Eight years of Map the System: Insights from Previous Participants

For the past eight years, the Grebel Peace Incubator has coordinated the Map the System research competition at the University of Waterloo. Through this experience, students have strengthened their analytical, communication, and networking skills, ultimately advancing their ability to understand some of the world’s most complex problems. In this article, four previous participants share more about their experience and how they navigated the intricacies of systems research.  

Sol (Cindy Qiu), a Social Development Studies student, was seeing more and more countries struggling with climate change, and asked “Why is no action being taken?” Researching this question for Map the System 2025 led her to explore the attitude-behaviour gap in climate action. 

Sol: 

"Although the majority of young people (approximately 80-90%) report caring about climate change and recognize it as an urgent and worsening crisis, it’s often hard to engage them in climate action. I’ve worked in federal climate policy, delivered environmental education for K-12 students, and planned climate-related events on campus. Through these experiences, I noticed how hard it is to build long-term engagement in sustainable behaviours, and people have a limited understanding of what they can do to help our planet. I wondered why people only thought of climate action such as recycling, eating less meat, or buying second-hand, and often overlooked collective actions such as writing to their Member of Parliamnent, volunteering for a local organization, or participating in advocacy campaigns. 

I uncovered that there are various intersecting system-level factors that act as barriers to climate action. For example, because our society is organized around profit-oriented reward structures, economic gain is prioritized over environmental protection, and climate action often comes with personal burdens like high costs, time-consuming or radical lifestyle shifts without financial incentives. These limiting factors are often interconnected, further complicating the problem. Overall, I formed a stronger understanding of a problem I cared about but lacked knowledge on. 

Previously, I had a more simplistic view of climate change, believing that the solution was to simply raise awareness to motivate people and corporations towards reducing their environmental impact. This experience changed my worldview as I formed a realization that climate change is beyond scientific facts or corporate denial. It is a complex, multi-system problem that is deeply ingrained in our social fabric and perpetuated by our public institutions, such as schools and the media. With a better understanding of the complex systems perpetuating the climate crisis, Map the System inspired me to focus on one area where I can have the biggest influence.  

So, I started a group called GrassrootsKW to focus on community building to inspire youth climate action. I applied what I learned from Map the System to put together grant applications for the project, receiving funding from the City of Kitchener’s Bloomberg Youth Climate Action Fund to continue research on increasing youth engagement in climate action. Map the System inspired me to continue learning more about the system-level social factors perpetuating the climate crisis, and I am currently applying to post-graduate programs in this area."

Mya Nantambu was also motivated to focus on youth and what is holding them back from academic success. Along with her teammates, Vanessa Young-Dede and Femi Adedayo, Mya took on a challenge proposed by Peace for All Canada and placed second in the 2025 Campus Finals at UWaterloo. Their research looked at the barriers in the provincial education system, specifically at the elementary level, that make success difficult for racialized students. 

Mya: 

"Initially, I was interested in learning about educational disparities within Ontario. I wanted to identify what factors allow some communities in Ontario to excel, while other communities may fall behind. Being matched with Vanessa and Femi, my teammates, was a fantastic opportunity to learn about the experience of newcomer students in Ontario. This focus pushed me to think outside of my own experiences, strengthening my advocacy skills.  

My research revealed how education is influenced by personal and structural issues within and outside the school system. Many newcomer students and their families rely on community support. Furthermore, the historical legacy of the Ontario education system has depleted its resources, giving less to students and educators. All in all, addressing gaps in education must be all encompassing, supporting students in every area of their lives.  

Participating in Map the System has shown me how different disciplines/fields are interconnected. As a planning student, I realize how city planning can result in a poor educational experience such as a lack of community spaces for youth. This experience urges me to be thoughtful about how I approach my academics and future career, realizing that the impact of my work goes beyond planning. But most importantly, Map the System has shown me that any one of us can be a changemaker, regardless of our backgrounds."

Similarly, Fiona Li conducted her research on complex systemic barriers within Canada: the overrepresentation of Indigenous women in Canadian prisons. Fiona – now a graduate of the Master of Peace and Conflict Studies program – participated in Map the System in 2024, winning Campus Finals and placing second in the Canadian Finals. 

Fiona:  

"When Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) presented the challenge of why there are so many Indigenous women in Canadian prisons, it caught my attention because I just completed a project on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in one of my classes. I also have an interest in restorative justice and finding alternatives to prison and punishment, as well as a growing understanding of the reconciliation journey Canada is on. This challenge fit right with what I'm interested in learning about.  

I first thought it was a problem in the legal system, but the more I researched, I found out that it was a much deeper issue with how Canadian society has been setting up policies to specifically target Indigenous Peoples for assimilation and eradication, and how all the policies are interconnected. I learned colonialism is still an ongoing reality for many Indigenous women because the systems that were set up to put them at a disadvantage at all walks of life are still in place, and so their high incarceration rates reflect that these colonial systems are actually not broken – they are grinding on as intended.  

My interest in Indigenous justice grew as I did the research, and professionally it has also led to my role now at MCC. My research has continued into an educational experiential activity that we just started rolling out in the community. Personally, it has also helped me see policies in a decolonial and systems thinking way. When I encounter news about homelessness, or a crime in the community, I start to ask questions like "What may be the systemic barriers that barred this individual from thriving in life?", and "Who is benefitting from the status quo and how does this explain why change is hard to bring?".   

While other participants explored systemic challenges closer to home, Gabriel Jabile’s work took him across the world and likewise shifted his view on colonization. Gabriel, a Biomedical Engineering student, participated in the competition in 2025 where he won campus finals and later went on to win national finals, landing him the opportunity to go to the University of Oxford in England to compete at a global level. Gabriel’s research topic focused on understanding livestock disease outbreaks in Uganda. Gabriel went beyond looking at papers found online, spending a few months in Uganda to encounter the issue in the field.  

Gabriel:  

"I first learned of the problem of livestock disease outbreaks in Uganda while completing an internship with Engineers Without Borders. Despite decades of disease outbreaks and billions of governments and NGO funding pouring into Uganda’s livestock agriculture sector, Ugandan farmers lose millions of dollars from livestock losses. As an engineering student, I’ve been trained to solve problems with technology alone. However, talking to farmers and animal health workers on the ground, I realized this problem was much more systemic and complex than I had initially thought. I decided to participate in Map the System to learn how to use a systems thinking lens to investigate the structural, social, and governance barriers underlying this problem.  

Mapping the system of livestock disease outbreaks in Uganda showed me this problem was so much deeper than simply farmers using the wrong drug or not having the correct medicine for their animals. I learned how Uganda’s colonial legacy, the exclusion of Indigenous knowledge, and sociopolitical dynamics have all contributed to weak animal healthcare systems and farmer mistrust, ultimately leading to disease outbreaks.   

My Map the System experience has deeply shaped my worldview and the way I approach the complex, social problems I hope to solve. Studying engineering and economics has taught me to understand problems through data and research models. But understanding the farmers’ lived experiences by living with them on their farms and talking to them in their homes has taught me more about the complexities of this problem space than any report ever could. I’ve also learned that the people closest to the problem often hold the best insights – they’re not just victims,; they’re experts in their own right. As I continue my professional and academic journey, I hope to center the voices of those with lived experience of the problems I aim to solve at the core of my work."

Map the System has shown year after year just how impactful doing systems research can be. Gabriel, Mya, Fiona, and Sol are just a few examples of this. The competition offers students a space to not only improve their academic skills but express their concerns by choosing topics that truly resonate with them. The four past participants share these words of advice to those who are considering joining the competition: