Articles by author: Milica Petkovic

• Congratulations to MA student Rebecca Van Massenhoven

  Thursday, July 06, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Congratulations to current MA student, Rebecca Van Massenhoven who recently won the 2023 Gold Medal for the highly competitive and coveted “National Student and Thought Leadership Awards” offered by the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Institute of Public Administration in Canada (IPAC).

  A joint initiative of CAPPA and IPAC, the National Student and Thought Leadership Awards in Public Administration are a set of two awards that recognize talent in Canadian public administration and policy programs at the regional and national levels. They highlight excellence in public administration and showcase the top talent emerging from Canadian programs each year.

  Winning the awards involves a two-pronged process in which Rebecca had to present her research project to a national panel of judges. As the winner of the competition, Rebecca has been invited to participate in this year’s national IPAC conference, where she will be celebrated as this year’s champion.

  Read about Rebecca in The Brock News.

  Categories: News

• Brock research aims to amplify Indigenous voices amidst housing crisis

  Friday, June 23, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  For Mary Ellen Simon, Indigenous Peoples’ access to safe, affordable housing is an urgent need that goes far beyond economics.

  “Having a place of rest is important,” says the Housing Programs Director at the Niagara Regional Native Centre. “People are still healing; they are just starting to be allowed to learn their own history.

  “Our housing is a part of the Niagara ecosystem,” she says. “We can be at peace and rest and be able to sit with our elders, teachers and knowledge keepers, and we learn about things.”

  Yet, in the face of this great need, Indigenous Peoples encounter many challenges as they seek housing for themselves and their families, says Simon.

  To address the problem, Simon invited Brock Assistant Professors of Political Science Joanne Heritz and her colleague Liam Midzain-Gobin to attend a meeting of the Niagara Indigenous Community Advisory Board.

  “They came to us and just listened,” Simon recalls. “They didn’t pre-plan what they wanted to do, or what their interests and ideas were; they didn’t come with a pre-formed agenda.”

  After much discussion, the group decided research on housing challenges and potential solutions would be most helpful. To support this work, Midzain-Gobin and Heritz applied for, and received, a Brock University Indigenous Research Grant.

  Midzain-Gobin, Heritz and their research assistant Sierra Kiers-Vander Veen partnered with Simon and other members of the Niagara Regional Native Centre on the project “Indigenous Affordable Housing in Niagara.”

  “The impetus for this comes out of a recognition that Indigenous communities and Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by the affordability crisis in housing,” says Midzain-Gobin, adding that “more work needs to be done to engage Indigenous communities” in wider Niagara Region housing and homeless initiatives.

  He refers to the Niagara’s Housing and Homelessness Action Plan’s Five-Year Review, which found that in 2018, Indigenous Peoples accounted for 24.3 per cent of those without a home despite comprising only 2.8 per cent of Niagara Region’s population.

  In the year since they received the grant, the group has formed the Indigenous Housing Advisory Circle (IHAC) consisting of representatives from the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre, Ganawageh & Ohsto:Seri Urban Homes Inc., Niagara Region Métis Council, Niagara Chapter Native Women, and Niagara Regional Native Centre.

  Through a number of sharing circles and meetings, the IHAC has gathered housing experiences from the Indigenous community and discussed subjects ranging from policy gaps in housing, to income levels, to building codes, regional land development policies and decision-making processes in the housing system, among other things.

  This and other information were compiled into a report and presented to the IHAC last December.

  The next step is for the group to create an Indigenous Vision for Housing in Niagara document, which will discuss how to build safe, affordable and culturally appropriate homes in Niagara from an Indigenous sovereignty perspective.

  The document responds to two crises facing Indigenous Peoples in Niagara region: the lack of safe and affordable housing, and colonization, says Heritz.

  She says the project will be based on storytelling and Indigenous philosophies and perspectives and will include a literature review and original research employing document and policy analysis, photovoice, interviews and sharing circles with the Indigenous community in the Niagara region.

