UTSC

Student Experience & Wellbeing, Office of

laurie.bulchak — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 04:21:05 +0000

Student Experience & Wellbeing, Office of laurie.bulchak Tue, 07/30/2024 - 00:21

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/studentexperience/

Student Services

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Student Services laurie.bulchak Tue, 07/30/2024 - 00:20

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/studentexperience/student-services

Health & Society, Department of

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Health & Society, Department of laurie.bulchak Tue, 07/30/2024 - 00:00

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/healthsociety/

Procurement

laurie.bulchak — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 02:53:23 +0000

Procurement laurie.bulchak Mon, 07/29/2024 - 22:53

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/financial/procurement

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Campus

Scarborough

U of T Scarborough Library

laurie.bulchak — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 18:45:15 +0000

U of T Scarborough Library laurie.bulchak Sat, 07/27/2024 - 14:45

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https://utsc.library.utoronto.ca

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Scarborough

Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation, Office of the

laurie.bulchak — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:10:31 +0000

Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation, Office of the laurie.bulchak Sat, 07/27/2024 - 13:10

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/research/welcome-research-innovation

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Campus

Scarborough

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs@UofT)

laurie.bulchak — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:06:45 +0000

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs@UofT) laurie.bulchak Sat, 07/27/2024 - 13:06

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https://sdg.utoronto.ca

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Campus

Scarborough

The Hub

laurie.bulchak — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 01:31:51 +0000

The Hub laurie.bulchak Thu, 07/25/2024 - 21:31

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https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/thehub/

#UofTBackToSchool: You’re home! U of T international students get warm welcome at Pearson Airport

Romi Levine — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 18:58:06 +0000

#UofTBackToSchool: You’re home! U of T international students get warm welcome at Pearson Airport

Romi Levine Tue, 09/05/2017 - 14:58

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Incoming student Mahaksh Malhodra and his sister chat with members of the U of T's Pearson airport welcome team (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

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City & Culture

Global

International Students

Centre for International Experience

Rotman Commerce

UTSC

UTM

It’s a 20-hour journey from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Toronto – the longest trip Moksha Antani has ever taken, but also the most exciting.

She’s about to begin her first year at the University of Toronto’s Rotman Commerce program, and, even after an exhausting day of travel, she finds it hard to contain her enthusiasm.

“I’m looking forward to new people, new culture – everything!” she says.

Thousands of international students pass through Toronto Pearson International Airport’s Terminal 1 and 3 on their way to U of T. While they share first-day jitters with domestic students, they also have the hefty task of navigating their way around an unfamiliar city.

That's why U of T airport welcome teams are there. The teams, made up of students from U of T Mississauga, U of T Scarborough and the downtown Toronto campus, help new international students with anything they need, from directions to residences to advice on the best place to exchange money.

Moksha Antani was glad to see some friendly U of T faces at the Pearson welcome booth (photo by Romi Levine)

So far this year, students from 41 different countries – from the tiny island of Mauritius to the Baltic nation of Estonia – have come by the welcome booths.

People also visit the booth to ask for everything from directions to the nearest washroom to information about U of T’s engineering programs.

The welcome team has witnessed some amazing moments too, from tearful reunions to a hoard of fans waiting to greet the 13-member Korean Pop boy band Seventeen – as seen in the video below.

@saythename_17 at #torontopearson today! #somanyscreamingteens #seventeen #kpop #whatathrill #korea #seventeentour #seventeentoronto #6ix #416 #tdot #kpoplife

A post shared by UofT Airport Welcome Team (@yyzaws) on Aug 24, 2017 at 5:30pm PDT

Like the incoming first-years, the welcome team comes from all over the world, with 19 students who speak over 22 different languages.

“I'm an international student so I understand the importance of this for having a good first impression and getting help,” says Salman Khan, a management student at U of T Scarborough, who came to study in Toronto from Bangladesh.

