Tina, who is now pursuing a Master’s degree in UWaterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems, credits GreenHouse with helping her understand how to “go beyond dreaming to know what is actually needed to make change.”
PASS, the social enterprise Tina started during her time at GreenHouse — which makes and distributes mental health first aid kits — continues today as a largely self-sustaining enterprise even while Tina’s primary energies are spent on her studies. (For example, this fall, AHS purchased PASS Kits for all 735 first-year AHS students.) Tina’s studies also relate to her enterprise, as she is focusing on the possibilities for gamification to benefit mental health.
“At GreenHouse, I also learned a lot of skills that have been really helpful in my graduate studies,” Tina says, listing presentation and research skills, time management and “approaching people I would not normally ask for help” among useful skills.
This last skill has been of particular value to Tina as she is already well connected within the networks she needs for her graduate work.
She also appreciates the personal and professional relationships she made through GreenHouse, including good friends and mentors.
“I still want to change the world,” Tina says. “Exactly how I do it depends on what I learn in the next few years.”
Counter-clockwise: Tina and various evolutions of her PASS Kit.