  Earlier this year, one initiative that sprang from IHAC discussions was an “Indigenous Housing Re-storying in Niagara” experiential education project offered in two Brock University Political Science courses.

  Students developed policy briefs and recommendations on various local housing challenges after hearing from several Indigenous speakers. The project’s community event held in April involved student policy presentations and roundtable discussions with members of Indigenous communities and the regional government.

  Heritz credits the Indigenous Research Grant with kick-starting an effective, relevant research process.

  “This grant was really helpful in working with Indigenous representatives to determine how they want to move forward on this project,” says Heritz. “It planted the seed for amplifying their voice in securing housing on their terms.”

  Categories: News

• Congratulations Annilea Purser, Spirit of Brock medal recipient

  Wednesday, June 14, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Faculty of Social Sciences graduates Annilea Purser (BA ’23) and Haley Myatt (MA ’23) received Board of Trustees Spirit of Brock medals during the University’s 113^th Convocation on Monday, June 12 for their leadership and inspiring community contributions.

  Purser, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Indigenous Studies, says the Brock community has shaped her as a leader and a citizen.

  “I entered university feeling unsure about myself and what the future would hold for me, but very early on in my first year I learned just how much the Brock community cares about students and of the many opportunities that are available for students to make a difference,” she says. “At Brock, I’ve been able to realize that when you feel safe, welcomed and accepted within an academic institution, you feel comfortable starting conversations with people about your aspirations and how you can achieve them.”

  For Purser, those aspirations included working with colleagues from Brock to reimagine her non-profit organization in 2020. She founded The BookWorm Initiative, which is meant to benefit vulnerable youth, as a high school student in 2017.

  The Bookworm Initiative provided more than 7,000 books to unhoused youths between 2017 and 2022 and purchased schoolbooks for remote communities in Uganda whose learning was disrupted by the pandemic.

  Purser says her time at Brock and in the local community — with the Brock Leaders Citizenship Society, international student mentoring, Brock’s Collegiate Leadership Competition Team, The Brock Press, Upcycle for Change and the Town of Grimsby — helped her build the support network she needed to reimagine her non-profit.

  She also deepened her commitment to equity within education as a student, researcher and research assistant at Brock. Purser’s honours thesis, which examines First Nations self-determined education policy, was influenced by the educational experiences of Indigenous colleagues she met while serving as an inclusion facilitator at the Students Commission of Canada’s national youth conference.

  Read about Haley Myatt here.

  Dean Ingrid Makus says she is inspired by the community-minded spirit shown by both Myatt and Purser.

  “Haley and Annilea used their time at Brock to challenge themselves, to build on their foundations and to expand their sphere of influence in a positive and meaningful way,” says Makus. “Their impact on the Brock community is the result of years of dedication, open-mindedness and courage, and we are delighted to see their remarkable achievements recognized with the Spirit of Brock medal.”

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  Categories: News

• PoliSci Professor Ingrid Makus reappointed Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences

  Wednesday, June 07, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Ingrid Makus will begin her second term as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences on Saturday, July 1.

  She became Dean in 2018 after serving terms as Interim Dean in Social Sciences from 2016 to 2018 and Acting Dean from 2013 to 2014, as well as a term as Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research with the Faculty from 2010 to 2013.

  Makus, who holds a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of Toronto, has also taught in the Department of Political Science for nearly 30 years with research interests in gender and politics, identity politics and rights discourse.

  Since 2018, Makus has led the development of the Faculty’s strategic plan and directed Dean’s Discretionary Funding to support student experiences and innovative research, including special grants for COVID-19 research in the early stages of the global pandemic. The Faculty has also successfully ushered in a BA in Critical Criminology, a BA in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice and a PhD in Sustainability, and launched strategic initiatives such as Women in Leadership and the Faculty’s research symposium series.

  Makus says the achievements of the past five years reflect the dedication and adaptability of an exceptional community of scholars, students, teachers and staff.

  “It has been a privilege to serve the Faculty of Social Sciences these past five years,” she says. “We are now well positioned for continued success as we move forward in addressing the challenges and opportunities outlined in our Faculty and University-wide strategic plans.”

  Categories: News

• PoliSci students working to improve Indigenous housing challenges

  Friday, June 02, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Guided by community insight, Brock University students have been working to help address a range of urban housing challenges faced by Indigenous communities in Niagara.

  Through the “Indigenous Housing Re-storying in Niagara” experiential education project in two Political Science courses — “Indigenous Politics in Canada” and “Issues in Local Government” — students heard from several Indigenous guest speakers and then developed policy briefs and recommendations on various local housing challenges.

  The project culminated in a community event at the Niagara Regional Native Centre on April 11 that featured a traditional lunch, student policy presentations and roundtable discussions with members of Indigenous communities and the regional government.

  The student project grew from discussions in the Indigenous Housing Advisory Circle (IHAC), which was formed via a Brock Indigenous Research Grant to bring together members of the Niagara Indigenous Community Advisory Board with Assistant Professors Joanne Heritz and Liam Midzain-Gobin to explore how Brock research might support Indigenous work around housing in the region.

  When IHAC shared a need for policy analysis, Midzain-Gobin and Heritz saw an opportunity for experiential learning and the re-storying project was born.

  “An important part of this process was getting students to try to understand and engage with the stories and experiences of our guest speakers as a form of knowledge, and then having them take what they learned and translate it into recommendations for future policy,” says Midzain-Gobin.

  Third-year Political Science major Matthew Walker wrote about “Judicial System Barriers to Housing,” examining the links between incarceration and homelessness in Niagara and opportunities to break cycles of homelessness by addressing inequities. He sees the potential for great benefit in “an Indigenous-first approach to solving homelessness and injustice,” but says the whole community needs to engage with solutions.

  “The biggest takeaway from this experience is that there is more work to be done,” says Walker. “The road to reconciliation is a long one, and we need all-hands on deck.”

  Fourth-year Political Science and Sociology student Madison Motyka was inspired by a recent placement at Southridge Shelter to focus her policy brief on land allocation and inclusive housing policy development.

  “In Niagara, Indigenous Peoples make up 2.8 per cent of the general population but almost 25 per cent of the homeless population,” she says. “I wanted to look at how we can ensure the Indigenous population is given their fair share of those builds and that the Indigenous community is consulted about how and where to build them to make sure the housing is inclusive of their culture and practices and makes people feel more at home.”

  Niagara Regional Native Centre Housing Programs Director Mary Ellen Simon, who worked with Heritz, Midzain-Gobin and research assistant Sierra Kiers-Vander Veen to develop and co-ordinate the project from the beginning, says the many topics on which students completed analysis reflects an understanding that “housing and well-being includes more than just four walls and a roof.”

  Heritz found the response among those who attended the event highly positive and encouraging.

  “So much of the housing responsibilities in government rest with the region and there is flexibility within local government to include Indigenous Peoples in policy processes, so it was great to see that when the presentations finished, no one got up and left,” says Heritz.

  Simon also observed ongoing discussion even after the day’s program had ended.

  “There was definitely a lot of relationship-building and acknowledgement of Indigenous programming and Indigenous service providers and the key cultural component of what we do,” says Simon.

  But, she adds, “the learning has just begun.”

  “People can learn a little bit and that little bit can seem like such a lot, because the knowledge base is so low right now,” says Simon. “We need to continue to listen to Indigenous Peoples because they are the experts on what’s going on in our shelters, in our housing, in our interactions with landlords. They’re the ones who know and who will really be able to address what policies need to be changed to solve housing and homelessness issues.”

  Following the presentations, the policy briefs were turned over to the members of the IHAC and their organizations:

  • Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre
  • Ganawageh & Ohsto:Seri Urban Homes Inc.
  • Niagara Region Métis Council
  • Niagara Chapter Native Women
  • Niagara Regional Native Centre

  The briefs will help support Indigenous-led conversations and, as Simon notes, keep the knowledge shared between Indigenous guests and Brock students in community hands.

  The exchange also reflects how reciprocal partnerships can maximize community impact.

  “It really is through projects like this that Brock research can have a concrete impact,” says Midzain-Gobin. “We need to make sure that a partnership is not just extractive on our end, that we build in reciprocity from the beginning and remember that in a true partnership, partners hold each other accountable.”

  Categories: News

• PoliSci master’s student Jordan Isnor named Bethesda Volunteer of the Year

  Thursday, May 11, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Before beginning her Citizens Politics course this winter, Jordan Isnor (BA ’22) had never thought about app development.

  But taking on an experiential education placement with Bethesda, a local not-for-profit organization supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, changed all that.

  As a result, the Political Science master’s student was recently recognized as Bethesda’s Volunteer of the Year for developing a safety app for the organization.

  Margaret Lockhart, Bethesda’s Director of Administrative Services, says Isnor was “invaluable” during her time with the organization.

  “Working with our administration team, Jordan was tasked with reviewing Bethesda’s Business Continuity Plan and Process to identify ways to potentially strengthen and consolidate it,” says Lockhart. “Taking a very innovative approach to the task, Jordan built an app to house this information in a format that our team could continue to utilize and grow. We are so appreciative of the time she dedicated to our organization and are pleased to name her Bethesda’s Volunteer of the Year.”

  Isnor — who had doubts about her idea for an app at the start, especially within the time frame of a seven-week placement — began exploring the possibility on her own time.

  She spoke with experts in Brock ITS and quickly found that she didn’t need a background in programming to develop a useful tool for Bethesda.

  After working through the frustrations of building the app and making it visually appealing, she presented the finished product along with some modules on installation and usage that could be shared with Bethesda staff.

  “The app is very similar to the Brock Safety app, which notifies Brock students and staff of emergencies and events on campus,” says Isnor. “The Bethesda Safety app included subsections that included COVID-19 protocols, emergency contact information, different types of emergencies and how app users will get notified in an emergency.”

  Assistant Professor Joanne Heritz, who taught the fourth-year and master’s-level course in Winter Term, says she was pleased to see Isnor’s work valued by Bethesda.

  Heritz also notes that the structure of the course meant the whole class could gain valuable insight into the work being done for social service organizations and constituency offices in the local community.

  “Students reported back each week on what they were doing, so they were able to articulate in the class what they had done and also listen to what other students’ experiences were,” says Heritz. “All in all, it was very positive for the students to engage with these sponsors, who gave very generously of their time and in return had students working on various projects and bringing a different light into the workplaces and organizations.”

  Isnor says the placement helped her understand the advantages of being creative at work.

  “I think many of us are under the assumption once we enter the workforce that tasks are best completed through rigid approaches, such as report writing,” she says. “Through my placement, I realized I could be equally successful in taking a creative approach, like app-building compared to writing a standard report.”

  “It pays to take risks and push your limits,” she says, encouraging her peers to find classes that offer internships where they can build skills, experience and networks.

  Above all, Isnor is grateful for the award, which she describes as “humbling.”

  “It means the world to me that it was meaningful to them, that I made an impact. I was just doing my job and trying to help out, so I am beyond grateful,” she says.

  Categories: News

• Brock Model UN gets global perspective in NYC

  Tuesday, April 18, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  

  Months of preparation paid off for Brock Model United Nations (BMUN) recently when the student club competed in the annual National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference in New York City.

  BMUN’s 44 delegates represented two countries, Luxembourg and the United States, in a simulated meeting of the UN held April 2 to 6 with thousands of other post-secondary students from around the world. During the four-day conference, delegates discussed global issues and negotiated resolutions related to 16 simulated UN committees, such as the Human Rights Council and Security Council.

  While it was the first time many BMUN members had competed internationally, the group upheld its record of strong performances at the international event. Brock’s Luxembourg delegation placed among the top 10 per cent of schools at the conference, earning a Distinguished Delegation Award. The U.S. delegation earned an Honourable Mention Award for placing in the top 25 per cent of schools.

  “Seeing our delegates flourish just as real diplomats would in their simulated committees was rewarding,” says Tara Shivafard, third-year Political Science student and Co-Secretary General of BMUN. “BMUN is full of future world leaders and thinkers, and I am delighted to see what our delegation will achieve in the future with their NMUN experience.”

  BMUN members worked towards NMUN throughout the academic year, researching their assigned countries and developing the skills they’ll need to compete at the conference.

  “NMUN is an incredible experience, as it allows our delegates to develop skills in so many areas,” says BMUN Co-Secretary General Lauren Araujo, a third-year Political Science and English student. “They begin preparation for the conference with thorough research and review of their country’s policy. At the conference, they engage in public speaking, debate, collaboration and writing skills.”

  Araujo has taken part in NMUN since starting at Brock and says she learns something new from the experience every year.

  The skills developed by BMUN members reflect those needed in real-world political environments, says Blayne Haggart, BMUN’s faculty advisor and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science.

  “Through model UN, students learn about how politics works. And not just politics, but constructive politics,” he says. “They also learn about the world around them and how to work with people who have different views and objectives from their own.”

  Developing intercultural fluency skills by working with students from around the world, who are often interested in similar fields, is one of the benefits of participating in NMUN, say Araujo and Shivafard.

  Haggart credits BMUN’s leadership team and the dedication of its members for the group’s impressive record of success at NMUN. He says that Brock’s team is unusual among post-secondary model UN teams in being entirely organized and run by students.

  “The whole team is absolutely remarkable. They prepare themselves so well for this, and then they get down there and shine,” he says. “I would put them against any students in the world. They’re capable, they’re engaged, they’re smart and they’re up for interesting challenges.”

  BMUN was able to attend the conference this year through member fundraising as well funding from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Brock University Students’ Union.

  Categories: Events, News

• Collective action among Indigenous peoples in Latin America the focus of new book

  Friday, March 31, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  Pascal Lupien was about to wrap up a three-year, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded project on Indigenous activists’ use of digital media in Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia when a wave of large-scale protests broke out in 2019.

  The Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, along with a team of local and Indigenous research assistants, seized the opportunity to see how the uprisings, which rivalled in scale historic decolonization protests in the 1990s and early 2000s, might fit in with findings on how Indigenous groups were using new technologies, existing technologies and the structures and foundations of their civil society to assert land rights and political autonomy.

  The last-minute extension of the research program helped inform Lupien’s latest book, Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age, published by the University of North Carolina Press this week.

  

  Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age was published by the University of North Carolina Press.

  “In the 1990s and early 2000s, Indigenous civil society in these countries really managed to have a significant impact on policy and legislation, even some constitutional reform,” says Lupien. “In the years after that, there was a lot still going on, but instead of visible, disruptive types of protest movements, the organizations and leaders were involved in the policy process and putting pressure on the government by building on the experience and the concessions gained in the previous period.”

  Lupien, who looked at participatory democracy in some of the same communities for his 2018 book, Citizens’ Power in Latin America: Theory and Practice, became curious about how the digital age was coming into play through the 2010s.

  “Because so much of the attention to Indigenous social movements in Latin America focused on that late 20th-century and very early 21st-century period, we didn’t know a whole lot about the impact of digital technologies and particularly social media,” he says. “But a lot of the literature tells us that protest and collective action is increasingly moving online.”

  However, the notion that social media could be an ideal site for resistance did not necessarily line up with what Lupien and his team observed in the communities they were engaged with.

  As the broad general optimism around the potential of social media for marginalized groups began to fade, the researchers were already finding that governments and corporations could limit the effectiveness of what some had believed might be a field-levelling technology.

  “We found that social media is not particularly helpful for Indigenous organizations, and that it can and is often used against them,” Lupien says. “Most of the Indigenous organizations don’t have the resources to hire the kinds of specialists that extractive industry companies or the government can, or spend a lot of money to circulate misinformation all day.”

  In fact, as Lupien outlines in the book, the reliance of Indigenous civil societies on the complex and robust mechanisms already in place in their communities — rather than on an ever-shifting landscape of digital technologies — is likely beneficial.

  “Indigenous civil society has so many complex, structured and very deliberate elements — social movement organizations that engage in protests, co-ops that sell products in order to raise revenue to fund engagement in politics, service-providing organizations offering services that the state fails to provide and other Indigenous participatory democracy governance mechanisms,” says Lupien. “In the book, I argue that the fact that Indigenous civil society doesn’t really have to rely on social media or new technologies is actually a strength. They can and do use it, but their success in advancing their goals doesn’t rely on it.”

  To learn more about Lupien’s new book, visit the University of North Carolina Press website.

  Categories: News

• PoliSci student returns from United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

  Monday, March 27, 2023 | By Milica Petkovic

  

  Muskaan Waraich returned from the 67th annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67), which took place in New York City from March 6 to 17.

  The second-year student, who is studying a double-major in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, travelled as part of a delegation for Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), a non-profit organization for which she volunteers, with financial support from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

  But Waraich says her journey to the United Nations (UN) headquarters last week actually began last September when she attended Camp 2030, a global gathering of youth leaders hosted by UNITE 2030 to innovate around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

  “Through Camp 2030, I had the chance to learn about the United Nations International Organization, including the CSW and how it could be helpful in developing my current projects working toward the SDG 2030 Agenda,” she says.

  Waraich began researching organizations that might be sending delegations and made a strong connection with VOW back in the fall.

  “Their goals aligned with mine because they’re Canada’s oldest national feminist peace group,” she says. “They’re nonpartisan and nonprofit, working towards women’s equal opportunity and having women’s voices heard on a local, national and international level on issues concerning peace.”

  Waraich’s experience at CSW67 began with a session held by a panel of Canadians including Senator Marilou McPhedran to help prepare young participants to best engage in the conference by offering advice and tips.

  Then followed several days of conference sessions on topics related to the theme of “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”

  Waraich, who works as a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Peer Mentor in Human Rights and Equity at Brock, was particularly interested in many of the connections between technology, education and GBV.

  But her commitment to the SDGs came into full view during the event, as well.  

  “I’m very passionate about gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, and it is important to understand barriers such as lack of access to education, poverty, gender-based violence, climate change and discrimination — these are all factors working against gender equality,” she says. “Through the whole CSW, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is the importance of how each SDG intersects with another and all must work together in order to achieve gender equality for all women and girls.”

  Dean Ingrid Makus in the Faculty of Social Sciences was thrilled to hear that Waraich would attend CSW67.

  “We in the Faculty were delighted to learn that Muskaan had taken the initiative and found an opportunity to attend such a significant event with global impact,” says Makus. “We are now excited to have her bring this experience and learning back to our community here at Brock.”

  Waraich says that her experience has left her with strong hopes that others will seek out opportunities to get involved in working toward change, be it in their own communities, mobilizing on behalf of marginalized groups or taking part in global efforts.

  “I don’t think I’m special — anyone can get involved, and everyone needs to be involved with the Sustainable Development Goals, because they aren’t just one individual effort,” she says. “We can all take steps, develop projects, receive grants and find opportunities for youth. This is our world, our planet, and many scary things are happening around the world but this conference reminded me that there is still change possible.”

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  Categories: News

• Students in Machinery of Government course, taught by Assistant Professor Joanne Heritz, share transportation research with MTO

  Monday, December 19, 2022 | By Milica Petkovic

  Brock University students spent the fall researching transportation challenges in Ontario before sharing their findings with government officials.

