t need DEDI. 

“It’s not as if we’re compromising our standards,” he continued. “We expect racialized students to meet the same rigorous academic standards and expect them to be critical and creative thinkers, but we can’t be insensitive to other issues they’re dealing with, or they may not be able to fully realize their potential.” 

In teaching and supervising racialized graduate students, Sesay takes the need to support them seriously and devotes time to connecting with them. 

“I show understanding and empathy and try to share the challenges that I went through myself,” Sesay said. “I’m ready to talk with them and explore what they need to do to overcome challenges. I make myself available and, sometimes, that means talking about issues beyond research that impact academic excellence.  

“I’m open to them, not dismissive. Canada is multicultural, but racialized minorities face difficulties trying to make this their home. I want to show them through my experience that it is possible for them to achieve excellence. There’s no straight roadmap or manual, but you can share understanding; you try to support them in navigating this space and boost their confidence.” 

Kong, an assistant professor of mathematics and founding director of the Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence & Data Innovation Consortium, bases his approach to mentoring racialized students on his personal experience growing up poor in rural Cameroon. 

Without the emotional support from his family and financial support from the women in his community, he feels he would never have been able to attend secondary school, let alone realize that greater opportunities existed. He tries to recreate this sense of familial support with his graduate students; all four of his postdoctoral Fellows (two of whom are Black) and four of his five graduate students (four of whom are Black) are from racialized backgrounds. 

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” said Kong. “You may grow up only being exposed to certain things; if you’re not aware of research, you won’t think about it; it’s not the typical subject of conversation around the dinner table. Most people choose their careers based on the signals picked up by their subconscious memories during their formative years – what is discussed at their dinner table and what they see around them. For Black students whose parents, uncles, guardians and ancestors were not exposed to these opportunities, it’s a different situation. The Black community needs more assistance to understand what the options are.” 

In the classroom, as well as in the research context, “I strive to create a sense of family where students are confident in voicing their opinions, just as they would at home. It’s a judgment-free zone where they can admit that they didn’t know something or ask for assistance without the fear of being judged,” said Kong. 

Kong also believes that building the students’ confidence is important, since, at a young age, they may have absorbed subconscious messages telling them that they don’t belong or can’t measure up to people from other races when it comes to fields like mathematics. He works to create an environment that is supportive, rather than competitive, because everyone has different talents. 

“Keeping them moving forward and allowing them to see that they can handle the work is crucial,” he said. “We’re adding more data points to their experience until they reach that tipping point where they feel comfortable. 

“I had nobody I could look up to growing up, but I had a community and allies who helped me go to school and housed me during my college days. My doctoral and postdoctoral supervisor were real advocates, and here at York, people like President Rhonda Lenton and Provost Lisa Philipps have created a structure and space to allow me to succeed. I want to help people like me who have no pathway. I want to show people who have nothing that here is someone from nowhere who has succeeded.” 

He added, “York University is about giving opportunities to those who otherwise wouldn’t have it. I call it Canada’s historically Black university.” 

York’s Framework on Anti-Black Racism states, “Going forward, we will be responsible and accountable to the diverse constituencies of our community including Black community members, recognizing that bringing about systemic change is everyone’s responsibility.” 

Both Sesay and Kong are role models in accepting that responsibility.   

York advances projects to support Indigenous scholarship, knowledge

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Indigenous

Nine new projects dedicated to increasing Indigenous scholarship and voice within teaching and learning at York University have earned grants through the Indigeneity in Teaching in Learning Fund.

Funded by the Office of the Vice-Provost Academic, these innovative projects selected in the 2023-24 academic year create new opportunities for Indigenous students to build knowledge and increase participation in cultural activities, while expanding meaningful connections with Indigenous communities.

Marcia Annisette
Marcia Annisette

“We are pleased to see the uptake and interest in this fund. We get more applicants than we can fund and this year was no different,” says Marcia Annisette, vice-provost academic. “This speaks to the great interest across the University to bring meaning and intention to the Indigenous Framework and to the University Academic Plan. These funds are catalysts for what we hope will lead to richer teaching, learning and relationship across the University.”

Projects are estimated to engage approximately 1,000 students, faculty and staff. Susan Dion, associate vice-president, Indigenous initiatives, says these projects “contribute to embedding Indigenous voices and perspectives in courses, student learning and partnership building with Indigenous leaders, advancing York’s commitment to integrating Indigenous thought and perspectives throughout the academy.”  

