Creativity. Technology. Business.

Naimah Venezia (BGBDA ’25) began her entrepreneurial journey at age seven, inspired by her brother and the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” She founded CoinWa, a gamified financial literacy app for teens, to make financial education fun and accessible. The Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) program at the University of Waterloo equipped her with essential skills in business, technology, and design. Through the E-Co-op program, Naimah developed CoinWa with support from mentors and employed fellow students. As she graduates, Naimah aims to enhance financial literacy among young people, preparing them for future financial success.

Researchers at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business challenge the belief that Virtual Reality (VR) inherently fosters perspective-taking in their article, “Seeing Is Not Thinking: Testing capabilities of VR to Promote Perspective-Taking.” They argue that VR's potential as an "empathy machine" relies on intentional design that promotes active cognitive engagement. Through experiments, they found that perspective-taking is enhanced when users are prompted with specific tasks, encouraging them to consider the character's viewpoint. This study, which received the Best Paper Award at IEEE VR, underscores the importance of purposeful VR design to effectively harness its empathetic capabilities.

Because of the Stratford School Student Initiatives Fund supporting student-led activities, Gaurav was able to grow as a leader and community builder, whether it was through coding for a local non-profit or reviving the GBDA On Air podcast to reach incoming students.

Learn more about the Stratford School Student Initiatives Fund, and join us on May 15th for Giving Day, encouraging donations to support educational initiatives.