U of T's MasterCard Scholars were given a warm welcome in Terminal 3 (photo by Romi Levine)

Khan’s booth-mate, Ingrid Llambi, is an English and cinema studies student at U of T’s downtown Toronto campus. Llambi says when she sees the relief in students’ faces, it drives home how meaningful – and necessary – the welcome booth is.

“Getting to do that is really great and they really need it in that moment,” she says. “They're super grateful, excited and happy.”

Ingrid Llambi and Salman Khan are two of the 19 student greeters at Pearson airport (photo by Romi Levine)

Mahaksh Malhodra says he was thankful for the U of T presence at the airport – it helped to calm his nerves.

Coming from Varanasi, India, Malhodra decided to study computer science at U of T “because it’s the best,” he says.

He’s looking forward to exploring his new city and can’t wait to make his way up the CN Tower and take a photo with the Toronto sign at Nathan Phillips Square.

The welcome booths will continue to greet students until Sept. 10.

U of T study finds link between spike in cost of living and tuberculosis death rates

rasbachn — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 14:19:24 +0000

U of T study finds link between spike in cost of living and tuberculosis death rates

rasbachn Mon, 08/21/2017 - 10:19

Cutline

Lianne Tripp and Larry Sawchuk: Their research found a noticeable relationship between a rise in cost of living and increased TB death rates (photo by Ken Jones)

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

Subheadline

Women especially vulnerable, likely because of traditional gender roles

New U of T research finds that a rise in the cost of living experienced during times of crisis – like war, outbreaks of disease and food shortages – can lead to a spike in tuberculosis mortality rates, with women the most vulnerable.

“During times of great stress, women were at greater risk, and the likely reason is because of traditional gender roles,” says Lianne Tripp, an assistant professor at University of Northern British Columbia and former PhD student in U of T Scarborough’s department of anthropology.

Using 20th century economic and demographic data from Malta and the nearby island of Gozo, Tripp and former supervisor Professor Larry Sawchuk of U of T Scarborough found a noticeable relationship between a rise in the cost of living and increased rates in deaths from tuberculosis (TB).

“In Malta during the First World War, the 1918 influenza pandemic and the end of the Second World War, variations in the cost of living explains about 61 per cent of the variation in TB death rates,” Tripp says.

While female TB death rates were higher in general, they were especially elevated during times of extreme hardship.

“Women were the ones taking care of the sick, were more likely to be spending time indoors in confined spaces, and more likely to be immunocompromised by sacrificing their diets,” Tripp says.

TB is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium spread through the air. It kills almost two million people annually across the globe – about 95 per cent of fatal cases occur in developing countries – making it the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

As Sawchuk notes, TB is an opportunistic disease that often surfaces in poor living conditions, such as overcrowded housing, poor nutrition or lack of food.

“Malta during the First World War and at the end of the Second World War were full of these types of population stressors,” he says.

Not only did the small island have some of the highest rates of urban density and overcrowding in Europe at the time, it was also heavily reliant on imports to feed its population, notes Tripp. When imports dropped dramatically during the war and the cost of housing shot up, it created a perfect storm of conditions that put its already precarious population in a very vulnerable position.

Interestingly, Gozo did not experience the same spike in TB mortality rates despite being close to Malta. This was likely due to its relative independence compared to Malta.

“Gozo was more isolated than Malta, had a mostly agrarian and self-sufficient economy and had no involvement in the war, so this meant they had limited exposure to TB,” Tripp says.

The study, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE, also uncovered evidence of the harvesting effect that occurred following TB outbreaks when the mortality rates dropped to lower rates than normal. Sawchuk’s past research explored the phenomenon, which occurs when those who are vulnerable, such as the sick, weak or elderly, die during a disease outbreak.

Sawchuk adds the research may be of interest not only to anthropologists but also those interested in how diseases wax and wane over time.

“You’re seeing this more in medical literature and that is a realization diseases don’t exist in a vacuum, that they can simply be explained as a microorganism in humans,” Sawchuk says.

“The cultural, economic and ecological factors that affect disease mortality rates also need to be carefully considered.”