In 2023, the University launched its Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, which includes a commitment to cultivating inclusive teaching and learning environments that nurture multiple and intersectional ways of knowing. The nine projects awarded with grants aim to advance this goal in concrete ways and demonstrate how the community is contributing to advancing positive change in 2023-24.

The projects, which will receive approximately $2,000 each, are:

  • Bridging Indigenous Women’s and IndigiQueer Voices from Community to Indigenous Feminisms Class, by Angele Alook;
  • Community Voices in Indigenous Spirituality in the Contemporary World, by Michael White;  
  • Creating a SAGE Nest: Collaborative Mentorship & Support for Indigenous Graduate Students, by Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing;  
  • Regeneration: All Our Relations Speaker and Performance, by Laura Levin, Brenda Longfellow, Archer Pechawis and Emilia White;
  • Lunch and Learn: Connect, Educate, Enhance, by Sage Hartmann and Hannah Johnson, Osgoode Indigenous Student Association;
  • Making Good Tracks Moccasin Project, by Kiera Brant-Birioukov; 
  • Reclaiming Aatisokaanan: Traditional Anishinaabe Stories, by Maya Chacaby;
  • Exploring Toronto as a City of Solidarity and Alienation, by Soma Chatterjee; and  
  • Houdensosaunee Social Dance, by Jeremy Green. 

Schulich ExecEd launches municipal leadership training program

Business team training session

York University’s Schulich ExecEd has partnered with the Ontario Municipal Administrators Association (OMAA) to launch the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Leadership Program.

The dynamic, five-day program will help government administrators gain the vital leadership skills and strategies needed to better support elected officials and effectively implement council policies.

“We are excited to announce our partnership with the Ontario Municipal Administrators Association in launching the prestigious Chief Administrative Officer Leadership Program,” said Rami Mayer, executive director of Schulich ExecEd. “Upskilling and reskilling municipalities are crucial endeavours that hold significant importance in adapting to the evolving challenges and opportunities faced by local governments. This partnership recognizes this need, equipping participants with essential business skills and acumen, as well as providing a clear pathway for leadership success in municipal governance.”

The program will cover trending topics in the industry such as political acuity, digital transformation and data analysis. Upon completion, participants will be ready to thrive in their CAO roles or move up the career ladder to more senior positions. The program’s hybrid format allows easy access to programming and materials for busy professionals.

“The CAO position is a uniquely challenging one that has lacked a clear educational pathway for those considering entering,” said Scott Vokey, OMAA executive director. “OMAA is very pleased to collaborate with Schulich to help start construction on this pathway.”

OMAA represents CAOs and aspiring CAOs in municipalities of all tiers and sizes across Ontario. It fosters excellence in CAO leadership, know-how and professional management of municipalities. Paired with Schulich ExecEd’s expertise in professional development and experience in upskilling and reskilling public sector organizations, the partnership marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of leadership excellence.

“Through our partnership with Schulich ExecEd, we are offering unique and true value as well as deep insight into what is required to be an effective chief administrative officer,” said Peter Neufeld, OMAA president and CAO of the Municipality of Leamington. “OMAA is excited to help develop the first certificate program to specifically focus on the unique needs of the CAO position.”

The CAO Leadership Program is kicking off on April 4, 2024, and registration is open now. Visit the web page to enrol or to learn more: Education and Training – Ontario Municipal Administrators Association (omaa.on.ca).

C4 partnership to tackle climate anxiety

image shows a forest and stream

By Alexander Huls, deputy editor, YFile

York University’s C4: Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom program has partnered with GHD – an award-winning international company that offers engineering, architecture and construction services – and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) to help students tackle climate anxiety.

Over the course of the upcoming 12-week winter term, up to 70 undergraduates will work with the partners to pursue multidisciplinary projects exploring the term’s challenge question: “How can we help young people in the Greater Toronto Area overcome climate anxiety, to be empowered to inform and drive our future pathways to an equitable and sustainable city?”

As the students develop their collaborative projects, GHD and TRCA will provide 10 to 20 hours of guidance throughout the term, including bringing in subject matter experts to participate, encourage and answer any technical questions that might arise.

Danielle Robinson
Danielle Robinson

GHD became interested in partnering with C4 while working on an environmental project with York, eager to find an opportunity to collaborate further with the University. “We were instantly interested in the C4 Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom and how it engages multidisciplinary teams to solve some of the world’s biggest problems,” says Tina Marano, GHD’s future communities leader, Canada, who will be involved with the program and students throughout the C4 winter term.

