At the TRP our goal is not to teach. Our goal is not to lecture or have you memorize some datum likely to change before you finish your degree, or that a search engine can find faster than you can formulate the question.

The TRP is a community and a mindset of people who are resources, facilitators, mentors, peers, guides and catalysts whose aim is to help those, who are looking to learn, to explore, to push the boundaries of their experience to seek knowledge.

The TRP is not intended to be divided as a degree of teacher-task-masters and students–those who know one truth and those hoping to memorize that truth. Instead, the program strives to be a community of people motivated to learn, to seek knowledge, to help others to be more and do more. In this community, the focus is not on the content but on understanding the processes, the mechanisms of creative problem-solving and innovation.

Students learn alongside the faculty–we learn together and from each other. We learn from real-world contexts and from failure–not from arbitrary grades or standardized testing–because our collective goals are not to pass a test or earn a grade but to improve lives, to learn to champion change that will improve the lives of others.

Now, we are starting to seek people join our 2021 cohort. Those motivated to learn, those seeking to move beyond their comfort zones, to challenge ambiguity, who want to focus on the processes of innovating of generating new ideas and championing change for positive impact are the kindred spirits we seek–these are the people we seek to join our ranks.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in a different kind of graduate program, who is motivated to learn by doing and is seeking a transformative education, then we need to talk. Come to an information session, read the website, arrange a consultation with someone from our team.

One day soon, we, trainees, mentors, facilitators, students, residents, PI’s, researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals, and many others, will form a global network of professional translators, who think globally but work locally to improve the health and well-being of people in our communities. And together we will transform health, care and medicine.

Join us.

While we are encouraged to stay home as much as we can during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many situations in which volunteers can make a difference.
When Saddaf Syed heard about the impact of Covid-19 on her community, she wanted to do something. Syed works with the Arts & Science Coop team at UTSC, but this past fall, she also graduated from the Translational Research Program, with a master’s degree from U of T, the Institute of Medical Sciences. She started doing research to find out what health care workers needed and reached out to doctors she knew at Michael Garron hospital to ask exactly that.
The hospital jumped on the offer, putting out a challenge to have 1,000 masks made in a week. Syed was up for it and got the ball rolling with calls to a few friends, asking if they could help too. “I told them, ‘I really want to do this!’ and drummed up enough interest to get 25 women on board,” she says. “We raised funds, got supplies, and began the mission.” With a few sleepless nights, a drive to make it happen, and dedicated women wanting to make a difference, the mission began.
Um, one problem, though. Syed isn’t actually a sewer. But when her mom came to visit from England, she bought her a sewing machine. That was 15 years ago. Syed dusted it off and got to work, making more than 70 masks herself. In a week, 1,000 masks were ready.
“Stitching was never my thing, but I wanted to do everything, to make a difference,” she says. Using patterns sent by the hospital, she put her mind to it and got it done. “When I told my mom, she was thrilled that the sewing machine came in handy for a good cause!”
Syed and a few friends collected the masks from the women and arranged for pickup from the hospital (the hospital would handle sanitizing the masks before use), and they received a huge thank you from the director. In addition to the masks, they also collected more than $300, which they donated to Lakeridge Health. “I was happy we were able to make a bit of a dent in helping others who are helping us,” she says.
The original article was written by Donna Paris of UTSC and you can find the complete article here.