Spotlight: EWB Toronto Pro & Water for the World
Engineers Without Borders Canada unites students and professionals, fostering growth in knowledge and leadership to address urgent global and local challenges. Our Engineering/STEM Chapter Members drive social change within their communities and institutions across Canada, from grassroots initiatives to influencing government policies, effecting change at every level. Currently, we work with 30+ chapters, comprising more than 1000 students in the country and in this month’s spotlight, we are excited to highlight the success of the EWB Toronto Professional Chapter’s Water for the World initiative!
Canada holds 20 percent of the globe’s freshwater reserves, holding significant sway in global water resource management. Therefore, it is imperative that the upcoming generation of Canadians is adequately prepared to confront the world’s water-related issues. The Engineers Without Borders’ Water for the World (W4TW) initiative by the Toronto Professional Chapter, seeks to instill a practical mindset to foster the development of leaders capable of effecting systemic change. Throughout the school year, Water for the World works with educators to teach students in grades 7 to 12, about global water issues through an interactive exercise.
It was certainly a challenge for the Toronto Professional Chapter to revive the Water for the World initiative after the pandemic since relationships with schools had to be rebuilt, but these connections were made through a few creative avenues. The Co-Leads of the W4TW, Samantha LeValley and Adriana Diaz Lozano Patino discussed potential opportunities with Engineers in Residence who had strong links at their host schools and John Atherton, the Chapter President spoke with enthusiastic teachers at a National Engineering Month convention.
Thanks to the hard work put in by the team at the Toronto Professional Chapter, this year, since late March, Engineers Without Borders’ Water for the World initiative has been taking off, being incredibly successful to amp up students’ awareness about water scarcity and how they can engage with this issue.
The Toronto Professional Chapter’s goal was to deliver 20-30 workshops and they are going strong, having already completed 17 workshops with many more to come! There are many key highlights that the students took away from the workshops. Students are more excited than ever to engage with their communities and want to be introduced to more volunteer opportunities. They were curious about which careers they could go into to make a difference and wanted to speak to someone already in the field. Finally, they liked that the workshop allowed them to be creative and that there was no cut and dry solution to water scarcity. Overall, students rated the workshop a 4.7/5!
The Toronto Professional Chapter is so proud of their volunteers and are looking forward to hosting more workshops in the upcoming months! Engineers without Borders congratulates the Toronto Professional Chapter on the success of their initiative that works to create systemic change by encouraging community-driven collaboration and leveraging technological innovations like engineering to address global challenges to create a sustainable world and wishes the Toronto Professional Chapter the best of luck with the rest of the workshops!
Interested?
Read more about the Toronto Professional Chapter’s Water for the World here, and if you wish to become a volunteer or host a workshop, please email topro.w4tw@chapter.ewb.ca.
