ILead Summer Fellowship - Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering

Summer Fellowship

Meet the 2023 Summer Fellows

About

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.

Who is the Fellowship for?

Current and emerging student leaders from any club or organization with an interest in exploring and developing their leadership skills and addressing key challenges in their club or organization.

Program Format

The program will be delivered mainly in person (on St George Campus). Summer Fellowship sessions alternate between two styles of session:

1) Leadership Workshops addressing a specific leadership topic

2) Peer-Learning Meetings during which Fellows build a sense of community, share Change Project progress, and provide feedback to each other

Summer Fellows will also receive Leadership Personality Assessment and the opportunity for 1:1 coaching to assess individual strengths and areas for development, and to build key skills such as team-management, conflict resolution, problem-solving, effective leadership and resilience.

Next application intake: Spring 2024.

Application

We typically receive a high number of applications for this in-demand program so we encourage you to take your time and put your best effort into the application.

Spaces are limited to 10-15 Fellows per year.

We will enthusiastically review all applications after the deadline (April 24). A select number of applicants will be invited for an interview between April 27 - May 10. All applicants will be contacted by May 10 regarding program admission decisions.

Click here to apply!

Content & Topics

The topics addressed in the Summer Fellowship include:

Leadership Development: Personal Values, Leadership Behaviours, Inclusive Leadership, Deep Listening, Giving and Receiving Feedback, Leadership Development Theory

Organizational Learning: Vision, EDI in Student Organizations, Organizational Change, Motivating Teams, Influencing Culture, Systems Thinking, Strategic Planning

Time Commitment

Summer Fellows typically meet weekly (in person, St George Campus) on Wednesday evenings from 5-7:30/ 8 p.m. The program will run from May - July 2024.

Participants can expect to spend 1-3 hours per week outside of sessions working on their Change Projects and session pre-work/ readings.

Contact

Amna Adnan, Workshop & Programming Facilitator

amna.adnan@utoronto.ca

Learn about the experience from past Fellows

Past Participant Clubs

Meet the 2023 Summer Fellows

Novera Ahmed | Engineering Science Club (EngSci), Vice-Chair

My change project focuses on enhancing connectivity and inclusivity within Engsci Club. In the past few years, going online has played a significant role in preventing some lifelong connections created with other Engsci students. We want to restore the aspect of the common room fostering those meaningful relationships through the upkeep of the common space and by hosting events catered towards inter-year communications. By creating organizational changes that ensure accountability through planning and scheduling as well as focusing on receiving continuous feedback and data to improve the common space, we are hoping this would allow future and returning students to understand and appreciate the importance of our Common Room.

Micol Altomare | University of Toronto Robotics Association, Utra Hacks Co-Director

University of Toronto Robotics Association (UTRA) will be hosting its fourth robotics hackathon this year. My change project aims to elevate the participant experience in two major ways: 1) fostering a cohesive and sustainable community of volunteers and mentors where they take on a more active role in the culture and their involvement in UTRA Hacks, and 2) creating an inclusive environment at UTRA Hacks by engaging participants from underrepresented groups and of all skill levels while providing the supports and resources necessary. The ultimate objective is to not only allow participants of all backgrounds to explore robotics-related areas, but also to gain meaningful feedback on their engineering design work and to learn about how they might see themselves in the field.

Brothath Amritraj | Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association, Vice-President Communications & Marketing

In my first year as a PhD student, I found that students in graduate school are reclusive due to increased responsibilities and stress by the virtue being a graduate student. Although we work on different projects and courses, the challenges we face in transition are the same. My change project will involve talking to senior graduate students or recent graduates to dissect these challenges in the form of a podcast. I hope this will help students understand the nuances of being in graduate school and effectively tackle challenges they face.

Niki Bidhendi | University of Toronto Aerospace Team (UTAT), Rocketry Division, Structures Lead

My change project focuses on enhancing the involvement of general members, particularly new recruits, in team activities and assigned tasks. Each year, the team welcomes new members who may feel uncomfortable due to their lack of technical skills or a sense of belonging. To address this, I am planning to implement several workshops to teach technical skills and prepare individuals for their specific tasks. In addition to these workshops, regular check-ins with new members will be conducted, along with the existing weekly team meetings, ensuring that they have a thorough understanding of the tasks at hand. This approach will provide the necessary technical skills and support for the new members to succeed in their assigned responsibilities. Furthermore, organizing multiple group social events throughout the year will not only foster team spirit but also facilitate deeper connections among team members beyond the technical aspects of their work. These events will create opportunities for a stronger sense of camaraderie. By implementing these strategies, I am confident that the Structures team will experience increased engagement. Tasks will be completed on time, members will feel comfortable sharing ideas and seeking assistance from team leads, and an overall supportive team spirit will prevail. This will contribute to a more cohesive and productive team environment.

