The saying ‘success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ led co-founders Maeesha Biswas, IndE 2T1+1+PEY (left in photo) and Jennifer Wang, ChemE 2T1+PEY (right in photo) to name their podcast. “Our ‘inspiration’ for the podcast was seeing a lot of perseverance to do good and aspire to be great world contributors among our peers”, said Maeesha. “Our goal is to uncover and inspire engineering students to build their path of impact after graduating.”
By presenting case studies of professional success and personal fulfilment, they felt their podcast could offer some direction and inspiration to students. For example, Maaesha and Jennifer just released an episode with Dean Chris Yip: https://1-inspiration.com/episodes/chris.
“Through our podcast, we share stories of U of T engineering students or/and alumni to highlight a broad spectrum of areas of the world where engineers can participate and lead.”, said Jennifer. “Talking to our guests we learn about their unique journeys, how they got to where they are, challenges they have been through, and the resources which helped them.”
“Through our podcast, we share stories of U of T engineering students or/and alumni to highlight a broad spectrum of areas of the world where engineers can participate and lead.”, said Jennifer. “Talking to our guests we learn about their unique journeys, how they got to where they are, challenges they have been through, and the resources which helped them.”
The Troost ILead Connection to 1% Inspiration’s Success
Last summer, 1% Inspiration was part of the Summer 2022 Troost ILead Summer Fellowship cohort. Their change project focused on expanding originally digitally native work of the podcast to broader community building and archiving the active work longer-term.
The Troost ILead Summer Fellowship brings together student leaders who are driven to improve their club or organization, as well as themselves as leaders. The Summer Fellows form a tight-knit community of leaders that support each other’s learning through workshops, discussions, speakers, hands-on work, and peer feedback. “The Troost ILead team and fellows have broadly also given our team helpful feedback on transitioning 1% Inspiration and made introductions to us to other on-campus podcast teams”, said Maeesha.
One outcome for 1% Inspiration, was Dear Frosh, a series of letters collected from U of T Engineering students and alumni addressed to their first-year selves, which were printed and distributed to every first-year student during Frosh Week. Dear Frosh letters were delivered to 1000 incoming students in September 2022.
Jennifer concluded the interview saying: “We hope the stories we share from the U of T Engineering Community can be a beam of light that helps guide students in an uncertain path ahead and lead them to forge and follow their dreams.”