The Summer Fellowship is a 16-week program for highly engaged engineering students who want to grow the impact of their student organization and themselves as leaders. Meet the Summer Fellows and read about the organizational change they are seeking to have through the Summer Fellowship!
Mahsa Naserifar | VP Student Life, Engineering Society
“I aim to increase student involvement in the freshman class by making impactful changes that target first year students. In order to do so, I am hearing from upper year students about their experiences and what they wished they knew as a first year student and try to implement it. Examples include widening the variety of groups at frosh week clubs fair, working with clubs to come up with a concise outreach plan and giving first year students a better exposure to EngSoc through their courses.”
Amrit Prasad | Co-President, Sustainable Engineers Association
“Lack of internal communication and consistent motivation have been recurring challenges in the team due to the independent nature of the team structure and its seven separate activities. My change project focuses on resolving these issues, which will ideally result in achieving our goals such as higher team interdependence, stronger relations with industry and other environmental groups, and securing financial support.”
Sarah Halabieh | Mechatronics Team Leader, U of T Chemical Vehicles
“Although UTCV is multidisciplinary, it lacks genuine collaboration of all disciplines on the 3 sub teams. The goal of my change project is to integrate mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers into the roles currently filled solely by chemical engineers, by developing more complex designs for our vehicles that address the various facets of battery powered vehicles which require the attention of engineers from all disciplines.”
Paul Seufert | President, U of T Data Science Team
“We are looking to move our focus from data science competitions to real-world problems such as (namely those faced by other clubs and local non-profits). Doing this will make our work more visible and impactful, while also providing us with more interesting and varied problems.”
Kimberly Ren | Youth Engagement Lead, Engineers Without Borders
“The focus of my change project is to create an inclusive culture in EWB. This means involving our members in education and initiatives across all of the EWB portfolios. This change also entails a move away from the existing top down management structure to empower members in a more community-driven environment.”
Ridwan Howlader | Executive Director, U of T Aerospace Team
“My goals is to for this program was to learn how I could create a more sustainable structure of leadership in our organization. This would translate to consistent growth of the team’s divisions regarding the team’s goals year after year with the forward-thinking vision translating well onto the future team leads.”
Rosemary Jose | Co-Founder and COO, FoodSkrap
“The aim of my change project is to create a culture of collaboration and individual accountability to the team. In order to create an enduring and sustainable startup, I need to empower all our members to take the growth and development of this startup into their own hands.”
Salman Khan | Leadership Development Director, UTAT
“I am initiating the leadership process for all UTAT members, by helping them realize its importance, filling any knowledge gaps, and teaching members how to be role models for fellow teammates in the engineering workspace. Moreover, I am trying to transform UTAT’s current task-oriented organizational culture into one which balances member motivation and participation with the team’s overarching objectives.”
Linda Low | Chair, Bioengineering Student Association
“My aim is to improve engagement and participation in the bioengineering community by creating events that are relevant, interesting and useful to undergraduate students. To do this, our executive team needs to actively seek new perspectives, generate ideas and incorporate student feedback into program design.”
Matthew Zhang | Director of Professional Outreach, Engineering Society
“My aim this year is to foster year-round growth for future policy leadership among student engineers, by developing a cohesive event curriculum for PrO. This curriculum would emphasize student initiative and personal ownership of policy projects.”
Namya Syal | Vice Chair, Chem Club
“With my change project I am hoping to create a positive work environment within Chem Club that promotes initiative and innovation. I want this positive work environment to in turn work towards improving the quality of the services that we provide and also improve our image amongst the student body. To achieve this I have been working towards developing as a change leader.”
Ahsan Malik | Co-Founder and Product Designer, Grid
“Change Project: Develop Grid’s culture where customer feedback and input is emphasized in product design. I plan to do this by creating a 360 feedback loop that helps improve product development at every iteration giving us competitive market leadership.”
Ali Haydaroglu | Chief Systems Designer, UTAT
“My change project is to work with fellow members of the team to create a recruitment plan and platforms where members can track each other’s progress and keep them accountable. This should lead to a sustainable leadership structure by training new recruits and giving them a better idea of the bigger picture of the project; as well as a culture of accountability, where the team is aware of the external deadlines and responsibilities and keeps each other accountable and stays on track.”