  Two representatives from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) recently attended presentations by students in the fourth-year Machinery of Government course.

  Students in the class, taught by Assistant Professor Joanne Heritz in the Department of Political Science, completed a multi-faceted experiential education project by researching topics of relevance to the MTO and ultimately presenting their findings orally and in writing.

  Four groups covered issues around electric vehicle policy, speed and road safety, light rail transportation and transit equity, including the need for equity training of workers making public transit decisions.

  “These are key challenges in the area of transportation, so it was nice that students were able to do these projects so enthusiastically,” says Heritz. “They took a genuine interest in the topics they were researching, learned about transportation around the world and how policy lessons can be applied, and then acted in an advisory capacity by sharing their research.”

  The project kicked off in early September when the local MTO office hosted the students for a tour and presentations by four ministry representatives about various aspects of their work.

  Shortly after, the class was visited by Rebecca Van Massenhoven (BA ’22), who took part in the same course and presented to the MTO last year.

  “I gained a lot of experience that translated into making my resumé competitive, which was something that I never expected coming into the class or working through the project,” says Van Massenhoven.

  With support from Brock’s Centre for Pedagogical Innovation, Van Massenhoven learned to describe her experience in job application materials and quickly landed a summer internship as a student researcher for the Ontario Cabinet Office. Her supervisor later confirmed that her experience completing research for the MTO was one of the reasons she secured the role.

  “The position gave me the opportunity to do some more research for the government, and I felt secure in taking that on because I was able to translate a lot of the skills from class into my internship,” says Van Massenhoven, who is now completing a master’s degree at Brock in Political Science.

  She also says the course helped her understand how the research skills she developed in her degree are integral to making changes in the world, which has influenced her current graduate research project.

  “The course made me aware of what research does and can do,” she says. “There are opportunities to do research that has impact, beginning as an undergraduate and continuing into my graduate studies.”

  Noah Barron, a fourth-year Political Science major, was part of the group who tackled the issue of transit equity in their research this semester.

  “In particular, we looked at cases abroad that emphasized important policy mechanisms that bridged the gap between marginalized groups and equitable transit access,” he says.

  Barron adds that presenting to MTO officials added a layer of “intensity” to the project and drew out the best efforts of all of his group members.

  “Professor Heritz’s willingness to incorporate real-life experience with our theoretical learning has been extremely important for our professional growth,” he says.

  Heritz, who supported the students as they rehearsed their presentations and asked them practice questions to ensure they felt prepared, says it is exciting to see students rise to the challenge of making professional research presentations.

  “It’s a transformative moment when the students take their education and what they learn and the tools they’ve acquired and use them to present their research outside the Brock community,” she says.

  Project and Change Management Agent Taras Sakač and Young Business Professional Somnath Srinath, also currently a graduate co-op student in Goodman School of Business at Brock, attended the student presentations on behalf of the MTO.

  Sakač describes working with Heritz to help students learn about the “broad scope of MTO’s mandate” — as well as hearing their final presentations, which he says “highlighted many pertinent transportation-related topics, including equity, safety, emerging technologies and public transportation” — as rewarding.

  “In my opinion, collectively, the presentations confirm the need for the province to continue strengthening existing partnerships with the federal and municipal levels of government and external stakeholders so that we can more effectively address the diverse needs of our communities,” says Sakač.

  Special thanks are due to Sakač and the MTO team who made this engagement possible:

  • Lance Crossley, Project and Change Management Agent, Strategy, Improvement and Innovation Branch
  • Michelle McGrath, Manager, Contract Management Office
  • Michael Glinka, Team Lead, Environmental Policy Office
  • Sandra Bailey, Head, Concession Services Section
  • Somnath Srinath, Young Business Professional, Strategy Improvement and Innovation Branch
  • Lucie Drabinova, Manager, Planning and Transformation

  Categories: News