Samantha Butt | Hi-Skule, Outgoing Director

My change project is focused on collaborating with the incoming director to develop opportunities for the personal growth and increased engagement of mentors (undergraduate volunteers) in our club beyond my tenure. Hi-Skule’s mission is to explain and promote the engineering profession to high school students, which would be impossible without our dedicated volunteers. My plan for my change project is to explore how I can integrate opportunities for volunteers to become more involved and take on a larger role at our events. This way, they are able receive more experience with facilitation and logistics, while continuing to foster meaningful relationships with young students.

Orrin Dahanaggamaarachchi | University of Toronto Aerospace Team, Thermal Systems Lead

My change project aims to create a more effective method of knowledge transfer by leveraging existing organizational tools and instilling a culture of exploration. Due to the inherent length of the satellite design cycle, knowledge often leaves the team when senior members retire. We have recently established an archive of documentation, which is currently underutilized by newer members. By promoting inter-subsystem collaboration and introducing meaningful opportunities to share work, I hope to make better use of this tooling to increase members’ understanding of the satellite as a whole. In doing so, I want to build member self-sufficiency through organic exploration with the long-term goal of strengthening the Space Systems community and team sustainability.

Abdullah Fawzy | Human Powered Vehicles Design Team, Secondary Structures Design Lead

The Human-Powered Vehicles Design Team (HPVDT) is at the start of its most significant restructuring and leadership transitionary period ever. As such, there exists an innate need to ensure that the unique skillsets and abundant design experiences that all current senior team members possess is immortalized and documented succinctly for the new generation. Subsequently, my change project will revolve around developing a shared resource hub that encompasses all of what I refer to as the 'design instincts', that these senior team members have acquired over the years. The goal is to do this in a case study-like format wherein the design/manufacturing processes for some of the team's greatest projects are analysed to determine the specific set of unique 'design instincts' that were birthed from them. The ultimate objective is not only to document the subtle and sophisticated skills that senior team members have developed, but more importantly to further stimulate the interest of new recruits in the team's work, and allow them to jumpstart their path of learning all these design instincts themselves.

Ashna Jain | Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Co-President

Through my involvement with the EWB Chapter and from conversations with other students and EWB Canada, I have observed that a gap in our chapter is the lack of projects that have a global impact. I believe that we have the student interests and skills to contribute to global development projects to broaden our reach and impact, and through my change project, I would like to see our chapter’s scope expanded to incubate these types of projects in addition to our current work. EWB is founded on the principles of system change and addressing root causes of issues. Reflecting these core pillars, our approach to global work will be centered around research into projects that will lead to a high impact and finding the right partners who will benefit from the skills and passion that we, as students, can offer.

Hafsah Khalid | Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, University of Toronto Student Chapter (CSChE U of T), Chair

My change project is to create a unified CSChE student chapter that will inspire relevant, sustainable, and accessible professional development events and opportunities for chemical engineering students. Since transitioning to in person events over the past year, there has been a disconnect between students needs and the traditional events CSChE holds. We have begun bridging this gap over the past year, but by unifying our diverse executive team I hope to identify and resolve student needs that are not being addressed. In addition, the U of T student chapter of CSChE is launching a portfolio to connect CSChE student chapters and undergraduate chemical engineering students across Canada. Through my change project, I envision undergraduate students all across Canada sharing knowledge and resources to create relevant events and provide professional development opportunities for students. Our initiatives are dependant on discussion of student needs during team meetings, and by ensuring a diverse team with strong sense of community I hope to target student needs.

Amogh Mannivannan | Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Student Council, Vice Chair

As part of my Change Project, I aim to improve the Chem Common Room to enhance student life and department cohesion. The room is a hub for Chem Club events and a relaxing space for students. However, only a small fraction of students use it, missing out on engaging activities despite extensive advertising. Safety concerns and lack of maintenance contribute to this issue. I propose raising awareness, increasing security, and allocating funds for lockers. I also plan to form a team to oversee the room, ensure equipment functionality, and coordinate with janitorial staff. I will adjust the budget for new equipment and cleaning the seating areas. Through increased events targeting mental and physical wellness, I will encourage involvement and engage with first-year students. Prioritizing in-person interaction will foster long-term engagement with the Chem Club.

