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Experiential learning is empowering �첥��Ƶ students to use their skills to address urgent community challenges and support those facing social inequities.

For �첥��Ƶ student Sadia Tasnim, that moment came while completing her second co-op work term at Food Banks Mississauga as a data administrator. During a shift, Tasnim encountered a client asking for menstrual products. The food bank, however, didn’t have any available.

“I felt terrible that I could not help her in that moment,” says Tasnim, an international student from Bangladesh who struggled with the idea of women who do not have access to essential products.

Tasnim knew her expertise in data science could help the organization respond to this need. Through her studies at the Faculty of Science, she has become adept at gathering, interpreting and presenting data – including using statistical methods, computational skills and data analysis techniques – and wants to apply that knowledge to create positive change.

“At York, I’ve learned a variety of unconventional ways to extract and organize data,” says Tasnim, a fourth-year student. “It’s important to me to use this skill for a meaningful purpose.”

During her Fall 2025 placement at Food Banks Mississauga, Tasnim worked on the agency relations team, helping to coordinate organizations that distribute food and essential items to roughly half a million visitors per year. When she was asked to analyze the organization’s historical data on female clients between the ages of 18 to 55 in response to the gap in feminine hygiene products available, she was thrilled.

She drafted a report of her findings, which was shared with Food Banks Canada – the parent organization that provides supplies to community sites. Tasnim says it was rewarding to see her data analysis shared with decision makers and help make a meaningful impact.

“That is what pushed me to take on this project – making sure this need gets met,” says Tasnim.

Addressing real-world challenges has long been a priority for Tasnim. As a teen, she co-founded her own environmental non-profit to plant trees in her home city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to improve its air quality. She also volunteered for a social enterprise that delivers clean drinking water to underserved rural communities.

Thinking about her future, Tasnim is considering career roles in social finance – an investing approach that centres societal and environmental impact.

“I believe we have to use our talents for humanitarian causes,” Tasnim says. “Data can help drive smart decision-making in these important matters.”

For Daisy Dang, a fourth-year environmental studies student, housing access is the issue that drives her commitment to work for change. She is completing a full-time paid co-op placement at the Toronto Region Real Estate Board (TRREB), a non-profit organization serving 70,000 realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.

In her role as a policy analyst in TRREB’s government relations unit, she contributed to the organization’s 2026 Market Outlook and Year in Review event. As part of that work, she conducted extensive research on the efficacy of the current private and rental housing supply in the city. She also gathered data on trends and metrics related to housing affordability, residential zoning practices and homelessness.

“There’s a need for a greater variety of the right types of housing and more density,” Dang says. “We should be building more up than outwards and building more units with two and three bedrooms.”

As a student at York’s in the Cities, Regions, Planning (CRP) program, Dang is well-positioned to understand and address Toronto’s diverse urban planning challenges. This interdisciplinary program teaches sustainable, inclusive practices to manage growth, adapt infrastructure, welcome newcomers and mitigate environmental impacts. She has critically examined urban planning through courses exploring sustainable design, regional governance, migration patterns and political ecology.

Dang is also applying her growing knowledge at TRREB in other ways. A core part of her job involves researching housing-related programs offered by the municipal, provincial and federal governments to include as resources on the organization’s website. Her research also helps shape TRREB’s advocacy responses in its interactions with government representatives.

Through her combined co-op and academic experiences, Dang has a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics driving urbanization in Toronto and is particularly interested in its impacts on residents who live at the margins of society.

After completing her degree in 2027, she hopes to support municipal government decision-making in addressing housing issues affecting the unhoused and low-income citizens.

“I think a city works when you put people first,” Dang says.

With files from Sharon Aschaiek

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