Early meetings with C4 made clear that a partnership would be a natural fit. “With GHD there was a clear alignment around our interests and values,” says Danielle Robinson, associate professor and co-founder of C4.

Like C4, GHD prioritizes sustainability in its work – with a focus on water, energy, infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities – and seeks to drive positive change and make meaningful contributions to global sustainability goals.

Tina Marano
Tina Marano

GHD also shares an optimism that’s rooted in the capstone program and experience. “We’re a very positive, hopeful space. We think that we and our students can make a difference in the world and that we just need to figure out how to organize ourselves in order to do that,” says Robinson. “We need a partner that believes in those things.”

GHD does, says Marano. “Working with young professionals and new graduates across our organization and through partnerships like this, we nurture a culture that embraces optimism, collaboration, experimentation and curiosity,” she says.

The partnership with the TRCA acting as the community stakeholder followed soon after, and the organization echoes the shared goals of its partners. “We’re a community-based organization, so we want to look to our communities to help us find the solutions to the problems that we all face together,” says Darryl Gray, director, education and training at TRCA.

In the weeks ahead, the aim – as it is for all C4 partnerships – for the program is to benefit both partners and students.

Franz Newland
Franz Newland

For partners, the participating students provide fresh insights and point-of-views that are needed to right the future. “What we have found is getting the student and multidisciplinary perspective can often bring new ideas and approaches to the partners that they might not have considered before,” adds Franz Newland, professor and co-founder of C4 with Robinson.

“We need to work and think differently. We need to collaborate and exchange ideas with bright, young minds and emerging leaders that believe that change and impact is possible,” agrees Marano.

Partners working with undergraduate students also provides an opportunity through experiential learning to develop skills needed for them to, potentially, pursue a sustainability career. “Among the broader conversation we are having with York is, ‘How do we make sure that post-secondary institutions are meeting the workforce development needs of future employers?’ ” says Gray.

Opportunities like these can help provide that, closing a potential onboarding gap with developing skills students will need if they enter the sustainability field – whether with C4 partners or other organizations.

In addition to benefiting with real-world experience and connections to leading organizations, students also gain critical confidence in their abilities and potential to create change. “One of the things that we hope we uniquely offer our students is a chance to really find out who they are as leaders,” says Robinson.

“Organizations like GHD and TRCA help empower their voices so that they can feel there are people who are keen to listen,” says Newland.

That, he says, is a crucial element for this generation of students who can often feel anxious about the climate crisis without knowing what they can do about it, and if their point-of-view will even be heard.

“Often in these spaces there’s a sense of impotence or inability to actually take action, which is part of that challenge,” says Newland. “The fact that organizations like this are looking to engage students’ voices really points to the fact that they recognize that the existing solutions maybe aren’t doing what we need, and we need to be thinking about listening to other voices that may actually have a better path forward.”

The C4 program and its partners help them do that. “They get a chance to find out what skills and knowledge they have and what they can do with them to address a particular challenge the world is facing. It gives them a chance to see what they’re capable of in a really safe space where they can test their boundaries, fail, succeed,” says Robinson. “They want to feel empowered, to help repair the world. They need to see what their contribution might be.”

Applications for C4 are still open: yorku.ca/c4/apply-for-c4/winter-2024.

Schulich triumphs in fall case competitions

Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building

This semester, the Schulich School of Business sent several case competition teams to universities across North America – to much success. Each student team received coaching from alumni and faculty as part of Schulich’s highly regarded Case Competition Program, which serves as a platform to develop essential skills in strategic thinking and presentation.

Schulich School of Business Fall 2023 case competition teams. Left photo, from left to right: Ian Chang, Disha Mittal and Abilash Sathyakumar. Right photo, top row: Siddharth Dave, Jack Goodwin and Omer Rahim; middle row: Kian Rastegar and Sophia Katzell; bottom row: Sophie MacLellan, Joanne Estephan, Joe Fayt and Mikayla Wronko.

Team Schulich clinched the $10,000 top prize at Duke University’s 2023 Energy in Emerging Markets Case Competition. Ian Chang (JD/MBA ’24), Disha Mittal (JD/MBA ’24) and Abilash Sathyakumar (JD/MBA ’25) competed against 60 teams from over seven countries, including finalists from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Judget Business School at the University of Cambridge. Their winning proposal offered a practical business model addressing the electrification challenges in Nigeria’s rural areas. The team’s achievement, with support from alumna Neda Riazi (BBA ’14), reflects Schulich’s commitment to developing solutions with positive social and environmental impact.