Lincoln MacDonald | Human Powered Vehicles Design Team (HPVDT), Captain

My change project is to shift the culture in the Human Powered Vehicle Design Team’s (HPVDT) from a “task by task” based approach to community and development approach. As captain, I want members to feel valued, self-motivated, emotionally safe and part of something bigger than themselves. I want to develop a culture that focuses on helping members find and develop areas of passion and giving them the platform and resources to pursue that. I want members to feel they can pursue their own ideas and engage in new design and manufacturing tasks that they have created.

Khang Nguyen | University of Toronto Aerospace Team, Attitude Determination and Control System Lead

My change project focuses on developing an optimal approach for creating technical teaching documents that facilitate the understanding of complex engineering topics for students without a technical background. The primary goal is to improve their learning efficiency and empower them to make valuable contributions to their team. I will analyze exceptional lecture notes and textbooks and aim to understand the factors that make these resources effective in communicating complex knowledge. Ultimately, I aim to create a formula that can be generally adopted for creating technical documents, ensuring that students with limited technical background can easily comprehend and apply the information provided.

Prarthona Paul | Hi-Skule, Incoming Director

My change project is to create a strong, tight-knit team at Hi-Skule rooted in empathy and collaboration. Although the Hi-Skule team is relatively small, many members do not know each other coming into the team. However, they all share their passion for engineering and their drive to inspire the next generation of engineers. Through my change project, I want to learn about ways to build a strong team and implement these techniques to leverage their shared passion to create an inclusive team; one where everyone has a sense of purpose and is motivated to find new ways to inspire students about engineering and STEM. I hope that being part of this supportive community, team members will be inspired to lead and create positive change within the UofT engineering community and the community of future engineers.

Natasha Pereira | University of Toronto Engineering Students Consulting Association (UTESCA), Co-President

My change project is to diversify UTESCA's portfolio of projects and events so that we are able to cater to students of various academic backgrounds and disciplines. UTESCA was founded at the beginning of COVID-19 so our initial events and structure of our consulting projects program was centered around online meetings and events. However, as we are transitioning to in-person work, we have seen the importance of stressing in-person meetings and events as a means to motivate and engage students. Because of this, there has been a disconnect in our ability to diversify our projects/events and meet the needs of students trying to pursue a career in consulting. This is especially important since our Consulting Engineering Project program depends on real-life practical consulting projects and clients and so prioritizing the ability of students of various academic backgrounds to get involved in our program will foster long-term engagment and enhance UTESCA's reach.

Meghna Ravikumar | Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Co-President

My change project is driven by a vision to unite our chapter’s activities and resources via a tangible solution so that we are able to streamline our workflows, improve collaboration, and increase general member engagement. The key goal is to provide a place where members have complete clarity regarding day-to-day operations within both the chapter and our projects, which would be achieved by creating an internal hub that serves as a centralized point of access for all relevant information and resources. My hope is that this will create a more cohesive community where members are empowered to contribute, engage, and make a positive impact on our chapter.

Charu Tyagi | University of Toronto Inventor's Club, Outgoing Director of Operations

My change project is to bend the current trajectory of technological growth towards good. Our club was founded to develop the technical skill set of students. We aimed to provide students with exciting opportunities to apply their CAD skills to solve real-world problems. However, our club engagement has been very low on campus due to numerous obstacles. Thus, as a part of this fellowship, I aim to create a re-branding strategy for our club. To re-evaluate our core values and build a vision statement together with elements of tech stewardship. A reminder of core values and a co-created vision for the club will help ignite passion and motivation in the exec team. The new concept of ethical use of technology and a call to change the current trajectory of technology will spark interest. This will help us deliver helpful opportunities for students' professional development!

Meet the 2022 Summer Fellows

Chloe Bell (ECE 2T3) | University of Toronto Hyperloop Team (UTHT), Captain

My goal for the University of Toronto Hyperloop Team (UTHT) is to create a stronger core team. This includes clarifying communication and roles, improving onboarding and off-boarding, and supporting team members to develop an awareness of one another.

I want to find the best way to make the change smooth for my team while durable in the long run, using what exists and working from there. I want to seamlessly make those changes to benefit the team overall.

Overall, I want to drive change that will make a positive and lasting impact while learning how to lead such a big structural change!

Daniel Wing | Formula SAE, Team Lead

My change project focuses on rebuilding a sense of community within my club. Since the club has been almost entirely online over the past three years, it has been difficult to bond with other club members, something we know many of our club members value. As we are hoping to move most of our club activities in-person next year, there is a unique opportunity to help our members form meaningful connections and foster a comfortable environment where members can meet others with common values. This involves focusing on events-based team bonding for our members, and a physical space for our club members.

