For Paige Martin, recreation is a tool to fight loneliness and build inclusion. Through the Growing Community Sport project, Martin participates in curling club leagues and events and conducts interviews and surveys. Her work examines how welcoming the club feels, who joins, who stays — and what might be preventing others from participating.
Aging, Health and Well-being PhD student, Erica MacTavish, knows people living with dementia and other disabilities often don’t have their voices heard in research. She is exploring non-verbal ways in which those with dementia may communicate and tell stories, including facial expressions, body language, film and art.
Taylor's research includes a studio collaboration to give people living with dementia the opportunity to record music professionally, offering them a platform to share their stories and defy stereotypes
Recreation and Leisure Studies master’s thesis student Peggy Vacalopoulos, after a 25-year career in hospitality, returned to the University of Waterloo, where her award-winning research on frontline restaurant staff during the pandemic earned her prestigious scholarships and recognition in regenerative tourism.
Recreation and Leisure Studies master's thesis student Marcus Thomas Pereira focuses on gentrification and its implications for Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood.
Recreation and Leisure Studies master's thesis student CJ Cargill shares her research interests focused on the impact of unprocessed grief on racialized health-care workers.
Growing up on a Caribbean Island, it was always interesting to Karin Browne that - for a place surrounded by water - it was apparent to her that few people were competent swimmers. Inspired by this and her love for swimming, Karin's Master of Arts Recreation and Leisure Studies work and research involves increasing access to aquatic programs for BIPOC populations.
Influenced by her own experiences as a community-based female coach, Haley Baxter's research investigates the experiences of women and girls as volunteers in the community sport context.
Supporting a close friend who was going through a separation and divorce in her late 20s inspired Bronwen Valtchanov to find out more about research and resources for women in similar situations. Bronwen discovered that there were very few social supports and academic literature on the subject. It became the focus of her PhD Recreation and Leisure Studies research.
Arany Sivasubramaniam has always had a passion for health care. For as long as she can remember being able to help people has always been something that she cares about. Now enrolled as a PhD Aging, Health and Well-being student her research is looking at how to abolish the medical industrial complex by looking at the experiences of the BIPOC community.