Student community contributions

Curious what a post-pandemic recovery looks like for youth in Canadian cities? Join us on March 30 for Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Youthful Cities, and Pivot 2020 for their youth-informed panel discussion exploring data-driven solutions for city-based challenges! Featuring speakers from Tamarack Institute, Canadian Urban Institute & Youth Climate Lab.

What are some ideas and solutions to foster a safe and accessible environment, both remotely and in-person? Join us on Wednesday, March 31 for Zooming In: Education in 2021 as we start to think about the future of both online and in-person learning. Although remote learning may ensure student safety, it has also proven to be challenging, stressful, frustrating, and inequitable.

WIL Digital student hire, Megan Mezera and SFU sustainable energy engineering professor, Sami Khan discuss their study on the impact of COVID-19 on remote Canadian communities regarding clean energy, water, and food security.

Tune into the latest episode of SFU’s Innovative Dialogue in Educational Approaches and Scholarship podcast series where doctoral student, Livia Poljak, shares her thoughts on pivoting one’s research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SFU School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) professor, Kate Hennessy, adapted her videography course to meet the new teaching normal during the pandemic. Darya Tyugay, one of her students and director of the documentary called Skate Like A Girl. The film discusses her experience in Vancouver during the pandemic, far from her family in Kazakhstan, and how skateboarding helped her deal with the pandemic and improve her mental health.

Nasopharyngeal swabs have been used for decades to diagnose respiratory infections, including COVID-19. SFU Faculty of Health Sciences PhD students Natalie Kinloch and Aniqa Shahid, who are also research assistants at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, assessed whether rotation of the swab improved the quality of a collected specimen.

Surbhi Ratti, third year SFU Resource and Environmental Management student, saw the increased need for food security initiatives as previously relied-upon organizations were forced to downsize in response to covid-19. Seeing this gap, she spearheaded the Farms to Campus initiative in her home community of Surrey.

Due to COVID-19, the SFU Surrey CEC shut down 21 programs and sent home over 100 volunteers. That’s when dedicated student volunteers and community partners stepped up to the challenge and helped pivot the programs to virtual sessions.

Undergraduate students Carolyn Yip, David Waizel and Nicole Woo launched A Proper Farewell, a non-profit initiative to humanize the pandemic by bringing to light the stories of those who have passed.

To address the financial hardships facing local restaurants while also supporting our healthcare heroes, four students from SFU and UBC have created Feeding Our Frontlines, an online platform where individuals can easily donate a meal from their favourite local restaurant to a worker at a local hospital or long-term care home.

When the call went out that local hospital staff needed COVID-19 supplies, SFU Mechatronics Systems Engineering students were eager to help using the high-tech skills they’ve been learning.