MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

U of T Student Leadership Award recipients reflect on their time at Innis

BY MICHELLE ZHANG (HBA ’21 INNIS, URBAN STUDIES)

Eva Gajic

Years ago, I talked for hours with a student I was mentoring about how to overcome her struggles adapting to university. She later told me that our talk had encouraged her to start making friends, change career paths, and finally enjoy university. I’ll never forget that moment—when I realized how far a bit of compassion can go.

Lucas Granger

It is hard to choose just one moment or event that I’ll never forget. Something that has left a lasting impact on me has been seeing the friendly faces of my friends, colleagues, and fellow residents while I was working at the Innis Residence front desk. Everyone made an effort to be part of a large and welcoming college community, and I was so happy to be part of that every day.

Paul Kaita

I never expected that I would be one to lead Innis College during the annual parade at Orientation Week. Shouting "Innis loves you" down Bloor Street and being incredibly proud of all my team’s accomplishments was extremely rewarding. In that unexpected moment, I realized I was no longer this shy and quiet architecture student, but a passionate and confident leader who could accomplish anything I put my mind to.

Jasmine Kara

Over the five years I studied and worked at Innis, I formed relationships with staff, students, alumni, and donors through college events. I’m also proud that, as the online editor and social media coordinator for The Innis Herald, I revamped the paper’s social media strategy and increased engagement by 200 per cent.

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice, upon being asked who she is, replies, "I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."

Like Alice, many of us have grown, changed, and taken many unexpected turns over the past few years. I asked my fellow 2021 U of T Student Leadership Award (UTSLA) recipients, “Looking back at your time at Innis, what is one impactful moment you will always remember?”

Breanna Lima Martinez

Looking back, my first day of Orientation was not only my introduction to Innis life, but it also set me on a path that would impact my whole university experience. I was recruited to ICSS that day, which allowed me to make many lifelong friends and have the opportunity to make a greater impact on the Innis community than I ever thought possible.

Megan Pham-Quan

The Innis community has challenged and shaped me in so many ways. One particularly impactful moment was the day of the Resistance Art Gala that I co-hosted with Michelle Zhang. We spent weeks agonizing over floor plans and honorariums, and to see it materialize inspired me to keep creating.

Hayley Vlcek

One of the most impactful moments I will always remember is last year’s Commuter/International Orientation. My coexecutives and I poured months of work into this event. Bearing witness to the establishment of new connections and a sense of community—despite the physical distance—was incredibly rewarding.

Michelle Zhang

I remember standing on the rooftop during the Orientation boat cruise, watching a new generation of Innisians burst into a throwback song. Our team had spent the day preparing: wrangling buses, untangling fairy lights, and catastrophizing about thunderstorms. Lightning did flash, but no rain fell. We were once strangers on a boat, and now here we were defying weather together!