Session 1 of a weekly webinar series showcasing students’ engaged research, virtual simulations, social impact and creative projects.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

11am – 12:30pm

Presenter Bios

Sydney has a passion for research and has been involved in political organizing, feminist advocacy and LGBT community support in Toronto since her early teens. As a School of Cities Fellow she is excited to be exploring how the experience of COVID-19’s collapsed spatiality of life into the home space has been gendered. She is also learning about food justice through her work on the outreach steering team for the Good Neighbour Project and through co-facilitating a garden for foodbanks in currently unused public space. Previously, Sydney completed a two-year research project assessing the impact of government policy on the health of Indigenous sex workers, which has recently been selected as the 2020 Kiessling Paper by the Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict & Justice at the Munk School of Global Affairs. She looks forward to pursuing further study, research, and work related to issues of gender justice, community resilience and disaster mitigation, especially through the lens of  the social determinants of health and urban/regional planning.

Minh Anh Nguyen Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Asian Studies and Political Science

Mia Nguyen is currently the Co-President of the Contemporary Asian Studies Student Union (CASSU). As a research award recipient for the Insight through Asia Challenge 2019, supported by the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Mia travelled to Israel and investigated the reproductive rights and citizenship status of Filipino caregivers and their Israeli-born children. In addition, Mia had the opportunity to intern at Ernst and Young in Manila, where she worked on public sector projects related to the development of national and municipal strategies for Smart Cities, Smart-Climate Urban Infrastructure and Smart Farming. 

Tzu Chen Wang Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health

Tzu Chen moved to Canada when he was in grade 9 and is an undergraduate student at U of T with a strong passion in learning and education. His journey in teaching started when he was in grade 8 when he was given the opportunity to teach basic English to children from low-income families in Taiwan. It was in grade 10 when he started volunteering at an NGO that welcomes newcomers and refugees; this opportunity has allowed him to meet people from all over the world and made him realize that education is more than just teaching what’s on the textbooks. It was then when he started trying all kinds of new things such as volunteering at various cultural centres, joining various student clubs, researching at the coroner’s office, and launching his own startup.