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Samantha Estoesta (She/her) (Honours BA '13) is an equity in innovation advocate, a design thinking facilitator, a product manager and a mother. With over a decade of experience in equity, diversity, and inclusion advocacy, she centers her efforts on creating experiences that elicit a sense of belonging. She has been at TD since 2017, exploring ways to infuse equitable decisions into innovation processes, leading to her promotion as Project Manager, Social Innovation Specialization in 2022.

In a future that promises opportunity and waves of disruption, which skills will great leaders need to achieve their goals?  

Leadership expert Rose M. Patten addressed this question in an armchair chat at the University of Waterloo on March 1, 2023. The Special Advisor to the CEO of BMO Financial Group and Chancellor of the University of Toronto shared her insights in a discussion of her new book, Intentional Leadership: The Big 8 Capabilities Setting Leaders Apart. 

To this day, I remember writing, “for the record, I’m not a feminist” on a second-year Canadian history exam. It was 2007 and I was 20 years old, studying a double major in history (later to be switched to political science) and English at the University of Waterloo.

SDG Week Canada is a country-wide collaboration from March 6 to 10, with more than 50 campuses across the country hosting events. The initiative encourages cross-disciplinary engagement with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Around the world it is estimated that 1.8 billion people menstruate every month according to UNICEF. Yet menstrual equality, period poverty and the stigma surrounding periods continues to create barriers for those who bleed.

Waterloo’s globally recognized startup program Velocity launched an initiative that aims to help new companies in the health-tech sector access funding and get products and services in the hands of those who need them.

The initiative – Velocity Health – was officially launched at a kickoff event at the University of Waterloo. The latest stream of the Velocity suite of platforms was created to address the key challenges health-tech startups face.

Born and raised in Kitchener-Waterloo, Kemahee Baker (BA’ 17) is a multi-talented artist and dancer, whose creative output is heavily influenced by her culture, music and her personal commitment to celebrating the achievements of Black people.

When local community leaders founded the University of Waterloo in 1957, they introduced an unconventional approach to education that merged academic and research excellence work with work-integrated learning. Over the past 66 years, Waterloo Engineering has delivered on this mission to attract and bring together top student talent, industry-leading employers and world-renowned faculty members.

Eden Mekonen is a career advisor at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Career Action (CCA), and one of two harassment advisors who are working with students to help them identify career paths and make decisions.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 as part of a strategy to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The SDGs cover a range of areas, such as poverty, health, education, gender equality and climate action.

The University of Waterloo is marking SDG Week, March 6 to 10, with a series of events.