The DeGroote Innovative Solutions Competition (DISC), which took place virtually earlier this month, saw two new Schulich case teams secure second and third place. Students Mikayla Wronko, Sophie MacLellan, Sophia Katzell, Joanne Estephan, Jack Goodwin, Omer Rahim, Kian Rastegar and Siddharth Dave tackled two real-life business cases sponsored by industry leaders. The competition tested their ability to quickly devise business strategies, with one week of preparation for the first case and a three-hour timeframe for the second. The DISC teams received guidance from alumni coaches Michael Chan (MBA ’19), Santoshi Tadanki (MMAI ’23), Kristen Ferkranus (MBA ’20), Adam Wexler (MBA ’11) and Ollie Adegbulu (MF ’23).

All student teams were coached by Professor Joe Fayt, who teaches several marketing courses at Schulich and is responsible for training the graduate-level case teams. Fayt brings over a decade of experience to the Case Competition Program and has earned over 60 international competition victories through his coaching of Schulich teams.

“Congratulations to the Schulich teams on their top-tier placements at recent national and international case competitions,” said Schulich Dean Detlev Zwick. “Kudos as well to the case competition coaches, alumni advisors and supporting faculty who did an outstanding job preparing our students to compete at the very highest levels.”

Deadline extended: call for nominations for President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards

Female conference lecture teacher professor

The President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards honour those who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning by York University students.

The nomination period has been extended until April 17 at 11:50 p.m. ET.

Nominations are now open for the four awards that are offered each year in the following categories:

  • full-time tenured faculty with 10 or more years of full-time teaching experience;
  • full-time faculty (tenured/tenure-stream/CLA) with less than 10 years of teaching experience;
  • contract and adjunct faculty; and
  • teaching assistants.

The purpose of these awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement.

The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching. Recipients of the awards, selected by the Senate Committee on Awards, receive $3,000 (less applicable deductions), have their names engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Award plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at convocation ceremonies.

Nominators are encouraged to approach the Teaching Commons to explore ways to best highlight the teaching strengths and accomplishments of the nominee. Nominators may schedule a consultation –  by phone or Zoom – with an educational developer at the Teaching Commons to discuss the preparation of a nomination package by sending a request to teaching@yorku.ca. Interested parties are also invited to view the recording of the Teaching Commons’ Award Winners Roundtable to hear reflections from Teaching Awards recipients.

Only online nominations for the 2024 Teaching Awards submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, will be accepted.

The Teaching Awards criteria and nomination form are available on the Senate Committee on Awards web page.

Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies sheds light on new projects, global opportunities

Header banner for INNOVATUS

In this issue of Innovatus, you will read stories about how the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) is responding to the needs of our students with innovative new projects and programs to help them succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Dean J.J. McMurty
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean J.J. McMurty.

One such program is our 12 U Math waiver pilot class. After the COVID-19 lockdowns, it became clear that some students needed to catch up in math fundamentals. This prompted the development of the pilot class to help address the numeracy shortfall experienced by many incoming LA&PS students.   

We also know that students want paid work experience in opportunities related to their field of study; this is one of the reasons paid co-op placements will replace internships and be available for all LA&PS programs starting September 2024.  

And now, more than ever, we know global leaders need a global perspective. We’ve reactivated our fleet of summer abroad opportunities, offering seven study abroad courses in 2024.  

Finally, educators across universities are all grappling with artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more in this issue about how we are dealing with both the drawbacks and benefits of AI. 

Thank you to our entire LA&PS community for all the work you have put into making our teaching and pedagogy so great.  

I hope you enjoy learning more about some of the ways we are helping our staff, students and faculty.  

J.J. McMurtry
Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies 

Faculty, course directors and staff are invited to share their experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the Innovatus story form, which is available at tl.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=16573.

In this issue:

LA&PS study abroad program evolves, expands its offerings
Students in LA&PS have opportunities – at home and abroad – to engage in global citizenship and learning.

Summer course opens door for students missing numeracy skills
A pilot program created to close the gap on math skills is adding up to success for students in LA&PS.

LA&PS opens conversation about academic honesty and artificial intelligence
A recent event to educate students about generative artificial intelligence, and the University’s policies, sparked meaningful discussions about the changing landscape of education.

It’s co-op programs, not internships, for liberal arts and professional studies students
The introduction of an optional paid co-op program will allow students to participate in work-integrated learning earlier in the educational journey.