Gehna Karani (ChemE 2T3 + PEY) | French Club, President

My change project is to create an organization for French enthusiasts that always keeps values of inclusivity and approachability at the forefront of our initiatives. I want to create the foundations of an organization that will be sustainable and will carry on beyond my tenure via encouraging young leadership.

Jasmine Zhang (EngSci MI 2T3) | UofT Ethical Principles in AI Team, President

My change project is to create more accessible and engaging initiatives in EPAI that are available to general members. To create opportunities that appeal to general members - which are usually undergraduate students in engineering/STEM - I want to increase the value that initiatives give to participants. Specifically, I want each initiative to help individuals develop technical and leadership skills while receiving support from EPAI. Part of this process will be expanding EPAI’s partnerships so we have more resources to provide general members as well as restructuring current/past initiatives to be more "valuable".

Jeremy Lim (Mech 2T3 + PEY)| University of Toronto Aerospace Team, Executive Director

My change project is trying to create a unified UTAT through the evaluation of current growth. As our team has expanded throughout the years and grown, I feel the team has also become scattered, especially between our divisions and portfolios who support each division. This disconnect has resulted in decreased productivity and a lack of unification between the various branches of UTAT. By addressing this gap of communication and team culture, I hope to be able to increase team productivity and make the best use of the diverse membership and manpower that we have on our team to do even more amazing work. Ultimately, I want to be able to talk to any UTAT member and for them to be able to tell me about each division and portfolio as well as about how UTAT can help them achieve their goals and aspirations.

Julianne Attai (EngSci 2T3 + PEY) | Frosh, Vice-Chair Leadership

Change project coming soon

Maeesha Biswas (IndE 2T1+1+PEY) | 1% Inspiration Podcast, Founder

My change project involves expanding the originally digitally native work of the 1% Inspiration podcast to broader community building and archiving the active work of the podcast to preserve the stories of U of T engineering students. As students return to campus, and as the creators of the podcast, we graduate, we will set up a succession plan that will allow the recorded stories of engineering students to yield passive impact. We are also focused on gathering direct feedback from listeners, migrating our website to include all of our content and improving accessibility, and organizing a Frosh targeted advice letter-writing campaign.

Maggie Kou (EngSci Physics 2T4) | University of Toronto Aerospace Team, Payload Lead

My change project is about increasing general member presence on the UTAT Space Systems Payload Subsystem. In this case presence refers to attendance, technical learning, contribution to design, and prioritization. As we move back to in-person work, it can feel daunting to jump head-first into a new environment. Especially with a design cycle as long as 5 years, there's a lot of built up knowledge that makes active engagement difficult on the part of general members. I hope to bridge this structural and cultural gap by increasing opportunities for community building, introducing more self-contained iterative projects to combine learning with design progress, and creating more collaborative work environments. I still have a lot to learn in terms of leveraging organization tools to make structural changes but hopefully I'll learn a thing or two from all of you during our time with the ILEAD Fellowship.

Michael Boyadijan (EngSci 2T2 + PEY) | You're Next Career Network, President

Change project coming soon

Samantha Unger (EngSci 2T2 BME) | EngSci Club, President

I want to approach the challenge of inclusion in the EngSci community. My co-chair and I heard from lower year students that they experienced competition with their classmates, making it hard to feel like EngSci is a community. One of our ideas to tackle this is the introduction of a study group program, where we would help students learn how to lead collaborative learning experiences with their peers. Still ironing out if we want to do that specific initiative, but the goal of the project is to tackle the topic of creating an inclusive, positive community more broadly and build the structural frameworks that would support this goal for future years.

Saskia Van Beers (EngSci 2T2 + PEY BME) | Engineers Without Borders, Co-president

My change project is focused on fostering a healthy project-based and mutually-beneficial collaboration between my club, EWB, and a similar values-based organization Trek for Teens to run the operations for the only student-facing Food Bank on campus! My change project is motivated by the belief that these two similarly-positioned organizations have a lot of potential to support the growth of each other’s members that is currently not being acted upon. EWB U of T has 6 portfolio teams which often get siloed off from each other and that often end up working very independently. Through my change project, I envision helping EWB members come together across our portfolios to contribute to one large chapter-wide project (this Food Bank project) and I hope to see our members grow in their ability to see how all of our portfolios are interrelated.

Get to Know Past Cohorts

Fellows 2021

Fellows 2020

Fellows 2019

Fellows 2018

Fellows 2017

Fellows 2016