A Quick Recap of Our Summer 2024 Student Workshops!
By: Mary Cate Faulkner & Nika Bakhtiari
July 15th, 2024
Last month, The Social Ventures Zone launched another paid iteration of its student Ideation program, funded by CEWIL Canada. This round, 40 students were selected from over 300 applications - a record for an SVZ student program! The students have spent the last several weeks attending a variety of workshops to help prepare them for their six week long placements from July to August. Students have been assigned to startups incubated at the SVZ, or a socially impactful community organization, and will work with them to solve a challenge they are facing within their enterprise. Read on to find out how the workshops have helped shape these students to become better problem solvers.
The first workshop took place on Friday June 14th, where SVZ coordinator Sarah Brigel spoke about social impact, what makes a social enterprise, and gave an introduction to a few of our incubated ventures. The second half of the session was presented by Ken Lee from TMU’s Career, Co-op, & Student Success Centre (CCSSC). He spoke about professional communication, tips on how to engage/communicate with coworkers and managers, and how to receive constructive feedback from colleagues.
“We learned different ways to communicate…how we can all become a community together, how we can look into different perspectives of social issues, and how we can tackle them. I loved all of that.”
- Laiba, 4th year, Politics & Governance
Our next workshop took place on June 19th, where Megan MacLennan from the CCSSC spoke about how to bring your best self to work. Students were encouraged to reflect on common workplace-related situations, how to take care of their mental health and wellness, and were provided with tips surrounding taking initiative and working in a team. In the second half of this session, Sarah expanded on a key aspect of the social enterprise journey: defining your problem. She covered topics including the importance of having a defined problem as a starting point, building a creative solution, who it impacts, and how to reach your stakeholders. Student participants shared that this session was particularly illuminating:
“I loved how we are being prepared to work in an actual professional environment…we’re being given practical advice on how to behave, and on how to deal with professional challenges.”
- Samreen, 2nd year, Urban & Regional Planning
“When I came in here, it really put into perspective [...] the business side of things. I now understand how individuals in said professional fields really look at certain problems before going ahead and solving them. It isn't as simple as “oh this is the problem and these are the solutions”, you really break it down to certain points. I learned about “The Inverted Pyramid Method”, figuring out what’s important and urgent early on. I just know my mind feels so prepared to get into my placement because I’ve been well equipped [with] what it is that they have presented to me.”
- Prince-Aaron, 4th year, Criminology
The third and final in-person session for the student impact program took place on June 24th. The morning started off with a workplace EDI workshop, facilitated by the Education, Awareness, and Outreach team at TMU’s Office of the Vice-President of Equity, Community & Inclusion. This insightful workshop allowed students to deepen their understanding of positionality in relation to their peers, community partners, and stakeholders they would be working with. The afternoon followed with a creative solution building workshop taught by Jamie Kwan, a leading Toronto service designer, where students learned more about ecosystem mapping, building creative solutions, service design thinking, and research design.
As an added bonus, the program accepts students from across all disciplines at the university. Students shared that this allows them to bring various perspectives to their challenge placements, and is a great opportunity to learn from peers.
“I think all of these workshops are really cool and you get to meet people. Like we’re all from TMU but we all come from different programs, different years, different walks of life – so you get to meet an incredibly diverse group of people who are all interested in creating social change.”
- Elliot, 3rd year, Social Work
Coming up over the next couple weeks, students will attend two more sessions virtually where they will learn about the valuable resources the TMU library provides for academic research, as well as a follow-up workshop to fill any gaps in their EDI knowledge as they work through their assigned challenge statements.
The SVZ is so excited for students to finally begin their placements and we can’t wait to provide you with an update on their journeys!